Ironwood Farm Project

Volunteers On The Farm

2010-03-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty busy on the farm and are always looking for volunteers to help.

Two of our current volunteers and Justin and Tara Wagner. They are traveling full-time and are staying with us for several weeks with their 10 year old son. (The kids have all had fun playing!) They have taken part in milking the cow and goats, tending to the gardens and fields, helping with projects (like building chicken tractors and sealing adobe floors) and eating good food.

Here are some photos Tara took:

If you are interested in volunteering, let me know!

Nigerian Dwarf Goats for Sale

2009-10-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

This is Itsy, the larger of the two does. She is the mother of two bucklings and one doeling.

This is Bitsy. She is very small yet easily raised three kids.

The doeling in the foreground is out of Bitsy, and the one in the background is a real beauty out of Itsy.
Another doeling out of Bitsy.

Here's Itsy's beautiful girl. We call her Cloud.

This is Bitsy's buckling. He is a real character and definitely the most animated of the three.

This is a boy who knows where his food comes from

2009-07-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

We take animal slaughtering very seriously and the kids are on hand to help or watch if they so choose. So far Eliza has chosen to opt out, but Scotty has been a willing and thoughtful helper.

Here is our outdoor abattoir, or chicken slaughterhouse.

Scotty helps to bring in the chickens and keeps them calm

and he has begun to learn how to eviscerate them. Here he is working with Crystal, our most faithful helper on butchering day.

Bee swarm capture

2009-07-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor recently discovered a swarm of honey bees in a tree on her land. Chris and the kids were out camping that day, but fortunately I had an empty hive and a couple of fine helpers and was not only able to capture the swarm but got some great photos taken of the process!

The swarm was in a small tree and the neighbor didn't mind if we lopped off the whole branch. I felt kind of guilty topping the tree that way but it really was a great way to capture the swarm with few losses.

I approached the tree with the loppers and quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to cut the branch AND hold onto it at the same time but luckily my helper Stephanie was willing to do the lopping. Swarming bees are usually very docile so she was pretty safe doing so.

After we cut the branch I carefully lowered the whole thing into the hive. It was surprisingly heavy! I had placed a top bar with a honey comb on it from another hive into the new hive so that the girls would feel at home.

Next I cut off as many of the peripheral branches as I could so that I could close up the hive.

Then I added the top bars until it was shut tight.

I left the hive there for the rest of the day so that any remaining bees could find their way inside, then moved it over to our place that evening. The next day I pulled out the rest of the branch and let them make themselves at home. They were quite pleased and set about making new comb right away! I now have four hives and have harvested over four gallons of honey so far this season.

Recent livestock photos

2009-06-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

I went out recently with the camera to snap some photos of the cows because they were looking particularly beautiful now that they had shed their winter coats. The pasture and sky were also lovely that day.
The sheep are spending the summer on the next door neighbor's pasture. This year they are sharing the pasture with two beautiful horses.

Here are the new goats, Itsy and Bitsy. No, I did not name them, and their names would have been changed in an instant were it not for the fact that I happened to mention them to the kids, who thought they were great and completely vetoed any renaming. In this shot they are both very pregnant.

The piglets are growing fast and learning all of their mothers' bad habits. They are small enough to get through the cattle panels and graze the irrigation ditches.

Bear

2009-06-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some photos of our new livestock guardian dog, Bear. Bear is around 14 months old and he came to us from a farm in very rural Kansas where he was the faithful guardian of a flock of chickens. We chose to purchase Bear as opposed to a new puppy because he was already trained to work with birds and he was also good with kids. He does not disappoint! He has settled in beautifully here at the farm and he guards his poultry with great attention to detail. He even protected them from a ferocious toad the other evening. I caught the toad and reassured Bear that toads are welcome visitors on the farm, but it was pretty funny to see him snarling and growling at the poor toad.

Bear is a Great Pyrenees dog, a large breed that is historically used for guarding livestock. I became interested in this breed for several reasons, not the least of which was meeting Thistle, a Pyr owned by our farm friends at Sunflower River. Bear is a big boy--he is about 105 pounds right now and will grow a bit more. A nice thing about Pyrs is that they don't eat very much relative to other breeds so even though he's big, we are able to feed him well with bones, organs, and other meat products from the farm (chicken heads, etc). We have not lost one chicken to raccoons since he came home. He lives with the chickens but gets lots of love and attention during the day from people. We are just thrilled with him and will probably never again be without a livestock guardian dog, at least for as long as we have livestock.

Here he is hamming it up for the camera:

Here he is meeting Sylvia for the first time. This gives you an idea of his size and his love of people.

Oh, and he works sometimes too! Here he is patrolling the chicken yard for invaders.

Latest kid doings

2009-06-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

We had Chris and Scotty's usual birthday steam-up again this year. Scotty is 9 already! We kept it a bit smaller this time but some new friends came from our homeschool group in addition to other friends and family and we had a great time. Of course we had the steam tractor running with steam hoist rides.

We also tried a water balloon launcher this year.

We finished it off with the ever popular potato cannon.

Earlier last month, Eliza had two friends over to celebrate her new bedroom. The girls had a great time making stop motion animation videos, playing music, dying eggs with natural dyes, and visiting the animals.

Eliza was thrilled to be able to show the girls her new loft bed.

Meanwhile, Scotty has become quite a skilled tractor operator and he has really started to help out around the farm. Here he is hauling a load of compost up the driveway.

Later he drove along while I shoveled the compost into one of our garden beds.

He also pulled the trailer and hay loader for us the last time we picked up hay. It's really a thrill to see--he can even make the turns and line up the loader properly for the next run. In short, the kids are doing very well!

Piglets!

2009-06-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

Our first litters of piglets were born a few weeks ago. These are special births because they are American Guinea Hogs, a rare heritage breed that is near extinction. Through the efforts of several enthusiastic breeders around the country their numbers are climbing, which is a good thing because this small, gentle breed is a real treasure. The piglets are the size of a soda can at birth and are unbelievably cute.

Here is one of the moms a few days before farrowing. This one had 8 piglets!

More cute little babies for the kids to hold.

Less than one day old!

A quick getaway

2009-06-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

After the long and difficult start to 2009 we decided to try a little mini vacation, which we felt was much deserved. Of course, our version of a vacation does not involve much rest! It all started when the place in my heart for a dog that had been vacated by Hank three years ago was finally filled when we decided to get a livestock guardian dog to watch over the chickens. Too many losses to raccoons (and events that resulted from those losses) convinced even Chris that a LGD would be a useful addition to the farm. The dog will warrant a post of his own, but for now just know that the dog I found for us was located near Pratt, KS, a 9 hour drive from home. Never missing an opportunity to turn an errand into an adventure, I felt compelled to see what else was going on in or around SW Kansas and lo and behold I found the annual steam tractor show in Pawnee, OK just a couple of weeks away!

So at the end of April we set out for a "quick" trip to OK and KS, squeezing in two half days of steam engines between three long days of driving. We picked up the dog on the third day and by day four we were home.

The weather was horrible at the steam show but the sight of up to 10 steam tractors all under steam at once, driving around the grounds, was well worth it.

On day 1 we were totally unprepared for the thick mud, rain, and brutal wind. We only lasted about an hour. By day two we were ready for anything! This was Chris' first major outing since his injury and he did amazingly well given the conditions.

This little quarter-scale tractor (I think) was Scotty's favorite. He talks about it all the time to this day.
This Minneapolis engine was Chris' favorite. They had it running at full steam which was quite impressive I must admit.
It was a nice break between a tough winter and a busy farm season. Chris and Scotty are talking about going back next year!

Interesting but not surprising

2009-05-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

The kids spend their days on the farm moving from one activity to the next, often on their own initiative. A couple of weeks ago Chris came upon this scene:

Note the safety goggles and ear protection. Apparently it hadn't occurred to Eliza that a shirt might be a good idea too.

I'm not sure what they were doing but it certainly looks interesting! They do seem pleased with the results.

Farm progress

2009-05-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Several times recently I've gone out with the camera to document the status of the farm but I'm so bad at keeping up with the blog that most of the photos become outdated before they get posted. So I'll just give you a summary of what's been going on here the last couple of months.

Here is a shot of the greenhouse in March after I managed to get some greens planted.

In April we were visited twice by students from the UNM Sustainability Studies program. These folks were wonderful to have here and they were terrific help. The first time we planted potatoes, worked on the solar panels, and worked on the rainwater catchment system on the greenhouse.

When they visited again two weeks later we planted the sweet potatoes in the greenhouse and continued the catchment installation.

We really enjoyed talking with these students and their instructor and hearing their thoughts and ideas on sustainability. Here we are discussing the merits of aquaculture.

Meanwhile we have been following the progress of the pig pregnancies with much anticipation.
The girls are very friendly and just love having their bellies scratched so it's easy to get them to lie down for a belly shot.

This is Aelita about three weeks ago.

And here she is just before she farrowed. I know the feeling!

Of course it wouldn't be springtime on the farm without lambs! We have 10 little bouncy lambs on the ground and there is a possibility for a couple more. The lambs have formed a little gang and they roam around together looking for trouble in the early evening. One of their favorite activities is to "hop on pop" in which they jump on and off the ram.

Stay tuned for new piglets, Bear the dog, and a little road trip.

Finally, bedrooms for the kids

2009-04-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

When we moved into the house over three years ago there was a lot left unfinished. We did not complete the planned bedrooms for the kids at that time because they were so young that they didn't really need their own rooms and we just wanted to be done and moved in so we said we'd get the rooms done "someday." Well, that someday came this winter after Chris' injury. The kids were ready for some personal space and in the light of Chris' disability we also needed to create an office/spare room where we could potentially put an intern to help us out on the farm.

After the injury we received an outpouring of offers of help as well as some financial gifts from family members too far away to help in person. We took those offers and decided to go ahead with the room construction. The first thing we had to do was clean out the entire West half of the house, otherwise known as the playroom. My mom spent several days down here with me helping to sort through all the mess and put everything in boxes. Here is the "before" photo after clearing stuff out.

Our friend Aaron is a talented carpenter and in just two days he had the majority of the three rooms framed. This was a difficult job because of the earthen-plastered walls and floor which are inevitably NOT square, but Aaron figured out how to deal with it.

After the framing was done, my Mom's friend Paul and his wife came down to spend a day on the project. They even brought a helper and lunch for everyone!

We got much of the rock on that day and I even ventured up into the attic to work on the wiring. It was an enormous boost for us and it was so much appreciated.

The following weekend my brother, his wife, and my niece Aris volunteered several hours to painting.

Here's the view of the rooms from the outside.

The kids enthusiastically helped with the painting. Fortunately the paint was clay based so it washed off the floors easily.

Scotty demonstrates the use of Eliza's little climbing wall on her bunk bed.

More photos of the finished rooms coming soon!

A massive erection

2009-04-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

No, it's not what you think. It's a big ol' greenhouse!

I'm finally getting around to posting about the greenhouse film installation which we did just days before Chris' hospital stay in February. This was something that we really wanted to get done and as I think back about that time now I can't believe we actually did it. I'm sure glad we did though because we have enjoyed fresh greens for the last month or so now and we've even sold some at the market--all possible because of the greenhouse.

Even though Chris was in terrible pain he crutched out there to coordinate the project. The kids were on hand to help, along with our friend Crystal and our helper Jason. The first step was to roll out the film. Note the chicken in Eliza's arms.

We used baseballs and rope to tie the film in three places before pulling it up and over the frame. Basically you bunch some of the film around a baseball and then tie a rope around the ball. This prevents tearing and works really well. Jason, Crystal, and Scotty each took a rope while I ran around making sure the film unfolded properly and didn't get caught on anything. Chris had camera duty. Click on the photo to see Scotty at his post at the back. He was a great help that day!Of course once we got the film up and over the wind started to kick up. The film had to be held down at the back until we got it clipped into place, which was a perfect job for Chris and the kids.

We almost lost it a couple of times but we got the clips in place. Chris designed a rainwater catchment system on this greenhouse complete with gutters so the film got clipped in just above the gutters. Underneath the gutters the film rolls up to provide cross ventilation.

The greenhouse measures 24' x 60' and is almost as big as the house! Before the day's end we had to cover the front with film because at this point it was just a giant wind sock sitting in the field. The piece of film was fastened from the bottom up with furring strips.

In order to fasten the film, Jason needed Crystal, Scotty and me to hold it up for him from underneath. We took the opportunity to toss the camera back and forth for some fun pictures.

A harrowing but ultimately successful day.

Solar lamb warmer

2009-04-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is from before Chris' injury but I just had to share this great idea we had back in early January. We had a lamb born to a skittish and reluctant mom and we found it in the morning, chilled and lethargic. Lambs like this need to be warmed quickly so after a warm water bath we set him up in the kitchen with the reflectors from one of our solar cookers, a sleeping bag, and a towel which we used to cover his eyes. It worked wonderfully and the little guy perked up pretty quickly.

CHRIS WALKED WITHOUT HIS CRUTCHES!!

2009-04-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

He made it about 20 paces to the kitchen and back. That's a pretty major accomplishment for someone who hasn't walked in 3 months.

I'm getting ready to upload some photos and get the blog updated. Stay tuned!

Update

2009-02-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

Chris began an 8 day hospital stay on Feb 10 and
returned home two days ago. The treatment in the hospital was very
difficult and I felt that he needed someone by his side 24/7 for the
first five days or so because he was so heavily sedated and basically
helpless, but still had moments where he would come out of it a bit and
be unable to find the call button for the nurses (who were generally
wonderful but understaffed). Several of you came to the hospital to
visit or take shifts with him, and I can't thank you enough for that.
It meant so much to him and it was a great comfort to me knowing that
you were there while I was dealing with my other responsibilities, not
the least of which was spending time with the kids, who are
understandably a little freaked out by all this. Many of you also took
the kids for certain periods during the hospital stay so that I could be
with Chris, and that was just as valuable to us. Many, many thanks.

We had hoped to see great improvement after the treatment but it appears
that at best we have only slowed down the progression of the disease
(CRPS II). This does not mean that he won't improve over the coming
weeks and months, but it has been a disappointment for us that the pain
has not subsided much. He is currently on an intense cocktail of
medications designed to reduce pain, inflammation, anxiety, muscle
cramping, etc. These are serious meds that currently leave him somewhat
"altered" and give him trouble with memory, motor function, and so on.
Basically he is pretty loopy. Between the pain and the meds he is
unable to care for the kids on his own at this point, so I am in need of
backup kid care on occasion.

He has had good moments and bad moments since coming home. He is trying
very hard to remain optimistic, but he slides back every so often,
especially at night. We both slept well last night though, which has
helped us to start this morning with some energy and hope. We are
waiting for the medication regime to settle in with his body and we
expect that he will get more used to it and that it will become more
effective. We are pursuing physical therapy and other healing
modalities that we hope will help him. And of course we are counting on
the "tincture of time" to be a great source of healing. In the short
term, we are developing coping strategies for each of us that are
designed to minimize stress, which exacerbates his pain.

So that's where we stand today. As for the farm, we are going to take a
look at our plans for this season and we will obviously have to
streamline our activities. But the reality is that the farm must be a
source of income for us this year and the show must go on! The season
is beginning now and there are even some things to start planting over
the next few weeks.

One thing we are going to do right away is build the bedrooms on the
West side of the house. The kids are past being ready for their own
rooms, and we have decided to build a third room that will provide
housing for a live-in farm intern. This week my mom and I are working
on clearing out all the toys and clutter from that side of the house so
that we can begin construction ASAP.

Struggling

2009-02-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

Ah, it's sure been a while. I was alerted to this fact by my dear friend Crystal, who has my blog listed in her sidebar along with how long it's been since I've posted here. Yikes. 5 weeks.

So I uploaded the photos from my camera, which dated from just before Christmas, so I could do a few blog posts. Problem is, I can't do it yet. There are photos from New Year's Day where we blew the steam whistle in our annual tradition for good luck, but those are too hard for me to look at right now because things took a turn for us just a week later.

Here is the last photo that I took "before."

It was a delicious dinner that I made especially for Chris from our own chicken and potatoes. Yummy hot wings. We had a great night that night--we felt so hopeful and optimistic for this year because Chris was finally going to leave his stressful job and we were going to become full time farmers.

Unfortunately, two days later he was injured in a farm accident. He should have healed within a week or two--or at least been able to move around and so on--but the injury has caused a horrible side effect called CRPS, or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, also known as causalgia. It's a nasty nerve disease where he suffers from unbearable pain in his foot and lower leg (the injury was to his upper leg) because of nerve damage. Look it up--it really sucks. It's now over a month later and he has been severely disabled ever since then. It is getting worse every day.

Tuesday he goes into the hospital for several days for an aggressive treatment designed to stop or slow down the progression of the disease. All we can do is hope that it helps at least enough to let him walk without crutches.

I really want to get back into posting here soon. We have actually been getting a few things done, even so far as installing the greenhouse film! We are not letting this stop us, but I must admit that life is definitely challenging at the moment. Hopefully we'll see some improvement in his pain and mobility by this time next week and I'll be able to catch up with the blog.

For now, please send healing thoughts our way, or pray if you are so inclined. We are strengthened by everyone's support, even from far away!

The wind is not our friend right now

2009-01-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

A dear person in my life used to always say "the wind is your friend" but he was referring to bicycle racing, not solar panels.

Su Casa magazine article

2008-12-18T16:44:00.001-08:00

The article on our place for Su Casa is now online and will be on the newsstands on Monday. You can see it here:

Su Casa Article

Recent photos and the winter routine

2008-12-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

I just uploaded the most recent batch of photos from the camera so I figured it was time for another blog post. I took this one of the pantry a few weeks ago to document the season's canning efforts before I cut into them too much. The shelves hold jars two rows thick so there is actually at least twice as much as you can see here. I have jam, pickles, relish, ketchup, paste, whole tomatoes, salsas rojo and verde, BBQ sauce, chicken stock, and chicken pieces here. It was definitely my biggest canning season yet.

Here is the winter setup for the hoofstock. The carport in the foreground was our summer shelter for chicken processing, but soon we will build a stanchion into it and it will be the milking area when Chloe calves in early March (hopefully). The carports in the background are for hay storage. We keep the animals in this area overnight and for feeding and watering, but let them out during the day into one of the larger paddocks so they can get some space. We currently have 18 sheep and 5 cattle. The area where they are fed, watered, and kept overnight will be gardens next year. No manure spreading for us, thank you very much.

And we are now finally getting the greenhouse built! It is going to be 64x24 feet and we hope to have it ready for early Spring crops.

This was just pretty so I snapped a photo.

We filled the pond in the front yard for the first time and invited the geese and ducks for a swim. They LOVE it!!! Unfortunately they have been digging into the sides and collapsing them so we need to rethink it a bit before we invite them back, but for a while it was great goose and duck TV out the front window.

We have an abundance of lamb meat this winter. Here is a nice souvlaki that I made with some lamb sirloin recently (cooked on the grill, just in the pan for serving).

Other than that we are in a holding pattern at the moment, and grateful for our health, friends, and family.

A Blessed Unrest

2008-11-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Thank you to my new friend who I met last night and shared this wisdom with me, and thank you Martha Graham: (and how did I get this far without ever hearing this before?)

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.... You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

~ Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille

Dear President-Elect Obama

2008-11-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. I did not knock on any doors or make any phone calls on your behalf. When I received phone calls to volunteer for your campaign I politely declined. Instead I spent the last days of this election harvesting the remainder of this summer's crop on our small family farm, planting my winter garden, and caring for the livestock that promise meat, eggs, and milk for my family. You see, over the last eight years I have become so frustrated, disappointed, and angry with the direction of this country that I saw little reason to spend any more time holding signs, writing letters, and making phone calls.

After 9/11 my husband and I, with the support of our families, decided to move onto his father's 10 acre family farm and build a sustainable home. We were terribly concerned about the grossly unbalanced consumption of resources that occurs here in America, the effect that consumption has on our planet, and the future we were creating for our children. We hatched a plan to build our own energy efficient home of straw bales and earthen plaster, using recycled and reclaimed materials whenever possible. We planned to grow the majority of our own food without the use of harmful chemicals and fertilizers. We resolved to raise our own animals for meat, outdoors with plenty of space, and to slaughter them humanely. We installed solar panels instead of connecting to the electrical grid, choosing instead to be mindful of our energy consumption. We planned carefully to conserve water. We planted trees and berries, reclaimed pastures for sheep and cows, and learned how to grow and preserve our own food. This all took an enormous amount of work and sacrifice, and there were many times we wanted to give up. We didn't give up because we felt strongly that what we were doing was the right thing to do and it was our responsibility as citizens of this planet.

Meanwhile, all around us we saw further destruction of our planet and nation, abuse and pillage of our precious resources, more and bigger houses being built, larger and more consumptive cars on the roads, the illegal war that asked us to sacrifice our most precious resource of all, stolen elections, torture, and a government and a people who seemed unable, unwilling, or too distracted to do anything about it. We saw the price of fossil fuels, building materials, and food skyrocket, and we soon realized that what began as the right thing to do was becoming a matter of great financial importance to our family. We doubled our efforts and worked harder than ever to develop our homestead with a renewed sense of urgency. We became much more selfish with our time, choosing to put everything we had into our mission of sustainability. With any time we could spare we shared what we have learned with others. Rather than volunteer for campaigns, we strengthened our bonds with family, friends, and neighbors. In short, we moved away from politics and towards community building. We were no longer primarily motivated by what was the right thing to do. In fact, by the end of October 2008 we were motivated by sheer survival.

Yesterday we contributed to your campaign in the only way we felt we could spare. We voted. And something started to shift. Through all the disillusionment and cynicism I started to feel something strange welling up inside my chest. Was it, could it be.....hope? I hardly dared to believe it, but there it was. I felt hopeful that maybe we as a nation could change after all. I found myself glued to the television, watching the returns come in and reminding myself that I have been disappointed so many times before. I watched the disgust on our local news anchor's face as he announced a Democratic sweep of our state and marveled at how anyone could want things to stay the same. And when it was finally announced that you would be our next president I was overwhelmed with emotion. Seeing that crowd in Grant Park in my hometown of Chicago just blew me away. You have shown us that politics and community building can be one and the same. If nothing else, your election is evidence that we can change.

So I implore you now--please, please don't waste this opportunity. Unlike your predecessor, you seem to have the ability and the desire to understand the great problems that we face. Please don't let your party fall back into politics as usual. Please learn all you can about peak oil and our economy that is utterly dependent on cheap and abundant oil. Help those of us who are taking steps toward a new, local economy rather than helping big business try to obliterate us through unfair legislation that hurts small businesses and farms and gives breaks to the big ones. Unwind all the red tape that your party likes to entangle us in so that small farmers can sell their products directly to consumers in their neighborhoods. Make it easier for people to build their own homes out of alternative materials without fighting the building and zoning office. Restore the rail system in this country. Help us to rebuild our communities, our mom and pop stores, our local infrastructure, and ask us all to grow tomatoes on our balconies, shop at the farmer's market, or keep a few backyard chickens. Make it not only legal to do so but make that the new patriotism. Be a new kind of Democrat and a new kind of leader. Ask us to help. We are willing. I might even start writing letters to my representatives and knocking on doors again.

Catch-up time!

2008-10-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

****Scotty has a new (to him) train set but requires supervision and help with it. We are out in the shop with the trains and I'm going to use this time to try to recap the last six weeks here in one post.****

First and foremost on our minds has been the economic situation and we have spent much time thinking about it, discussing it, and figuring out ways to prepare. I hope you all took my advice from my last post and visited www.chrismartenson.com and watched his crash course on the economy. He has finished it now so it is worth visiting again if you haven't already.

Needless to say we have been very busy as always. Here is a load of 100 bales of hay that Scott cut and baled out of one of our paddocks at the end of September. Scott and I loaded and unloaded each and every one!

Much of the last part of September involved getting ready for things. On Oct 1 we had a class of around 40 extension agent trainees from all around the West and Midwest come to the farm to learn about sustainable farming and to practice their curriculum which involved advising small farmers on techniques such as managed intensive grazing. Stuff like this always results in a last-minute cleaning frenzy around here, but it was nice to have them here and we got some good advice and input.

Then there was another frenzy to get ready for our fall festival. We had debated whether to do it or not and we fussed over what date to pick, but we finally settled on doing it October 5. October is usually a very safe bet around here with regard to the weather, but Murphy's law won out and as it happened (now that it's the end of the month) the only rain we got this entire month began on the evening of Oct 4 and lasted for 24 hours! So our fall festival was cold and rainy while the rest of the month has been glorious. Oh well, we went ahead anyhow and it turned out to be a great time.

The night before we had Sylvia's family down to help us get ready. One of the biggest projects was to dig a big hole in the ground into which we built a big fire. We lined the hole with rocks and bricks and kept the fire going all night. Early on the morning of the festival we stuck a huge turkey, two chickens, and a leg of lamb (all from the farm) in the hole and buried it all in there to cook all day.

Sylvia's oldest son Will was a big help and he actually slept outside in the rain (under cover) to tend the fire, which we had to shelter with some sheet metal against the drenching rain.

I stayed up late getting all the meat ready. Will and Chris helped me with the turkey, which was probably 40lbs (that's what we get for procrastination). After sticking some herbs and garlic under the skin, we wrapped it in several layers of chard, collards, sunflower leaves, and corn leaves, followed by a tight wrapping of chicken wire. The entire bundle was then lowered into the pit the next morning.

This photo shows the turkey before it got its top layer of leaves. The water jugs are there to keep the chicken wire from rolling up. The turkey was so big we had to work on the kitchen floor!
Later it was just me, my glass of wine, and the rest of the meat. I decided that chicken wire would be overkill for the chicken and lamb, so I just wrapped those in leaves and foil. The lamb had a nice Moroccan spice rub and I did the chicken Greek style, with lemon, butter, olive oil, and oregano.

Despite the rain, which had made everything cold and muddy, we still had a great time and the food was amazing! A couple of people told me that it had been the best chicken and turkey they had ever eaten. That's the way to cook a big turkey all right!

After we dug out the meat we filled in the hole a bit and built another fire to keep us warm. Look at that tall corn in the background! We had planned to do a corn maze for the kids but the whole cornfield was a muddy mess. Oh well, maybe next year.

I didn't get any photos of the finished meat but there were no complaints!

Later in the afternoon the sun peeked through a few times and we had a couple of short downpours. Still, we managed to have a wool spinning demonstration thanks to our friend Megan.

Here are two beautiful skeins of Navajo-Churro wool that Megan has spun. The lighter one is from one of our fleeces!
The fall festival would not be complete without steaming up the tractor! They tried to move it but it got stuck in the mud so it ran as a stationary engine. That doesn't diminish its beauty and appeal, however, and it was one of the highlights of the day. And Scotty of course was in steam engine heaven.

Scott used the steam hoist to give rides to the kids in the ore bucket.

We also ran a steam line to the smaller vertical engine which we used to grind corn with the burr mill. The late afternoon sun and cool temperatures made the steam engine a great place to take photos. Credit goes to my mom for these great shots:

So even though it was wet and cold the festival was a success, and one of the highlights of the month. It was good to get our minds off the economy for a few hours (although there was a late-night fireside discussion about it among the lingerers).

After the festival was over it was time to get back to work on harvesting. We butchered our last batch of chickens with the help of our friend Kim. Here we are in our outdoor processing area, complete with a stainless steel sink that we scored at a salvage yard.

We don't have a scalder, so we heat the scald water with a propane weed burner.
We do have a fancy homemade chicken plucker though, which works beautifully. Scott made it from the Whizbang chicken plucker plans. I highly recommend it--what a dream it is compared to hand plucking!

After letting the carcasses chill for a couple of days I cut them up for freezing. That was a lot of work but between the poultry, beef, and lamb from this year we won't be buying meat at all!

We harvested all the corn and we are piling up the 15 ft long stalks to feed to the animals this winter.
I cut a few ears and peeled them to save the husks for tamales. I've never done it before so it will be interesting! We have to wait until the corn dries so we can grind it for the masa. And we have to figure out how to make masa! All in good time.....
One of the big events of the month was Eliza's haircut. She had been resisting having her hair washed and combed for quite some time but with relatives coming to visit and other public events it was really time to come to a solution on her hair. She suggested we cut it shorter which would prevent more tangles but unfortunately she didn't like the results. I think it's absolutely adorable and it has indeed been much easier to maintain. Because we cut off all the old, sun bleached hair it appears much darker now. And the bangs are a big change, but nice because her hair is no longer hanging in her face.
She does like how it looks in this photo of her flying, but otherwise she says she is going to grow it back out. I'm enjoying it while it lasts!
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Meanwhile, fall colors appeared and the harvest continued to come in.

Mid-month we had the wonderful pleasure of a visit from "Pa" aka Roy, who is Chris' grandfather on his dad's side. Pa came with friends of his from 8 hours away and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to show him around the place.

During Pa's visit there was an open house event for a steam locomotive restoration project here in town. It just so happened that Scott's band Holy Water and Whisky were playing at the event, so we all went down for trains and music.
Someone had brought a restored WWII truck which is just like the one Pa drove when he served in the war. The owner of the truck invited him to sit in it and suddenly it was as though Pa was a celebrity! There were five or six people (myself included) with cameras snapping bunches of pictures of Pa in the truck. Pa made us all laugh when he said "it's much more fun this time."

Eliza continues to dislike her haircut, but the rest of us love it! I couldn't stop taking pictures of her.

Maria does the sound for the band.

My mom gets the band's newsletter and had already planned to attend this event--it was great to see her! And you can see in this photo how much work the restoration team still has to do.

To make the day even better, Scotty's best friend Dan and his family joined us as well! Dan's grandpa works on the restoration project so Dan has been down to the site many times. Scotty and Dan enjoyed looking at all the real and model engines on display.

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After Pa left we received a wonderful gift from Chris' mom and Barry--a canoe! Chris quickly took advantage of the last of the nice weather to take the kids on a little canoe trip on the river. I had the job of helping to carry the canoe, take photos, and pick them up downriver. They had an absolute blast! The kids swam a bit, they stopped at a sandbar and ran around, and they saw some cool birds and fish. Thank you so much for the canoe!

One week ago my dad arrived, driving his pickup truck from Wisconsin to spend a few days at the farm helping us out. It was great to have him here for such a long visit and we got a lot done! The first couple of days were spent dismantling the tomato, cuke, and bean trellises in the West garden beds as well as rolling up row cover and T-tape. Dad also helped Chris start to lay out the greenhouse foundation and he helped me dig out some old beds and plant them with winter greens. We had a great time and we can't wait for him to come back (and bring Ann with him next time).

Here he is helping Chris pull t-posts with the tractor. Dad got pretty good at hooking and unhooking the chain quickly. They must have pulled 50 posts!

Dad's fallback job over the 5 days that he was here was to shuck corn. We had a huge crop of dent corn this year that we will be drying and grinding. Dad probably shucked 3 or 4 of those wheelbarrows full of corn!

And then just two days ago my new niece was born! Aris Ann joined us on October 27th. My brother and his wife are first time parents and we could not be happier for them. Aris is a little pixie, just 6lb 10oz and she's got little blonde peach fuzz and a porcelain complexion. She is so different from my big, dark babies that I'm just fascinated by her. Welcome, Aris!

Dad was fortunate enough to be here for this birth. This is grandchild number six for my parents. It is also wonderful for us to be able to welcome this new life, because Dad's mom, my grandmother, passed away just a week before Aris was born.

And of course Mom couldn't wait to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep to her new granddaughter.

Which brings us to today! We will be hosting a permaculture class here this weekend so we once again have to get the place picked up but hopefully we will have a period of relative calm after that so we can really work on regrouping after an incredibly busy last 8 months.

Scotty is just thrilled with the train set, which is a combination of trains and tracks from both Chris and my family. Thanks everyone!

Wow

2008-09-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

I strongly recommend that everyone who reads my blog go to this site:

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

and watch his free crash course on the economy. It is stunning what is happening right now. I think we are facing the total collapse of the dollar. This means that a paper dollar will become worthless. When, who knows? Possibly very soon, possibly not for a decade. Either way, I feel that it is a very good idea to get out of debt ASAP and start turning paper dollars into food, shelter, and water, or things that can help you grow food, heat your home and procure water, or things of value that you can trade for food, shelter, or water. Seriously, I think that at some point you'd be better off with a warehouse full of cigarettes than a bank account full of cash.

Sounds extreme, I know. I'm just sayin'..........

The farm, early September

2008-09-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of the farm that were taken earlier this month.

We fenced in the former sweet corn patch and put the piggies in there so they could eat the corn stalks and start tilling the ground for a cover crop. Sunflowers grow here like weeds and we like to leave them where we can for the wild birds. In the foreground you can see the early girl tomato that I planted in April in my little cold frame. It really likes that spot!

You can also see one of my strawberry patches in this shot of the piggies:

This is our amazing patch of grinding corn. It's a variety that is popular in the South called Hickory King, which makes large white kernels that are mostly used for hominy and grits (the equivalent of posole and masa here in the Southwest) but we will probably grind most of it into cornmeal. This is an open pollinated variety so we will also be saving a lot of it for seed. It is a tall variety as well, and can be expected to reach ten feet under good conditions. We gave it three trailer loads of horse manure from a neighbor's farm, which it apparently loved because it is easily 14 feet or better!

We think we can even do a corn maze this year for our fall harvest festival. It's quite an impressive stand of corn, I must say.

Oh, and Scotty is learning to drive! He can drive the tractors, the little Geo, and the old F250. He has trouble reaching the gas pedal, so he does best with the vehicles that will just cruise along in low gear while he operates the brake and steering wheel. It's amazing to watch him go!

This lasted for 5 minutes

2008-09-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

For a blissful few minutes last week our kitchen and living room and part of the bedroom were picture perfect (barely) for a photo shoot. During the shoot Eliza came running into the living room a couple of times with water balloons needing to be tied and she dropped potato chips on the freshly mopped floor. Scotty moved one of his model tractors into the living room and moved a couple of chairs around. I was really amazed at how it's almost impossible to keep things looking perfect. But it did look good!

Here is the photographer at work:

Jesse's beautiful table and Chris' ceiling and cabinets. Just ignore the pile of clutter down the hallway. We had to move a lot of stuff out to simplify and clean the areas that were to be photographed:

Here is the kitchen floor that I made out of dumpster tile. The other floor is an earthen floor sealed with linseed oil.

We finally painted the kitchen for this shoot. It was great to have some motivation to get it done!

Only half of the bedroom was picture perfect. Behind the camera was a huge pile of stuff that had been moved out of the way! But I just love Chris' ceiling here, which is made from recycled pallets. Chris and Jesse made the bed (the actual bed--I "made" the bed that morning) and I made the wall sconces. The prints are from Chris' Aunt Pam and Uncle George.

The night after the shoot I climbed into my perfectly made, clean bed with the kids and sighed myself to sleep, only to wake up at 3AM to the sound of Eliza vomiting in the perfect bed. Back to reality! Hey, it was fun while it lasted......

Harvest worthy of the table

2008-08-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

August has been glorious so far. Harvests have been colorful and abundant, but we hardly have time to harvest because we are preparing for a special event here. We are going to be featured in Su Casa Magazine sometime this winter and they are coming to do the photo shoot at the end of this month! The article will focus on the combination of sustainable home building and homesteading. I find the whole thing hilarious, because if you know us you also know that our house and farm do not fall into the glossy-magazine-worthy category of homes, especially in their day-to-day condition. And when we moved into the house almost 3 years ago it was still unfinished and we basically haven't touched a thing since then. We were burned out on construction and wanted to focus on developing the farm.

But this upcoming article has motivated us to work on the house again, and so has something else. Our dear friend Jesse is a talented carpenter/artist who created some beautiful features for the house, including these screen doors that appeared in this photo for an article in the local paper:

Jesse's style is very organic and he uses recycled wood, both of which suit our home and our tastes perfectly. Well, when I found out about the shoot I remembered a gorgeous dining set that Jesse had made and got the idea to feature it in the house for the magazine article. He thought it was a great idea, so last weekend he brought it down. Oh man, it is so beautiful in here!!!!! I feel like one of those movie stars who gets to borrow expensive jewelry for the Oscars. It makes me a little nervous too because the kids can be hard on furniture, but so far they are being very careful with it. I will be so sad when we have to give it back, because it really looks perfect in this house.

So last weekend we pulled in a big harvest and the food was so beautiful that I just had to put harvest and table together for a photo. Actually several:

And here is Jesse with his masterpiece (and mother nature's).

I didn't take any wide shots of the table and chairs in the house because the rest of the house still needs to be de-cluttered and spruced up. You'll just have to wait for the magazine for that!

The harvest and table have also inspired me in the kitchen. Later that day Scotty and I shelled a bunch of lima beans (king of the garden and Christmas):

Here he is demonstrating his technique:

I made the most amazing Indian food dinner that night. I made a lima bean and tomato curry with green cayenne peppers that was delicious. I also made palak paneer, which is a creamed spinach and cheese dish that is popular in Indian restaurants. But I made mine with swiss chard from the garden and homemade paneer from raw milk. It was absolutely amazing. The meat was beef kebabs from our beef, marinated in fresh tomatoes and spices. Chris grilled those to perfection. To top it all off we had an old friend and Chris' dad join us for dinner and music. It was a terrific evening.

New cows

2008-08-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Our new dairy cows joined the farm family last month. They are both jersey cows and they came from Texas.

Reina is a young heifer who is about 9 months old and will be bred to our mini jersey bull next Spring. If all goes well she will have her first calf sometime around November of 2009. She was a show calf for a teenage girl so she is halter trained and very tame.

She is a real sweetheart and very beautiful.

And this is Chloe, a six year old cow who originally comes from a grass based dairy in TX and was most recently owned by a homesteading family. She has been hand milked but isn't as cooperative as Reina. She does love grain as a treat though so she is quite easy to manipulate if you have a bucket of sweet feed. She is a standard sized jersey and because of her age she has the classic look of a mature dairy cow. The rounded "hay belly" is a good quality and it is normal for them to appear bony across the hips and ribs. They look much different from beef cows. Note how much bigger than our mini-jersey bull she is!

Chloe is bred to an angus bull and due to calve in March, so barring any complications we will be milking then!

Speaking of the bull, I must report that he has turned quite aggressive over the last few weeks and is now very dangerous. Last weekend he ran me into the fence and gave me quite a bruise:

This was entirely my fault, for I had become too friendly with him and he did not fear me. Also I was trying to move him while he was riled up over one of the cows in heat. I learned my lesson, and was lucky to have only minor injuries. The advice I am getting now is to butcher him, but we will wait until he breeds our cows in the spring. We might be able to sell him. We'll see.

Picking up hay

2008-07-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

We buy hay from a close neighbor and we get a discount if we go pick it up out of the field ourselves. Picking up hay often turns into a family affair, and it's something that most of us really enjoy. If the weather is nice, it's just intoxicating to be out in a field of freshly cut and baled alfalfa. The smell is like perfume! The kids love running around the field and watching the equipment. Scott and Maria enjoy the work as well--on this day they didn't want me to spell them as they stacked hay, so I decided to get out the camera. Only Chris dislikes this job--probably because of his allergies. That's why he gets to drive the tractor!

Here they are getting the loader hooked up to the trailer.

Our hay loader sometimes won't pick up bales that are on their sides, so the kids get the job of running ahead of the tractor to flip the bales. They were a huge help that day and they did their job with much enthusiasm.
This can be done with just two people, but it's nicer to have a second hand on the trailer to grab the bales as they come off the loader. Chris and I did it alone the other day and I really had to hustle to get them stacked before the next one came!
You get a break to rest when the tractor turns around for the next row.
The kids finally pooped out and took a break. This is why I always laugh when the kids want to go on hayrides at fairs, etc. because they do it all the time at home!
The last couple of bales. We picked up 86 bales that day, a lovely morning's work. The only bad part is unloading them later.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

2008-07-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

All I can say is that it's a good thing we had a lot of rain !

July storms

2008-07-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Nearly every day this month we have had clouds, thunderstorms, and either a bit or a lot of rain. It makes me laugh to imagine what a plant must think of living in this crazy climate! The dry, hot, cold, windy spring has given way to a humid, hot, cool, rainy summer. Some of my carrots and parsley, which are supposed to be biennials, have gone from seed to bolting in just 5 months! And the last three weeks of rain have caused an explosion in the fly population as well as a massive growth of weeds. But the crops seem to like it too, and I haven't used lip balm for a long time (a good thing too, since the last tube I had got used to decorate some of Eliza's plastic animals).

Anyhow, the monsoons bring some beautiful, cool evenings when the sun starts to peek back through as it sets.

Irrigation day

2008-07-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

We live in a river valley in a desert. For centuries there has been agriculture here, but it is very different from most agricultural areas. During dry periods from late March through late October we irrigate our pastures, orchards, and some field crops by flooding with river water. The water is delivered to us through a system of ditches, or acequias.

On irrigation day most of the animals get locked up. The hoofstock must be corralled and fed hay so they don't damage the soaked fields, and most of the poultry get locked into pens and moved onto dry ground. But there are some farm residents for whom irrigation day is the best day ever!!!!

Oh yes, it's good to be a goose or a duck on a special day every two weeks.

New baby girl

2008-07-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

At the end of June we had a new calf born! She was born out on the pasture in the early afternoon and two hours later we had a huge storm come through and dump an inch of rain and hail on us. Since then we've been having rain nearly every day and the humidity has increased considerably.

Here she is, just hours old. Her name is Moxie.

Everyone in the herd was very curious, especially the boys. From left to right we have Tallulah, a red angus heifer who is visiting for stud service, Fin the mini jersey bull, Moxie and her mom Lola, who is a hereford, and New York, a holstein/jersey steer that belongs to a friend.

Here are the boys. I am completely in love with my bull Fin, who is snotty and grouchy but also really sweet and loving towards me. Chris often suggests that Fin and I "get a room" when I am out there loving on him. He's just jealous. Just look at Fin's scrunched-up mischievous nose! And NY is a sweetheart too.

Our amazing friends

2008-07-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

I just had to laugh when I saw our friend Ian sitting on the kids' bed playing his DS with a chicken perched on his foot and a rat crawling up his leg. It didn't phase him a bit! We do find that our lifestyle tends to weed out those who are squeamish and afraid to get dirty. The result is that we are surrounded by amazing friends!

Sweet clover honey

2008-07-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

My first harvest of wax and honey from my top-bar hives. This yielded 2.5 pints of honey that was produced during the peak of our clover bloom. Soooo tasty!!!

The real first day of summer

2008-07-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

Actually this year it coincidentally happened on the solstice--my first ripe tomato! This is a big deal for me, because I have become so spoiled by home grown tomatoes that I just don't eat fresh tomatoes for over half the year. I had my fresh mozzarella in the refrigerator and my basil in the herb garden and every day I went out and checked the status of this year's first tomato. It came a full three weeks earlier than last year because I made an impulse buy at Home Depot. Yes, I had several flats of heirloom tomatoes growing on the windowsills but when I saw that foot tall Early Girl hybrid tomato at the store with flowers already blooming I couldn't resist. I brought it home in April and planted it in my cold frame to see if I could get earlier tomatoes this year. It worked!

Do you see it peeking out among the broccoli and lettuce that I am growing for seed?

She's no heirloom, but I'll take her!!!

YUM!

The quacks and the honks

2008-07-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

These were taken several weeks ago before the geese and ducks were in their permanent movable night roost (they free-range during the day, which has lately been not so good for my bean plants, but that's another story.....)

Every morning we loaded them into Scotty's wagon and brought them out to eat clover in the irrigation channel. It was such a cute sight!

Some days a lucky few were chosen to go for a swim in our small cistern. They dive really deep, even as little ducklings/goslings. So entertaining for the humans! Now they're too hard to catch so they don't get to go swimming as often.

Wool processing workshop

2008-07-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

A month ago we held a wool processing workshop here at the farm. Chris' stepmom had met a gal who is quite skilled at processing and spinning wool and she arranged to have her come to the farm for a day-long, hands-on demonstration. Gwen was younger than I had expected and full of enthusiasm for her craft. About a dozen people came down for the day.

It's a good thing that we are learning how to process fleeces, because we have quite a pile of wool from this year's shearing!

The first thing we learned was called "willowing" which is simply hitting the fleece with a wire rug beater or the equivalent to knock out much of the dirt and debris.

Next she showed us how to wash the fleece. We had a warm water wash and a cool rinse, and she demonstrated how careful you need to be to avoid felting the wool. She commented on how clean our fleeces are, which amazed me because they sure seemed dirty to me!

After washing the fleece is laid out on screens to dry and get a final picking over.

Then, with already washed fleece that she had brought with her, Gwen showed us how to card the wool. This was a very satisfying step in the process, although we were surprised at how much waste there is. The waste wool can be used for some things though, like quilt batting or even garden mulch.

Everyone tried their hand at carding and we all worked on making enough wool to practice spinning. The kids really liked this part.

Here is a rolag, which is the bit of wool you get after carding. At this point it is ready to spin.

Eliza really liked combing the wool.

Then after a wonderful pot-luck lunch it was time to spin! First we tried the drop spindle, which is pretty intuitive to use but not terribly easy. It's really a challenge to keep the spindle turning and get an even yarn. But we didn't do too badly for our first try!

Using the wheel was more satisfying when it actually worked, but was definitely a challenge. It's one of those things where three of your four limbs need to be doing something different at the same time, so much coordination is required. Gwen was very patient and helped each one of us give it a go. I'm definitely interested in learning more about how to use the wheel.

I'll bet you already guessed what Scotty's favorite part of the day was!

We had a wonderful time and we were thrilled to be able to give Gwen a venue for her workshop as well as an audience. She did a great job and we are looking forward to having her here again to show us how to dye the wool!

Plugging away

2008-06-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

These photos are from several weeks ago when I was planting beans. Said beans are now about 8 inches tall!

We use a woven polyester fabric in many applications on the farm here, due to our dry climate and high prevalence of weeds. Drip irrigation tape is laid down underneath the fabric, and then seeds or starts are planted in holes.

I was accompanied by the boy and his motorbike that evening. I often plant in the evenings because it is just too hot to do it during the day and I don't wake up early enough to do it in the mornings!

The field behind us is being leased by an organic farming outfit, but these guys are not your small-scale sustainable organic farm. They too use woven polyester fabric, but theirs is laid down by a tractor which rolls it out and buries it as they drive along. Then two guys sit in little chairs that get pulled behind the tractor and drop seeds into holes in the fabric that are punched by a wheel. They have yet to plant their tomato and pepper starts, and I'm curious to see how that goes, because mine all had to be dug in by hand through slits in the fabric.

Every time I see those guys there are three or four of them out there standing around the tractor scratching their heads trying to figure out why it isn't working. It's pretty funny.

Loving the poultry

2008-06-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

This year we have added turkeys, geese, and ducks to our poultry lineup and the kids are just loving it. OK, actually we all are. The turkeys are a real treat--they follow us around the pasture like a pack of puppies. They are penned in at night but during the day they have free range so they run around eating their fill of grasshoppers and greens. I love the little "chuff chuff" noise they make.

Here they are in our paddock of winter wheat feasting on bugs.

No bird goes un-hugged around here. Do you think we could market "hugged daily" poultry? Sounds just as good as "cage free" to me.

Yes, there was a birthday

2008-06-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's been almost a month since the boys had a birthday, and we really did celebrate! This year Scotty wanted to do a big steam-up, so Chris' dad agreed to steam up the big tractor. Scotty was so excited and really enthusiastic about helping to get the engine clean and ready. When the big day came the first thing was getting his presents. Scotty got a rechargeable electric motorbike and Chris was so thoughtful that he picked up some paint for Eli so she wouldn't feel left out.

Scotty selected the guests for the party and he invited everyone he thought would love to see the steam engine. Most everyone came, but he did miss his Nino, who was home with a bad knee.

Papa Scott operated the steam hoist which is used to hoist a real mine bucket into a 1:1 scale model of a mine shaft head frame which he built several years ago as a demonstration model. Several guests took a ride down the "mine shaft" which is really only an 8 foot deep hole because we'd hit water if we dug it any deeper.

And of course there would be no birthday celebration without firing off the potato cannon, which was built for last year's Mythbusters party. It's always a hit with the crowd!

Several of the kids and the kids-at-heart went out to the landing zone to look for the spuds after they were launched.

We all had a great time and we thank everyone who came so much for helping to make it such a fun day.

Wind

2008-06-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

I knew someone once who liked to say "the wind is your friend." Well, maybe if I had a wind turbine or a sailboat. But not when I'm trying to grow something.

This has been the hottest, driest, windiest, AND coldest spring I can recall. We lost all of our fruit crop, including grapes and apples. Friends in town where there is plenty of thermal inertia due to all the pavement have abundant crops. But we had several late hard freezes (like, mid-May) that wiped everything out. That was at night. During the day it's been hot and as low as 1% humidity. Anyone in the market for leathery greens? I didn't think so. And the wind has been incessant. Sure, Spring is known to be windy around here but not THIS windy and not THIS long. Today we had gusts of 40mph.

One day a few weeks ago I got so sick of the wind I went out with my camera to complain photographically:

The poor chickens are out in it all day. The little guys must think that Life is Windy for that's all they've ever known.

Stuff routinely gets picked up and blown around the farm. Also knocked down.

Here's a piece of floating row cover that is now about 15 feet up in a tree.

Oh yeah, the wind did stop for a moment this Spring. Here's what we got instead:

Yeah, I'm probably exaggerating a little, and I do know that many areas of the world are experiencing crazy weather patterns right now. At least we're not flooding or having tornadoes (well there was a tornado warning but nothing came of it). But man that wind just blows the life right out of you, and you come inside looking and feeling like this:

Pig portrait

2008-06-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

New look!

2008-06-07T18:13:00.001-07:00

After two years I was getting bored of the blog template. So here's something new!

Chicken Ark

2008-05-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

It's our first year raising large numbers of chickens for meat and eggs, and we are using a portable chicken pen for pasturing our birds. Most pastured chicken pens look something like this:

That's Joel Salatin moving one of his mobile pens on his farm in Virginia (photo by T.L. Gettings). Salatin is the best known proponent of pastured poultry and he has recently been featured in Michael Pollan's best selling book The Omnivore's Dilemma.

We are farming in a very different climate. We are in a river valley in a desert. We can go months at a time without rain so we irrigate with river water, using a traditional system of ditches called acequias. So once every two weeks our pastures are under several inches of water for about half a day. This is not compatible with chickens on the ground. Also, we are in a very hot climate. The short, flat design of the Salatin pen would quickly bake our birds. So Chris designed a chicken pen that deals with these problems. He calls it the Chicken Ark. Here it is under construction:

The Ark is built as an A-frame, which allows hot air to escape through the ventilated top and sides as it rises. The vertical component of the Ark also provides for ample room for my nearly 6 foot tall frame to step inside. And there is a loft built in where the birds can sit when the field is under water. The birds have a choice between shade or sun and they are moved every day to fresh pasture where they get their fill of bugs, grass, and alfalfa. This makes for happier birds and much healthier meat, and the pasture gets nutrients without the use of chemical fertilizers. This in turn feeds our sheep and cows with healthy pasture.

Chris has also designed some nice waterers that use a common float valve hooked up to a hose that flows out of a 5 gallon bucket. Fifty birds can drink ten gallons of water per day in our hot and dry climate so it's nice that we only have to fill it up twice a day.

The Ark is heavy but that is also a good thing in this insanely windy place. Two people can move it pretty easily with two hand trucks, and one person can move it if they try really hard. I know this from experience.

Now he just needs to build two or three more of these and we'll be all set!

Busy as bees

2008-05-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

The same week we got our pigs we also got our bees! We strongly believe in barter as means of trade so we made a deal with a friend to board two of his ewes over the winter so they could be bred by our ram, and in exchange he gave us two of his beehives! These are top-bar hives, which are cheaper than the conventional Langstroth hives. They are a bit easier to work for the novice beekeeper like ourselves, but they yield less honey and more wax.

My local farm friend keeps top bar hives so last week I went over to her place to get a crash course on how to take care of my new hives. Here we are with a makeshift smoker because hers was on loan to her dad.

She showed me what to look for in each hive to be sure it is healthy and growing. She showed me how to maintain the combs to be sure they are growing straight. I learned how to identify workers, drones, eggs, larvae, capped honey, capped brood, and the queen. The next day I got into our hives and found that they are doing well!

The most fun part is seeing the little honeybees out and about on the farm. Last night I was planting beans and there were bees foraging in the clover nearby. I can see why people get so excited about beekeeping! It's really fun.

Pigs do fly!

2008-05-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

A week ago Saturday we finally got our piglets! We purchased two American Guinea Hog piglets from a farm in New York and had them shipped to us via air cargo. They are so little that two of them fit into a medium sized dog crate. It was pretty fun to go pick up piglets at the airport!

We chose the Guinea Hog for many reasons. First, they are a rare, heritage breed with a very small number of individuals remaining in the country. They are a breed that originated here in the US and were at one time a very popular homestead pig. Like many heritage breeds, they fell out of favor with the advent of factory farming. They are a lard breed, which is also rare, but desirable to a sustainable farmer because the lard is useful for so many things in the kitchen and on the homestead. They are much smaller than a factory hog, with adults reaching 250-350 pounds. They also have much smaller litters, which is great for us because we have limited freezer capabilities being off the grid so fewer, smaller hogs to butcher means we freeze less meat at a time. They are known for their gentle disposition, easy farrowing, and tasty meat. Best of all they are excellent on pasture. They will graze the grass and don't root as much as other breeds, especially if they are rotated from one spot to another regularly. Still, they can be used to till up a garden if you leave them on it.

We have two females (gilts) to start with because a local friend already has a Guinea Hog boar we can use to breed them. Later we might get our own boar from a different genetic line.

Here they are just minutes out of the crate in a portable pen that we set up for them in our winter wheat paddock. They were chewing on grass before they even came all the way out of their crate!

The best kind of help

2008-05-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

Over the big graduation/Mother's day weekend the four of us here all came down with a terrible stomach flu. It meant that the kids and I couldn't attend my sister's graduation ceremony and it also set us back considerably during our busiest farm month. Fortunately for us, my dad, stepmom, and both sisters were in town for all the festivities and after the weekend was over they all came down, with my mom, to help us get caught up. Dad and Ann finished mulching and weeding my fledgling medicinal herb garden while Ali got some watering done. Later Mom and Mik helped to entertain the kids. It was so great to have you all here giving your time and love to the farm. Thank you!!!

More celebrating

2008-05-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

My little sister graduated from college this month and we had a fun party for her but for some reason I didn't get a whole lot of photos. My brother's band played for the party:

And of course I did get a photo of my little nephew enjoying his mother's graduation cake. Congratulations Mik!

Mom's paint by numbers

2008-05-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

Chris' mom celebrated her birthday and Mother's Day with a fun party. She is having her solar panels painted (on the backs of course) because she can see them from her back porch and would like to look at something other than a big white rectangle. So she came up with a fun idea! She had an artist draw a mural on the back and set it up to be painted by the party goers. Eliza was one of the most enthusiastic painters. Scotty offered to be the photographer and he got several nice shots!

Here they are mixing the paint.

Some of Scotty's photos.

Here's what it will look like when it's done.

Strawberry-rhubarb pie

2008-05-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

It was my first attempt, and it was pretty good too! The rhubarb and about half the strawberries are from our garden. I made the crust with coconut oil and Chris said it was one of my best yet.

Managed grazing

2008-05-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally we have the majority of our fencing in place so we can really begin to manage our animals on the pasture. Early this season we were able to graze a small paddock of winter wheat, which has now already come back to over a foot tall.

Later we turned the animals into one of our irrigation channels. This is nice in many ways--the channel is not wasted in terms of pasture production, and it does not need to be mowed or weeded. Our neighbors either spray, weed-whack, or burn their irrigation ditches. Why not make it work for the humans and animals on the farm? Of course it takes the right animals and the right fencing to do this. We are lucky now that our cows and sheep are mild-tempered enough to stay put and herd easily. It's easy to keep them busy eating when there is lush grass and clover available.

Sheep last month

2008-05-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

We had another late lamb born and we really thought that this guy wasn't going to make it. He was so droopy-eared and seemed weak and the mom is a first time mom and she was not terribly attentive. That was also during the period that every living thing on the farm here (including the humans) were really struggling with the hot, dry, and windy days and below freezing nights. But against all odds he pulled through and he's growing like a weed now!

We also purchased a car port to use as a portable shelter for the animals. They haven't had much occasion to use it to shelter from rain, but the shade that it provides has been quite welcomed.

We also had them sheared at the end of last month.

Ideas?

2008-05-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

I tried a recipe for pickled radish greens that I didn't care for. Anyone have any good idea for radish greens?

Who needs a pool?

2008-05-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, if you don't mind freezing water that is. Last month the kids just couldn't resist a dip in our large fish culture tank, which has been full now for a couple of months. We will be growing several hundred pounds of fish in here this year, using natural cycling of nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and small feeder fish as food. So in a sense this will be "grass fed" or at least plant fed fish, as opposed to most tank farmed fish which is fed a grain based pellet, usually heavy on the soy.

But for now it's just a fun place to swim! Keep in mind that at the time these photos were taken we were still freezing every night so that water must have been in the 50's. That didn't stop Sorscha and my two from having a blast.

I love the shot with the cow in the background.

Sorscha stayed in for around 45 minutes, but mine got cold a bit sooner than that. Eli was pretty chilly when she got out (yes I put a swimsuit on her for the photos).

Taters

2008-05-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Our soil is very heavy clay so it is difficult to grow potatoes and other root crops here without major modifications. This year we are trying something new in order to be able to plant more potatoes. Under about 18 inches of clay there is a layer of nice sand, so Chris dug the clay layer off with the tractor and then tilled up the sand, to which we added a bunch of compost. Because the row is dug in, we will be able to fill it in a bit as the plants grow. Friends Sue and Crystal both came down to help plant--we got about 60 pounds of seed potatoes into this row. We still have another 20 pounds to plant but haven't had the time to dig another bed.

Babies everywhere

2008-05-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

We got our first batch of this year's chicks about 5 weeks ago. They are four breeds of layers: Ameraucanas, Blue Andalusians, Rhode Island Reds, and Cuckoo Marans. We started the 75 chicks inside Chris' shop on pine shavings and moved them outside to movable pens at about two weeks of age, which was just in time for our batch of 100 broilers. We are also raising turkeys this year, so we have a dozen turkey poults as well. The kids have really been enjoying them but due to some unanticipated setbacks we have really been scrambling to get the pens built faster than they outgrow them!

Here are Chris and a couple of friends working on one of the small pens which is designed for young chicks on pasture. We'll use it to isolate roosters or breeding pairs later. We used half inch hardware cloth to protect the chicks from raccoons, which can reach through regular chicken wire.

Eliza's helping

2008-05-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Eli has been helping out a lot on the farm lately. Here she is watering some root stock that we had just potted.

Typical crazy day

2008-04-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

This photo has little to do with this blog post but since I seem to have trouble posting without at least one picture I thought I'd share it. It's funny anyhow.

This morning I woke up at 8, around the same time as the kids. They hung around in bed for a little while and I started the teapot. I had to wait a bit for the electricity to gear up as the sun crept over the trees to the East so while waiting for the toaster and the internet I used reserve battery power on the computer to work a while on transcribing grant info for the flamenco conservatory. This is work that I do in exchange for a reduction on my tuition for dance class. The kids started to get hungry so I put some oatmeal on for them. When there was enough electricity for my toast, I got that going plus some tea and checked e-mail while the kids ate. Then I finished my grant work and made my way outside by 9 or so. Chris does the morning feeding of livestock so I was able to get straight to watering. While we do have drip irrigation in place, none of it is on timers yet so I have to manually open and close all the valves. Some of my beds are not set up for drip yet either so I water those by hand. And then there are all those starts! Lots of little pots to water.

So I worked on watering, making rounds, checking animal water, spraying aphids off the peach trees, dragging hoses around, adjusting shade cloths, pulling a few weeds, occasionally going back inside to help a kid with something, answering a couple phone calls, and getting quite crispy and dusty out there in this dry, warm, windy, and dusty weather that has been nearly constant for weeks now.

Around 10:30 I made my way back inside to see what the kids were up to. I got some checks written for bills and made a shopping list for the co-op. I was feeling somewhat optimistic that I'd get done with all the morning rounds in time to get out of the house and run all the errands I needed to do before getting to our regular Monday homeschool park day at around 1:30. One of the moms in our group is seriously ill and she was planning to drop her daughter off at that time and I had told her that I would try to get Eliza to the park on time so her daughter would have someone to play with (the other kids who were sure to be on time are all older). I also needed to get to the co-op, the bank, a mail drop, and a few random errands. I try to combine errands whenever possible so when I go to park day I always try to squeeze in other things as well. Today I was so close, but it wasn't meant to be.

Eliza and I hopped in the bath and it took forever to get the tangles out of her hair. It was past 11 by then but I was still thinking I'd make it out on time. I had to run back outside to shut off water here and turn on water there and take some scraps to the chickens. Back inside I started to put together a bag full of everything I needed to take for the park and all the errands, not to mention all my dance clothes for class later in the evening. I usually go straight to class after park day, again to save driving (Chris meets me and takes the kids). At some point, fast approaching noon, I noticed that the cows were out in the street.

Yes, the cows were in the street. Chris' dad was down there trying to get them back in, but that's usually at least a two person job so I started frantically trying to find shoes and sunglasses and car keys (the street is 1000 feet away and I had to get there fast) but by the time I finally got it all together I could see that the cows were back where they belonged. The gate had been opened for our neighbor so he could bring his big tractor in to laser level one of our large pastures and when no one was looking the three cows just walked out. But they still needed to get the tractor back out when they were done and it wasn't right that they were having to contend with mischievous livestock so I walked down the field with some hay and lured the little $#!+s up the field to a place where they could be locked up and out of the way. That took about 30 minutes.

Then the great Leaving for the Park Routine officially began. I had to find clothes for Eliza. This was not easy because all the clean laundry is in a huge pile on the bedroom windowsill (remember they are deep sills) and her little shorts and t-shirts just drown among all the sheets and towels. I found some shorts but no decent shirt (i.e. one that isn't full of stains) but I remembered that there was a nice shirt in the car so I just got the shorts and underwear and the only pair of shoes I could find, some sandals that she wore last year. The kids were outside somewhere so I figured I could use that momentum and just get the house locked up and ready to go--I could get her dressed outside. So I gathered up the dance bag, the bills for the mail, and Eli's partial outfit, ran around turning off phantom loads and locking doors, and headed outside. On the way I stopped in the mud room and filled a chick waterer so I could replace the one in the brooder with fresh water. OK, I was outside with the waterer and the stuff and we were officially in Leaving Mode. I popped into the shop to exchange chick water and find a dying chick in the brooder. There was no hope for this little guy--his neck seemed twisted and he was near the end. I wasn't going to let him continue to suffer so I had to finish him off myself. I'm sure you don't want to know the details but I promise you it was instant and painless.

It was now almost 1:00. None of us had eaten since breakfast and all I had was toast so we were all hot, hungry, and cranky. The wind was kicking up. I locked up the shop after the chick murder and realized I needed to wash my hands. On my way back into the house, which I had to unlock, Eliza came around the bend--naked and covered with mud. Remember she just had a bath. So it's back into the house to clean up again. I'm laughing now but at the time it was not so funny. Typical, but not funny. Another attempt to get out of the house and I got her shorts on and tried to get her sandals on but they don't fit at all. Hoping there are shoes for her in the car, I ask Scotty to find his bike and get it to the car. The car, by the way, happened to be parked about 100 feet down the driveway for some reason. Halfway to the car Scotty announced he couldn't find his bike helmet. Back to the backyard to look for the helmet. No helmet. I remembered seeing one in the house--so it's back in the house again through the locked door (fumbling for the key while holding bags of stuff). Got the helmet, can't find the bike rack. Oh, have to remember to shut off the rest of the irrigation! Walk around to the pump house, find the bike rack, hike the 100 feet to the car.

Eliza's nice shirt was not in the car.

Yes, Chris had thoughtfully cleaned out the car earlier in the week and everything was now--back in the house. Well, at least there was a pair of shoes for her in there. So after another round trip to the house the kids were dressed and in the car. It took me several minutes to get the bike rack on the car and the bike secured. Finally we were on our way, and it was 1:20. The park is 20 minutes away and we still had to stop at the co-op.

The drive to the co-op is uneventful but when I got there and parked I realized that I had left my purse at home!!!! Thank goodness I had the rent money from our tenant in my pocket, which I was going to take to the bank (one of several errands that never happened), so we could still do our grocery shopping and have food for the park.

We finally arrived at the park at around 2:30. The wind was going strong by then and we spent about 3 hours there. I wound up missing the first hour of dance because my friend wasn't back from her Dr. appointment in time and I was watching her daughter, but I finally made it to my class at 6:30 and danced hard for an hour. I got home around 8 and had dinner, caught up with Chris for a few minutes, made the kids a snack, and sat down at the computer to catch up on email. Now I'm in bed with the computer and the huge pile of laundry that needs to be put away. Hmmmm, do I blog or fold laundry? That is the question most nights.

I don't know, I guess I am a bit disorganized, but today is so typical of this swirling, unpredictable life of farming and homeschooling and dancing and playing and loving. I'm not complaining, just letting you know why I don't blog more often! OK, back to mostly pictures for a while. Thanks for reading.

We can't stay away.....

2008-04-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

Last fall the kids and I stopped at Danielle's farm during our mega road trip and we just didn't get enough so Eliza and I decided to fly out again this spring! Scotty and Chris held down the fort while we were gone.

Here she is on the plane. It was very exciting for her. She was a joy to travel with and we had so much fun.

We flew into Philadelphia and before heading to Maryland we stopped in Lancaster, PA to visit my grandmother. The drive from Philly to Lancaster was so nice, especially all the small farms everywhere. We passed a couple of horse-and-buggies and this really cool horse drawn trailer which I just had to pull over to photograph.

Here are four generations together! Try to ignore the terrible angle on me--I had to set the timer on the camera.

Eliza and the girls started playing the second we arrived at the farm and didn't stop for four days.

One of the highlights was getting to video chat with their friend Emma.

Another highlight was salsa dancing! It quickly became the evening ritual to put on some Celia Cruz and dance.

The salsa dancing quickly morphed into "salsa running," which was a wild sprint back and forth across the kitchen.

Speaking of the kitchen, I must say that Danielle and Jim are amazing chefs. They work together beautifully and they fed us like royalty.

Here are just a few of the amazing treats I indulged in that weekend. For more of their culinary creations, see Danielle's blog here, and in the index of her sidebar, select "farm to table." Most meals were accompanied by fresh greens from the garden, which had been growing in a hoop house all winter.

I was treated to eggs benedict with farm fresh eggs and their own bacon for Sunday brunch, complete with mimosas.

Jim made an amazing pulled pork shoulder roast on the grill, which was so good I ate way too much and didn't sleep well that night. Again, that was pork raised right there on the farm. And I tasted my first goose, which both Eli and I loved (upon returning home I immediately ordered a dozen geese to raise this spring). The braised goose was accompanied by pan roasted mixed potatoes and yummy Southern style turnip greens. I came home with a couple of extra pounds, but they were so worth it.

And to top off a perfect trip, you won't believe what I saw at the Philadelphia airport on the trip home:

Thanks again Danielle, Jim, and kids for a wonderful time. If it is at all possible, we will be back. We love you all!

Livestock update

2008-04-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

We have been feeding the animals in our large field garden that was used the last two years by a local CSA. This year we are taking it over and will grow chiles, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, and other row crops out there. The animals are fed just behind a fence, where they hang out and poop in between feedings. We have been moving the fence back down the field periodically to distribute the manure and uneaten hay across the whole thing.

Here they are getting their breakfast.

And just last week we had another lamb born! Look at the face on this one. So cute.

The sheep are definitely big woolly messes right now. They are scheduled for shearing at the end of the month.

Greening up

2008-04-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

All of our busy farm work combined with warmer temperatures is starting to result in some growth!

Here's the cold frame that was planted the first week of January.

Strawberries in full bloom:

Here are all my herb seedlings that have been growing for a couple months now. They are hardened off and just waiting for the right time to get moved to the garden.

The pasture is still pretty crispy but notice all the fencing! We should really be able to properly rotate the grazing this year.

Onions are finally planted.

They are still coming to the farm!

2008-04-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

I managed to snap a couple more photos at our last work day. We got the onion bed dug and prepped. This involved moving a bunch of sand out from the pond that we are digging in the front "yard" and digging it into the bed along with a generous helping of compost. That's the kind of job that is made so much easier with several hands.

Here is Sue removing Johnson grass and bind weed from my herb garden.

Alison is an intern who is working on the farm for credit in a college Biology class. She's giving the peas a drink.

We have really been so happy with how the community farm help has been going. We continue to be amazed that people actually come back! We do work them pretty hard but they seem to have a good time and we all enjoy spending the afternoon together talking about all manner of sustainability related things. We really do believe that strengthening our local community ties will become more and more important as we face great new challenges as a society.

Social Studies?

2008-04-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

Last month Chris invited the kids to decorate the floor of his shop with clay paint, which would stick to the earthen floor before it was oiled. I was walking outside the shop and I heard Chris say "wait for it, wait for it......" and then a "ppffttthhhh" sound. Then a lot of giggling. Turns out they were having a little anthropology lesson, using a prehistoric technique to leave hand prints on the floor and walls.

First a mouthful of (non-toxic, totally natural) clay paint:

Mix with water:

And blow!

The kids both gave it a try.

Cool!

Farm help continues

2008-03-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

I keep forgetting to get the camera out on our farm work days! So much has been accomplished in the 5 weeks we have been doing this, and we have met some great people as well as had the pleasure of spending more time with old friends. We have planted a large plot of peas, several smaller plots of lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, radishes, gourmet greens, and wildflowers, and a plot of jerusalem artichokes. We have installed several hundred feet of fencing and worked over the tree land. We also finished the shop floor and are now in the process of oiling it.

I do have some snaps of some of the homeschooling moms taking no mercy on some trees that required some serious thinning and pruning.

As usual, the kids pitched in with gusto.

The animals help decorate

2008-03-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as I was sweeping the floor I decided to change my perspective on the constant mess a bit. I thought about how it is a chic architectural trend to "blur the lines between indoors and outdoors" and I realized that we are on the cutting edge of trendy home decor. There are some days when the floor inside is nearly indistinguishable from the ground outside! We're so cool.

Case in point: The livestock have been spending some time indoors lately (helping with the decor of course). Martha Stewart is so last year.......

So satisfying

2008-03-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

One of the most satisfying crops I have grown so far is onions. Last January I started onion seeds indoors and planted the delicate little grass-like babies outside in March. I was just sure they would die, they were so small and fragile looking. But instead they grew and grew and yielded a beautiful crop of big, flavorful onions! Not only that, they have stored exceptionally well and I am still using them. I also like them because they aren't bothered by anything, at least around here, so they don't have the blemishes and bite marks that you sometimes get when growing organic vegetables. It is just such a pleasure to cut into one!

So this year I started more than twice as many. Behold the mighty onion!

Your recent comments

2008-02-24T19:56:00.001-08:00

Thanks everyone for your comments on my last post. Twinville, you are the third person to nominate me for the Excellent Blogger award! Thanks to everyone for the nominations! As you can tell, I'm not all that great about making a fancy sidebar so I might not get my "E" but I do really appreciate the nod.

Karl, on chicken fencing: We are now using 6 foot tall 2x4 welded wire mesh fencing. Yeah, it's ugly. And the junglefowl can still fly right over it. It's a constant battle!

Jane and Perri: Great to hear from you! One way to find things in your area like this is to look at CSA farms. Another way is to try to find a local sustainability or farming/gardening e-group. If no one is doing it, suggest it!

Mik: Yes, I got Mac's message. So cute! And cool about the Medicare thing. I guess they are finally realizing it's not medically necessary.

I have pictures uploaded so hopefully I'll get more posts up soon!

Cultivating community

2008-02-07T20:18:00.000-08:00

This season we have made an effort to invite members of the community to come down to the farm and help us produce food and build infrastructure. We have been amazed and inspired by the incredible response that we have had to our invitation. As Joel Salatin says, people seem to be looking for a relationship with their food and their farmers lately, and we as farmers are definitely looking to reciprocate.

So last Saturday was our second farm work day of the season. On the first day a week before we were so busy that I forgot to get the camera out, but this week I managed to get some photos. We had 8 adults and 4 children here working in addition to the four of us so it was an incredibly productive afternoon. Our main goal for the day was to install an earthen floor in Chris' shop. We were hindered by the fact that our floor material (left over from the house project) was frozen solid at the beginning of the day. This meant that a lot of muscle went into breaking it up so it could be mixed. We also worked on fencing and dealt with a shipment of bare root apricot rootstock for grafting as well as some bare root apple and cherry trees.

The kids were incredible! They were not expected or required to help us, but they really wanted to. Here they are working on breaking up the frozen floor material. These are all homeschooled kids, by the way.

And here they are helping to trowel on the earthen floor and deliver plaster to the trowelers. You can see that the earth plaster that we applied to the walls during the previous week's work day is still drying.

While some of us worked on the floor, others dug out an old bed in the garden and "hilled in" our apricot rootstock. This will keep it alive until we are ready to graft and pot/plant them.

The apples and cherries were already potted by the time I got the camera out, and work on fencing had begun. Here they are taking down last year's fencing, which works for cattle and sheep but not chickens. This will be replaced with a chicken-proof fence to keep our free-range layers out of the new gardens that we will be digging this year.

A crew then took the old fencing and loaded it onto the trailer so it could be distributed around the pasture to create more paddocks for rotational grazing. We decided this year that we don't want to rely on electric fencing any more, mainly becuase we just don't have time to walk 10 acres every day to maintain it. With Chris' full time job and having small kids at home it just isn't practical. So cattle panels cut in half will be the majority of our fencing.

All of the kids joined in on this project. I'm sure the trailer ride around the farm was a big part of the appeal.

Meanwhile, back in the shop the girls and I were cranking out the floor. After doing this a lot I have observed that men tend to have a more difficult time with this job because they get pretty uncomfortable down there on the floor for so long. I'm guessing it has to do with flexibility in the hips. Anyhow, we got everything that we could mix that day onto the floor, which amounted to over half the shop.

It was a great day, and we really want to thank everyone who came out to help. There is nothing like the feeling of working towards a common goal with like-minded folks. We feel truly blessed to have you as part of the farm!

More lambs

2008-01-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

Since the first twins were born on the 16th we've had three more lambs born. A single ram lamb came in the middle of the night on the 22nd when it was about 12 degrees outside, and another set of twin ewe lambs came yesterday morning at a cold 17 degree dawn. It's amazing how hardy the little things are, coming into a below freezing world, soaking wet. This most recent mom is not quite as attentive and she's more skittish than the others. Also, one of her twins is much bigger than the other and we're a bit worried about the smaller one getting enough milk. So far, so good though--they survived the night last night and it was windy and bitter cold--single digits.

Here are the new twins: one big and white and the other smaller and black.

The white one has the classic children's book lamb look.

Scotty continues to be thrilled with the lambs.

Here is the ram lamb, spotted with cute little white rings around his ankles. He's a week younger than his older cousins but the three of them have an absolute ball out there together. It is so amusing to watch them play.

Ever since the first set of twins were born, Scotty has been wanting to go out and hold the lambs every day. Now that we have the ram separated from the flock, he feels comfortable going out with the moms and babies by himself (in fact he's out there right now as I type--I can watch him through the front window). He is able to catch the babies on his own and spends up to an hour every day with them. This will be great for husbandry purposes because they will be much more accustomed to being caught and handled. Scotty feels proud to be able to help out with the management of the flock. You can see the pride in his face here as he holds one of the two-week-old twins.

Look closely at this photo--he's getting a lick on the chin!

New lambs!

2008-01-16T19:19:00.000-08:00

Just yesterday we had some lambs born! The ewe that had them is our best mother and most prolific ewe. In fact, this time she had triplets but unfortunately one of them was stillborn. The two that survived are both little girls! The timing was pretty bad, because we are into quite a cold snap, with daytime highs below freezing and overnights in the single digits, but the girls survived their first night just fine and are doing well today. Scotty is quite taken with them so we got one out today for him to hold.

Scotty took this photo while I was holding her.

Upgrading our water

2008-01-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

We are installing a new, larger DC pump and much larger solar panel for our well. We will be drip irrigating a much larger garden this year and we also want to have backup pumping capabilities for both houses on the property.

Chris' dad is an accomplished welder and made this ginormous post upon which the new panel, with a tracking stand, will be attached. It is very heavy! It took three strong guys to get it into place, which was a bit of a trick because they had to hoist it up on top of the pump house and then drop it down into the hole. They couldn't place it directly because there are some obstacles in the way. It's nerve-wracking to watch, but all's well that ends "well." Ha-ha.

A little help from our friends

2008-01-16T18:20:00.001-08:00

Last week our friend Gary of our hapa home came down to work on our old farm truck. The truck was a gift from our friend Terry--an old 1966 Ford F250, affectionately called Clem. Clem needed a new water pump and gearhead Gary was the man for the job.

I'm not so sure about his technique, but he got the job done!

Scotty enjoyed watching Gary at work, and he also had a good time with his pet jungle fowl hanging out in the cab. He's got these guys quite tamed now, and that will be good for us this summer because we will be able to release them into different garden patches to help control pests. In case you were wondering, the jungle fowl is the ancestor of domestic chickens. We are working on establishing a population here on the farm from the ones that Chris' mom breeds at her place.

Little helpers

2008-01-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

The kids have been all about Daddy lately. They really enjoy helping him work on his shop. Here they are helping to paint raw linseed oil on some exposed framing that will need protection from the sun.

Christmas day

2008-01-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Just finally uploaded my photos from Christmas day. What a great time we had at my mom's house!

The best part was that her driveway was covered with frozen snow and made for perfect, fast, and scenic sledding!

Seed fever!

2008-01-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

Ah, it's that time of year again! I've just been to Danielle's blog and she's posted this year's seed order with all kinds of good excuses for going crazy. I'm sharing some of her excuses, especially the idea that many of these seeds will be used again next year and that I will be saving a lot more seed this year. And Danielle alluded to the fact that the days of having anything we want shipped to us whenever we want could soon be coming to an end. We feel that it's a good idea to get a broad, diverse selection of seeds here while we still can. We are also growing for a variety of people this year, including the farmer's market, so we want a colorful, diverse offering from the garden.

Here's what I had left over from last year:
(And damn that Danielle with her list in alphabetical order! I had to put mine into a spreadsheet to sort it because I can't think that hard this time of night).

Arugula: our seed
Basil: Genovese sweet
Beans: blue lake pole
Beet: detroit dark red
Beetberry
Broccoli: Nutri-bud
Carrot: Japanese imperial long, scarlet nantes, dragon, red core chantenay
Cilantro: our seed
Cucumber: lemon
Gourd: bottle
Kale: dinosaur
Lettuce: ruben's red, merlot red, mesclun mix, cosmo savoy, green salad bowl, bronze mignonette, NY head
Mache (lamb's lettuce)
Parsley: Italian flat leaf
Peas: little marvel, sugar pod, pioneer shell, sugar snap
Pumpkin: sugar pie, jack be little, howden
Spinach: viroflay, bloomsdale
Watermelon: sugarbaby

And now for this year's seed order, which should help Danielle (and Jim) to feel better:

Artichoke: imperial star
Bean: pinto, genuine cornfield pole, christmas lima, king of the garden lima
Beets: chioggia, yellow mangel, touchstone gold
Broccoli: early green, waltham
Cabbage: red drumhead
Canteloupe: charentais, stutz supreme
Carrot: kurota chantenay, napa, yellowstone
Chamomile: german
Chard: perpetual, golden
Chile: NM sandia hot, NM big jim
Comfrey: (root cuttings from next door)
Corn: luscious sweet (F1, organic), popcorn TBD
Cucumber: mideast prolific, Armenian
Eggplant: rosa bianca, imperial black beauty
Hops: crystal, chinook
Jerusalem artichoke: (from next door)
Kale: red ursa
Okra: a gift from Pam G!
Onions: valencia, ruby ring
Peanuts: NM organic valencia from the co-op
Pepper: California wonder, Cal. Wonder orange, Stockton's select, ancho/poblano, jalapeno, cayenne
Potatoes: purple viking, all blue, laratte fingerling, red cloud, red gold, russet nugget
Pumpkin: Wyatt's wonder (Scotty wants to grow a big one)
Spinach: america
Squash: buttercup, yellow crookneck, black beauty, tahitian
Sweet potato: 100 slips, variety of heirlooms
Tomatillo: verde
Tomato: zapotec pleated, green zebra, roma, san marzano, ropreco, yellow pear, cabernet grape, oregon spring bush, brandywine, valencia
Watermelon: Malali

We've had a request for brussels sprouts, so I need to order those (any favorites to suggest?), and I still need to decide on a popcorn variety. I'm also working on a few additions to my herb garden which I'll pick up at this year's herb festival at the Nature Center. And I have a lot of flower seeds that I didn't mention here, but didn't get any new ones this year. I'll be growing some more bread poppies for sure--they were so much fun to grow and it was easy to save the seeds.

I already have onions and some herbs started indoors, and lettuce, cilantro, beetberry, spinach, broccoli, and mache coming up in the cold frame. What fun!

Twice tagged

2008-01-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Busy holidays! I'm sure there are lots of photos to share but I haven't found the time to even look at them. We've been gearing up for another farm season and trying to finish the shop.

For now, I must oblige two bloggers who have recently tagged me! Katy wants me to write 8 things about myself that others don't know, and Diana tagged me with the Archive Meme.

First for the 8 things. This is hard because I already did 6 things last year. Let's see:

1. When I worked in the reptile house at the zoo, it was all I could do not to stick my hand into the rattlesnake cage *just because I could*. I'd stand there with the cage open and think "I could just stick my hand in there...." I wasn't suicidal or anything--it was just glaringly obvious how easy it would be to do it. You know, kind of like when you are at the symphony and it's a really slow quiet part and you realize how you could just yell out "SUCK IT" or something equally inappropriate.

2. I used to race bicycles (road--I'm way too tall for mountain biking).

3. I can spin and jump on ice skates.

4. I have a bicornuate uterus. That means it is heart-shaped with a deep septum. Both of my babies grew in the left side of the heart. Marmosets and tamarins (small New World primates) also have bicornuate uteri. They usually give birth to twins, carrying one in each side.

5. I've never seen the movie Gone With the Wind. (ducking and running....)

6. As a kid I used to do those logic problems like they have in the GRE for fun.

An amusement park roller coaster includes five cars, numbered 1 through 5 from front to back. Each car accommodates up to two riders, seated side by side. Six people�Tom, Gwen, Laurie, Mark, Paul and Jack�are riding the coaster at the same time.

* Laurie is sharing a car.
* Mark is not sharing a car and is seated immediately behind an empty car.
* Tom is not sharing a car with either Gwen or Paul.
* Gwen is riding in either the third or fourth car.

Which of the following groups of riders could occupy the second car?
.
(A) Laurie only
(B) Tom and Gwen
(C) Laurie and Mark
(D) Jack and Tom
(E) Jack, Gwen, and Paul

Needless to say I did really well on that section of the GRE.

7. If I sleep on my back I get nightmares.

8. I have a crush on Ewan McGregor (shut up Kevin--not everyone knows this yet!)

And now for the Archive Meme:

1. A link about family. This was a really early post but one of my favorites. I have found out since then that the song I printed there was originally written for Rufus Wainwright.

2. A link about friends just has to be about my local homeschooling tribe. These are women who I know I could call at a moment's notice for anything. In fact, I've done it and they were there. I love you guys!

3. This one is supposed to be about me. I think this one is pretty relevant to what I'm doing now.

4. This one is something I love. I just love watching my kids shine.

5. This one can be about anything I want. Looking back, I just love the story about Hank. I still think about him all the time. Someday I'll get another Aussie.

Thanks Diana and Katy for the tags! I won't tag anyone else with the 8 things, because most everyone I know has already been tagged with this one. But for the Archive Meme, I'm tagging:

Mik & Mac
Kevin
Sylvia (with the hope that she'll post something again soon)
Katy
and Jim

Archive Meme Instructions: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you've written. ... but there is a catch: Link 1 must be about family. Link 2 must be about friends. Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are... what you're all about. Link 4 must be about something you love. Link 5 can be anything you choose. I think this is a great way to circulate some of the great older posts everyone had written, return to a few great places in our memories and also learn a little something about ourselves and each other that we may not know. Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least TWO of the people you tag must be *newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better....and don't forget to read the archive posts and leave comments!

Wow, a whole post with lots of writing and no pictures!

Winter Flamenco Recital

2007-12-19T20:17:00.000-08:00

We just had our annual winter recital last weekend. This time I sewed myself two new costumes!

Kevin, Beth, and Emma were kind enough to show up to our dress rehearsal to take some video for me. I have several videos of past performances and I use them to see where I'm in need of improvement, but thanks to Kevin's camera skills this one's good enough to share! Keep in mind that this is intermediate level dancing. It's not meant to be an example of great flamenco dancing (for those of you "aficionados" who find my blog through an internet search and want to make a snarky comment about the quality of the dancing). But for my family and friends who want to see what I'm up to, have at it.

Oh, and Kevin IS allowed to make snarky comments. That's part of our arrangement.

Learning happens

2007-12-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

All the time!

Here are some of the kids' experiences within the last week. Mind you, these are only the ones I actually managed to photograph.

Eliza has been very interested in painting recently.

Here she is surfing the web. That's right, at 4 years old she knows how to get to some of her favorite bookmarked websites and how to navigate the sites. She doesn't read yet, but she is recognizing several words that help her navigate around. Note that her Pikachus really enjoy surfing with her.

Both kids have been picking up our various instruments regularly and really enjoy feeling them out and making up their own songs. They also like to accompany Chris while he plays and I sing. (Side note--I have started learning some chords on the guitar too! This inspires the kids to want to learn as well.) Scotty likes the bass and the cello. Eliza likes the piano, and both like the guitars.

I was recently given the wonderful gift of my late grandmother's sewing machine and it turns out that it's a great gift for Scotty too! Who knew there were gears and eccentrics inside? Of course he immediately figured out how it all worked and intuitively knew where I was supposed to oil it (I checked the manual--he was right!)

Chris has been busy working on the next phase of his shop. Here he and Scotty are building a wood rack so that Chris can move his stacks of lumber out of the shop and into permanent storage-finally!

A bit of winter

2007-12-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

We had a light flurry a few weeks ago. It wasn't until Thanksgiving that it even started to get cold here. With our passive solar design we were still reaching 77F inside the house, and we even had to shut the shades a few times to keep from overheating. But now we have settled into a more average weather pattern. It's been freezing at night for some time now and lately the highs have been in the 40's and 50's. More clouds have meant not as much solar gain, which is hard on our PV system and keeps the house on the cool side. But we still haven't needed to light a fire in the woodstove yet (our only source of backup heat). We're hoping to make it till Christmas this year.

Thanks!

2007-12-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

Every year we look forward to Marilyn's annual Thanksgiving feast. Marilyn is Chris' mom, and she's also the best cook I have ever known. She is an inspiration because she creates the most amazing food and seems to really love doing it too.

With Barry's very qualified help, they please the eye as well as the palate.

No wonder we all come back every year!

Play till you drop

2007-12-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

We have a couple of new families in our homeschooling group! One night last month one of the families came down to the farm for an evening. The kids played together so well and had a great time. They literally just kept going and going until they all passed out. Here's the aftermath:

OK, I give up

2007-11-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

Several times I have tried to update my blog and have been interrupted for one reason or another. I wanted to do a Halloween post and some more farm posts, and now it's past Thanksgiving already and I am so hopelessly behind that at this point I'm just going to have to give you some photos, in no particular order, of our lives during the last month. Go ahead and fill in the blanks with your imagination, and if you have any questions please ask in the comments section!

Here are the photos, uploaded in between stints at the sink with the dishes:

New pets

Halloween park day

Eli has a friend

2007-10-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

When we visited Touch the Earth Farm on the trip Eli and Jules really bonded. Eli also fell in love with one of Jules' Pokemon toys. Imagine her surprise and delight when Jules decided to send her the Pokemon and a pretty dress to wear! Thank you Julia! Plusle hasn't left Eli's side since she arrived.

Apples!

2007-10-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

Since arriving home we have been enjoying the orchard tremendously. We have a bumper crop of apples this year and we have been eating, baking, and pressing apples. The cider is heavenly.

The cows always take notice when we visit the orchard. Yum!

Homeward Bound

2007-10-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

We took five days to leisurely drive home from Minneapolis. Cashing in on the rest of our credit card rewards, we stayed in nice hotels along the way for free!

Here are some photos of our last night, ending the trip as it began with Beth and Emma six weeks before at the Courtyard in Amarillo, TX.

Once again we ate at Joe's Crab Shack, where Eliza got to paint a crab again and really wished that Emma was there with her.

And this time I even managed to get a photo of the Texas shaped waffle! We never saw anything like this in any of the other 19 states we visited. That's Texas for you! Sorry it was upside down on the plate--I guess if I really wanted to I could flip it but I'm not going to.

We returned home on a Monday afternoon and when we passed the school near our house the odometer read 6,292 miles. Now that's an education!

Lovely Minneapolis

2007-10-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

As I write this a month later, I consider our time in Minneapolis as the perfect ending to a great journey. Both of my sisters live in fair Mpls but only one of them was home when we visited. Although I was sad not to see Mik and Mac while we were there, it was also our good fortune that she was away because we were able to stay in her apartment just a block away from the Dunks (sister Ali and brother in law Rob, cousins Alex and Gracie). I have a lot of photos from this time but for once those aren't as important as what actually happened, which was a whole lot of Not Much. We spent ten days in Mik's apartment, usually joining the Dunks in the evening but not always. They have busy lives and we were definitely a disruption, but our time together was wonderful. We caught the zoo and the science museum and IKEA and watched lots of movies at home. For me, our time in Mpls was very valuable because I was able to slow waaaaaay down and spend a lot of time just thinking, being, and processing everything that had come before. I gained some insights into what I needed and wanted to do when I returned home and by the time we left all three of us were centered and ready to return. I'll always have fond memories of my morning dash out for Caribou coffee while the kids watched videos in the apartment and the late night movie watching at the Dunks. An unremarkable, quite remarkable time.

This here is something that only happens to me and my sister. On our first night we tried to open a bottle of wine and the whole neck broke off! We had to strain it through the coffee strainer to drink it (you didn't think we would pour it down the drain, did you?)

The girls got along pretty well, although Eli was more interested in her big cousin Alex than in playing with Gracie, who is only 16 days older.

The boys had a good time comparing their Photo Booth creations.

A rare photo op where the whole gang was together.

Museum visit. It was 89 degrees that day and two days later it was in the low 50's. Ahh, the Midwest.

A time to rest

2007-09-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Every time we visit my dad in Wisconsin it is restful and easy, but this time we really needed it! A lovely house in a small town with pretty gardens, a great view, and everything we need awaited us after weeks on the road.

And the company was pretty great too! Dad and Ann really make an effort to relate to us, unconventional as we are, and they welcome us without judgment. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are that our parents support our very non-mainstream choices, but then I see the struggles that some of my friends have with their parents and I am reminded. We are so lucky that Dad and Ann, Mom, Marilyn and Barry, and Scott and Maria give us so much support and love as we head down our path! We know that you may not agree with everything we do, but your support is there nonetheless. It means so much to us.

Dad in fact is so pleased with what we are doing that he invited a bunch of his friends over to meet me and the kids! What a lovely evening that was.

All this despite the crazy road construction on their street. I hope you have pavement soon! Thanks for a great visit--it was just what we needed.

Chicago

2007-09-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

After Niagara we did the longest drive of the trip, from Buffalo to South Bend, IN. We spent the night in South Bend and lucked into the most delicious pizza delivery! If you are ever in South Bend, Bruno's Pizza is a must.

The next morning we made the short drive into Chicago just to see our favorite museum, the Museum of Science and Industry. This was always my favorite growing up and the kids were there two years ago and loved it.

Scotty loved this just as much in 2005

as he did this time.

Eliza got crafty and she wrote her name and Emma's name on her creation.

One of the exhibits there is sponsored by all the big agrobusiness corporations and goes on and on about how great mechanized agriculture is. I have to admit, the real John Deere combine harvester they have there is one impressive machine. Scotty just loved it.

You could sit up in the cab and get an idea of what it is like to drive one of these monsters.

I was already feeling icky about the whole thing and then I saw this:

It's an automatic cow milking machine. No flesh to flesh contact whatsoever. Ugh--this just makes me feel sad and hopeless. How are we to survive as a species if we keep inserting so much technology into our relationships with each other and with nature? I feel the same about this as I did about the baby carrier I blogged about HERE.

Anyhow, despite my problems with the Ag exhibit we always love this museum and we were very happy to be there. After we left we had an easy drive to Wisconsin where we happily arrived at my Dad's house, ready for some R&R.

Niagara

2007-09-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

We hit Buffalo late in the afternoon and immediately went to see the falls. We took the Maid of the Mist boat ride for an amazing view of both the American and the Canadian falls.

I don't get people--everyone put on their blue plastic raingear while still waiting in line, at least ten minutes before the boat had even arrived at the dock. The sun was beating down on us and it was HOT inside those ponchos. The kids and I were the only ones who waited until we were actually on the boat and near the mist to don our ponchos. Here's the line of Smurfs:

There's Canada!

Scotty checking out the engine.

The falls were amazing.

Scotty spent a good amount of time under my blue poncho.

The American falls from land.

Beautiful drive and an oasis

2007-09-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed two days of beautiful scenery as we made our way from PA to Buffalo, NY. We stayed overnight in Corning, the home town of our dear friend Kevin, who says it's a nice place to visit but we wouldn't want to live there. I'm glad he warned us, because the countryside was just gorgeous and I could have seen myself dreamily moving there in September only to find myself socked in during a terrible winter with like-minded folks few and far between.

Anyway, on the second day we pulled off the highway for fuel and stumbled upon a beautiful little farm stand in Geneseo, NY. I was in heaven! It is so hard to be used to eating real, fresh, flavorful food grown without chemicals and then switch to eating on the road. Aside from Danielle's food we had been eating pretty poorly so this farm was a true oasis. They picked some peaches and heirloom tomatoes for us on the spot and each of the kids chose a pumpkin to take to Wisconsin. Plus, their display was beautiful!

Pennsylvania

2007-09-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

Continuing our drive, we stopped at another science museum in PA and then we just had to visit the Martin guitar factory. No, we didn't take the tour--that would have been too much for Scotty--but we did go in looking for a gift for Chris, who loves his Martin.

We came out with something we hadn't expected--more on that at a later date.

So cute I just had to do an over-the-shoulder snapshot while driving.

Forging ahead

2007-09-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

Despite our great time at the beach, there continued to be circumstances that led us to believe that it would be better to part ways with Beth and Emma for a while. The gals headed North for Vermont while we headed Northwest for New York State. First we stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Franklin Institute. No, we didn't see the King Tut exhibit, but we did find fun things for both kids there.

We love the beach

2007-09-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

After NYC we were delighted to reunite with Danielle and her kids at Jim's parents' beach house in Ocean Grove. It was a lovely house with plenty of room for all of us and lots of toys for the kids. You could tell that Jim's folks were experienced grandparents!

And of course we had experienced nothing but hot weather the entire trip--until we got to the beach. Our first day was quite blustery but that didn't slow the kids down at all. Over the next two days we enjoyed wonderful food, great company, delicious wine, and a gradually warming beach (I hear it got quite warm the day after we left). I think the photos say it better than I can:

New York City!

2007-09-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, sort of.

After the Hagley we drove the next day to Ocean Grove NJ and left our car there with Danielle's in-laws. Then we took a train to NYC to meet up again with Beth and Emma who had already been there a few days.

Here we are outside of Penn Station at Madison Square Garden. Beth and Emma met us here and together we walked the seven blocks to their hotel.

Unfortunately that walk was pretty much all we saw of the city. Scotty was in no mood for sightseeing and we needed to leave the city early the next afternoon so we could avoid rush hour since we were riding back to the beach with Beth in her car.

I did manage to get out to a real NY deli so that night I stayed in the hotel with my guys, a bottle of wine, and great deli food while Beth and Emma went to a broadway show. Here's my spread:

The next morning we visited the same deli for breakfast.

Then we waited a while in the hotel lobby for the car, hopped in, and left. Beth expertly navigated the car through the city, I got claustrophobic in the Holland tunnel, and we got just a glimpse of Lady Liberty on our way out of town. That, my friends, was my one and only ever visit to NYC.