US 127 Yard Sale-2012 Edition; Saturday and Sunday

Photos from the last 2 days of  2012 Boulder Belt Yard Sale in no particular order

The Basset Hound

Interesting day.

had a stray basset hound show up in the morning while we were foliar feeding some of the crops and weeding. He crossed 127 and almost got hit several times before making onto our farm, driving our dogs nuts. He was not a stranger to us as yesterday a couple of women drove up with him and asked if he were ours. They said they stopped and picked him because he was trying to cross 127 going towards us so assumed he was our dog. We told them to check out a couple of farms on Kayler Rd and they did and the dog was gone until this morning.

So the basset somehow got behind the fence with our dogs and seemed to have a whee of a time with them all morning and a good bit of the afternoon. Finally we decided he had to go and through a series of events he ended up going to the PC Humane Society shelter with a concerned woman in a black truck.

We thought that would be the end of it until around 6pm the dog's owner shows up looking for her basset. We told her he was at the no kill shelter. She was not happy about that. But we told her we did not know where he lived, that this was the second day he had visited us and perhaps she should confine the animal. She told us Willie (we now have a name) was a rescue (we could see he had been badly treated recently) and she felt bad about chaining him up as that is how he had been treated. But if she does not tie Willie up or put him in a kennel he will continue to follow her out her driveway and get on the highway and will likely get hit. or live with us part time, something we do not want as we really don't want to deal with training another dog to be a Boulder Belt dog right now. Or at least Eugene doesn't as he seems to think 3 dogs is more than enough (he is forgetting how much protection those dogs give us and the garden against all sorts of critters and the fact we have two old dogs that will not be around for much longer and they will do a lot to help train a youngster). Me I could easily have a couple more dogs, though I think I would like at least one to be on the small side.

Earthquake!

This morning at 5:36am EDT I notice the house started shaking and continued to do so for about 1.5 minutes. I thought to myself that is strange. There are no Semis going by on 127 so why is the house rattling?

When Eugene got up around 6:45am I said I had felt a strange shaking but I doubted that it was an earthquake but had no idea what it was since it definitely was not truck traffic. Than I went to one of my favorite websites-the USGS earthquake center (I am a bit of geology nerd) and there on the world map was a red square in the middle of the USA indicating that an earthquake had happened in the last hour. Clicked on the red square and saw that it had happened in SE IL at 5:36 EDT and right as I found out that information Eugene turned on the TV and the Daily Buzz said they were going to talk about it but instead went to several commercial breaks (that show used to be so good, so cutting edge. Now...not so much). So He turned to WHIO and that is all they were talking about.

I filled out the "Did you Feel It?" form at the USGS Eathquake Center. I have always wanted to do that but since earthquakes tend to be rare here in the eastern half of the USA I did not know if i ever would. I didn't have much to report other than the house shook for about 90 seconds

Turns out at 4:36 CDT there was a 5.2 tremor in West Salem IL about 300 miles west of here.
There have been 2 tiny aftershocks since than which caused the dogs, Nate and Danny to get all weird and start barking at each other and a pack of coyotes to start howling around 8am EDT all while I was out harvesting spring mix for the farmers market tomorrow.

Wow I think I just felt another tremor. House shook with no traffic at 11:17am EDT. It's now 11:25 and it has not yet shown up on the earthquake map so maybe I felt something else (or they take a while to post this stuff)

Weather Rodeo

We had a weather rodeo last night. It was around 55F/13c at 9pm last night when the cold front rolled on through complete with heavy rain, thunder and lightening, possible tornadoes about 75 miles to the west and 60mph winds. Remarkably other than many row covers getting shredded and hanging on a fence and the grain bins being on their sides this morning, we had very little damage. None of the hoop houses were hurt, the roofs stayed on all the buildings. All good things.

What did happen was either a car hit a power pole or the pole hit a car about 1/2 mile north of us causing the power to go down for 10 hours (9pm to 7am) and a big traffic tie up with lots of emergency vehicles with their festive lights. I guess there were live wires all over US 127 causing southbound motorists to flash their lights like crazy at the northbound motorists. After 7 minutes I noticed that a state trooper had arrived on the scene and 20 minutes after that 2 ambulances and 2 fire vehicles arrived. one of the fire trucks was stationed just north of Kayler Rd in an attempt to stop more traffic from driving up near the mess and being stopped there for hours. For a while this worked until 2 semis were put into the mix.

There is no good way to turn a semi around by us. We have seen Kayler Rd stop many a semi that happened down the narrow lane. they could use our driveway/parking area but the last time some yahoo tried that he left some really swell deep ruts on our property and hit one of the cars (very lightly so there was virtually no damage and the car is ancient, but still...) so we are not trucker friendly at the moment. The truckers seemed to sense that so instead of taking the easy way out and turning around in our drive one of the truckers backed down the 40' pitch and up the other hill and curve. He had to be channeling my Dad who loved to drive backwards and told me he had many a dream where he was speeding down the interstate in reverse. When this trucker got to the valley between the hills he encountered another semi who saw the first backing up and decided whatever was up at the top of the hill was to be avoided so he got in the southbound lane and put his truck into reverse as well. It was quite a sight seeing two semis backing up 127, I gotta tell you. the other semi at the top of the hill decided to back onto Kayler Rd and turn around that way and was successful. He went down the hill encountered the two backing trucks as they had almost crested the second hill and turned off on 726. This obviously made a light bulb go off in the head of the second trucker (who was not doing a good job of reverse driving-he was not channeling my father). I saw the truck jerk as he hit the brakes and threw it into a forward gear and than the lights came on and the guy also drove off north on 726.

After all that I went into the dark house, blew out the 4 candles we had lit for light and went up to bed. I had just hit the pillow when I heard a truck coming up the hill fast and than hitting the brakes hard. He came within inches of hitting the fire truck and probably the two fire folk. After that I lay in bed with Eugene listening to the heavy winds make the metal roof boom and thunder. A rather unnerving noise. Eventually sleep came

Snowy Market

That's me at market in front of our stand
(Photo Courtesy of Deb's Key West Wine & Garden)

What a winter market we had on Saturday. It was snowing hard through the entire market making displaying our wares a bit tricky. We opted for keeping as much as possible in coolers out of the snow. we had a list of what we had for people to read and choose from. I was rather amazed at how many people showed up to buy. The Oxford Uptown market has quite a few intrepid customers who will come out in any weather.

The day started for us in the store packing everything into coolers and boxes lined with toweling. We did not want to risk bringing home frozen produce that would than have to be tossed on the compost pile. This happened to us last year-we went to a sub freezing market laid our wares out on our tables like it was warm out and lost all our remaining potatoes and winter squash to the cold. And the thing of it was we did not know the stuff had frozen for 36 hours as that is how long it took for the damage to show. So we thought we were alright when we unloaded the van. After figuring out we had lost about 3/4 of our winter's stock of food we vowed never again will we go to a winter market and allow our food to freeze. So now we take measures to keep things warmish.

Got things packed they way we wanted and loaded the van and got on the dry roads at 7:30 am so we could get down to the Streits for our milk before the market and the snow. Got to the Streits and got our milk and as we were loading that into the van I noticed a snow flake lazily drifting through the air. A second later i noticed a million of its' brethren and the snow storm was on. By the time we got out to St Rt 73 (3 minutes) the roads were beginning to become covered and all the black Angus cows we passed were white on top. We drove towards Oxford wondering if we should just continue north on 127 and go home as the snow was coming down hard and fast. But when we came to the fork in the road where 127 peels off of St Rt 73 we went left and on to Oxford and the Winter Market.

Drove up and down the hills and curves of St RT 73 (one of the most dangerous roads in Ohio) talking of other snow storms and all the times I had to deal with 73 in bad conditions (my family used to live in a subdivision that was on the highway). We were able to traverse the road with no problems though I believe if we had tried to drive it a half hour later we would have had problems what with our vehicle being a Dodge Cargo van with rear wheel drive and not the newest tires in the world. Granted, we did have a lot of weight in the back due to the produce.

So got to the top of 73 where it meets Patterson Ave in Oxford and turned right so we could get to High street and got up the high Street hill swimmingly and pulled into the snow covered parking lot where we hold the market. Eugene cursed himself for not bringing a snow shovel. But soon enough, several snow shovels showed up and people were clearing the snow away (or trying to, it was snowing hard so all progress was soon covered). The shovel crew was a mix of farmers, kids, customers and market volunteers and between them all they kept the footing in good shape for everyone.

Getting the way cleared for shoppers
(Photo Courtesy of Deb's Key West Wine & Garden)

Snow on the shelters over each stall was an issue unless you had an older and more expensive model EZUp. I noticed our EZUp and one other that is the same year and kind had no problems shedding snow but all the cheapo EZUps people buy at Sam's Club and Wal-Mart were having some snow issues and had to be continually cleared. The EZ Up knock offs were even worse. The good news is as far as I know no one lost their shelters due to the snow loads. And we needed the shelters, otherwise all our food would have been covered under 3 to 4 inches of snow (maybe more). As it was, there was a good wind so quite a bit of snow did drift onto everyone's items unless they were tarped. Scott Downing's apples were covered in a nice blanket of snow (which could not have been good for the apples. I suppose they will make then into cider if they did get frost damage) and his honey jars were getting drifted in. At our stand the cash drawer started to fill up with snow and I had to abandon our tally sheet when it got too wet to be written upon (the pen would go right through the paper). But other than the tally sheet and some wet bills we had things well covered so nothing was harmed.

I thought I was going to be cold at market. I had good boots and a hat but had forgotten gloves. Not an issue as it turned out. For some reason, my hands were toasty warm through out the market. Maybe this was because the day before I spent several hours washing the leafy greens in freezing salt water to get the dirt and slugs off of the food before packing and selling it (nothing like a 3" slug crawling out of one salad...) so my hands were used to the cold. I dunno. I do know I had no need for gloves which is good as they tend to get in the way for me and make it hard to pick things up.

Chicken was a hot seller. Sold out of all that we brought (2 roasters and 5 Cornish hens). Leeks also sold well but we still have a lot of them (I believe we brought around 100 of them and sold 3/4). Butternut squash is always a good seller for us. we also sold a lot of arugula, all the red mustard, about half the spring mix (I don't know why this doesn't sell better, its' great salad. So much better than organic mixes at the grocery), almost all the spinach (which I thought would sell out), most of the salad radishes but none of the cooking radishes (probably because they were displayed badly so no one knew we had them), a lot of potatoes sold but few sweet potatoes (again because they were displayed badly).

At 11:30 we quickly packed up, drove over to UDF to get some gasoline than we slowly drove home via the back roads we always take. We had a bad problem with the wipers icing over and becoming useless. We stopped 3 times to clear them between Oxford and Eaton. And cleared them twice while in Eaton buying beer and dog food and picking up the mail. Finally got home and unloaded the van and than watched the people sliding up the 40' Pitch. That was great as it became a communal event. As a vehicle got stuck on the pitch people behind them would get out of their cars and help push the vehicles up the hill. It was good to get home before the roads got really bad.

The rest of the day I napped-Once I got home and unloaded I found that I was pretty exhausted

And Home Again

Going home we took I-75 south to Detroit. on our way out we stopped at Jay's in Standish so I could buy some Pinconning Cheese. I love the stuff. It's a local cheddar that is my favorite cheese. I also got some Michigan maple syrup.

After shopping we got back on the highway and sped south towards Sterling heights. The trip was uneventful other than seeing a bald eagle. Soon enough we were dropping Scott off. Eugene took over driving from Sterling heights to Eaton. Maggie sat in the back and napped for much of the rest of the trip (well, really she slept for an hour). Eugene and I talked about what we were seeing out the windows (lots of industry and urban sprawl). We made good time and quickly we were through Detroit and Toledo and going by the giant Mosque where US 23 and I-75 either come together or separate depending on the direction your are travelling. Near Wapakoneta we got off the superhighway and onto US 33 going west towards Celina and US 127. finally got back on US 127 and headed south towards home. In North Star we stopped at an ice cream place that boasted 24 flavors of soft serve. I got soup and a creamsicle shake. I would give the food a "C-" but it was dinner.

Soon we were in Preble County and home. When we drove in we noticed the lights on and the front door open. What the fuck?!? Wyatt was not supposed to be there so we kind of assumed the worse. Fortunately the worse did not happen. Wyatt's truck had decided to give up the ghost while he was driving home on US 35 through Eaton. He walked a couple of miles back to our place, mowed the grass and vacuumed the house while waiting for us to get back. Way cool. He helped us to unpack the car than the boys went into town for beer.

While they were gone Maggie and I unpacked and put away the China. My parental units have been threatening for years to send me home with this. The China was my grandmother's and when she sold her stuff in Ionia it was kept back for me. It is Spode, old and beautiful and now I have full service for 6 and partial service for 8. I am ready for Thanksgiving or any other somewhat formal get together that involves putting leaves in the dinning room table. After dealing with the China we sat down at the computer and I downloaded all the photos and video I took of the trip and we looked the stuff. Than Maggie went to bed and I sat out on the deck and drank a beer and had a smoke with the boys before retiring.

It was good to be home.

Detroit

Around 3:00pm we left US 127 and turned east on I-94 towards Detroit and the Wozniak homestead. We got on the highway with thousands of other cars and trucks and sped ever eastward. The landscape went from bucolic ruralness to an asphalt jungle as we closed in on the Motor city. Gone were the farms, fields and forests replaced by high rises, malls and concrete. Rural or urban, in Michigan, you find shrink wrapped boats in either place.

The traffic was building as it was early rush hour. And rush we did, by Ann Arbor, The Detroit Metro Airport (which everyone in the car agreed was about the worst airport in the USA), River Rouge. Than suddenly, we were in Detroit proper and the traffic slowed to a crawl. It was 3:45pm, the 6 lane highway was cut down to 3 lanes and we had 15 exits to go before we got to 8-Mile/Vernier. It did not look like we would hit the 4pm goal we had set. So we crawled through traffic for 20 minutes and eventually got to our exit and within minutes we had arrived at Jack and Lucy's house.

Jack had just gotten home and was walking into the garage when we pulled up. he did not recognize the bright yellow Cobalt Maggie had rented but he did recognize everyone inside the car. We got out and there were hugs all around. Soon Lucy had noticed we arrived and there was round two of hugs. We went inside for a minute and than sat out in the garden (my cousin Jack is a landscaper and his yard is a multi decade project that gets better and better each time I visit) and drank Bud lights and smoked cigarettes. My sister and jack did not smoke as they do not imbibe in the habit. We talked of weather, work and other light topics for a while than Maggie went off for a 1/2 hour walk. While she was gone I had another beer (as did Eugene) and we sat around and started planning out dinner. the plan was supposed to be we waited for my Brother Scott and his girlfriend Speranza to arrive and than we would all go out somewhere and grab some food. Scott was supposed to arrive between 7:30 and 8:00. At 8:05 he had not shown up and we were all starving so we called his cell and got his answering service. So we waited another 15 minutes and left him a note as to where we went to eat.

Than we got in Jack's brand new ride (a used Marquis) and drove off to Telly's, a bar about 3 blocks away. Telly's was okay. Crowded, loud and smoky (Unlike Ohio, you can still smoke in bars and restaurants in Michigan. I was amazed at how weird and distasteful I found this). Scott and Speranza showed up right after we had ordered drinks but before anyone had put in a food order. My cousin Lucy smoked incessantly and I did have one or two. I do not like smoking indoors but when in Rome... After we ordered the food most everyone at the table played a round of Keno and small amounts of money were lost. I do not know when gambling in bars became legal in Michigan but there it is. The food came and everyone ate. I had fish and chips which was mediocre but filling.

Front: Lucy (me), Lucy (my Cousin), Jack. Second row: Eugene, Scott and Maggie

We all went back to Jack and Lucy's house and visited for a couple of house and lots of digital photos were taken The one above is of the Owsley's and Wozniack folks with a Goodman (Eugene) tossed in for good measure. Speranza took the shot with my camera. In time Scott and Speranza went home to Sterling heights (where we would go for brunch the next morning) and the rest of us went to bed.

When Eugene and I stay at my cousin Jack's, he always generously offers us his water bed. We appreciate the offer but both Eugene and I find if difficult to sleep in a water bed and always wake up the next day rather unrested. And that is what happened. got up tired, drank copious amounts of coffee, watched cable TeeVee with the sound off and the radio on (Detroit has the best rock 'n roll radio stations).

Around 8am my sister got up and we got our shit together and took off for Sterling Heights so we could have brunch with Scott and Speranza and her parents. Using confusing map quest directions which got us all turned around on 14 mile. Finally we got there a half hour late and we were treated to a wonderful Romanian brunch. For an hour we ate and drank our fill than Speranza's Dad, Tavi gave us the tour of his garden and home and sent Eugene and me off with seeds and plants. It was really delightful.

By 1pm we were on I-75 and driving north to AuGres to see Dad and Rebecca.

Off to Michigan

This past week has been family week for me. My sister came to visit last Wednesday (a week ago). After hanging out on the farm for a day picking strawberries and instructing Wyatt what he needed to do while we were away, we got in her rental car (along with Eugene) and drove north on US 127 to Michigan. It was a coolish overcast day and the road was clear for the most part. We made good time through Ohio. We stopped for lunch at Lester's Diner (serving the Midwest since 1964) in Bryan, OH. I had a bowl of potato soup and split a Reuben with Maggie.

We did hit a detour south of Van Wert. We assumed because of the flooding in September (or was it August?). This took us many miles out of our way and into new areas of northwest Ohio none of us had ever seen before. Eventually, on the north side of Van Wert we were reunited with US 127
In Paulding we passed the Apache Dairy bar which has a way cool sign drawn/designed by Milton Caniff (he did Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates). I have always assumed Mr Caniff was from Paulding but I just looked him up on wapikidia and it turns out he is from Hillsboro, OH, in the SW part of the state. So now I have no idea why the Apache dairy bar has a Caniff sign. Don't really care, either. I just appreciate on my drive up north if I take 127 it is there in Paulding. I have loved his drawing since I was a small child reading the comics.

Got through Ohio and into southern Michigan where we noted a mighty pricing war on shrink wrapping boats. The highest price we saw was $6.95 a square foot. the lowest price was $4.00 a sq foot. Shrink wrapping seems to be the newest way to winterize items. Awfully wasteful if you ask me. This is a waste of money and resources. A tarp would serve folks far better as it is cheaper and can be reused. With some care a tarp can be just as water tight as a shrink wrapped plastic. Sadly, on my travels I saw very few tarped boats. Shrink wrapping seems to be THE way to winterize. Oh when will people learn?

In Ohio I saw no shrink wrapped boats but did see a lot of shrink wrapped hay. At least I think it was hay. Couldn't really tell due to the opaque plastic stretched around the piles. There may have been manure shrink wrapped as well.


Our goal was to make it to Grosse Pointe Woods by 4pm to see our cousins, Lucy and Jack

Why Do They Want to Scare Us?

I don't know why but the locals around here seem to delight in scaring us about this place we call Boulder Belt farm.

Granted, we live on a very busy Federal Highway (approx. 15,000 cars and trucks go by daily) and we are on a bad hill with a nasty curve in it and we knew this when we bought the place. And we could see that deadly accidents are not just possible but probable. but in the act of purchasing this place and moving in we have tried to forget these facts of life.

But the local people we run into find it is their sworn duty to make it clear to us that we live in a really dangerous place. First it was Richard Benge telling us that there are a minimum of two deadly accidents at the 40' pitch each year. than Rick Mowery at the property tax office telling us it is just a matter of time before someone drives through the kitchen (thank gawd the gas line has been disabled as the line goes into the house at the kitchen) and yesterday the UPS guy, who brought us our seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds was telling Eugene how he almost got nailed by a truck hauling a boat the last time he made a delivery out here, to which Eugene told him it was suicidal to make a left hand turn out of the drive. We always go to the right (hear that Rebecca and Dad? TO THE RIGHT) and if we have to go north we go to the right and turn around in the valley on Alexander Road and than head north.

So to those of you who feel it is your duty to point out the dangers of 3257 US Rt 127/living on the 40' pitch-we get it. You do not need to tell us any more horror stories. We ain't moving and we intend to have a successful business out here selling chem. free food and organic farm and garden inputs.