The Day After Thanksgiving

We had a lot of people come to the farm for Thanksgiving. My Cousin Jack Showed up with his niece (and my 2nd cousin probably once removed), her baby and her SO, Jeremy on Wednesday from the greater Detroit metroplex. On Thursday My Brother, Scott arrived (from the exact same place as Jack) and soon after my Niece Carrie and her SO, Ivan and her BFF Katrina showed up from Bloomington, IN. Than my Brother in law Dave arrived with the cranberry sauce and later Doreen and her SO, Thad, showed up with yams and Mac and Cheese. Hours later our friend Wyatt showed up with bread that no one wanted because we were all too stuffed on turkey, taters, mac and cheese, salad and wine. Wyatt left us several loaves and they were quite tasty.



These pictures are of the morning after thanksgiving after everyone but my brother had left. We took a walk around the farm and had a small bon fire in order to burn the last of the blighted tomato plants and a bunch of sisal bailing twine used to support the blighted maters.

Eugene and Scott looking at the pond

Nate running towards me

Still looking at the pond

Milkweed

Golden Rod on the 40' pitch

Frosty Kale. Scott thought this would be a great shot. I think the idea was better than the shot

After Scott left for Detroit we went to Trenton to pick up 6 gallons of raw milk at Double J farm and I took this shot of the dairy cows through the barn. Notice the pasture is very green for the end of November and that has translated into a lot of yellow cream on the milk, something I have never seen in the many years I have used raw milk. Usually this time of year the cream is thin and white, barely any different from the milk. But because November has been warm and sunny the pasture has continued to grow

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.

Up North for 36 Hours

Our one full day at my Dad's began with a walk to the beach with Eugene than coffee and breakfast. Than another walk up the beach with Dad and Maggie. On this walk we bumped into Judy Kane and sat and talked with her for maybe 15-20 minutes. It was nice to see one of the Kanes. Would not be a proper visit without that. We have been neighbors of the Kanes for decades.

After sitting and talking with Judy we continued on our walk to the point and before long Dad suggested we do not walk to the point but rather go into the woods. So we did.
We took a public access road out to the main road, crossed the street and went into the woods via the tennis courts. I love walking in the woods behind the cottage. They are some very nice woods, full of oaks, boletus mushrooms, blueberries, turkeys, etc.. Simply a cornucopia of wildlife. For years and years the woods was abused by all sorts of people but over time many have realized what a resource they have in the woods and now for some time the woods have been protected by the people of the Point Lookout.

So the 4 of us took a walk in the woods and saw a couple of blue jays, some sort of woodpecker, black capped chickadees. lots of moss, oak trees, red pines, sand, various vegetation of the understory, etc., etc..

After a while we meandered back to the cottage and saw that Scott had shown up but without Speranza. She had decided to go back to Sterling Heights. Okay. It was lunch time so lamb sandwiches were made and consumed and soon enough it was time to get in the car and go to Standish to attend a dulcimer concert in which Rebecca was participating. I took one picture of the concert, it sucks so will not be posted.

Around 20 people played in the concert. Mainly bluegrass/mountain tunes/gospel. Rebecca sang at least 4 songs. The event was well attended I thought and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I did. Eugene bought several selections from the bake sale. Some sort of toffee bar concoction, peanut butter cookies and popcorn. I entered a quilt raffle but did not win.

Concert ended, we got in the car and went home via Jay's Farm Market. Eugene and I looked at the pumpkins and apples and were amazed at the low prices. About half what they are around here. I guess because Michigan got a lot more rain and did not lose their fruit crops this spring. That, and the fact Michigan seems to be in a depression economically.

Got home and dinner making ensued. Dad made us all "Chicken Guillaume" a dish I created when I ran the Alexander House Kitchen back in the early 1990's. It's a boneless chicken breast sauteed than topped with pesto and mozzarella cheese and put under broiler for a couple of minutes. Dinner was good, and unlike the night before, I was able to stay up past 8:30pm and did. Maggie, Rebecca and I sat at the dinner table and talked about life, religion, current events, family until almost 10pm when Scott joined us. It was good. At midnight we all went to bed in order to not be exhausted for the drive back to Ohio the next day.

The next following morning we got coffeed up. Did the last beach walk, ate breakfast, talked and around 11am began to make serious moves towards the rental car and the trip home.

The good byes took a while but were not particularly sad. After a couple of pictures of the Owsley's was shot by Eugene we finally got ourselves into the car and headed south.

Going Up North

The drive up to the Cottage was uneventful. We got on I-75 towards Flint and had clear sailing the whole way. When I travel up north (anyone from Michigan or who has a cottage, never a "cabin", in Michigan knows that "Up North" means any place north of Flint, generally on one of the great lakes, though an inland lake will do) I look for all the usually signs that we are getting there. The first is the big sign on I-75 say we are going towards Flint, as opposed to Detroit. next is the sign for the Kawkawlin River and than the Raisin River (my favorite, I don't know why. The name perhaps). North of Flint there is a strange American flag made from bricks and mortar that has been on the west side of I-75 since the early 1970's, at least. After the flag I look for the Pinconning Cheese signs than US 23/Standish, MI signs. When I see these signs I know we are less than 1 hour from the bay and the Cottage.

So, we are driving and I am looking for the signs (and they are all there). We talk about politics and global warming/climate change during the drive (my family and I are in accord on such topics).

We see the turn off for US 23 and take it through Standish, Omer (Michigan's smallest City) and AuGres. At AuGres we take a back road towards the bay and soon we are almost on the shore and notice the water is way down. There are grasslands where, 2 years ago, there was shoreline. As we drive along the shore we get more and more alarmed as the wide beaches and low water. This ain't right.

Soon we are driving down Michigan Avenue to my Dad's. And than we are there. Dad greets us
at the door. Rebecca is in a bedroom cleaning.
Beers are offered all around and I take one and sit down and have a drink with my father while my sister takes several photos of the two of us drinking beer and communing. I cannot remember where Eugene wandered off to at this point in time.

We asked about the low lake level and are told it is down 4'. But my dad says this might not be a totally bad thing as it will give us a lot more land. Perhaps, eventually, a 60' by 5 mile strip if the bay decides to dry up completely. We could have a road to the Thumb, yay (she says with sad sarcasm).

Dad, Eugene and me soon wander down to the beach to have a look. You hafta say hello to the beach. If it were summer we would have donned our swimming costumes and dashed down to take a dip. Or maybe not, as the e-coli 157 levels are dangerous in the Bay most of the time now thanks to the Saginaw and Bay City storm sewer system. but it was not summer it was some sort of summery autumn and too cold to go swimming so we walked down and had a short walk on the beach.

The first thing I noticed was the trees were not turning. Normally, in this part of Michigan by mid October the colors would be at their peak. But not this year. A few trees had begun turning but for the most part they were still quite green. I also noticed very few of the docks had been taken down for the winter and few boats were still in their hoists. In a normal year the boats would have been put into dry dock soon after Labor Day and the docks removed and stored. I suppose, because it has been so warm and dry up North, that people are still doing water recreation. I did notice, when we went by the marina, that there were a lot of shrink wrapped boats, all tucked in for winter. So I guess not everyone is into fall boating.


So we wandered around our beach and the Kane's beach and sat on Bill and Joan's (our neighbors) dock for a while watching the waves roll in and avoiding getting our shoes wet. We noted that the grasses are really taking over the beach and stabilizing it. Dad pointed out there is a new grass which he thinks is an invasive. Another alien species to go with the zebra mussels.

After a bit it we all walked back to the cottage. Scott and Speranza had showed up as planned. Dinner was about 45 minutes from completion and so Eugene and I went for a walk in the woods while Maggie, Scott and Speranza went for a walk over to the North Shore.

While in the woods we noticed that someone was apparently pot hunting Indian artifacts. We found 6 badly dug "units" that should have been back filled months ago. We also found several informative plaques telling hikers about the Point Lookout woods. All in all the woods look to be in good shape, overall.

We went back to the cottage and found that dinner was nigh. The table was set, wine orders taken and soon we were all eating lamb, squash, a salad and windmill cookies and lemon custard ice cream for dessert. A classic Owsley meal.

I was exhausted so about an hour after dinner I went to bed. but not before going out for a smoke and seeing a spectacular night sky. I had forgotten how wonderfully dark it is up north and how many stars one can see. Soon after, I went to bed

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

Sledding

It finally snowed and so we had a sledding party and invited lots of people out to sled. Since it was Wednesday not many people could make it but some intrepid people did make it out around noon and we had a good time sledding down the 40' pitch and walking back up. It was a great workout and when the the first group left at 2pm it was all we could do to heat up some left over spag and eat. About 45 minutes after eating and about the time a nap was sounding like the most excellent idea in the universe a second wave of one person (not much of a wave) arrived for more sledding.

Since Eugene and myself were not exactly up for sledding we sat around for about an hour talking and drinking beer. Finally, we decided to go out and take a look at the sledding hill and did go down once and than took a 30 minute walk around the farm.

After the walk I was more tired than ever but had a pot of chicken broth that needed attention if it was going to be transformed into dinner so while the boys sat around talking I skimmed the fat from the broth and cut up veggies and took apart the stewing hen and made a nice chicken soup for dinner along with some biscuits.

It was a fun, though tiring day. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the actual sledding but I was concerned that sledding and the camera would not go well together. I did get a few shots of the apres sledding.

Another Nondescript Post

It's the last day of January, it is cold and a bit snowy (enough to make it look wintry but not enough to play in).

Things are at their slowest point. The seed ordering is mostly done for the year (there are still some rare and funky tomatoes to order from Seed savers Exchange, one of my favorite seed companies-a seed bank and seed growers network really). The real seed starting has not yet kicked in. We have started onions under lights and Eugene sowed some radish and lettuce seeds in one of the hoophouses a few weeks ago but the real work is still ahead of us.

Today we did house cleaning. Eugene was in the kitchen and decided to pull the stove and fridge away from the wall and clean underneath, next he was attempting to get the floor clean and swept and mopped it twice. It still looks like crap but at least we know it is cleaner. Mopping floors is something I do not like doing though I have had many jobs where mopping was in the job description and I learned over the years how to do a good and efficient job. I guess if I were paid $10 an hour to mop I would do it daily instead of monthly. While he tackled the kitchen I did laundry, cleaned the bathroom and tidied up the living room. Later on Eugene vacuumed the living room (now a daily occurrence) while I hung the laundry up in the spare room upstairs (no, we do not have a dryer and if we did I still would not use one. I have dried clothing about 4 times in the past 13 years using a clothes dryer, they are such an energy waster).

Yesterday was errand day. We go to get our share of raw milk every Tuesday and try to combine that with as many other errands as possible. So we hit the credit union to make a deposit, paid the mortgage, went to the post office to pick up mail and send off an order of garlic powder (I sell garlic powder I make from garlic I grow via my local harvest store, among other things). Than we drove south to Wehr Rd to pick up our milk and talked to Janet and found out she had had a nasty fall walking between the barns on her farm. She slipped on some ice and hit her head and had likely sustained a concussion. We also found out their newest cow had calved (bull calf) on Monday evening. That means more milk production for them. drove back to Eaton and stopped at Kroger's for food we cannot source locally and did our shopping for the week. Got home and made burritos for dinner.

I dunno what we will have for dinner tonight but it will involve some pork chops I cooked up Monday. I'm thinking biscuits made with souring raw milk from last week and sauteed cabbage and onions. What ever I cook it will make the kitchen floor dirty. Some habits one learns from working for years in professional kitchens are hard to break and getting food all over the floor is one of them. It would not be so bad if I had a pantry cook/dishwasher to clean up after me.

Tomorrow one of my most favorite people in the world is coming to visit. My friend Julie from college who is visiting her folks up in Van Wert, OH from California. She will be arriving with her son Patrick and we will have lunch and conversation. Maybe some sledding if it snows enough (doubtful, but you never know)

Weekend Visitors

It's raining once again so that means harvesting for tomorrow's farmers' market will be on the miserable side 'ceptin the stuff in hoophouses which will be dryish (the hoophouse plastic collects moisture and when you walk in to one it tends to dump all that moisture down the back of your neck sending a delightfully invigorating stream of water down your back and into your underwear). Fortunately, on Wednesday I did harvest some greens-turnip greens (yuk!) and spring mix (yum!) and yesterday Eugene dug more sweet taters so really the only unpleasant things to harvest will be chard and kale and perhaps some arugula (if I can find any that has not been wind burned or is too big). Oh, and we need more cilantro and parsley for tomorrow too and maybe the lettuce is big enough to cut. With two of us harvesting this should take us about 2 hours, perhaps less, of outside work. Than another couple of hours in the hoophouses harvesting and pollinating. Than another couple of hours cleaning and packing greens and roots and we are basically done with prep for market tomorrow except loading the van which can be done this evening.

And I also am expecting a visit from most of my male relatives (we will have a house of testosterone this weekend!). My brother, Dad and favorite cousin are arriving from Tiger country (that's Detroit to those few of you NOT paying attention to the World Series) some time this afternoon. I have no idea when they are leaving and don't care, they can stay for weeks if they want. Generally, when my Dad visits we do a trip down to Jungle Jim's, the world's best grocery store. I have not been to JJ's in several months and need to restock on several items-Olive oil, maple syrup, vanilla powder, flavorings such as hazelnut and orange, a case of cheap but excellent wine, a good feta (the local Kroger's and Wal-Mart both have feta but not good feta), exotic fruit and other things I have not even thought of. I guess, if we do not do a family trip to JJ's Eugene and I will have to go on our own in the next 2 to 3 weeks. The reason why I have doubts about getting to JJ's is because we are over scheduled for the weekend. We have relatives visiting, a farmers' market saturday Morning, the farm store will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Eugene agreed to show an Earlham Student around the farm Sunday afternoon which would be the most logical time to go to JJ's if everyone decides to leave Monday (which they might, though I am dealing with folks who are either retired or self employed or seasonally employed so they likely will be able to stay past monday). I told him that this weekend was not the best time to schedule a farm tour and if we do decide Sunday is the day to go to JJ's he gets to stay home and tend the store and do the tour (it's his alma mater after all and he did the scheduling).

I hear the husband stirring upstairs and rain pouring on the roof (a really nice sound). The Arlo dog has just walked into the computer/guest room (he sleeps outside most nights but I let him and the other dog in when I get up around 5am and Arlo generally goes upstairs to sleep on the floor beside Eugene. Nate, the other dog does not do stairs). It is time for me to end this entry and go coffee up and watch some morning news-The Daily Buzz being the preferred news show

Eventful Weekend

Had an eventful weekend. Had friends visit from California and officially opened the Eco-Farm store. Oh and did a farmers' market too boot.

The week end started off early, like a 4:30am saturday morning wake-up call so's we could get everything that needed to be done before leaving for market at 6:30am (and that would be opening/feeding the chickens, packing and loading coolers and crates onto the van, consumption of coffee and breakfast, getting money ready for market, etc..). The day was beautiful, clear and cool with low humidity, which was nice after a very hot humid and rainy week (we got over 5" of rain in 3 days-tropical). Had a good market. Our first customer told us our farm store signage was terribly confusing and wondered if we had had any business and we admitted no not much. She suggested strongly we do something about this situation. She was polite but to the point and right on. It was busy and we sold out of many things though brought back a lot of cukes and snow peas. But than we have been picking a lot of cukes and snow peas the past week. It is their time, it seems. And we did sell a lot of both at market.

On our way home we checked out the Eaton Farmers' market and ran into Maggie Weidick who seems to be the market manager. It was a cute market and I met some nice people there who may sell their things through our store. We were invited to come and set up a table and perhaps we will figure out the logistics of how to do this with out investing in another vehicle (we have a cargo van and a 1987 Mitsubishi Montero which is about the smallest SUV ever made and it does not hold much. Certainly not enough to do a decent farmers' market.). It would be good local exposure for the farm stand that is for sure. I was a bit disturbed that they were allowing reselling. Reselling is not fair to the customers or other farmers who sell only what they grow. But since I am about to become a reseller perhaps I should not be so judgmental. But than again having one's own farm stand is quite a bit different than attending a farmers' market (it's the same, only different). Ended up buying some good hot salsa, a glass of lemonade and some calendula that I will eventually make into a salve for cuts (it's better than Neosporin™ for keeping cuts infection free and killing an infection).

Got home, ate lunch took a nap and than started cleaning the house because my college buddy Julie (Presar) Quinn and her family were due to arrive that evening. While I was cleaning and preparing one of our pastured chickens for dinner, Eugene was out doing something about the signage as was suggested at market. We have a sign that has the farm name, Boulder Belt Eco-Farm but also the words "Opening Soon". We also have a plastic yellow sign with removable letters that sez "Open", the days and hours we are open and "Cukes, Snow and Snap peas" on it. So You can see the confusion. One sign says we will be open sometime in the future and the other says we are open now. A bit of Mineral spirits got rid of the "opening Soon" on one sign and than we set up a small table with a bit of produce (snow peas and cukes) and within 5 minutes got our first customers! Wow. Than 5 minutes after that the Quinn's arrived and we shut down for the day and communed with our left wing liberal friends from Northern California. I do not know why Eugene and I do not move there, The people I know from that region seem so much more reasonable than Midwesterners. It was great to see Julie, Lawrence, and their kids Patrick and Georgie. They have some great kids, I must say. We showed them the garden and chickens, drank beer, ate food, had a fire and talked about all sorts of things that first evening.

Sunday came and they made plans to move on. They had to be in Cleveland by Monday and wanted to go see the Newark Earthworks and Yellow Springs, OH. So we looked at maps and than we women (Me, Julie and Georgie) went to the garden to pick peas and strawberries while the guys fished and played with tools. Around 11am the Quinn's left in a flurry of digital picture taking (their camera not mine which was out of juice) and we set up shop for our first official day of Eco-Farm Store sales.

Eugene set up a table and loaded it with veggies and crafts. I looked at what he had done and grabbed a cooler and some ice packs and a towel (to cover the ice packs) and put all the greens (chard, kale, baby lettuce and arugula) in the cooler so they would not be ruined sitting in 80 Degree heat all afternoon. Than I found our dry erase boards and cleaned them off (let me tell you blue dry erase ink sitting on one of these boards for 2+ years is NOT easy to remove. It took a lot of rubbing alcohol to dissolve the stuff) and put new messages on them about pricing, chickens and the fact we had greens in the cooler. Than I grabbed a couple of the new banners we ordered for the farm store and put those up on the porch supports (one sez "LOCALLY GROWN" and the other sez "FRESH PRODUCE") and than I waited for the crowds. Well we did not get crowds but we did get about 12 people to stop and half of those bought something. We probably would have sold more but I had to leave the store and got harvest a few items mid afternoon and while I was doing that several people stopped but drove on. I am sure they all would have bought something if one of us had been attending to the store. A lot of people were looking for sweet corn and big red slicing tomatoes. Two things that are not ready yet in Ohio.

I sold a lot of cukes, some peas and got a lot of reading done (sitting around waiting for customers to drive up can be deadly boring without some sort of reading material and I have a book I have been working on since October that I will be able to finish in a couple of days of store sittin'). I'd say we had a successful first day of business and it will only get better as we get more items people are looking to buy such as corn, beans and 'Maters.

If you live in the Greater Eaton, OH area stop by any Wed, Thurs, Sat or Sun afternoon/evening and see what we have.

Yep it Snowed

The snow is over. We got around 5" of the stuff. All the schools are closed.

Eugene spent a great deal of the late morning/early afternoon pushing snow around using the BCS (that is a walking or two wheeled tractor) with the plow attachment. The high winds last night scoured out most of the snow in the parking area. Except the part right up by the road (For which I think we can thank an O-DOT plow). But he sold a hay rack a couple of days ago and they guy is supposed to come by tomorrow to get it so he got the snow up to and around the hay rack cleared away.

Nate, the puppy thought the snow was GRRREAT!!! He now knows drifts are for running through and biting. He stayed out so long in the snow his pads got pretty frozen. Just like a kid.

The cats are not at all amused by the snow. Navin wanted out last night while it was still snowing. He went to the front door and was faced with a lot of frozen precip. No good. So he went to the kitchen door hoping that door would open up onto some warm dry weather. but that didn't happen, snow at that door too. So he went back to the space heater and laid down and soaked up more heat.

The farm is a very different place today. Lots of white and very little green. the house is extra cold today. The thermostat on the wall says it is 55˚F. Brrrr! Wouldn't be bad if it was 59˚F, that 4 degrees makes a big difference.

Invited friends out tomorrow for a sledding party. I have no idea how many folks will come. It doesn't matter as sledding is always fun.

I am thawing some apple cider we pressed in August. The plan is to heat it up and put in some spices and drink the sweet warming fluid. The adults can add rum as well. Will also make hot cocoa to which the adults can add kaluah and/or rum if they choose.

The Eggplant Head

A photo of the Eggplant head taken in late October. It still looks the same in early December
My father, Bill and my step mother, Rebecca came to visit the new farm back in early October. They brought along a strange gift of an eggplant that had been grown in a mold so it looks like the head of a gnome or something. We took it to the farmers market several times and most people agreed it was one of the weirdest things they had ever seen.

The head spent much of November in the unheated barn and other than a bit of shriveling it was no worse for wear. It is now December and the head is sitting in the kitchen (heated but not very) still in good shape.

Yesterday I tossed the last one of our eggplants in the compost-It had been sitting in the door of the fridge for weeks (months?). It had gotten covered in mold and deflated pretty badly. Now, the question is, why is the eggplant grown in a mold doing so well at survival? Eugene thinks it is because no fungus or bacteria got on the fruit while it was developing in the mold form so there is nothing to attack it and make it rot. Sounds reasonable to me.

The Weekend

It's been a nice weekend, weather-wise and that means things have been progressing smoothly here. Eugene, after what seems like years (but has really just been 4 or 5 weeks) has finished painting the upper roof. It is now a brilliant red and looks quite fetching. As I write, he is finishing the lower roof (see picture).

Eugene also got 5 of the garden beds tilled for (hopefully) a final time before we plant the garlic which needs to go in in the next 2 weeks or so-at least before the ground freezes for the winter. I started cleaning the grass out of the beds. Rake an area than squat down and start fishing for grass roots and shoots and toss them out of the bed and rake another area. At this point this work seems meaningless but if we keep on doing this over the next few years we will have beautiful weed free beds for the long term. this is something no herbicide in a bottle will ever do, get a garden free of weeds for the long term. the best a chemical herbicide can do is get rid of the weeds short term (and do some good damage to the flora and fauna in the soil to boot).

I got a bunch of bare wood on the porch primed and ready for painting and if the wood does not get painted this fall it will be covered for winter weather. A lot of the porch still needs scraping and a good cleaning-it is dirty up in those rafters.

Today we did education. A small group of Earlham students came out to interview us and see the new farm and ask us questions about what we do and why. They had all come out to the old farm last year on a field trip to learn about sustainable agriculture.

They asked us questions like why do you farm (and other small topics) and we answered their questions and took them on a short walk around the place and told them a bit about what we wanted to do with the place.

Hopefully this will be the first in a long line of such tours. We here at Boulder Belt feel education is key to getting this idea of sustainable and local agriculture off of the ground.

Sprint Telecom rant

I have been having phone line problems the past week so getting online has been a tricky proposition at best. This would not bother me much if this were not the 3rd time this has happened since we got phone service here in mid September. Sprint has really sucked with our phone service and now they want me to get DSL through them. Right...

if Sprint cannot keep my regular lines free of static and ticking lord knows what DSL would be like-expensive and unreliable is what I think.

And now Sprint will be taking over NASCAR Nextel Cup (Should be Winston Cup) since they bought out Nextel Communications. I can only hope they do a better job with stock car racing than they do with my phone line.

Ah the phone has kicked me off line. If I am lucky I will be reconnected-Yes!!! I am connected! But for how long?

Okay back to the rant-So I call the Sprint number in the phone book and find the number in the book is for long distance accounts only so I must sit through the various menus and finally the hook me up with a human being who gives me the correct number. I call and get put on hold for 12 minutes (so I watched Blind date while waiting). Finally get someone and they assure me the problem will be fixed by 7pm Monday.

Monday?!?

This is Friday morning why the 72 hour wait?

Saturday it was impossible to connect with the internet because of the phone noise so I got housework done along with some porch painting (perhaps this is really a positive thing-the bad phone lines). While doing some baking I get a call from Sprint telling me a person will be out to fix the phone lines sometime on Monday.

Now, I do not have a cellphone nor am I likely to get one. To me they seem expensive and the quality sucks. I hate talking to people when they call me on cell phones-can't understand much of what they say. My brother was visiting and he called his girlfriend on his cell several times a day and it seemed to me he spend at least 50% of the call saying "What?" "Can you repeat that?". yes cell phones are cool technology-hell they are Star trek Communicators come to life. But get away from the surface coolness and the suck.

Just like Sprint.

And I am beginning to suspect the poor quality that is cell phone communications is now becoming the norm with land line communications, at least my Sprint landline.

Hey! I was able to complete this Blog entry!

My Weekend: The good, The Bad, The Indifferent

Shiva helping on the farm
Boy, it has been an eventful past couple of days.

Some bad things have happened and some good things have happened in the past 48 hours.

The worst thing to happen was losing Shiva the cat on the highway last night while we were out eating with my brother, Scott, who is visiting from Brooklyn, NY. Shiva had been with us around 8 years. he was our gardening cat. He loved to follow us out to the gardens and hang out with us while we worked. if we worked too long or too hard he would distract us away from work and get us to play with him. He was unique and will be sorely missed. So the three of us spent the late evening in shock and toasting the cat. He was buried this morning and a sugar maple sapling was planted on top of his corpse.

Better is the fact we bought a new bed and box spring today. we have been sleeping on a futon on a board for our entire relationship (and I was sleeping on it for about 10 years before that). But of course we could not have the bed event go smoothly. The first trouble started at the mattress store when we could barely get the mattress in the van and had to tie the box spring to the top of the van. we got about 2 miles down the road and one of the ropes came loose. So stopped at the Lutheran Church on US 40 in Richmond, In and tied the thing back down and went on our way to Radio shack to buy an adaptor for a new DVD player (more on this in a sec). Got the adaptor and got home with no problems but a bit of stress.

Got the box spring in the house and wouldn't you know it, it would not fit up the stairwell. So as I write this Eugene and my brother are working on taking the lintel (plus a lot of plaster and most of the door frame) off of the door in hopes that this will give us enough room to get the box spring up the stairs.

Now the destruction is over and the BS is halfway up the stairs (yay!!!).

In better moments this weekend we went to our last regular farmers' market and did alright. It was a busy market traffic-wise but not a lot of buying going on. It seems it was Miami University's Parents weekend so we got a lot of parents coming to the market with their college aged kids. Hopefully this means we get more student customers next season now that they know there is a Saturday market.

The best thing to happen this weekend has been my brother visiting and seeing the new farm for the first time and plastering two walls that had gotten water damage this past spring. now we have some fine looking plastered walls with no mold or paint peeling off of them.

Finally, we bought a DVD player at the evil Wal-Mart Sooper Center and now find it will not work with our antiquated (read 6 year old) TeeVee. We can buy a $50 adaptor at Radio Shack but that is nearly twice what the DVD cost and it may be better to buy a new TeeVee (though the one we have works fine and does not need replacing) or may have to return the item to Wal-Mart and get our money back and remain a VHS family for awhile longer.

While were doing this the cat was being killed, yet another bad Wal-Mart memory. A favorite cat killed and a useless DVD player-Great...

The bed has made it upstairs, the house is full of dust and plaster, the lintel over the stair doorway looks like hell but, by Gawd, the deed is done and we will have a real bed to sleep upon for the first time in our marriage. It will be nice to wake up not stiff and in some pain and well rested.

Moving a Farm (pt 2)

When we last saw our heroes they were painting, cleaning, installing appliances in the basement and yes they were moving a few farm related items such as tillers, lawn mowers, etc..

But they had not started on moving the house because they had a plan, a good plan called the Moving Partay.

It all started with a simple email sent in early September:

Greetings,

As you know we are moving and we will be having a moving party. This will occur on Sept. 18th (Sunday) starting at 10am. We want to get the big items moved (we should have the house mostly set up by the time this party happens) What we will be moving is a large 3-door commercial fridge, some grain bins, other fridges, freezers and a few other things.

For this part of the effort we need 5 or 6 strong backs and 2 to 3 truck/vans that can carry weight and large bulky items. We also could use 5 to 6 big coolers to put food from the freezers in while the freezers are in transit

We also need a crew to facilitate clean up at the new place. The old owner left a variety of "farm art" (as my friend Pat Flick calls junk in fields) and we need to get it sorted and moved out of the planting area and put somewhere else. Some of the stuff is good stuff some of the stuff can be recycled and some of the stuff can be burned.

We will supply food (pastured chicken, a big tomato salad, burgers, etc.) and beer, wine and a bon fire for the after moving festivities. feel free to bring a dish your self.


Please let me know ASAP if you are coming. If I don't hear from you I will assume you will not be participating.

If you cannot make this event butt want to see the farm we are planning on having an open house some time in October when we are more settled in

The Partay
And on Sunday Sept. 15th it culminated in a gathering of people, a 17' U-haul truck, our Dodge cargo van and a few other vehicles. Eugene's Brother was the only person to show up in the morning and Eugene had to pick up the U-haul truck so we were only able to get the Dodge van and dave's car loaded for the first run to the new place. We took stuff over, foundf no one there so unloaded and went to lunch in eaton. came back and the ferrario family had arrived as had Molly Willburger, A MU student interested in us farmer types. By 2pm Marc and Lisa biales and Chuck herms arrived and later Steve Dana showed up. Soon both places were a hive of activity. By day's end we had managed to get most of the household items moved and even got the living room and kitchen set up decently. Food was provided by my friends Lisa who brought a deelish black bean soup and Karen who brought a spicy BBQ. We supplied the beer and wine. A good time was had by all

The Big Fridge
Moving the household was not too big a job though we do have 2 big freezers, fridges and a few other big items. The big job of the day was moving this 3-door commercial fridge we bought about 6 years ago from Kona Bistro in Oxford, OH when they remodeled their kitchen. The fridge is HUGE and can hold about 35 bushels of food. It had been sitting on the west side of our old place under an metal roof Eugene had built around the thing. I was not there when the crew got to moving the fridge but from what I hear they had no problem getting the roof down and the fridge moved off of its' pad. But they did have a problem getting it into the 17' U-haul truck-it was too tall by about 4". Bummer.

So the solution was to not load the fridge and load other things into the truck instead and get all that stuff over to the new place, unloaded and in the house or barn. When that was done several people left and a few latecomers arrived and as the sun was setting Eugene, Syd, Chuck and Scott decided to go back and wrestle the big fridge into the 17' U-Haul truck. While they were gone us ladies sat on the deck, watched the sun set and sipped single malt scotch and drank beer. Shortly after dark the guys came back with the fridge loaded on at an angle. They got the thing unloaded and than found that the biggest doorway we had was still 2" too short for the fridge so it sat outside overnight awaiting Eugene to take off all the molding around the doorway so it would be big enough to accept the fridge.

The Following Day
After the moving partay was over we were still needing to move more large items before taking the truck back so the next morning we went back to the Crubaugh Rd farm and moved the chicken tractors (these are movable coops, not tractors like what one would plow with. Our chickens do not drive), rolls of fencing, 2 big grain bins (like 65 bushels each) and many really long bamboo poles. Pile those things in the truck, drove back home and when got there we found that one of the chicken tractors had almost gotten loose. Good thing we were driving back roads and not a major highway in case the thing had fallen out of the truck. It seems we did not secure the latch well on the back and it had come loose and the door was trying to slide open. It did not so no damage.

After the final use of the U-haul we cleaned it out and returned it and ran into a problem. According to U-haul we had not rented the truck and therefore they felt they could charge us more than the estimate. We did not like that idea at all so they quickly backed down and than found we were not in their system and that the problem could be traced back to the poorly trained employee who rented Eugene the truck the day before. this was going to take a while so we went to breakfast at the Main St Diner in Richmond (a little hole in the wall breakfast and lunch place that has been around forever). I had biscuits and gravy and some pretty bad coffee. Eugene had the same plus pancakes. After B-fast we finally returned the truck and drove back home via Lowe's to pick up some hardware items for the new house.

Stay tune for part moving pt 3: Living Between two Farms