My God We Suck

OK, this blog is more or less pooched...its authors are wasting lots of time on Facebook where there's photos and easy updates and shit. So if you're not on facebook, git on it. If you are, ask to be our friends; you know who we are ;)

Speaks for Itself...

Just Another Day in the Life

OK, so it was a fun one. While I was sleeping in (since today was my every-other-day-turn ;) and Kelly was outside enjoying her coffee, one of the hens decided to enter the verboten human domain and come inside the house. Luckily for us, our trusty attack cat Reggie was guarding the door. Kelly's report was being shaken out of a rare moment of morning relaxation by the Reggie hissing and spitting and Gloria (the hen) clucking loudly...from inside the house. By the time she responded Gloria was running out of the house and Reggie was needing to be picked up by the scruff of his neck. Not the first time, though the typical victims are friends' (and very occasionally neighbors') dogs that come over...at our old house the local police even showed up to talk to be about our cat's behavior, though the officer barely kept a straight face through the whole thing and ended it with "well I'm not sure what I'm supposed to tell you to do, though just thought you should know..."

Fast forward to a while later after I had gotten up, gotten coffee, and was off to the barn to get something or other. As I walked by the corner of the house there was a 12" or so garter snake sliding along the sun-warmed foundation, so I picked it up and gave a holler and everyone came out to see the little guy as it crapped all over my hands. Nothing like snake shit to stick up the mitts.

Then down into the gardens for the first big push in getting things ready for the coming fall: pulling all the cucumbers and beans. And of course, as part of pulling is the final harvest. No shit I think there's about 150 pounds of cukes out in our front yard...that's 2 full wheel barrow loads. Then there's a bags of beans, buckets of tomatoes, some peppers, the zucchini and pattapan squashes. Turnips and Kohlrabi have already all been pulled and either eaten or prepped for storage. And there's the bags of blackberries picked from the woods, and the batch of jam I made last night from the latest round Raelin and I picked. Melons are still ripening; popped a watermelon open this evening to see how it looked...not nearly there though the ripe bit was soooo good ;) Also lifted some small potatoes and had some early brussels sprouts. Oh man it was good.

Anyhow, mid-day we all took a break to drive to China (Maine, that is ;) to pick up a free picnic table and get some ice cream at John's Ice Cream in Liberty, which is reputed to be the best in the state. It was pretty tasty. On the way there we spotted a large turtle crossing the road. So being a nature lover and all that I stopped the truck to give the little guy a hand. This turned out to be not such a good idea; as soon as I tried to pick the thing up it did its best to whip around and bite me. Snapping turtles, even small ones, are very strong, very fast, and get very pissed off. I was more than happy to leave it out in the road and honestly, wouldn't have been that bummed if the thing got run over. I had half a mind to bring it home and eat it since I've heard turtle is actually quite good, though we were going the other way, I had no way to quickly dispatch it, etc, etc. Will have to look up what kind it is, though I must say that I'm not super excited about the prospect of my bare feet having a run in with one of those in one of our local ponds...last summer a fisherman hooked one at one of the most popular swimming spots at the big pond just up the road...willies!!!

Anyhow, so we got our free table, which needs a bit of work, got our ice cream, then came home and whupped the smaller garden into shape. This included pulling the volunteer squash vines that had emerged from the old compost pile and taken over a good part of the garden. Ended up picking over 30 pumpkins ranging from a few inches to over a foot across and a couple immature butternut squash. All will be used for fall decorations since we have more reliable food selections growing in the big garden. Photos of much of this are on my facebook page...ask to friend me if you're not already if you're interested in some photos!!!

Early August Update

First, some Liam-isms from the last couple days:

While the kids are coming into the bedroom in the morning to get clothes: "I can't put on any underwear, I'm wearing a diaper, dammit"

To Raelin and me: "you're not little enough to pee in your pants, but I is"

Anyhow, Kelly returned today from a 5 day trip out west to see some pals. Gotta love those jetBlue free flights ;) It's the longest she's been away from the kiddos, so a big jump for all of us, especially little Liam. I took vacation time from work and we had a blast. Hit the free day at the Lobstah festival, got rained out of getting a hot dog from any of the stands, finished out R's swimming lessons, helped a buddy install a set of French doors in our dining room, spent a bunch of time in the garden, and got a good start on the year's blueberries ;)

From the garden specifically I picked a wheelbarrow load (literally!!!) of cukes, and that wasn't even all of them from the first of 3 rows. Also picked about 3 gallons of string beans and a generous bag of chard. Lots of all of it still out there. The tomato jungle is starting to get ripe as well, the late strawberries are set, and the squashes and melons are all on the vines or heavy with blossoms. Potatoes are all strong though one row is battling (and thus we're in there, too) potato bugs. Gross little things, especially the bigger ones that you can really feel pop between your fingers.

Lots of toads have been spotted out in the garden, as well as predatory insects. Hopefully they're all out there eating their fill.

On the berry front, my goal for this year is to have 12 gallons in the freezer and then dole out a gallon for each month. A gallon of berries is roughly 5 pounds worth. The only drag is that this year all the berries we have access to were sprayed, so I have to wait until I get back to the house and wash them to eat more than one or two. Also means the kids have to stay home, though that's not so bad as it's a longish walk to the fields and picking with them is less about actually picking and more about doing something together. No, when I pick berries, I pick berries. Barefoot and silent. The fields are far from the roads and in the middle of dense woods so there's no road noise and lots of birds calling. Even heard a grouse drumming the other day, which took me a bit by surprise.

So the garden's humming along, the house is slowly getting things done to it, the shed->office is still utterly stalled out (though not for long), and summer here continues to be a dreamy time...

Anyhoo, signing off for now, don't pee in your pants.

Quick post...

Just some Liam-isms...

garong: sarong
gatoto: pototo
gomato: totmato
wunderstorm: thunderstorm
apple spider: apple cider

Hawk Migration

Well there's lots and lots of birds showing up and making all kinds of good ruckus these days. Finally figured out that what I thought was an old tractor trying to start up down in the valley is actually a grouse call. Also seen and heard tons of woodcocks, woodpeckers, and woodjohnsons (just kidding about that last one...formal apology for junior high humor, I thought it was funny...still laughing).

Aaaaannnyyway, yeah, lots and lots of songbirds flitting about. Raelin calls them all titmouses (or is it titmice?). Also seen a lot of raptors about, which are my favorites. To date this spring: several bald eagles, sharp-shinned hawk, coopers hawk, northern goshawk (finally!!!! and what a sighting as it dove into the chicken flock ;), merlin, kestrel (I think), and today a small kettle of 3 broad winged hawks riding thermals north.

On another note, the cat seems to have caught all the slow unaware rodents around. For awhile there he was coming home with 2 or 3 a day, and I saw him more than once eating them away from the house as well, so who knows how many mice, rats, and squirrels he was nailing. He does seem to have given up on ever catching one particular gopher that he wore a spot into the grass waiting for. Hunted that thing every day for over 2 weeks, just sitting under a maple waiting. Cat 0, gopher 1.

Also found some sort of burrow out in the orchard. Looks a bit abandoned, though work keeping an eye on just in case.

Project update: gardens are going, going, going. Kelly's got around 200 strawberrys planted, and many of the starts are getting ready to be transplanted. She also got a bunch of seeds planted for beans, peas, and greens. Sprouts are coming up. And we still have a massive box of seeds to go.

The chicken coop got an expansion last weekend since with all the planting the girls are no longer allowed to range (and poop) all over the place. Should be a lot less chicken shit on shoes and clothes this summer, plus the birds get a nice big pen to roam in. They seem pretty happy about it.

While I was building said coop I realized that the seepy, mushy area down in the pines is a vernal spring. So I started digging and found 5 outlets, though at this point with all the dry weather 3 of them have stopped flowing. The other 2 are still going though so we've now got a nice little creek down there. Hoping that as I put in more drainage like that there will be less habitat for mosquitoes near the house. It's worth a shot.

Kelly also found a couple local sources of free composted horse manure. That's like finding gold! So the truck's loaded up from her first run last night to pick some up.

Oh yes, I have some Raelin quotes to share:

One morning she was sitting on the floor in the living room wistfully digging into her nostril with an index finger. She stopped and looked at me and simply said "I spend a lot of time picking my nose."

One early sign of spring is that all the ladybugs that congregate inside for the winter wake up and start making their way outside. Out of the blue one day Raelin told me "did you know that ladybugs have little feathers that come out of the bums when they fly?" I did, in fact, not know that's how beetles fly ;)

She likes to make up songs, at one point I heard the following lyric drifting out of the living room "...it's so funny when you go poo..."

We both, though Kelly especially, uses "Jesus" as an expression of exhasperation and disbelief. Not toward the kids, though they've heard it plenty. So it was with great amusement that as I was walking in front of Raelin to show her something in the shed-to-office project she flatly stated "well Jesus! Why'd you do it *that* way?!"

I like maraschino cherries. I like them in cocktails, I like them in coke. Kelly abhors them and think they are one of the most foul things around. It's a perfect little parental battleground. So anyway, Raelin's always trying to get a handle on why Kelly doesn't like them, so Kelly ticks off the list: too much sugar, food coloring, corn syrup, food coloring, and food coloring. Raelin now calls them "food coloring cherries" and likes them as much as I. Liam on the other hand, acted like I was trying to slip him something. Raelin was clamoring for a food coloring cherry, so Liam started clamoring for one, too. Raelin happily popped hers in her mouth and ate it. Liam more hesitantly put his in, though it wasn't long before it landed on the floor with a splat and his general mark of disapproval "don't like it".

Of course, the meal we all eat in the morning is still "brefkast", and the car we drive is a "Subaru Backout" after the enzyme-based stain remover.

Anyhow, that's about it for now, it's a stunning day out and I need to get back to work so I can cut out a bit early and enjoy it!

"What if..." and other random thoughts

With the turn of the weather it's become comfortable to just go outside and sit. The last few mornings have found me catching some alone time out in the woods. Yesterday what started as a short stroll down to the boundary of our new acreage turned into 90 wander around full of wonder and discovery.

This morning I pulled my first cappuccino and headed back to a little waterfall I'd checked out yesterday; a perfect little sheet of water coming off a rock. I could tell that the level's already dropped from where it was a couple weeks ago when I brought the kids down to splash around...

Anyhow, I ended up finding a patch of dry grass on the edge of this little singing brook; there was a soft depression that my hip fit into just perfectly. So I laid there in the warming spring sun, not a bug in sight, and watched the water come over this little rock, sending splashes up onto the surrounding dry stalks from last years meadow. In the corner of shadow there was ice clinging to clumps of this grass where through the cold night stray drops built up. While I was there the sun was high enough to be shining on the ice, and it sparkled and shimmered against the dark mossy wet rocks.

You see, in the 15+ years I've been wandering into wilderness, it's always struck me "what if I lived in a place like this?" "what if I got to be here every day; this was what I woke and slept to?" I now live in such a place. And the answers to that question of "what if..." have been stunning in their beauty; cliche as it may be, it is like a flower slowly blooming; its secrets opening to the world.

I could go on and on, about the color of the stones in the creek, or the striking green of a moss-covered rock against the grays and muted browns of early deciduous spring. Of the leaf carpet just after the snow has melted, and the weight and water and pressed the jumble of leaves and branches into a smooth undulating fabric over the earth. Then there are the trees, the old maples and oaks that the old timers left to mark the edges of their fields, the stone walls, the ledges scraped bare by glaciers that left small boulders in the middle of the forest. Nestled into this is our little corner of home, our orchard, pond, buildings, and now garden. Each place coming alive in the spring.

I never knew spring could be so sweet. When we lived down in town I remember feeling like April and May would never end, out here though, I'm content to let them slowly roll on, watching the buds on trees thicken, hearing the songs of the first frogs to wake up. Seeing the pond just after the ice has melted in its crystal clarity before the algae and all the animals go nuts. And there's no bugs. Did I mention there's no bugs? No bugs. So blissful to just be able to be still.

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So I've got the serious itch to start spinning music. Spinning's sort of a silly descriptor for it since I'll be spinning a hard drive rather than records or even cds. Yup, it's all digital now, baby, and for less than the cost of a single decent cd deck, let alone turn table I can be totally outfitted with a console, new headphones, and a new external hard drive.

See, the thing I realized today is: electronic music is to my generation what folk was to the 60's. Burning Man is the current day Woodstock. Electronic music is everywhere, it moves across borders and languages; getting set up to produce it can be done for less that a nice accoustic instrument (let alone all the recording gear or studio time) would cost. In other words, it's a democratic music, and for the most part it is community-driven rather than corporate-commodified. I can go to BeatPort or Fiberline Audio and find brand new tracks from some folks that are just getting out there, and I can pick them up for less than a couple bucks each. That's pretty friggin' cool.

And then there's the whole DJ-as-bard (or folk musician). As a budding DJ, I've spent the last many years, almost a decade, collecting tracks, finding out what I like and then attempting to follow the thread through a maze of underground connections to find more music like it. There's been a lot of dead ends, there's a lot of noise. The flip side of the medium being so democratic is that there's a low signal to noise ratio; there's a lot of mediocre crap out there to wade through to find those really stunning nuggets. Though when those pearls are found, and then strung together...wow. It moves me, and moves my body. So like any other era's traveling storyteller, DJ's cast their nets, and while many do actually travel in the physical world, I think a lot more of us do our traveling in the digital one, surfing the net and iTunes for the next pearl to share....

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I've actually started journaling for the first time in over a decade. For a long time, I thought of my blog(s) as my journal. Though there's something magical about writing on a page. Last night while Kelly was out and the kids slept I wrote by candle light; the house silent. It was one of those moments where I connected to a long line of ancestry; perhaps the only other comparison that comes to mind is of picking berries by hand. It's just something that has been done countless times by an infinite number of hands. Sitting by candle light in silence; an archetypal human experience that hooked me into something greater than my life, in a moment something longer than memory...