Home on the Ridge

Gardens- a 3 year biography

2010-05-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

The first summer we moved to the Ridge, we didn't have a chance to garden. Actually, in early August of that summer I dug up a small rectangular plot between the house and barn and planted some late season greens. There was something missing for me, not being able to sow and weed and harvest regularly. That season lost probably facilitated a bit of overproduction the next summer, when my neighbor and I ordered over $100 worth of seeds for our co-garden. Now, that's probably small potatoes to a farm, but for a kitchen garden feeding 2 families? A bit overkill. We ordered through the Good Tern and Tim, the manager at the time, said, 'so, how many acres you farming?' A more accurate question would have been, 'so, how many seasons will these seeds last you?'
We' re going on 3, and i have a feeling there will still be some left for next year.

That first true season, the summer of '08 was pretty impressive. H and I hand- turned and created beds for a field about 1/4 acre. We planted pretty much everything but corn. We brought endless wheelbarrows of composted manure down from the driveway- maybe only a distance of 30 yds., luckily downhill with a full barrel and empty on the return, but still. We were dedicated haulers. While it was satisfying and impressive even to ourselves to see our work (with 4 children between the ages of 2-5) and our harvest was pretty awesome, it was too much work. By the end of the season, we were burned out. Having never gardened on such a scale before, we made mistakes like planting 3 rows, about 12 ft. long, of cucumbers. The majority of those fruits were either eaten by our chickens- until they boycotted- or offered for free on the road. Hundreds of pounds of cucumbers. We nearly lost our squash harvest to cucumber beetles. We lost most of our onions to weeds. We learned that you have to trellis tomatoes. Really, you do. You know what happens if you don't? Tomato jungle, impossible to pass and hence... many rotted tomatoes. Our mistakes weren't for lack of knowledge, i mean, i think it's widely accepted that yes, you do cage tomatoes. This is not a hot gardener's debate. But, pressed for time, it's easy to throw the plants in the ground and figure they'll be ok for a week or so and in the mean time get caught up in saving your squash and harvesting and then....it's too late. Jungle.

Last year, our second season, was better on the planning and implementation front. We halved the size. We caged the tomatoes immediately. We planted peas once the trellis' were already installed. We weeded the onions. We planted ONE row of cucumbers. We covered all squashes immediately after planting. I felt pretty good about our skills, but the weather worked against us. The rainiest season in memory meant that many crops just failed. Several were put in late. A bit demoralizing, really.

This year, we've gone our separate ways. What's true is that if you can't see your garden from the windows of your home, you are less likely to tend it well. For our neighbors, it was a walk to come over to do anything- plant, tend, harvest. Even for us, living just 25 yards away, tops, it was out of sight out of mind. And worse of all, the size took the magic out of it. There was no time to baby the plants, to observe the growth, to experiment. It was all catch-up and crisis.

So, we've scaled back but already, I'm loving what we have going. We've fenced in an area roughly 35x20 ft, but more oblong shape than rectangular. I'm having to re-create beds that were previously random and haphazard for perennials, but this week thanks to a visit from kevin's folks, it got a big boost. We've got in broccoli and cauliflower, cabbage and brussel sprouts, kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, carrots and radishes. Today i planted a first round of beets, kohlrabi, and turnips. One end is being sacrificed for the kids sand palace (truly, it's nicer than our house), and I'm planning a little stone patio for some chairs and small table. I place to lounge, enjoy, and observe the garden instead of rushing around all the time trying to save everything from going to seed, weed, or pest.

It would be easy to look back on the past 3 years and feel frustration that yet again, we're starting over. Having established beds that you mulch and rotate and build fertility in is 1/2 the work of getting good quality produce. But I'm coming to realize that this process has really been a relationship building exercise with our land. When we first moved here, I had a whole slew of assumptions about where the kids would most like to play and what we would grow and create here. Very little of that has come to pass. Instead, it's been an organic unfolding and we've abandoned things I was pretty hell-bent on, and started creating spaces I hadn't remotely envisioned when we first step foot here. Going slow has so many advantages, and this year I'm hoping that by taking the 'less is more' approach, more will be revealed.

We're here!!

2010-05-14T19:00:00.001-07:00

Wow. the blogs. It's been so long since I've read these posts and from my previous blog, pottyparty.blogspot, that it was almost like reading about someone else's life! Major head trip.

If you know us, and you are reading this, then you probably know we are still on the Ridge. It's been 3 years, we're going into our 4th summer here and getting ready to pull the roof off our house and do some major renovation. For 3 years, we've been hemming and hawing about how to live here, get the space we need (3 bedrooms for 4 people instead of 1 bedroom for 4 people), achieve energy efficiency and continue to bring this place to it's potential. I've wanted to walk a few times. Too much money. Too much time. Too much work.

But out here, along with the 'too much' of work, money and time, you also get much green, much silence, many frogs and perhaps a few too many (hungry foxes); many birds and much wind, endless stars and many hills, many wonderful neighbors and much, much, much peace. I know that there are many places where I could live with the too much work/time/money and fewer and fewer that include the green/silence/frogs/birds/wind/stars/hills/and peace. So here we stay.

I hope to write more, again. I hope you'll visit.

My God We Suck

2008-10-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

Just Another Day in the Life

2008-09-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-07-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

Just some Liam-isms...

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

Hawk Migration

2008-04-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-16T17:34:00.001-07:00

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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...

my achin' back!

2008-04-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

if i wanted spring to hasten it's arrival a few weeks ago and perhaps go south until it landed... i'm now thanking my stars at the slow, inching progress that is a Maine spring.

why the change of heart? one look at my garden list, and you would understand.

I have an infastructure list that includes:
-enlarging the chicken's fenced in yard... and keeping them there. Little to they know that their free-range days are nearly over. My babied seedlings and new sprouts will not become poultry fodder...
-scavenge barriers for upper garden beds (picture to follow... you'll get what i mean)
- build third and final greenhouse box (picture also to follow...)

I have a planting list that includes (in the next week):
- transplant next 100 strawberry plants (between yesterday and today, i got in 100... i have 100 more to go. 150 if i can't pawn 50 off on some other gardening friends. i overshot the strawberries a bit... in fact, i overshot the whole garden. that's my theme for the year. )
- seed first round of peas on wednesday
-seed first round of lettuce, spinach, radish, beets... other assorted greens... maybe broccoli
-plant remaining seed packets of flowers that need to be started indoors
-all above planting follows bed preparation: turning, rock-hocking, composting...

Misc. important tasks:
-FIND COW MANURE! in bulk
- begin to install deer netting

So, as you can see, i have plenty to be doing in 45-50 degree weather with leaves yet to emerge and night still leaving a frosty sparkle by morning.

But i love it! I love that my body is achy and every time i scan the property i see another chunk to work on. yes, it's a bit overwhelming and maddening when i'm trying to do something that is not paticularly kid friendly (i'm no longer planting small seeds with children present. not happening)... but WOW! i have always wanted to garden and grow on this scale and now it's happening.

It's a bit like parenting your first child really... all my other gardening experiences are like mere babysitting in comparison. Like the new parent i was, i'm reading voraciously and buying new products (yesterday... MooDoo (bagged composted cow manure) and fabric row covers)... constantly wondering if what i'm doing is the right thing and Googling suspicious or confusing behavior (yellow tomato seedlings? wilting broccoli seedlings?) I have no idea what i'm doing right and what i am completely flailing at. The proof will be in the harvest... or not... i suppose.

So anyway... we're gardening... it's fun :)
Here are those photos, as promised.

Here's the outside "greenhouse box" set up:

inside look:

Side garden views... these beds will be filled mostly with herbs, flowers, and greens for daily cutting: lettuce, spinach, chard, etc... As you can see, they aren't done, but are on my list. A few beds are set in with trunks of trees Kevin has taken down; one is ringed with random cinder block scraps that were in a heap from behind the shed. Today Liam and I picked rocks off the rock wall for another.

Here's that bed:

We also got up a flag pole (another felled tree) to fly our "Pesticide Free-Zone" flag. Saw it at a Farmer's Market the last time we were visiting Santa Barbara... loved it. So cool to finally see it flying! Was hard to get a picture with the wind just right, but it's a lady bug:

Moving to the lower garden.. here's a long view, chicken shack in foreground:
If it looks big, that's because it is. I guesstimate it to be about 1/3 of an acre. There's still a swath to the back and side that havent' been rototilled because it's too wet. The rest is good and ready to go, though.

Here's a closer shot... strawberries are on the far side. Not that you can tell. It's pretty unexciting to look at an open field like this, i understand.
Eventually, this field will be filled with the peas and beans, onionsgarlicshallotsleeks, a huge winter squash, pumpkin and melon patch, tomatoes, cukes, carrots and other roots.

So, thats' the tour, as of now. Going to try and stretch a bit before bed and be asleep by 10pm.

'till next time...

The (Blog) Drought (May Be) Ending

2008-04-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Hey all you 1 or 0 (binary audience, cool ;) faitheful readers. In an attempt to blog after drinking a very stiff vodka cocktail, I mean, keep you up to date in our world, I'm posting again less than 2 weeks (barely, maybe over) than Kelly did. My GOD what has happened. Perhaps it's the fact that spring is here and the coming green (and blackfly) explosion has me inspired. Who knows.

Anyhow, so yes, spring is here in all its slow-to-bloom glory. Seriously though, I'm loving just looking out the window at all the shades of browns, grays, and reds. It's all very stunning. Doesn't hurt that our daytime highs are into the whopping 40's. It has struck me the last couple of years (this is my fifth Maine winter) how the first days of fall when it gets to the 40's it feels so cold, though by the end of winter 40 is just balmy ;)

Anyhow, yeah, it's balmy out there ;) The last few days have found our little family spending lots of time outside. Not like we totally hunkered down through the winter, though it's nice to be outside and walk on the *earth* rather than snow. And have said earth not be frozen solid. When it thaws the whole smell of it changes from the crisp clean air of winter to the, well, earthy smell of spring.

Indeed, I stood outside today and listened to birdsong. Just stood and listened. It's been months since I've heard birds besides chickidees and ravens. And even then, the song of the winter is the wind in the bare branches or just plain silence echoing through the valley.

So yes, now the view is one of deep reds of ripe deciduous leaf buds and quickened blackberry canes, of dried grasses, fallen leaves, and soil. Soon it will be green beyond comprehension.

And with all this spring-ness comes water, water, water. Every vernal spring, seep, and stream is running full-bore. The other day Raelin and I were down by one of said seeps that Kelly and I have talked about turning into more of a stream bed. As Raelin and I stood there, me with shovel meagerly attemping to create a channel for all the water, I called to Liam, who had toddled out of site. He answered and so I figured what the hell, he's in hearing range. Not a moment later he appeared up by the house with ATW (that's "All Terrain Wagon" for you) in tow. And as if in slow motion, I watch as his little toddler body begins running down our front grass towing the wagon. I think to myself "oh shit, he's either going to trip on the grass and run himself over or get into the woods and trip and run himself over." So I start running toward him and the former happens. It's like slow motion. I can still see the image of his blond hair flying as not only he trips, though is pushed down by the empty wagon and then those big balloon tires run him over. When I got to him he was more or less self-extracted, though his head and shoulders were still a bit stuck. Since he wasn't hurt, just scared, it was all quite funny. What wasn't so funny was a couple hours later when I caught Raelin starting to make the same run, though this time with Liam *in* the wagon. It's nice to know that my kids know to stop when I yell that loud to stop ;)

Anyhow, we had another nice walk today. Kelly was off to work, so she dropped the kids off at my shed-to-office conversion project (more on this in a second) in the wagon. They were both calling out for a trip to the creek, so off we went. Took a brief stop by our pond, picked up some trash from our mid-winter roof replacment that had been buried by snow, then down to the creek. We left the wagon on our side of the little bridge (rotting, hence I won't take the wagon across), then up to see the neighbors' goats, then back down along the creek to see a series of waterfalls. At one point the kids took turns throwing rocks while I laid on a patch of thick dry grass. Ahhh, so blissful. As it was getting late I suggested heading home, and we decided at my suggestion to head home through the woods. Not a good suggestion as before too long the open woods turned into a combo of very snowy woods and lots of blackberry cane. By the time we got back to the wagon there was not a warm or dry foot among our little band. Raelin and I had decided earlier that the situation did in fact suck and had ceased to be much fun. Oh well, so it goes.

We also lost a bird, my and Raelin's favorite, to a red fox. There wasn't much left of her, I only found 2 feathers, which clued my in to the fact that we were dealing with a pro. See, other chicken kills I've seen by dogs, racoons, and the attempt by a hawk, have all been accompanied by lots of feathers and evidence of struggle. With this bird it was almost like she just disappeared.

So it wasn't that surprising the next morning when I looked out my office window to see a big red fox slinking around the chicken coop about to have another meal. The fox was stunning; don't think I've ever seen one that close and clear. If it wasn't going for my chickens I would have been a lot more in awe. As it was it was more an mix of anger and irritation. I mean, between the coop and the feed and whatnot we've spent a lot of cash on those birds, and if they're busy feeding the local wildlife (which should be hunting, granted), they're not feeding us with their eggs.

Anyhow, so off I ran out with a gutteral and primitive yell at the poor guy as he loped, make that busted ass, back down into the woods. Haven't seen a sign of it since, and once again the birds are out free ranging. They all seem pretty excited that the ground is thawed and they can actually scratch now.

Another thing that comes with the thaw is frost heaves. This year the roads have been particulary, shall we say nicely, beat to shit by it all. Big dips, cracks, and bumps. Big enough that coming home with the kids in the back "seats" of the truck (in their car seats, of course) I hit was must have been a 10" - 12" heave. The truck got air. I almost shit my pants. The kids hollered to turn around and do it again. Liam happily squealed about the truck going "ka-boing." That's what he does on the bed: "ka-boing."

So the office thing. Yeah, it's slowly coming along. Got a lot of the wiring done today. Almost, really, for reals, truly done with carpentry. Then insulation and sheet rock. Of course, noone's so interested in helping hang 12' sheets of drywall, so I'll likely just cut 'em in half (the sheets, not the people) and hang them myself. Kind of a drag to have so many more seams to tape, though I think less of a drag than having to beg and bribe my buddies to give a hand, and certainly better than paying the dry wallers $1,500 to come do it ;)

OK, off to bed for me, it'll be another early morning with the kids and my turn to get up with them tomorrow. Waffle day; Liam should be pretty excited. Wow, I just typed the last couple sentences with my head back and my eyes closed. Very few typing errors. Not sure if that's a good thing or not ;)

2008-03-11T18:43:00.001-07:00

well, thank god there are 2 of us writing here (or supposedly) or the dry spells on this blog would more or less extinguish all life.

so, it's March. ahhhh...March. Undoubtedly the crappiest month of the year. It seems long, even though its' no longer than January, May, July, August, September, October or December. But ask anyone who lives in Maine or any other winter-retarded state, and they'll most likely complain about the unnecessary length of March. The smart (and flush) people leave at this time of year. It also helps if you have a friend or relative who is flush, or thought in advance many, many years ago when things were cheap, and purchased some habitable dwelling in a warm locale. Preferably near a beach.

Ok, so i started this entry weeks ago. But, no change. It's still March and it's still cold. Colder than usual in March, which is saying something. Even last year when we got snow into the second week of April, there were still some great mild days in March. Not so this year. I listened in on the first part of a maple sap tapping workshop this past weekend, and the guy said that up north they have 6-7 feet of snow on the ground and are having to dig out all their tapping lines to hook them up. We're talking thousands of lines. Not fun.

What is fun is getting the garden process going! Yes, even in the frigid temps, the seed starting must go on. Sprouting in the office under lights we have broccoli, cauliflower, onions and leeks. I'm waiting on 2 trays of shallots. Just those little plants make the office so hot and humid! I spent a couple hours at a cafe last week doing up a calendar of all our planting times. Supposedly this week i'm starting chard and head lettuce and peppers. The field is still so frozen, it's hard to get think we could be transplanting within a month, but it does happen. Gotta get my guy, Dana, back out here to turn the ground under and find a decent manure source. I have no idea what we're in for in terms of soil quality down there but... at least we got a winter cover crop in.

in other news... lost another bird today :( Our lovely Rare, the white Delaware, appears to have been picked off somewhere near the spring. Maybe a hawk or eagle? They've dive bombed in the past. So sad. Raelin keeps asking where she might be. Though dying and hunted birds are not new for her, she is particularly attached to this bunch, and Rare was one of her favorites. Good thing it wasnt' Eagle (our Araucana). She's practically a house-bird!

Well, in my mind, i'd love to post weekly pictures of the garden to chronical the progress. Yeah, your'e laughing. Me too.

hey, miracles do happen.

Waffles on YouTube, Chucker Helmets, and Highway Llamas

2008-02-11T15:38:00.001-08:00

OK, been too long since the last post; sitting now on my first Virgin America flight blogging offline...think the best way to do this post is just a bunch of fragments to bring you, our steadfast (even in the drought of postings) up to speed on some of the developments out here.

Waffles...Liam's latest thing is waffles. While he likes eating them, he seems even more eamored of making them. Particularly the fact that they come out of the waffle maker. It is not uncommon to find our waffle iron out in the living room in the play kitchen stuffed with plastic beads, wooden toast, or whatever else he fancies "making waffles" out of.

It is also not uncommon that the waffle maker and the game of making waffles is the silver bullet to quell an otherwise tragic moment of toddler emotional upheaval. Typically it goes something like this:

parent: do you want to play trucks?
liam: no
parent: do you want to play with trains?
liam: no
parent: do you want to read a book or do a puzzle?
liam: NO!!!
parent: do you want to play making waffles?
liam: (crying immediately ceases and now smiling) yeah

The other day this went to another level. Kelly and Raelin went off to pick up our weekly share of the winter CSA, though Liam was to stay home with me. Of course this sent him into unhappy fits. I wasn't yet done with my work day, so Liam joined me in the office and as the ladies went out the door I started asking Liam if he wanted to watch videos of trucks, trains, or tractors. All of which were answered with a sobbing "no". Then the idea struck..."I bet YouTube has waffle videos." "Liam, you want to to watch waffle videos?." He did. So we watched the ad for the Cucino Pro Waffle Maker. Over. And over. And over. At some point I couldn't stand that one anymore and we moved onto various other waffle maker videos. We were still watching waffle maker videos when Kelly and Raelin returned...

Chuckers...the other day I was bringing Raelin home from ballet. As we drove past the golf course (sans golfers of course), she asked the inquisitive question "do golfers where helmets?" Having learned that it's often more fun and entertaining to hear the line of logic of a 3 and now 4 year old I innocently asked "why would a golfer need to wear a helmet?" to which she answered in the self-assured way only a 4 year old can: "to protect their heads from the balls they throw with their chuckers." I laughed. And laughed some more. And she laughed to as I explained that even though golf clubs look a lot like the Chuckit we used to throw balls for the dogs with, they actually hit the balls, and that they are also very careful about where they hit them.

On another trip home from town as we zoomed along our local regional highway (highway being a stretch for those of you in more populated areas) only to have traffic come to a sudden halt. 3 big llamas were on the road, looking more than a little bewildered as to how they got there and where they were supposed to be. I pulled over and called 911, mostly so I could report to the dispatch when they asked "what's your emergency?" "there are 3 llamas wandering around in the middle of highway 17." The dispatch took it all in stride, asking such pertinent questions as "have any of them been hit" and such.

Sex and the Ridge

2008-01-09T16:12:00.001-08:00

Well, this week has given new meaning to the term 'January Thaw,' a phenomenon that is not uncommon. It *is* uncommon for it to be 60 degrees however. Usually we expect a few days that perhaps touch the low 4os. Our thermometer showed that it was over 50 in the shade yesterday. Crazy!! I sat outside in a light fleece and wrote in my journal while Liam slept, drinking in the sun. It was pretty spectacular in a global-warming kind of way.

is it wrong to enjoy some uncharacteristic warmth knowing its implications?

Discuss.

So, you are probably wondering about the sex part. Well, all that nice warmth has caused quite a snow melt exposing the greatest amount of grass and mud since December. The chickens were pretty psyched and scratched about as a group, under the pines and lilacs, their usual stomping grounds. I herded my own group of 2 out around 3:30 or so... empty the compost, bring a few things in to the barn, disperse the cooped up (pun not intended!) energy, etc...

Raelin, of course, bee-lined for the chickens. Her love of them is something fierce, i have to say. So while I was hanging out with her and the birds under the pines she witnessed the rooster mount of the hens for the first time. She was on it, in an instant.

"ROOSTER!! STOP THAT! That was NOT NICE!!" and charged at the eager bird who hastily dismounted and fluttered a few paces away. Raelin turned to me, a bit aghast.

"Mommy! Did you see that?! The rooster was pecking that Black Minorca! and he was doing it while STANDING ON HER! That was NOT OK!"

I had to stifle some laughter and just nodded my head, sympathetically. "Yeah, roosters do that sometimes. He's not hurting her... much," i mumbled the 'much' part, because i can't say her clucks were those of satisfaction.

Raelin got a goofy grin on her face. "Why do you think he was DOING that? Was he trying to talk to her? "

me, giggling. "something like that...." Best to keep it simple.

in the meantime... Rooster going to have to watch his back.

The deer have no idea....

2008-01-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

where they're going. Seriously.

Have you ever followed deer tracks? In the snow? Today i packed on my snow shoes to take advantage of our latest foot of white goodness and head out to check out the acres that will soon be ours. i pick up some deer tracks just below the house and start on.

Ok, so they usually pick the path of least resistance, which isn't *so * hard in winter when all the non-woody vegetation that usually chokes up the woods has died back. But other than that... um, where are they going? I found none sleeping under what i thought looked like quite cozy little shelters under the arms of snow-weighted pines. I flushed not-a -one from any of the few remaining bushes offering winter berries. Didn't even catch any spacing out on the snowflakes that fell methodically from skinny naked twigs that just couldn't hold it any longer.

I found a few tracks that seemed to pause by one of the *many* (and by many, i mean, hundred or so?) seeps and mini-creeks that run all over the bottom acres. Good drinking there, i suppose. And as i followed their meanders back up toward the top of the ridge I did detect a certain direction. A certain, orchard-ly direction, - if you know what i mean.

Sure enough, the path of least resistance seems to take some deer right to (soon to be) our orchard where it suddenly becomes quite clear that yes, they know exactly where they are going, and it's to the top row of apple trees. With all the tramped down snow circling the trunk out to just beyond the canopy, you can practically imagine those fur-covered, hunger-rumbly bellies lifting up on hind-hooves to stretch just... that...much... further and snag a withered, but still edible and damn tasty in January (!!!) apple for dinner. They methodically spent some serious time pawing at the ground for fallen fruit as well as picked clean every one they could reach. There are a good dozen or so apples encircling the top like a crown. If i go knock them down, would they come back? Something tells me our visitors are repeaters...

And so I passed a pleasant (and physically challenging, if you are a soft mommy like me) hour tramping about the land below us, making note of the big trees, the grown in spots, the especially wet spots, where the sound of Rt. 131 started to get louder so that it felt unpleasant to continue going downhill... But mostly it was a pleasant hour of just me... and winter. A rare combination, (me alone, and a snowy winter like this!) but one i will gladly take as much as i can get.

Tomorrow: snow tunnels!!

Up for Air

2007-12-27T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well readers (all 1 or 2 of you, whoever you are ;)...it's been a long stretch of bloglessness on the Ridge. Been pretty busy with a few things. Had a family trip out to CA. While there were certainly lovely moments, the whole thing cost a bundle and fried the kids right out. Fried the parents pretty crispy, too. And then we got home and the whole friggin thing came unwound for, like, another week. So. No more trips for a while. Just too damn hard.

Also been working my backside off on a never-ending project. Well that's not true; it's truly almost done, though there's another heavy one lined up right behind it. Sigh.

Good news is, had a great holiday. Kids received some great gifts, though not too much stuff. And the nice thing is that there wasn't any junk; just high-quality, thoughful, sometimes very personal gifts. Awesome. Plus Liam got a bunch of trucks and stuff that I got to play with ;) As always Kelly knit up a storm for lots of folks, finishing the last piece Christmas Eve. Anyhow, we're still decompressing a bit from that whole thing.

Hopefully, her blogger silence will come to an end here as well; on our trip she checked her laptop in her suitcase, which I always told her was a bad idea. This time I was proven right as on arrival, screen no worky so well. Back home several things lined up and I picked her up a new MacBook for her very own. No more hand-me-down machines. No more waiting for me to finish my work to get a little machine time. No more, ever, packing laptops in suitcases. We'll see now that the knitting's all done and the dust is settling ;)

On another fun note, the Fedco Tree and Seed catalogs are out!!!! W00t!!!! What is Fedco, you might ask? It's a cooperatively owned seed and nursery supply outfit. Not only are they an incredible supplier of organic goodness, especially organic goodness that will thrive in our zone 4/5 boundary, but they're just up the road in Waterville. How cool is that? So we've gone through and marked pears, peaches, cherries, kiwi, plums, strawberries, and grapes so far. No apples. Got too many apples already. Kelly's now working her way through the seeds. Suddenly our planned garden patches aren't looking so big. I mean, we've got 250 strawberry plants alone queued up ;)

Seriously though, looking through the trees got me so fired up about being here. Planning additions to the orchard, and planning about beginning the rehabilitation of trees that are there, gets me pretty emotional. Several times I blinked away tears as I read through the pages of varietals we can grow here. Our own food. Our own land. The blessings run deep. And as I spend time in the woods here, pruning and tending trees, I realize just how much I can do for them; I know how much they do for me...to be able to reciprocate makes the bottom fall out in a good way. Deep, good, soothing medicine, being the hands that trees simply don't have.

On the weather front, we're back to snow. First few weeks of December were down right white; had more than 2' of snow on the ground in places before a warm high pressure brought to bear over the weekend and rained. A bunch. Melted out most of what we had; what was left continued to melt in the balmy sunny 40's of the next few days. Initially I was pretty bummed by the setback in the local snow pack. It'll take the crew at Snow Bowl a fair bit to recover from that melt out unless we get some more big dumps. Today it snowed a couple more inches; nice to be cold out there again. Winter is quite possibly my favorite season...just so incredibly beautiful. And then there's snow boarding...

Went up to Sugarloaf last week for a day. 10 days ago they got 21" of freshies. By the time I got there it had all settled in and been groomed into perfect corduroy. Still some patches of soft stuff here and there, but mostly just big wide open groomers of hero snow. Snow that you can carve every which way. Snow that's deep and firm; holds an edge as hard as you want to carve it in. After a few runs of getting my boarding legs back and remembering all I'd learned last season, I realized that I had crossed into the space of physical prayer. Of moving meditation. Of an expression session. Where the board becomes a brush on a canvas of snow; each carve a stroke. And what shall this stroke become? A link of quick snap turns? a long swooping high speed carve? a pushed out tail? A drop into that little section of powpow I spied from the lift? The whole time grooving to whatever tunes come through the iPod. What a gift; the whole thing. I miss that space. I used to be there all the time on my bike when we lived in Santa Cruz. Out here though, there's just not the same opportunities to play in gravity; so I wait for winter to come, and then take my turns...

General News From the Ridge

2007-10-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Been awhile since I've posted, and since I've got a cold, can't breathe through my nose, and thus won't be sleeping well even I go to bed, I'm sitting here processing photos for my gallery, and well, blogging ;) Plus there's been quite a bit going on in these parts...at least for our little world.

So let's see...chicken check-in (or as one of my coworkers has dubbed it "the chicken saga"). On the meaty side of things we ate the first of our now-frozen meat birds. I must say that it was the best chicken I think I've ever had. Just delicious. And huge...I think our family got 3 meals out of 1 bird!!! More than all this though, it's been very profound being to close to the cycle of life, and to raise an animal then eat it. Pretty much impossible to not think about its life and being. I think for some people that freaks them out...to have established a relationship with the animals we eat. One thing's for sure: I'd like to start processing our birds here.

On the pullet front, we've still got all of them. Plus a few weeks ago a coon nabbed one of the last remaining 2 Rhode Island Red hens of our original flock. Can't very well have a hen without a flock, and after some time of watching her try to assimilate (poorly) with the pullets, Kelly heard or read that as long as chickens wake up together, it's like they've always been together. So for a couple nights in a row after Red (as we call her)and the pullets were asleep, I'd take her down and put her on a roost in the new hen house. The third night she went down on her own and we now have a flock of 12 birds again! Though just barely because a couple days ago...

We had a Coopers Hawk attack the chickens!!! Was just sitting in my newly-moved-into-the-heated-cozy-house-from-the-unheated-now-very-uncozy-barn working away when out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow flick across the yard. The chickens all saw it too, cuz they *froze*. Didn't think much of it, though a few minutes later I heard a big squawking ruckus and looked out the window to see the hawk's tail disappearing into the bushes where the chickens hang out. So I hauled ass out there armed with a couple of Raelin's rain boots to watch it fly under another bush, catch one of the pullets, and proceed to stand on it. Until it say and heard me yelling profanity and waving rain boots. Both the boots and hawk took flight. Haven't seen the hawk again, though it took the rest of the day for all the birds to come out of hiding. Things were terrified. The next morning they seemed to have remembered that something had happened and they should stay under cover...by afternoon they'd forgotten and were back out in the open like nothing had happened...

We've also been busy buying stuff; happily very little of it new/full price. First there was the impending visit from Boston friends followed by a long visit by my brother and no place for any one to sleep. Kelly ended up finding pretty much the exact couch/sleeper we wanted in Uncle Henry's (if you don't know about this, well, you're just missing out ;): an LL Bean Ultralight. It's great. Small, very light, and folds out into a full size bed, which is surprisingly comfortable. I should know as I've spent several nights on it between Liam being night weaned and having the cold that I now have ;) Anyhow, the couch lives in the former-playroom-that's-now-my-office. We have an actual *grown up* room in our house! Very exciting and Kelly and I gravitate to it each evening after the kids are in bed.

Couple other smaller purchases are a new digital camera to replace the one that got left in a backpack out in the rain. Not so good. I went to charge it up and there's a pool of water trapped in some layer of the LCD. Not so good. Amazon to the rescue and a big upgrade for not a big price. Right around the same time I managed to blow out at least 2 of the speakers in the Subaru. Didn't even have the music that load but a track came on with a big bass hit right at the harmonic resonance of the cones are crunch; they were gone before my hand was halfway to the volume knob. Once again Amazon to the rescue with a pair of inexpensive Alpines. I've wanted to put new speakers in that car for some time now, so I wasn't too bummed to lose the stock ones ;)

And the big purchase: a truck! A friend of ours is selling his 97 Tacoma. I've been wanting one of those trucks since they came out. Until now though, we've never really had a need for a truck. Very serendipidously I have a client that I haven't billed for 4 months right when my buddy decides for all that he's selling, and the invoice will almost pay for it. Beautiful vehicle...just need to get it checked out by a mechanic and wait for the check to come in. Will be *so* nice to be able to finish cleaning up the wood piles around, get soil and compost moved, buy building supplies, the list goes on and on. Very stoked!

Anyhow, we're well into Fall here. Lots of stunning colors and crisp temps, though right now we're getting a warm rain. Hopefully the wind won't know all the leaves down...

anyone up for some hot Dickens...

2007-10-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

oh wait. this is a PG blog... (surely some Santa Cruz KPIG listeners will remember that line and be able to fill in the blank...)

So, we gathered with a few other families today and pressed many of our apples and a variety of others gathered from around Rockland into yummy, all nat-u-ral cider. Sooooo gooooood!! It was even worth a short trip to the emergency room on my part.

Let me explain.

The press was happening at a friends home and farm. Another family will soon be venturing into a tofu making enterprise, and it so happens that a hydraulic tofu press will also press some mean cider. After some tinkering in the morning, it was going strong by the afternoon. A typical cider press is done manually and has a part for crushing the apples prior to pressing. Not the case for the tofu press which is meant for tiny soy beans, so the crushing part was left to the muscle power of the group. A couple of very appropriate tools were procured- one, a super heavy, steel tamper. Imagine a 9x9 steel square (flat) on the end of a steel pole. Doable by one person, easier going with two, raising and dropping the tamper on a few gallons of apples at the bottom of a 50 gallon plastic barrel. The tamper crushed the apples into small enough pieces that could then be chopped even smaller by another tool that was many small blades on the end of a long pole. Probably meant for breaking up clods of dirt in the field.

Anyhoo, all was going along swimmingly. Kids were going nuts, wild inside, wild outside. Adults were industrious and social, wine, beer conversation, cider. Chili, risotto baked in a pumpkin (YUM!) and other goodies were warming inside. Plans were being laid for a bonfire.
After doing some duty inside with Liam, i went out to lend some energy to a few of the final batches needing to be crushed. Three of us were taking turns holding the barrel, using the tamper, and gabbing. My friend J had just finished tamping and let go of the tamper. Being heavy steel, it promptly fell over. Onto my face.

Ouch.

By the look of horror and concern on my friends' faces, i could only assume that there was some serious damage. There was running blood, that was for sure. The pain was not too bad. I was a bit scared to touch my fear that it was in fact my nose that had been hit and crushed.

Thankfully, no. It did cleave a nice gash just to the left of my right eyebrow, about 1/2" long. Deep and gaping enough that a visit to the ER was in order in case stitches were needed.

I'll save you the ER story, except to say that i got out of there with a bit of Dermaglue (think super expensive super glue) and a tetanus shot. Probably a $500 pasting job billed to our insurance. Thanks, Live World.

A memorable first cider pressing, to be sure. We came home with a story and 9 gallons of fresh pressed cider for fridge and freezer. Schweet.

2007-10-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

I'm back. There are 13 hefty birds, plucked and gutted chilling in our fridge.

It's all a bit surreal, really. A few hours ago i was working up a little sweat chasing the waddlers around the yard- with Raelin's help- and loading them into boxes in the back of my mom's car. Chasing and catching chickens is *definitely* a job for the young and agile, of which i willing admit that i am no longer. No, 10 and under are best suited for rounding up poultry, no doubt about it. Perhaps even 6 and under. The closer you are to them, the easier it is to snatch them and probably the more delighted you are by their squacks and gobbles and desperate attempts to escape.

The woman who recommended West Gardiner Beef as our butcher was right on when she said the most time is spent simply driving there. It's not unlike a fast food, in which you order in one window and pick-up at the next. Which is a bit odd since that's kind of the opposite intent here, at least on our end. The poultry building is a cinderblock structure with a loading door and porch where you back up and are met by a young guy or two in blood stained and dripping coveralls. They nonchalantly grab your birds by the feet, on in each hand, fairly oblivious to their protests. Said butcher takes them matter of factly into the room and sticks them head first into a large cone-shaped thing mounted on the wall. Squacking ceases. Heads are detached. It's all quite quick and i guess fairly humane though i was disturbed by how stressed they obviously were in the transfer from car to guillotine. I mean, i suppose 15 weeks of lazy, free range life punctuated by the occasional scramble away from a preschooler counts for something, even if the last few moments are fraught with "what the FU--!???!!!"

When all the birds have been unloaded, approx. 10 minutes or less later, i pull my car around and back it up to the door on the opposite side of the building where 2 even younger guys (like 17 and maybe 13) are chatting me up and loading my warm, plucked birds into bagged boxes and covered with ice. The older kid- a red head- tells me that they are about done for the morning. Now there's clean up, and that's a bigger job. i can only imagine. I think they'd been going at it since 7:30am, and while it's only 10:30, in the 20 or so minutes i'd witnessed the operation, i think nearly 40 birds had been processed. He also informs me that turkeys are more work... take longer to clean and whatnot. Good to know, i guess.

So 5 minutes and $32.75 later, i'm heading out the driveway in search of a cup of coffee, my car noticeably quieter than it was on the drive up.

My guess is that we'll be there again, though there is something amiss for me in such a detached slaughter. I said my silent good-byes and thank-yous as they were pulled out, two by two, but it felt fairly lame and lost in all the activity. Can't think that even on a subconscious, cosmic, whatever-you -might-call-it level my lone vibes penetrated the stress and abruptness of the whole thing. But I can't discount the whole experience for the end... we enjoyed those birds. I think they enjoyed their life. I certainly won't be making any fried chicken or quesadillas from those drumsticks. No, they will be carefully roasted and dressed with yummy veggies and savored in their individuality, every last morsel.

Perhaps, even, tomorrow.

2007-10-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

what possessed me to choose this template? god it's ugly. for reporting about living in in such a beautiful place, its' not doing much to visually back up the written word. course i could also follow up with my promise to download pictures as well.

want to know a secret?

living in the country does not mean your life moves at a slower pace. Perhaps, in fact, the opposite. I have more options for my time, many of which are more fulfilling than downloading photos and then getting frustrated trying to figure out how to do a decent layout on the blog. For example- picking apples!!

In the soon-to-be-ours orchard, we are benefitting greatly from this bumper crop apple year. All around Maine the orchards are busting with fruit. According to a local orchardist, this can be attributed to the the fact that this year was the driest June in about 3-4 years. Less rainy days meant more active bees and therefore more pollination. Interesting, and rather common sense. Not that i knew it, but it makes perfect sense on that logical level that is how nature works (usually).

But back to the actual apples. No doubt that they are organic- blight and bumps and bruises- but tasty! crisp and tart! whoever planted that orchard came from my line of thinking- there are several varieties planted, and then a couple of pear trees down at the bottom. Bitty things; kevin and the kids collected only about a dozen or so but they were in great condition and super yummy. Next weekend we'll haul a bunch to a harvest party at my friend Jen's and mix them in with whatever other folks bring and do a big cider press.

In other ridge news, tomorrow is D-day for the meat birds. We have a 10 am appt. at the butcher. I called yesterday to get directions and ask how they recommended i transport them. I figured a box or a dog crate or something, but wanted to check to see if they had a better idea. The woman who answered the phone was great, agreed that a dog crate or box would be fine, or i could go there early and pick up a few of their poultry crates and borrow them. Whatever you do, she said, they dont' want them in burlap sacks.

seriously!? who brings their chickens to be slaughtered in burlap sacks!? They aren't dead yet, people! Sometimes i have to shake my head...

Needless, i wont' be doing that.

It is time for them, though. They are fat. They waddle; honest-to-god waddle and not very far because their legs cant' really sustain the heft. Poor dears. They were bred for one thing only. It's a bit sad, really, to see an animal that is so clearly intended for one purpose trying to live out some existence otherwise. I think next time we might get birds that dont' appear to be so destined for the freezer.

Then again, maybe i'll make that call after a taste test...

Summer Winding Down

2007-09-25T06:37:00.000-07:00

Or it was until the last few days of warm, walk-around-with-no-shirt-in-flip-flops weather. As much as I'm ready for fall and winter, my preferred clothing is boardshorts or a sarong, cowboy hat, and flip flops...sigh.

Anyhow, in other news. Lost one of our original birds about a week ago. A racoon finally found the open coop. Came back a couple nights later though woke me up with all the racket. I ran out barefoot in my underwear with a flashlight at midnight looking for them. Saw a pair of eyes glowing as they went around the barn, so I ran down there in time to hear squawking and see the bird running toward me. The big coon started chasing till I yelled and threw a rock or something at it. Found the bird hiding under a bush. Other than missing some feathers she's ok. Fixed her coop the next day. Still waiting to get a good chunk of time to make her transition...

Speaking of chicken transitions, the meat birds' butcher date is coming up...next week actually, we'll have 12 frozen chickens and be buying a lot less chicken feed. Right now we're blowing through a 50 pound bag a week. Seeing how much they eat, and how much organic feed costs it's very easy to see why organic chicken is so much more expensive than conventional.

And speaking of chickens, their coop is soooo close to being done. Had a surprise visit from a new friend over the weekend; relative of a friend's friend down in DC. Really nice guy from Holland who was motivated to swing a hammer a bit around the place. So between us we knocked out a couple barn projects that have been on the list for too long, then hit the coop. Only 8 or so more courses of roof shingles to put on, install a window, reinstall the first one that's all off kilter, and then finish nailing on some trim boards and it'll be done. Can't wait to finally cross that one off my list.

Still a lot to do in general, especially since our heads are all full of ideas after attending the Common Ground fair again this year. Just the 2 of us went on Sunday so we could actually participate rather than spending the day keeping the kids entertained ;) Learned about growing peaches in Maine, enough about beekeeping to realize that we really need to go to bee school (yes, there is such a thing), simple ways to take care of trees to maximize their own "immune" systems, as well as long conversations with a folks running cars year-round here on straight veggie oil, and a green building collaborative about ways to do the exterior walls on the barn with straw bale construction. Now we just need the time and money to do buy the equipment and materials and implement ;)

In kiddo land things are rolling right along. Raelin is in her 3rd week of her second year of nursery school and loving it. So much easier to be the parents of one of the "big" kids rather than negotiating the drop off for the first time. She's also head over heels in love with the chicks; I think she'd sleep down in the henhouse with them if we'd let her! She likes to hold them, carry them around, sit with them quietly in her little folding chair, and generally dote on them and treat them like little babies. It's all very cute and really the first time we've seen her this engaged with anything. There's one type of chick that we have 4 of that she's adopted as her birds, which is great since they seem to have the temperment to being coddled by a 4 year old. Would be neat if they carry that into adult hood since holding a chicken is pretty neat regardless of age ;)

Liam's also steamrolling ahead into full-blown toddlerhood. Words are coming fast and furious. He's doing all the toddler things...wanting shoes on and off, bringing random things to us, negotiating the exchange of said things, answering every question with "no" even when that often rapidly turns into yes, etc. Favorite things to do are throw things. Especially at the chickens. We do our best to mitigate though it's a good thing his aim is off at times. Also likes to watch shoes tumble down the stairs.

Anyhow, back to it here...

It's hot hot hot

2007-09-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Been a few days of scorching and muggy. I like this weather, though doing construction in it...not so much. Today Kelly got both garden beds seeded with cover crop in the hopes that predicted thunder storms will drop some rain. Had a close one today with 6 or 7 ground strikes down in the valley, though stayed sunny up here. Kelly drive through it and said it absolutely dumped.

Hopefully the seed will not all get eaten by the chickens. The 2 adult Rhode Island Reds have found it and needed to be chased from the upper garden twice today. Probably means they were in there a lot more. Then one of the new little girls found her way there, though she hasn't learned much about being chased yet. They'll all learn ;)

We're looking forward to fall and winter. Even as the the last heat of summer sends us running to the pond and river. Mostly looking forward to the decreased pace that winter brings. Of early darkness and cold that keeps us in; during the summer the pace is crazy both because it can be and it has to be with all the getting ready for winter. Then the long nights come and there's not much to do but snuggle on the couch, or read, or knit (in Kelly's case) or work (in my case ;). Hopefully in front of a wood stove. We'll see.

In other news, the shed-to-office conversion took a big step forward today with the arrival of a concrete truck to do the slab pour. At this point it's a carpentry project now, and I'm fuddling my way solo through it. Got a new door opening cut and framed in today, and also finished removing the existing 2x6 ceiling joists, which will be reduced in number by half as well as moved up about a foot. Replacing the stud-grade ugly ones with some nice rough-sawn pine. I thought I had enough in the barn to do all 3, though turns out there was only enough for 2. A neighbor up the road's building a period-accurate garage replacement, so I asked him if he'd be willing to sell me a 10' rough sawn board and he says yup. Coolio. Still soooo much to do on it, and with me often having to do things and then redo them 2 or 3 times to get them right it's not exactly clipping along ;) Hoping that with the door framing done the pace will up a bit, though now I've also decided to remove all the rotten siding and sheathing from where a pile of gravel had been pushed up against the building for many years. Sigh. So more cutting and demo. At least I have enough wood around to not have to buy any more new stuff.

Anyhow, that's the quick uppity date...

And here we are...

2007-08-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it. Most of you who have found me here know about our move already, from the outer limits of Rockland, Maine, to the heights of Appleton, Maine- known as The Ridge.

In some ways, it is hard to believe that we have only been here barely 3 months. We dug in hard- painting, ripping out, adopting chickens, meeting neighbors, replacing appliances, mowing and rototilling (well, hardworking locals did that...), and dreaming, always dreaming of where we are headed next.

The kids run and tumble and thrash through long grasses as they head to the pond to see how many hoppers we can catch (with the waning of summer, the numbers are down but- wow- were they prolific at times!!) Raelin has become an expert with the net, scooping up tadpoles and full-fledged frogs alike. And she is not the least bit squeamish about holding a big green one in her hand... Liam has improved his gentle touch and no longer tries to grab at them like a water balloon. Wow did i have images of frog guts ooozing out from between his fat little fingers... Lol...

From the pond, we wander to the swing set, then down to the shade under the cool pines near the house where a soft bed of fallen pine needles makes for good sifting and tossing and making of fairy houses. "The Park" as it's called is a grassy, treed yard with 2 good trees perfect for Raelin to climb in, and lots of space just to run and romp. Dense stands of milkweed pods hide not nearly enough monarch caterpillars for my liking, but hopefully they will increase with time. On super hot days, we pony up the Chariot and make the mile or so walk down the dirt road to Piery's Pond for a sweet, cool dip. A favorite local swimming spot- Raelin sprouted gills this summer, thanks to those waters.

In July, the fireflies were thick... I'd come home to mini fireworks in the field after work on hot nights... my drives home from town in the midnight hours often revealed foxes and porcupines, the occasional skunk, but never the coyotes, though we hear them yipping nightly, and from not so far away.

Though it was painful not to have garden this year, we are already prepping for next year. We have probably a good 1/4 give or take plowed for next year. I'll be planting winter rye cover crop seeds this week... they'll sprout and grow in the fall, then overwinter and be plowed under in the spring to provide some nutrients for next year. our friends and future neighbors, the Wymans, will be gardening with us. I can't wait to see the 4 kids out in the Kid's Plot...

There's so much, both in the doing, and then just in the being. How do you describe and convey what it's like to have found your *spot*... that place you knew was out there for you, and then to finally be on it?

It's awesome, and i dont' just mean cool.

So, stay tuned. i'm going to do a bit of a photo essay tomorrow and get that up for your viewing pleasure. The before and after pictures of the newly painted house are especially exciting!!