Up for Air

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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!!