Just when i thought we wouldn't see snow before Christmas

i always thought that it would be different for homeschoolers! You know. . . they don't actually go to school, hence no snow days. Apparently not. If you can't find your children in the morning, check the weather. At the first sign of snow they may well be attached to the windows.

The many plumage cycles of the T-bird

One of many things that i am VERY thankful for this time of year is the ability to grow some of our own food. i can't speak for the kidd-os, but it makes me appreciate what we eat (and that we can eat) all the more.

The children tend to think that i am nuts anyway. . .. . . but i try to remind them of the importance of food, respecting it, knowing where it came from and how it was grown.

So sit down little children and i will tell you the tale of this thanksgiving's bird. . .

A long time ago, in a spring that seems impossibly far away (especially since it is snowing outside right now) on a farm in the mid west, a mumma turkey laid some eggs. The eggs sat in a warm location (probably an incubator) until some tapping and movement told the farm hands that little our little baby turkeys were about to hatch.

These baby turkeys (chicks) were double checked for health and divided by breed. They were then put into a box and shipped to our post office. Baby turkeys can go for three days without food because just before they hatch the drink up what is left of the yolk in there shell (and i always thought it was just to make more room). The box full of babies is taken by the postman and delivered to our local post office where we pick them up and take them home.

Because we live two feet south of the arctic circle, we have to pick up our chicks from the post office as soon as they get there. Because these are not wild turkeys and they aren't with their mother, they are not well suited to live outside. So. . .

. . . we end up with extra housemates for six weeks. Over all it isn't a bad experience. They are little and cute and make adorable little "peeps". They live in a relatively small enclosure and keep at a toasty 90 degrees. . . while the rest of us freeze (there is still snow on the ground).

We establish rules early on about where to sleep and eat, and who does the dishes. But it's like having children and eventually our little "friends" decide that they are not content with their new digs. . .
. . . and so they work together and break outta the clink. This is not terribly disturbing save for their total disregard for the wonders of modern sanitation. While turkey pooh properly composted makes a fabulous fertilizer, it is not nearly as welcome all over the breezeway.

At this point they are losing the down that helps them look sooo very cute and they start developing feathers. They also commit the heinous crime of growing. They get bigger and less cute. . . and bigger and more stinky. . . and bigger and louder. . . and bigger and better at escaping. . . and bigger, and messier. Eventually the crimes pile up to the sky and we have no choice but to send them. . .




















. . . to the big house.

And they were happy! It seems that turkeys are not at all suited for civilized living and much prefer to run in the grass and eat bugs and whatnot. Still, they expect us to feed them, and they ate. . .


















. . . and they ate. . .
. . . and they grew. . .

. . . and they grew. . .

Until finally came that fateful day. The garden had long since past. All of the greens had been consumed. The corn, carrots, and broccoli all blanched and frozen. All that remained were the pumpkins, gourds, and the now remains of a small corn forest, brown and dried. The only living remnants of a wannabe farm were those pterodactyl sized creatures roaming in the pen outback. Their appetite unappeasable - 150 lbs of food a week. The time was drawing near for all of God's people to give thanks for all of the taste morsels that he had given us.

And so we took a long car ride to a small building in a town far away, where a small number our feathery friends, led by their captain "buddy" met the maker. . . and their processor too. . .

We know they had a good life. They were loved, and tended too. Aloud to run and fly (as best they could). They didn't suffer the unimaginable cruelty of growing up on a corporate farm in unspeakable conditions. No Buddy and his friends had the best of feed and kindest of caretakers. Then were loved then. . .

. . . and they are loved now.

And we are thankful for all of the good, and tasty, things that God has given us!

Smurfs Beware!!!

It finally happened. . .

Winter! Grrrrrr.

OK not really. i actually like winter. It is that time of year when all the poets suffer from a deplorable excess of melancholy. Soccer moms around the world suffer from Christmas shopping-itis, and dad's around the world drink more heavily as they watch their bank accounts sink into the deep abyss that keeps the beast we call an economy happy.

It has been steadily in the twenties for the past several mornings. Even small bodies of moving water are developing a slim layer of ice across their tops. All but the mentally disturbed ducks have headed for the Caribbean to tan for the winter, and the bear sign in my back yard (meaning "poop" and what not - not a sign that reads, "bear") is dwindling.

It's the season that we get our fill of pumpkin and sweet potato pie. Turkeys run in fear (unless they are fenced in like the poor birds out back - but they have earned a residential pardon), and we never quite get enough of apple cider that we drink till our bellies hurt. Dreams of caroling entertain our thoughts, but few muster the moxie to actually do it.

This year we are thankful for jobs, and for hobbies (like the food pantry which is work that we don't get paid for but like doing. . . . and work is work that we do and get paid for it and usually hate. . . how odd - which is not to say that our employers should stop paying us. i am sure that such an action would NOT encourage morale). We are thankful that we had an opportunity to live with our friends the Hogans. We are thankful for all of our friends at Bellvale, and in Lewiston and for all of the things we have learned from them, and shared in with them, and the time that we have had to spend together. We are thankful for family who we seem to hear from more this time of year than usual (especially from my baby sister who turned thirty yesterday)!
We are thankful for excited children who wake up every morning and check for snow. We are thankful when we look back at the year and see all that God has allowed us to accomplish. And. . . we are thankful that we can make plans for what things may come. . . especially in the '09 garden plot.

Lucky is thankful for all of the kids that leave their coats on the floor!! (This was NOT a staged photo - she did this all by herself. . . . dingy dog!)

On a darker note. . .

In Maine in the winter time the sun sets early. Earlier and earlier as December comes along, then we slowly regain the light. i am sad when a powerful metaphor loses it's potency and becomes a cliche. Dark and light - there is a powerful metaphor there.
To any nay-sayers just consider the season. The light wanes earlier and the cold comes on - and not just cold, but a bitter chill that bites at your skin and bones. If you live in the north, you know what i am saying. For those of you away i challenge you. Spend an hour in a room with no windows. Sit awhile with no source of light and no distractions and consider the dark. . . and the light.

i have considered the dark. i have been thinking about it a lot lately. i was a nay-sayer to seasonal depression, but i have seen the light, and the dark affect people - affect me. This is a darker entry. i have found myself in a bad way spiritually lately. i have found myself drawing to isolation, to the negative, to the dark. my thoughts recently always immediately gravitate so much to the dark that i have to openly argue with myself to draw away - back toward the positive, the light.
The analogy of the being wound tight resonates strongly with me. i feel such pressure internally. Problem is that where does it go?
How can it be used for the good? There is no place better than here. . . not that comes immediately to mind. i am ashamed that it must go anywhere with a negative force, but an alternative eludes me. So here is a list of things i hate:

i hate war, i hate fighting, apathy, greed, isolationism, prejudices, the destruction of nature, possession, possessiveness, over use, consumption, non-recyclable items, plastic, control, power, busyness, money, economics in general, fear, nationalism, elitism, laziness, most technology (i do however really like hot water heaters), intolerance, people being offended, offending people, the infrastructure that we have trapped ourselves in, rudeness, the government, the need for the government, all the stupid laws that we really don't need, lack of common sense, all the ways that we try to fool ourselves (like the dividers in the roadway that we paint green so that it will be pretty instead of just planting grass - which is the affect that we were gunnin' for anyway), all the false idols that we set up for ourselves, all of the rules, and laws and conveniences that we tell ourselves we need, believing that we need all of the rules, and laws, and conveniences that we have set up, the way people create a way of thinking and then turn off the idea that there may be another and possibly better way to do things, the way we water down words till they have no real meaning anymore, hate, the word hate, the idea of hate. . . .

What i do like is the guy who hauls the recycling bins who just out of genuine kindness finds a bag of returnable bottles and offers them to a person who looks like they are in need, instead of just hauling them off with the rest of the recycling, the bank lady who tolerates an "estimated three minute hold time" to go the extra mile to help a customer, a child who, in spite of the fact that his father just lost his marbles because the father is old and cranky and forgot how to be a child, forgives his father and snuggles with him anyway. . .

Sunday night. . .

Vacation is over. . . almost. There are something like twenty four hours before i return to work. Ugh.
The Hogans were in full move out mode today. Appropriately excited about their new digs, they are staying there tonight for the first time as "official owners" of the property.

Back here on the pharm, it was windy as i'll get out today. Poor sissy had a heck of a time outside. She really wanted to be out with dad and brother, but the wind was just so wild that it would blow her hat off and scare her.
In spite of the wind and the "colder than i would like" temperatures, we (Owen and i) managed to get the old garden fence moved. We will need to buy more supplies to finish it properly, but we have made good progress for this season. All that is left is to decide whether or not to try and till the new section once before the ground freezes. Keeping with Amy's wishes, i brought the garden in a little bit. She thought the new layout was too big, and like usual, she is probably right!
Still i am stubborn (or is it determined) and i intend to try a larger than is prudent garden. Nothing like organically, home grown veggies in the middle of April, plus it keeps the grocery bill down. . . .

Anyone else out there having any fun autumn adventures or upgrades??

On a lighter note. . .

i finally found the camera! Ha ha!! World beware.

Looking outside the window it is windy. It wasn't at 0530 this morning. i took a walk along the river as the sun was rising and man was it peaceful! We live between two sets of rapids, and when the dam upriver is open the water can be so turbulent. This morning however was a totally different story. Looking at the water along the shore you could see the undercurrent and it was quite obvious that the river was moving, but you would never have known it to look at the surface. The river was calm and peaceful in a way that those words fail to adequately define.

The Hogan's got the call today. After months of toiling, they finally have a REAL closing date on Friday. Again, it is bitter sweet. Our friends in Lewiston will absolutely benefit from our loss. And while we hate to see them go. . . we share them gladly.

i talked to my friend Matt (the guy who dubbed us a cult. . . playfully) and shared with him our lament. He told me that even if we split up we would still be a cult, we would just have "campuses" (or something like that). Our spirits were so lifted that we put our religious regalia back on . . .

and returned to our business. . .

Everyone that is except Amy. She never made it back from Bellvale. It is rumored that after a long day of washing potatoes and doing all sorts of unspeakably evil things to the garden variety vegetables, that some of the "Watchers" that live in the fridge. . .

placed a hex on her, turning her into a pumpkin. . .

Sustainability means balance

At 4:22 in the afternoon the sun has set, the light is rapid fading from the sky. It shouldn't be this dark this early. . . in my not so humble opinion. But what nature says should happen, should happen. We were just outside, Jacob and i, looking at the existing garden and where the additions to the garden will be. It is growing a bit. In fact when it is done it will be just shy of three times the square footage of our house - Its both exciting and terrifying. After the terrible neglect that this years garden took, i fear that a larger garden might be a fools errand!
Amy and i have been talking with the staff at the local university. They have asked us to consider organizing (or helping to organize) the university garden. Its a very tempting and worthwhile, yet daunting task. They have been looking at a parcel of land that is 25 acres and was formerly an alpaca farm that the university acquired a few years ago and has no plans for at the moment. The food services folks have tried some small garden projects on it the last couple of years, but want to go whole hog with it this year. The food service division is a contract company that is part of an outfit that is very interested in local, sustainable, organic farming, and food bio security. The goal is to produce as much food as we can to be used in the school's cafeteria! Their thinking seems to be right up our alley!
So the question remains, "Can we balance our respective jobs, volunteer at the school and still make time to give a go at a much larger garden in our backyard?"
Amy says, "No, we should think about scaling back a bit."
i don't yet know what the right answer is. At the moment nothing is set in stone, and as we desire to produce more of our own food it would make sense to have a couple of plans in place and later choose the most logical.

We (Jacob and i) talked about the birds becoming more sustainable as well. Our flocks right now are larger than they should be. Space wise we are all set, but the birds are definitely NOT cost efficient - hence, not financially sustainable. We were thinking that we could sell eggs and perhaps meat as well. This would help to offset the increasing cost of corn which seems to be the most painful pinch on my pocket at the moment (maybe with exception to taxes!). As corn rises, poultry feed rises. We have a large number of birds for a "hobby farm" and need to figure out where to go next. . . . oh yeah, and i think we have an extra rooster. . . stupid bird!

i love conversations like this for two reasons:

1) It's good to jump start young people's thinking about sustainability and agriculture now. When they are adults, the world may be a very different looking place.
2) i love planning things!!! Especially next years yummies!!!!

WE the PEOPLE

Blessedly the transition to socially accepted isolation has been a slow one. One day the house is totally void of Hogans, and way too quiet. The next day they are all here, and then the next there are just a handful of them. As they are working on their new house i have had a lot of time to reflect on our months together. There are a lot of lessons, all of which i am thankful for. Obviously our circumstances here are/were not ideal for the number of folks in a three bedroom house, but there is so much that is/was beautiful about what has been happening here in the last eight or so months.

With the presidential election and the state of affairs of the world i have been thinking a lot about the "split" (i don't like to think of it as a split because we are such good friends and we do love each other terribly! To me a split implies hatred and hard feelings.). As we reenter isolationism as two families it seems horribly unnatural to me and honestly i am having a pretty hard time with both the volume of the house decreasing and the idea that we will be in a place once again where we are having to possess the same things that the guy next door has. In some neighborhoods (and ours is one of those) folks will share some or even many items between neighbors, yet still so many things are duplicated needlessly when we could share together. Our need to possess and to keep up with the Jones', or to one up our neighbors is what is destroying our planet for our children and any chances or teaching our children real peace and love between neighbors.

The elections are now done and over and i have been listening to many of my friends lament how president Obama wants to turn this country into a socialist nation. And they are afraid and resistant, and yet these are the same friends that claim to follow Jesus. i am left wondering, "Wouldn't Jesus want us to be a socialist country?" Not a govermentally forced socialist country but a country of sharing a redistribution caused by an outpouring of love and spontaneity from the heart. Perhaps that is the state of the Church in America. We suffer, but not from persecution, or starvation, but of excess and a inappropriate sense of entitlement.

i didn't vote for Obama. i didn't vote for McCain either. . . i did vote though. While i don't agree wholly with the candidate (sort of) that i voted for, i don't agree with the other two guys either. A government of the people, for the people, and by the people is not a government that leads a people but a people that leads a government. To vote and then consider yourself relieved of all other duties is arrogant. People that think or live this way deserve to live in an oppressively taxed over regulated country.
People instead should steer the government by their actions. When the people start living out the principles taught by Jesus the government will have no option but to follow. To feed the hungry, to love each other, to take care of each other, to tend to the earth, to abolish oppression, to teach each other, to look after our neighbors (all of them local AND global) before ourselves, to speak with one voice, to be the change in the world that we want to see - These are the things that the government is arguing over making us do. . . because WE have FAILED to first do these things ourselves.

Some watery tart throwing swords from a pond is no basis for a system of government!

There is a duck in my garage. . . in a rabbit cage on the eve of history being made.
Oh sure there is some silly election taking place somewhere, but who really cares? What's really exciting is that the chicken coop now has an officially water proof roof. No more silly looking third world-tarp topped-shanty. Now those spoiled birds have a two room suite fully furnished with amish-esque wooden nesting boxes, wall to wall roosting bars, private entryways and picture windows.
Life continues to be exciting on the pharm. Bruce the mystery neighbor continues to cut down our spruce trees for us, opening up the view of the river and the kids are endlessly entertained by the new wind mill that our neighbor Mark set up just across the cement brook.
The elusive 'buck' that has been rumored to run around the neighborhood has finally been seen. He was feeding with his share of little lady does back in the swamp. All those years of rumors and blurry photographic evidence may soon be vindicated if the boys in blaze orange (the hunters) finally have their way.
In the meantime the Hogans just sent an email from their secret hidden (is that redundant) base. Word on the street is that after all of their labor and days of high nerves are finally paying off!! The title to their future kingdom has been located and is on its way to being officially signed by all of the powers that be. Sadly this means that next week will likely be our last together :-(.
And it isn't sounding good for McCain. At least retirement is still an option.

Stay tuned. . . next week - Why is it a "fourgone conclusion". Or - Americas obsession with oppressing "odd numbers".






. . . yes, i know that i spelled it wrong.