Thursday, October 22, 2009
Time for a break. . .
The two times of the day that i really feel like i can step outside of myself, be quiet, and meditate are shower time (there is a lock on the door) and driving in the car.
This last couple of years have been so topsy turvy here on the pharm, but it wasn't till recently, and specifically this morning, that i was able to pin point the beginning of the chaos, and more importantly prescribe a cure. . .
So the time has come, and i am going away for a little while - a funny thought since i have been blogging so infrequently as of late. But, no, really, it is time for a break to try and get my head on straight, and more importantly my home in order again.
Keep warm this winter, i will be back again eventually. . .
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Finally. . . Fryeburg
Friday, October 9, 2009
Announcing a new blogger
I got an invite to what promises to be a pretty cool new blog. The author is vibrant, creative, and has his father's stunning good looks and charm!
Check out Amazing Adventures With James
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Progress. . .
i worked at the comm center in the wee morning hours - i hate waking up early, but i like early starts. By the time i got home it was raining.
Mike graciously helped to haul all of the left over tree parts (we felled 10 spruce trees this year) over to the burn pile. We started at 0830 and burned until nearly 4:30. The cinder pile is nearly as tall as the original burn pile!!! So after a day of that our yard is back! It is so very weird to have an open front yard.
During the course of our burning we were also able to successfully replace the propane line (not near the fire obviously).
So today was a good day! Productive, cool, and here i find myself again at the comm center. One more night!!! When i get home. . . . it's dump day. . . .wooohooo!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Do you remember Cliff Huxtable????
Most recently the timer on the dryer, but that was trumped by the igniter on the stove. Yup, silly thing went out, and we had to find the part and replace it. 75 bucks and several hours later the stove works. . . .yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then came the musical hissing sound. The copper pipe that connects our PROPANE stove to the PROPANE TANK had apparently been compromised before and is now, well. . . broken!! Yup, i can hold the last two feet of pipe in my hand while standing twenty feet away from the wall that it used to come out of.
It was an educational moment. Our pregnant friend, her hubby, the three kids, two cats a dog and i had to make that crucial decision! Do we evacuate and call the fire brigade or not?!? So we opted to evacuate and shut off the gas our selves. No sense in making a spectacle of the whole ordeal and draw attention to my "gentle nature" and "careful approach" to home repair.
Well, now that the house is aired out and the propane is shut off. . . i am off to bed. Gotta be up in the morning to work at the 911 center. . . Okay, so i might have thought about calling them for this whole hoo-haw, but that would be way too much like work.
Monday, September 28, 2009
It's raining. . . .
Tonight there is lightening and thunder.
The fields are getting to the point where we will be soon turning them in! Our pals from ol' Tejas are here and adapting quite well to the pandemonium that is our house. To go from a quiet house to a house full of kids must be a hard feat, but they seem to be surviving. Regardless, we are very glad they are here!
This weekend we were at the Common Ground Faire (hippy fest), up north. Now that we are much more agricultural than ever the faire took on a new meaning. Of the many things that seemed much more interesting than in years past, was the sheep dog demonstration. Now mind you, we are still really very new to the sheep ownership thing, but still fairly confident. At the end of the demo, the guys with the dogs challenged the audience (without dogs) to a herding contest. Amy volunteered us, and with another older couple we had to separate a herd of sheep and goats, and corral some running ducks.
While I am not one to blow my own horn (well, not all the time), we did pretty darn good. Our team of four was only four seconds. . . yes 4 seconds, slower than the two professionals with five, count them - 5, trained herding dogs. It was cool.
As soon as I can download the photos you can see the one stubborn goat that Amy decided to drag to where it belonged. . . .don't mess with mama!
Otherwise, we are looking forward to the coming (technically already here) season. Cool days, falling leaves, hot cider. . . yum, yum!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
All the signs of autumn. . .
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
A minor miscommunication
It's early
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Thephunnypharm.blogspot.com
pearsonstown.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The visitors. . .
Actually the last several weeks have been amazing. Pearson's Town is finally showing legitimate signs of viability, and that is great. The phunny pharm on the other hand. . . well, i have let the garden go to become an animal sanctuary (removed a ground hog today who made a burrow right into the bean patch). There are still beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers and egg plant. . . somewhere in there.
The chickens, turkeys and sheep are doing well. i will post some pics soon enough. In the meantime it is busy, busy time at Pearson's Town, and my time is a bit more consumed there. . .
Stay tuned for more.
Monday, August 17, 2009
i should be sleeping right now. . .
Potty training is fun. It's fun in the same way setting your house on fire is fun. There is a lot of work in the clean up, but after the blaze, you get to start over.
And so it is in my life. The last of my children is on the potty training bandwagon. Of course, she waits till after nine pm to due her duty on the night that i have to be up at four in the morning the next day. Where is my wife?!?!?! At work of course. . . .
So here is a shout out to all of the potty training parents out there. . . and the one (that i know of) that gets to look forward to it! Just remember. . . someday, we get to forget, and they get to wipe our bums!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
It's only a flesh wound. . .
Okay. . . so there were pictures!
Grow well friends.
Friday, July 31, 2009
So where do i begin??
As for my dream of becoming a farmer. . . it is a flame burning bright. i am more motivated now than ever. To spend days (even cold, yucky, wet) outside in the dirt and the crops is so refreshing to my soul.
i admit that our "farm" here has fallen into a bit of neglect, but we are catching up. Good thing too, seeing as it is August now. Our chicken flock is on the mend after "removing" one aggressive fox from the planet. The sheep. . . they are tanks, and Amy has begun experimenting with their wool. The veggie patch more resembles the lawn at the moment, but the corn, beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes, and radishes are looking amazing. . . if you can find them. The turkeys are sitting and actually hatching some eggs, but so far no luck. The chicks have not been able to survive the weather.
The kids are doing phenomenally. In spite of the rain they continue to find new ways to have fun. Sissy is just about potty trained. Owen is on his two wheeler now. James. . . well, James has become our "world traveler". i don't think that i have seen him more than two weeks this summer.
We are talking about starting a small 8 person CSA next year out of the yard, to help me keep up with the garden. It is a pretty exciting prospect. But for now, we are just trying to stay ahead of the rain.
i will try to get some updated photos up in the next couple of days - next week is busy at work. . . again!
Grow happy!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Some fun on the pharm
The last several weeks have been absolutely frenetic around here. With job changes and endless rain, three kids, invasion of the army of foxes, flooding basements and trying to make farming work, we really hadn't had a lot of time to think excessively about many of the critters.
The end result of the great fox invasion was that we put the surviving chickens in the turkey paddock to protect them. Maybe that was an error. . .
Yesterday when i went out to water the birds i found the delicate little remains of two baby turkeys in the paddock. It made me sad. . . and excited. Those wacky birds are brooding again, and this time, they are following through. Maybe it is less ADHD and more a matter of climate change. With the wet spring, maybe the hens knew something that we didn't, and they waited till the weather was improving before deciding to brood.
The end result was more my fault than theirs. Had i known that they were brooding (they do this UNDER the coop of all places) i would have either separated them somehow. my suspicion is that they wee littl' ones were trampled by the other big clumsy birds. Lesson learned, and now we are watching very intently the two birds that are burrowed underneath the coop!!!!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Creative pause
Did you notice that the peepers have long past? What about the fireflies? They are out. The rain has stopped and the stars are in their full glory again.
When we were at Bellvale one of the most sound pieces of advise was, "Don't forget to take moments of creative pause."
Moments to be floored by nature, to watch the children play, listen to yourself breathe. It seems harder and harder these days. . .
Think about that for awhile. . .
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Blogger ate my posts. . .
Well. . . we went to Bellvale and were absolutely recharged and inspired, possibly more than ever before. It was our first summer visit, and was everything more than we could have imagined! Beautiful and warm (yes, with sun too). One of the many highlights of our stay was our visit with our imaginary friends and their beautiful allegedly new infant. But due to their participation in the International Witness Protection Program, we can not actually confirm that they really exist. It might be that they are just voices in my head!!
Here on the farm everything seems to have survived but the house. Sadly, it hasn't burned down yet, but there is water in the basement, the plumbing wants to quit, the furnace is acting up (yup, it governs the hot water too), and the sheep have no interest in staying in their enclosure. But everything is alive and well. In fact my weedy excuse for a garden is flourishing, while we struggle with blight, stunting and flooding on Pearson's Town.
Pictures to follow. . . except for non-governmentally sanctioned photos of things like Aliens, Bigfoot, Elvis, and our imaginary friends!!!!
Maine. . . the way life should be.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Everything i ever learned about compost was a lie!!
As of today i am a certified compost site operator. i went, i saw, i composted!!!!
i had the grand pleasure of spending a week with 25 other people from all over the world learning how to make some mighty fine soil amendments!! It was fabulous. There were of course people from the states, but also a fella from the Philippines, a fella from Chad (Africa) and bloke from the Galapagos. . . he was really from Germany, but works for the WWF on the islands. Lucky dog!
So what about some of these "myths" that should be reconsidered by every person in America:
1) Compost can't be made from human biosolids (poop).
Wrong! Actually some of the finest, and safest to use on your home garden, compost is made from human biosolids. If you see it in the store it is more than safe. This doesn't, of course, mean that you should (or even can legally) make it in your home composter. . . unless you have a composting toilet.
2) Compost stinks.
False. If managed correctly a compost pile won't smell at all!!
3) You can't compost meat.
Wrong again. In fact no too many years ago the Maine compost team composted a full sized pilot whale. Total time from whale to dirt with a few knuckle bones - 12 weeks.
In 8 weeks you can make chickens into dirt. In 12 a cow is nothing more than a skeleton, wait another year or so (or buy a grinder) and even the bones break down!!!
Pretty cool eh?!?! Why be afraid of the things your food eats. After all, it is what we will all become eventually anyway!!
Pictures to follow!!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Like sand through the hour glass. . .
Addy, Owie, and i spent yesterday planting gourds, melons and the like. before the weeks out the corn, tomatoes, and peppers will be in (along with, Lord willing, everything else).
Sunday, May 31, 2009
When there is no time like the present
At Pearson's Town we had a "community planting celebration". It was fabulous. We invited anyone and everyone to come and plant with us, talk with us, and see what we are up to over behind that mysterious ol' barn. Well . . . . in my frenetic rush around the house Saturday morning to make sure that everything was ready and rolling for work, i somehow (absentmindedness) failed to turn on the climate control system for my home green house. My starts, all five hundred plus of them, were the pride of my spring. Guess what. . . . all but 10 are now dead. Yes, Saturday was the first day in four that reached above 55 degrees outside, and was the first that we had seen the sun in as many days.
Owen and Sissy joining in the work (No i am not violating labor laws. . . they have a union too).
Mom and Sissy supervising in the Kinder-Garden.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Begining the down hill slide
"Do you consider yourself an agriculturalist?"
That was the question that i was asked last week. . . The question was sincere, and necessary, but definitely the person asking new very little about me. For me to consider myself an agriculturalist, or even a farmer for that matter, would be an insult to those folks that make an honest living toiling in the soil. Do i learn a ridiculous amount every year and put a fraction of that into practice. . . yes.
As my excitement grows, the size of our garden makes huge leaps. As the size of our garden makes huge leaps, the practical application of important principles makes small strides.
******Intermission time****** Buster the Ram just ran through the portable fence because it was turned off and a chicken was tormenting him******
Where was i??? Oh yes!
So now that the garden is MUCH larger we have figured out that we should be orienting the rows east to west instead convenient to more convenient. We learned how very valuable that crop rotations can be for soil health. Lastly (well not lastly, but i don't want to go to jail for genocide. . . the boring to death of all of the 1/2 a reader that visits here) we learned that some pestilences like powder mildew (which affects your curcubits) can be forecast like the weather. It would seem that this last little charm is a gift to us from Florida in exchange for our sending all of our old people to their state.
Anyway. . . not to bore you any longer. . . the garden is finally tilled, the first trench is dug, the sheep is back in the "barn", and the children are in the breezeway playing "Lord of the Flies". Life is as it should be. . . .
Saturday, May 16, 2009
It's a busy month. . .
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Pharm / Nature interface. . .
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Let nature take it's course (this one could be long)
The baby chickens have started arriving. Some will go to Pearson's Town for the summer. The rest will offset our supply as we are dividing the existing flock with the Hogans. We are adding some new varieties including broilers this year. Stay tuned for that circus. . .
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sometimes i just can't keep up with life. . .
Oddly work was phenomenal. Better than i could have hoped or dreams. Even with all of the hiccups that have come it is still the greatest job ever!!!
Nope. . . the storm would come from home. The end result is that for all of the immediate frustration is that we are blessedly being nudged toward a greener way of living.
So i had recently drained the engine in our four year old John Deere lawn tractor (yes, my man toy. . . that actually Amy uses more. . . Hmmmmm?!) so that i could change the fluids and tune it up. It turns out that some of the neighbor boys came to borrow it, because we are the only folks on the block with a trailer, to move some manure for compost. Had i slipped the spark plug wire off we would have been fine. That night i came home to a host of folks standing around my tractor starring grimly at it.
Sure enough twenty minutes into their chores the engine blew into about a thousand pieces. She is done. . . .
So here i am with a huge lawn and no mower, but we have been talking about sheep for some time. In rural Mexico, and other under developed countries they use goats to mow the lawns. Talk about green!!! Totally organic lawn mowers, and if they break, well, you eat them!
Well. . . instead of sitting here, i should be out constructing the sheep barn. . .
Friday, April 24, 2009
When the currents of joy meet the rip tides of frustration
And with the rain, the birds came up with a much improved design for a chicken tractor.
Today being Friday, i am finally getting back into the swing of having a five day work week with weekends off. The joy is a little weird. . . and really i don't have the weekends off, because i am always doing something farmy.
Tonight the boys and i went out for eggs and got the treat of the spring. Well, it's a treat if you are a National Geographic kinda person. While collecting eggs we got to witness our standard bronze turkeys mating. This is exciting because we can be certain that our turkey eggs are fertile, but frustrating because i can't get the humidity in the incubator regulated. . . stupid machines!! i have it half in me to let the birds do it the old fashion way, i just don't have the faith that they would.
A couple more days and i will give it a try. . .
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The locavore's dilemna
The rain today is a welcome change to a dry April. No snow this year, that doesn't bode well with my experiences of summers past. Dry April = wet July. We will see.
Amy and i talked very briefly the other night about trying a locavore diet for a year. Yes, that means only eating what is grown in a XX mile radius of where we live. We really didn't talk long enough to determine how far that might be, but Amy in her usual wisdom mentioned that we should definitely do our homework on this one!
She's right.
A whole year - no coffee, or sugar, chocolate, or rum (it's a great muscle relaxant after a hard day's work). To think about it is tough. Tonight James and i talked about the old children's rhyme, "Peas, porridge hot". i explained it's origins and tried to make him understand the severity of what we had discussed. He adamantly declared that a world without restaurants was just not worth living in. i guess we will have more conversations on the matter.
Either way, i am convinced that we can grow an adequate variety of crops that if we mind our cooking and study up a bit that we can make a years worth of yummy, nutritious goodness. Or maybe this is just another one of my idealistic crusades. . . we will let the future determine that for us.
Tomorrow is earth day!!!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
When it rains technology it pours technology
Monday, April 6, 2009
Knowing when to be afraid and when not to
(No independent pictures for this. . . just watch the little head in the other three photos)
The end result. . . scrumptious, mouthwatering popovers!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Its quieter on the pharm today. . .
The weather is fabulous. We have done some cleaning, some reading, been out with friends. . . what an amazing couple of days.
The one really noticeable difference is the volume in the backyard. With eight less gobbling turkeys in the paddock the yard is amazingly quieter. The two jakes that have stayed on to help us keep the flock growing still make quite a raucous, but nothing compared to what there was when all ten were singing in harmony (sort of harmony).
The snow is all but gone!! Woohoo!! The farm project is making progress, as is the home garden. We ordered seeds Friday, only two seed varieties were unavailable, and one was on back order till early May. Oddly, i received an envelope from the seed company yesterday. i thought it odd that it wasn't my seed order. . . instead it was the pack of seeds that was on back order until early May. Boy, i hope i didn't hear the guy wrong and that the rest of the seeds aren't coming until early May. . . .eeeek!!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Maine Fruit and Vegetable School. . .
Many of the local farmers came together to learn about updates in technology, agriculture practices, and public policy. i saw some old friends there - folks who i rely on to supplement my summer veggies and almost all of my fresh autumn apples. Though there were only a VERY small handful of us who were not professional farmers, the practices being taught applied to most of our hobby farms and home gardens as well. It was a good time to connect with some of the smaller farms that i have had a hard time finding (it doesn't help when some of them change their names).
The ironic part of the whole day was that i, the only organic farmer in the group (that i know of), managed to sit next to the guy who is on the state board of pesticide/herbicide use. Its kinda like sitting next to the crazy guy on the bus.
We were civil, and actually had a very good time in spite of our ideological differences.
Overall, it was a great day. i would recommend the conference to anyone in the Ag business or thinking about going into the Ag business. You can find the link on the University of Maine Cooperative Extension's website, or google the Maine Fruit and Tree School. Its good stuff!!
Oh, and the Pesticide guy. . . he made sure that i had a copy of the official Pesticide Applicators Log before i left.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Turkey, turkey, duck. . .
Yes, the ugly little red thing is in fact a cellular telephone! The boss thinks it would be a good idea for me to have in case i am off site and he needs to get a hold of me. Truth be told, he is right. Still it is weird to have it. The kids and the wife are pretty excited about it - not because they can call me, but because it represents technology in the house.
But on to pharmier things. . . James and i did a bit of mud wrestling yesterday with eight big tom turkeys. Our flock is now down to eleven - one step closer to the six that we wanted from the beginning. Those poor eight should be hanging by their feet right now. Ready to pick up tomorrow. Yum-Yum.
This last week also surprised us with some excitement that we have been anticipating all winter!! Eggs, lots of eggs!!!!! Of course the chickens have been laying all winter (good chickens!), but last weeks the ducks and the turkeys joined the club!
And so in just a few days we should start the process of incubating our own eggs. With any good fortune and God's blessing the days of purchasing chicks will be long past!