The peanut gallery chimes in. . .

"Ooooh! So that's how much we are going to have to pay for the stimulus package. Brilliant!!"

Making inner city culture agriculturally relevant

It was warm today - a little warmer than 40 degrees!!

i spent the afternoon taking down the turkey paddock. The poor buggers being stuck in just the poorly lit coop, i had to seize the moment and get the yard repaired. It should have been a two day project, sadly i won't be able to do anything with the main fence posts until the spring when i can dig them out. . . they are bent pretty badly.

In the meantime however i was able to make an interim paddock that is absolutely ghetto fabulous! Those jive turkeys will just have to enjoy it till the spring. . . well, the ones that survive that long. First trip to the butcher is set for the end of March. Anyone interested in buying organic, free range (until last Sunday) turkey?? Talk to the wife. . . she does the peddlin'.

So. . . is there a redneck//farmer equivalent to "ghetto fabulous"?? Maybe, "farmo-fabulous" or "Agro-fabulous"?? Who knows. . .

Bringin' down the house.

Nearly two feet of heavy wet snow later we are finding new joy in bright sunny days. The roof is doing it's job fabulously. When it was time to crawl out of bed to dig out of the driveway, the snow was already sluffing off of the roof(as it had been all night). A phenomenon that would have made Henry Ford proud. New wet, yucky snow was being added as the old, well packed snow was sliding down and off the roof as though it were on a conveyor belt.

The turkey paddock on the other hand did not fair so well. The coop itself stood it's ground and all of the birds, both turkey and duck alike were found to be warm, dry and doing well. The paddock on the other hand is a mess!!

Being as we decided to raise heritage breed birds, for various reasons, we found it a necessity to add a cattle fence (like gigantic chicken wire) roof because heritage breed birds can fly. The wet snow found this arrangement to be as favorable as we and the birds did, and it stuck. As it stuck together it created a sort of roofing material. The roofing material got heavier and heavier as the snow built up. Eventually it reached nearly two feet and weighed in at. . .oh . . . probably some where near a ton (if not more. Snow is only light and dainty when it is falling from the sky). So as the weight packed on, the poles holding up the chain link fence buckled. All of the supports are bent and the turkeys, who are far too large to remain in the coop are essentially stuck. . . until i can dig out the roofing, fence, and get to the posts. . . it needs to get warm quick!!

So we have gone from free range, kind farmers to evil factory farmers who trap there birds in an inhumanely small place. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!

Stay tuned for further adventures of the: Plight of the Gobbley Birds.

The best mistake of my life

So here it is -

For better or for worse, i have taken a new job. i thought it would be most prudent to wait till the worst possible moment economically to move from a relatively safe, yet depressing, public sector job to a much more enjoyable, yet way less secure private sector job. Yes, soon to be gone are the days of knowing that i had job security even when the government finally collapses. Hello days of a one year guarantee of joy in my work, but beyond that. . . well. . . only God can see that far!

After an almost impossible to refuse job offer from Bon Appetit i am officially an organic farmer. Or. . . as they would call me at the comm center: Dirty Hippie!

So my job for the next year (or so. . . God willing much longer) is to put together a farming project that will benefit the school's (St. Joseph's - the school that Bon Appetit has a contract with) cafeteria, the local community via food pantries, and the community by way of pulling people together to garden together.

The latter has been a passion of mine for several years. So if you get bored swing on by the project at the college, i am sure that we will be able to put you to work. . .

The Midnight Run. . .

i have been to the belly of the beast, and i have survived.

There is a land in our country so foreign to me that the idea of living there makes me shutter. You look up to the night sky and see no starts. There are no fields or gardens and all that is left of what was once a heavily forested island is now imprisoned in a small section at the center of the city. Yet for all of my aversion to it, this land boasts one of the highest populations in the country.

The Midnight Run has been using volunteer assistants for the past twenty three years. It started with the pastor of a small fellowship in Dobb's Ferry just outside New York City. He started by taking nightly trips into the city with food, clothing and toiletries to give to the homeless folks in Manhattan. Over the subsequent years what started with one person has grown in to nightly runs in the heart of the city, organized by the Church, but staffed by volunteers from various fellowships, high school groups and other civic organizations.

Amy and i had the pleasure of accompanying St. Joseph's College on their run. The College is (so far) the farthest outpost of volunteers to the mission. . . and they are nuts!!! We left Sunday afternoon a little around 1 pm. After a healthy drive and stop at the mission in Dobb's Ferry, we pulled into downtown Manhattan (is there a part of Manhattan that isn't downtown??) right around 8 pm. With two full sized vans we navigated the city, heading to predetermined stops where the homeless are known to congregate for the night to sleep. Some of the stops were small, with just one or two people coming out. At other stops, like Penn Station, we were mobbed with people coming for warm soup, coffee, blankets and whatever other clothes they needed and could carry.

It was a great experience. The kids got to see that homelessness is not just a statistic, but living breathing people with needs and joys, happiness and sorrow. The homeless had an opportunity to connect with people who cared. For a few hours they were not the invisible, outcast, unknowns of the city. For a few hours they could have a warm belly on a cold winter night. For a brief moment in life they didn't have to "disappear" for the benefit and comfort of the many who consider them a nuisance or social inconvenience. . .

At about 2 am when we were all out of food, with only a few clothes left. We packed back into the two vans and made the run back to Maine. Yup. . . we drove back (still haven't slept mind you) and pulled back into St. Joseph's College right around 7 am. A night without sleep was well worth the return of seeing love at work, seeing those smiling - otherwise marginalized - faces, and seeing God at work!

Next time you see a homeless person give them something more than money. . . don't ignore them. They are people with feelings; happiness, sorrow, pain, contentment. Perhaps they need money, perhaps they need jobs, but what they DON'T need is to be forgotten, ignored and left all alone. A greeting, a conversation, maybe a meal or your coat. . .you can afford a new one anyway! Like so many others in this economy are discovering. . . one day the homeless person you once ignored could be you. . . .

Signs of the time. . .

The mid winter thaw is such a terrible tease! Having grown up in a warmer winter environment where fresh produce was available year round i have developed a much greater respect for people living in less temperate regions. i have also learned that no two colds are alike. For example 40 degrees in the early fall is reason to grab your jacket and shiver just a bit if you are outside for any length of time. On the other hand 40 degrees in the early spring (especially after a hard winter) is the time to throw on your favorite t-shirt, shorts and sandals and go for a walk on the beach.

When that week in early to mid February comes it is like manna falling to a starving man. It is also an ecological messenger. Watch the trees, and the birds, and the mammals. Nature tells them things.

Deciduous trees that are otherwise devoid of any signs of life suddenly begin to glow red in their smallest branches as the saps starts flowing up from the roots. Its a good time to tap your favorite maples!!! Anyone out there have an evaporator they want to share??

The birds become louder and more active. You will even begin to notice that small population of Turdus migratorius that you hadn't before - they stay local while all of the smart birds have migrated south long ago.

Sadly, road kill numbers are up for the first time since the deer rut in the late autumn. This time instead of Bambi "sleeping" on the roadside the newest nappers can be prematurely detected by their pungent emanations. Yes, the skunks were out scavenging for a snack at night. The Raccoons have joined them as well as the coyotes, and bobcats, all making their presence known in subtle ways (don't leave your trash on the back porch).

On the pharm we see it too. The turkeys are ready to mate. Our population of jakes is far too high this year, and in the turkey world, like many other less civilized creatures, the males fight for the right to breed. The jakes (a young male turkey) are all calling and where one is loud, eight form a symphony. There is an overload of testosterone in the paddock. . . and there have been more than a few gang fights! Were it not that we are going to "weed" the turkey paddock next month (have to wait for the butcher to open up shop again), we had considered referring to that half of the yard as "South Central" (that's an L.A. reference for the non-California types).

Next door the roosters are crowing. . . and the hens. . . well, they are all the same age but as we discovered yesterday - they are not all laying yet. Our hens are now a year old, and most breeds will start laying around 6 months, so by all normal standards they should all have been laying by now.

Chickens, when they come of age, undergo a warming up phase. They start by laying small eggs and as their bodies adjust the eggs will get larger and larger until they resemble what you might find at your local farm (or supermarket for those less fortunate).

Here the kids get to see the transition in person as they go out to collect the eggs twice a day. Weird eggs are always fun - deeply colored, larger than normal, double yolked, frozen. . . or for James the other day. . . somewhat quail like. Here are a couple of eggs from James collecting the other day:

All of these are chicken eggs fresh from the chicken - no alterations.

We all get so busy in our day to day activities. Stop for a minute. Take an extra long sip of your coffee and look around. Take a second to notice how nature, and we interact with the seasons. Some of the more beautiful nuances in life are so subtle as to almost be missed. . .

A quandry that robs me of sleep when i need it most. .

So its Thursday. The one day this week that i have the opportunity to get a TON of sleep. Amy is home, it is a normal eight hour shift tonight, only one extra kid. . .

Then my friend Stu calls. He is the big wig with Bon Appetite - a food service industry that is very centered on food sustainability, going organic, going local, and going green. He is checking in to make sure that i had all of the information that i needed for a trip that Amy and i are doing with the college this weekend. Then he drops the bomb shell. . . "Something for you to think about. . ."
He more or less offers me a job as a full time farm manager at the college here in town. The Upshot is that it would be a raise . . . and i would be doing something that i have dreamed about for a loooooooong time. The downfall: It starts off as a year long contract with a heavy push to be an ongoing gig, but no guarantees.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! How am i supposed to sleep??? Hmmm. . . the job i have, i hate, but it pays well and it is stable. The job i am offered is a dream job, pays better, but no guarantee of longevity (although there is a very strong probability) short of God's intervention during the course of the year. Hmmmmmmm.

Any thoughts???

Crash course in home aviation. . .

There was a T.V. show (i think) titled: 'Boy meets World'.

Somewhere i have heard the phrase, 'Boy meets girl'.

Well. . . here is 'Girl meets door jam':

Today Sissy thought it would be neat to experiment with low level aviation. Sadly she used the hall as her runway and after powering up the engines she prematurely retracted her landing gear before reaching optimal take off speed. The lack of sufficient thrust caused her to fail to clear a nearby structure. . . the solid wooden door jam.
Early reports clearly state that there were no fatalities in the incident and that while the pilot did well to recover the craft, the pilot is being placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation and psychological examination to determine the possibility of post traumatic stress disorder. If medically cleared the pilot will be assigned to a Critical Reaction And Survival Habits training instructed by famed pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.
The FAA is still investigating but advises that they may never know the cause of the incident due to a malfunction in the craft's "black box" flight recorder in which all radio transmissions where distorted into a loud, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" sound.
Despite the severity of the crash the airline reports only minor damage and in a statement made to the Associated Press reports that they are confident that the craft can be repaired and will be back in service soon.

While i am typing, my dear wife is in the kitchen taking her first shot at making home made veggie burgers. She is a rock star!!!

It has been a tougher transition back to vegetarianism than i thought it would be. i feared that i would buckle from "barbecue weakness" (that is a non-medically classified condition - real nonetheless), so we agreed that we would still eat meat that was free range and organically fed, or that we raised and/or harvested. Well, the farther into the transition that we get, the less i am even tempted to want even the meat that we are growing in the backyard. Amy on the other hand caved the other night when a friend made stuffed potato skins that had bacon in them. i walked into the kitchen after working with the critters to find Amy licking a piece of freshly cooked bacon!!! my poor wife. . . what have i done to her??

So anywho. . . she is in the kitchen as i type with lots of yummy ingredients and the food processor making these little cakes that, at the moment, look like pterodactyl turds. They do however smell amazing and i can't wait to cook 'em up tonight. Yummy!!!!

The Not So Farmer's Almanac - Farming forecasts that aren't because they already happened:

This weeks forecast: Overcast and in the forties!!!!! Yea, spring is coming. Chicks, planting, gathering rainwater and snow melt, shoveling the walks because the roof is sluffing in giant sheets. . . Yup, everyone else is outside playing in the warmth, while we are finding our walkways. . . again. Good news is, we are the only folks on our street that can see our roof. . . and it is metal and beautiful! That there used to be the walkway that the oil guys uses. . . oops!

Some of the enjoyable subtleties of "farming"

Every day here on our "hobby farm" i find new things that make me hunger to be a real "poor farmer". i have been around critters my whole life (my mom thinks that she is Noah reincarnated. . . okay not really, but she does collect animals) and sometimes i have to be reminded that animals are as complicated as we. The turkey is a great example. Most folks think that they are dumb, ugly animals (except for Laura). They are both intelligent, and complicated. This morning i was educated in some of the more subtle nuances of their language. Sadly i lack the words to adequately describe what i heard. . . but i think of it as something like a very quiet diesel truck accelerating. As i was watering the goofy birds one of the dominant jakes (The term for a yearling male turkey . . . if they don't get eaten by year one, they eventually become Toms. i don't know how Tom is short for Jake, but i guess it is) came a struttin' over to me. Periodically he would, almost imperceptible, shutter. When he shuttered, he let out this sound. It was the first time i had ever heard a turkey make this sound, but as i listened i realized that all of the jakes were doing it. Cool stuff.

Its now nearly 40 degrees. . .yeah!!! At the local hardware store this morning i was able to be the first to "deflower" the newly set up gardening display. . . . planting season is coming!!!!!

A morning poem

Love is not a single petal on a daffodil

No more than the gathering is a lone man

At the table – the feast is laid out before him.

Peace is no more quiet than quiet is peaceful.

Love is the many leaves on the ancient oak

Joy is a table of many hands

Peace is the breeze and the daffodil

Moving as one – swaying together

The one is in part where the whole is in unison

 

When mom is away, on a school day, dad will play!

0720 - Amy's work calls. She is supposed to work for a couple of hours today, but not for some hours yet.

0735 - Amy has been suckered into working the whole day. Good for the paycheck. . . but this leaves dad home with three kids, one to come later in the afternoon and no pre-written school plan for the day. Buwahahahaha!!!

0830 - Mom is off to work. Time to start the mischief!

0845 - Hire the Muppet's back up drummers for entertainment (Animal was already booked through the end of spring).

James banishes himself to the living room to "suffer" through reading.

0915 - The timer goes off and dad decides that while reading is a key skill to have, we probably ought to hone a couple of others.

James *happily* runs away from the *deplorable* task of reading, and *happily* pulls up a chair to talk science.

0920 - James and dad talk about habitats, adaptations, and the critters that might live in specific oceanic habitats.

0930 - Muppet backup drummers breakout in a game of broom hockey in the breezeway (please don't tell mom!).

0945 James discovers the dark likability of the deep sea and it's evil looking creatures. Suddenly he has a new love of science! He picks five ocean creatures to read about (yes, he learned about field guides, indexes, and navigating via color/shape keys), and draw in their environments.

1145 - Lunch time - Hockey games is called into half time (no broken bones yet). Dastardly looking sea creatures returned to the murky deep. Yummy fruit and sandwiches on the table.

1230 - Early nap time. Dad has to grab a quick cat nap before Neila (our extra kid a couple of days a week) comes over. Five hours and thirty minutes (roughly) before mom returns home. . .

The dreaded "To-Do" list. . .

Anyone who knows my wife knows how much she abhors my "To-Do" list. Without the list i am a pathetically hopeless mess.

As though the universe was out to get her, today Amy observed Owen (our middle child - age 3) putting together a "To-Do" list of his own. He was verbalizing it all as he was organizing and cataloguing his list of things he and dad needed to do in his head. As a proof that these abominable lists actually work - my dear son Owen, who is singularly causing me to believe in ADHD, remembered to do, in order, everything that he had put on his list!!

Boy makes me proud!

As for this quite opening day of February. . . my list is getting chipped away at. Mumma is enjoying (i hope) a restful (again, i hope) afternoon nap, the kid-os are just creepin' outta bed, the back yard is on fire, James is busy coloring away and i am finally getting ready to stretch out on the couch after a day of chores!!

They say tomorrow may reach forty degrees. Wooohooo! Of course i suppose that will raise expectations to take a few more projects off my list.