Future Farmers

Fall Update

2009-10-12T09:25:00.015-04:00

Hi all! As you know by now, Summer has relinquished her crown, and we are swiftly moving into the post-equinox days of Autumn. Not that we dislike Autumn (it's Yvonne's favorite season), we're just doing our best to keep up with the seasonal changes and their attendant chores. However, we always do our best to value the unique quality of every season, even as we run for more row covers to keep our late-season crops from taking frost damage.

After the relatively cool and rainy summer, tales of early freezes became one of our pressing concerns. One evening in mid September, we realized that we had about six crops to cover. This translates in area to about one third of our half-acre. Although this isn't an enormous amount of land to cover, we live in a spot that's often windy. After our various adventures in Spring trying to cover summer crops with 40 mile an hour winds whipping our Agribon row covers like a skinny sail while we tried to get them to cover our summer crops, we were feeling somewhat depleted of enthusiasm. Remembering that some of our neighbors had volunteered help if we ever needed it, we did take a few moments to leave a short phone message for friends of ours in Wallingford. Although certain that their cheerful offer was a kindly platitude, perhaps my call would be regarded as an incitement to our friends to get together at some future date. Farm work, after all, was still the province of farmers.

Imagine our surprise later while sizing up some row covers for our cucumbers when we heard a friendly voice hail us from the area of our workshop. Two friends were there ready to assist us, and their spouses were on the way to join them.
With a total of six adults on the task, we were able to cover five vegetable crops and one patch of zinnias in record time. Frost protection in place, we adjourned to the kitchen to begin happy hour and make plans for a dinner get-together. We were grateful and impressed. It was one thing to know that we could make sales to friends and neighbors and get their support as customers; it was quite another to know that they'd happily give us their time and effort. Sometimes, difficult situations let you know who's in your corner.

Speaking of difficult situations, we have had all sorts of mixed blessings as we attempted to divine which planting procedures, crops, fertilizers, pest control methods, and weed suppression tricks will yield the best results. Sometimes we find the right answer, but our application comes too late: as when we discovered Spinosad was exactly the right organic pesticide to apply to voracious Colorado potato beetles. Although we were able to control those ravenous little freeloaders, not before they had totally destroyed the greens of our potato plants and stripped our eggplants down to the soil. When Ed brought the plague of orangey insects to heel, they were making for our tomatoes. Lesson learned: Do your research before the clouds gather.

In some instances, it just didn't matter how prepared we were. We were very excited this year about our tomato crop, having carefully selected a mix of heirloom, cold-hardy and visually attractive tomatoes for sale this summer. We were especially excited because although other growers we know had suffered tomato losses from early and late blight, our tomatoes were bearing fruit and ripening into a luscious palette of reds, greens and warm yellow. Anticipating the chance to arrive at the Farmers' Market with yet another colorful, lively crop, Ed noticed that the foliage on the tomato plants was wilting a mere two days before that week's market. Sadly, these were the signs that we'd been dreading: the arrival of late blight, a fungus that spreads easily by wind-borne spores. Even if we picked every tomato right away, we couldn't take any of the fruit to market for fear of spreading the spores to other vendors' produce.

Despite the disappointment of losing a crop, we count ourselves lucky in many ways. We still made our financial goal for our first season without a tomato, cucumber or eggplant crop. We gained a new customer in Blue House Bakery, a local business that bought our honey by the gallon. We participated in three events promoting local produce. Best of all, even on mornings bringing rainy, blustery chills, we were still visited by regular customers offering friendly encouragement. Certainly, some of the best payment for our efforts has been in the currency of community.

Spring/Summer Update

2009-06-02T19:42:00.013-04:00

Whew! Does anyone remember May?? We don't. Guess it's time to catch up.

A lot has happened in the last month and half; most of it has been good, but it's been one of those 'feast or famine' deals, and right now, we ain't starvin'. Joined in our concerns for living sustainably, Ed and I became part of a group of fellow Unitarians who all want to reduce our carbon footprint on the environment. Back in Fall of 2008, the bunch of us all obtained the book Low Carbon Diet and then held Friday night meetings to discuss energy saving methods and chart the progress of our efforts. Because we chose to meet in the evenings, our meetings are always followed with a potluck dinner. The honor of hosting fell to us on May 1st. This was something of a hosting challenge, being our largest home gathering to date. Ed's tour of our solar hot water heating system made a favorable impression with the result that two of our friends plan to install a system comparable to ours.

The following Sunday, Yvonne danced at a benefit in downtown Rutland for breast cancer research. The theme was a Gypsy Tea Party, so Yvonne was able to draw from her Roma style studies and put together a little half-time show for the intermission. The show was well attended, plus our friends from Middlebury Mitch Kramer and Dinah Smith attended. It was great to be involved in a local event, and Yvonne is looking forward to more opportunities of this type.

Did we mention that we wrote sermons? Both Ed and Yvonne delivered sermons on separate Sundays to the congregation of Rutland Unitarian Universalist Church. Did we mention that our Sundays were back to back? May 24th and May 31st? Or that between those two dates (Saturday, May 30) we actually started selling our produce at the Rutland Farmers' Market? This has been our favorite accomplishment by far this spring (No. We don't know if we're going to change the name of this blog). At least one year in preparation, we are now actually selling our produce to fellow citizens of Rutland county. How cool is that?

We started the growing season with lovely butterhead-style lettuces, leafy greens, radishes, and a handful of herbs. At the present, lettuces are waning in the hotter weather, but the onslaught of zucchini and summer squash is just starting. Soon (if we get any sun for more than 48 hours) we expect to have tomatoes, cucumbers and basil in abundance. Also, we'll be harvesting and setting out our garlic to dry.

Although we are very busy, we are grateful for the opportunity to become part of the local agricultural community. We have had the pleasure of selling vegetables to many of our neighbors, colleagues from Rutland Universalist Unitarian Church, and the pleasure of seeing friends from RAFFL, the Rutland Farm and Food Link. Ed has also mentioned that the direct marketing to customers "in person" was the one crucial element missing from his days as a farm hand on his family's farm in Illinois.

So much to share in these (sometimes) sunny days of summer. More as we have time to write it down...

The Hoop House is Up!

2009-04-15T11:00:00.008-04:00

Hey everyone! Check it out! Ed finished the hoop house! As you may imagine, this represents a major accomplishment for our future farm. With a lot of persistence and ingenuity, we now have the equivalent of an enormous cold frame for hardening off our seedling plants. So far, the placement of the hoop house at the southern end of the shop has proven to be a wise bit of planning; the shop protects the structure from southerly winds, and we get the maximum benefit of summer solar heating.

We have been anticipating spring with tortured longing this year; Even though the daylight hours are waxing, temperatures in our area have steadfastly averaged out around 50 F with night time temperatures dropping down as low as 15. Self-conscious about our Flatlander status, we retained an almost British "stiff upper lip" when discussing the weather with locals. As it turned out, our stoic efforts were returned with unbridled exasperation about the ongoing cold and wind. It seems Vermont natives have had enough, too. Bonding discussion of the presence of blooms, higher temperatures, and wearing fewer than three layers of clothes have ensued. So good to know that we're all in this together.

Few times of the year say "carpe diem!" like early spring, though. Hints of green in the landscape outside mean more vigorous industry at the homestead. Our goal to sell our vegetables at the 2009 Rutland Farmer's Market draws ever closer. Although certain crops benefit from being started in a warm germination shed, there are cool weather vegetables that thrive from direct seeding in the field. This past week saw Ed plowing like a nut to break ground for new planting beds and rows. Both of us were jointly engaged in planting seed for snow peas, mizuna, 4 varieties of carrots, 6 varieties of lettuce, 2 types of broccoli, 3 types of kale, chard, 2 types of arugula and a completely new crop mountain orach (it's so cool: it's magenta!). Then Ed made the encouraging discovery that some plants (mache and lettuce) that he shielded from the snows with row covers survived the winter! Makes us think we might be getting the hang of this; more news from the front soon.

In Like a Lion...

2009-03-10T10:03:00.012-04:00

So what else is new? Plenty! We begin the month of March by celebrating our first produce sale! Just last Tuesday, we were having dinner with friends on the Rutland Natural Foods Co-op board, and one of them mentioned that butternut squash was really expensive in the winter. Almost simultaneously, Ed and I both asked, "How much do you need? We've got plenty." As it turned out, after we weeded out the most attractive and largest squash, we had about 42 lbs of the prolific cucurbits. That Thursday, we drove in to Rutland to deliver the goods and to drop off some pumpkins to donate to the Rutland Open Door Mission as well. Both of us are really jazzed to have opportunities like these to contribute to the local community.

On the market farm front, Ed has immersed himself in two important construction projects. Inspired by farmer and writer Elliot Coleman, Ed has begun construction on a small hoop house/greenhouse for starting young seedlings.

One of our setbacks last year, having moved from Middlebury in late March, was not being able to get seeds started until well after most farming operations have young plants ready for the greenhouse. Although we didn't intend to sell vegetables our first year in Wallingford, it would have been helpful to get as much time learning about growing conditions as we could.

This year, during the snow-laden months of December and January, Ed ordered soil-blockers for creating little dirt cubes for planting seeds. The great news is that the soil-blockers (which look like sophisticated cookie-cutters) come in different sizes. As the plants get bigger, you can insert the tiniest blocks (about the size of a large sugar cube) into larger cubes of soil. This gives the young vegetables more root space without the unnecessary boundary of a peat pot. Then one fine day, we move the stronger plants out to the hoophouse to harden off. Next stop: the field!

The second construction project currently underway is the creation of a small 8' x 8' insulated room for refrigerating fresh veggies.

While this project has less of the conservatorial "charm" of building a greenhouse, its success is crucial to the viability of our venture. One thing I've learned about gardening and small-scale farming is the crops are ready when they're ready. A walk-in refrigeration unit is an important business investment. Luckily for us, Ed has both the know-how and impetus to get these jobs off the "to do" list and into the "done" pile! Meanwhile, I'll be misting dirt cubes and planting seedlings with anticipatory enthusiasm.

Bee update

2009-02-11T22:07:00.005-05:00

No pictures, but it was (briefly) warm enough today to open up the hives and take a quick look. This was the first day we've hit 50F since October. Executive summary: we're 4 for 4 so far, with ample stores of honey on all hives.

I shoved some fondant into the two swarm hives; they are our weakest, since they were started late last summer. I didn't do anything more than open the tops, confirm there were live bees in each hive, toss in the fondant, and close them back up.

Eleanor's hive had a bit of mold on the inner cover, so I added some spacers to improve the airflow. Airflow through the hive is very important because the bees stay warm by balling up, eating honey, and vibrating. They keep the hive interior 80F in winter, and 92-93F in late winter when they start raising brood again. The moisture from their respiration can build up if there is insufficient airflow, and can actually cause ice to form on the inside of the hive. The technical term for that is 'bad'.

When we get a warmer day we can take a closer look and get an idea of the size of the bee populations in each hive. We're expecting to have to split Louise's hive to prevent them from swarming. But that will wait until at least May. Today was the last warm day for the foreseeable future.

Gaea's Downtime

2009-01-08T18:02:00.010-05:00

Perhaps the biggest lesson I've learned from living in Vermont is to embrace winter. It's really easy on the days when snow is drifting quietly and laying a powdery blanket over the landscape. After all, the busy days of harvest are behind us, and though holidays bring a rush of activity, ideally they, too, can be an opportunity to count blessings, appreciate others, and look forward to the nascent year. So, although we're not outside every day weeding and watering, we have this season of contemplation to lay plans for new projects.

I also wrapped up an enlightening internship with the Smokey House Center. During the last weeks of the program, I had an interesting encounter with the local fauna. Outside the Conference Barn, I found a little black-capped chickadee sitting on the ground. The chickadee didn't react when I got near her, so I thought she must have slammed into the patio-sized glass windows in the front of the building and was stunned. I picked her up to see if she was injured. No blood, no obvious injuries. She wrapped her tiny talons around my fingers. Fortunately, Fran, my fellow intern happened to know where the SHC digital camera was. Here's a picture of me sending the Chickadee to be back with her pals...

January is aptly represented by the Roman God Janus, guardian of gates and doorways, since winter brings us both endings and beginnings, comings and goings. With that in mind, 2008 had some farewells (Chuck Berry, Miriam Makeba, Eartha Kitt, Yma Sumac), but saw the beginning of new lives, events and friendships (Isa, Megan, the Safford Family Ski Trip). Of course, I can't leave out our new Commander and Chief!! I think this next Inauguration will be the most historical event I'll witness, unless the gods have something really big in store...

Winter is a great time for drawing up crop rotation diagrams, solidifying a business plan and perusing seed catalogs! We had great success with seeds purchased last year from High Mowing Seeds, a producer of organic vegetable and flower seeds based in Wolcot, Vermont. Paging through the colorful sections of the HMS catalog, it's hard not to long for brighter days and higher temperatures.

Still, winter is the best time for me to pursue intellectual pursuits that I can't give as much focus to when I've got irrigation lines to lay. My Yule present to myself this year will be to buy a book/cd set for learning Finnish. I've waited a long time to continue my language studies. Besides, gotta be ready for those cultural exchange opportunities when they appear. Here's to discussing the Kalevala in the sauna...

Breaking Ground

2008-12-03T11:23:00.003-05:00

We're working on opening up a new quarter acre plot for vegetable production next year. In the middle (between the two strips of black garden cloth) is a mulched bed of garlic. We planted the garlic in late October for next summer's harvest.

This shot shows the results of one pass with the rotary plow. It does a pretty good job of breaking up the sod, but we'll need to do at least another pass with the tiller attachment to get a workable seed bed. The wavy course of the furrow is due to the rock in the soil that makes the tractor and plow jump around some. After each pass I go back and pull out all the rock I find.

Here's a shot of the pile of smaller rocks that we've recovered thus far:

Harvest Wrap-Up

2008-11-29T18:47:00.018-05:00

Thought it would be good during Thanksgiving break to take a breather before the Holiday Rush begins in earnest. Truthfully, though, the year has been pretty great. Ed and I are looking forward to a Thanksgiving potluck in Pittsford with fellow members of The UU Church of Rutland.

Well, of the many things we learned this year one thing was clear: We can grow squash! Our yields for butternut squash and pumpkins were particularly high. The pumpkin harvest alone was approximately 75 pumpkins, with the largest one weighing in at 58 lbs! One of the best things about both are how easily we are able to store them over the winter.

The other great thing is how Ed has taken the lead in discovering great soups to make with pumpkins. With the invaluable help of Mollie Katzen's wonderful vegetarian cookbooks, we've made some super discoveries.

We have also gotten some good things accomplished before the winter begins in earnest. I got a handful of bulbs in the ground before the ground froze. I am wondering if cut flowers might be a potential business along with our other market farm endeavors. We'll see. I found out about a great garden supply source that sells heirloom varieties of bulbs; they also put together packages suited for different growing regions of the U.S. I decided to start with their selection for Zone 4b and see how well the bulbs survive the winter. Here's hoping!

Another great opportunity that's come my way this year is working with local potter Carl Buffum at Wallingford Pottery right in town. I've taken on some of the grunt work such as mixing clay and stacking the kiln for firings in exchange for some studio time on the wheel.

I started out working with clay left over from my classes at Frog Hollow, however, all of the glazes I've used so far are Carl's. It was fun experimenting with these. Since I have a tendency toward shiny, glassy glazes, I don't usually spend a lot of time on manipulating the surfaces of my pieces. However, Carl uses one basic white matte glaze that really emphasizes the the texture of the clay body. In the pictures here, it is possible to see how much the glaze moves around to cover the surface of the pieces. Although Carl is getting ready to close down the studio for the year (the larger workplace is in a screened-in porch), I am already looking forward to doing more next spring.

Smokey House

2008-11-01T14:14:00.015-04:00

Hi All. Between the post growing season wrap up and taking time to appreciate the beautiful fall colors, I haven't written much about what I'm doing for work right now. At present, I have the privilege of working at The Smokey House Center, a remarkable educational center and working farm located in the awe-inspiring beauty of Danby, VT. With over 5,000 acres of reserved land set aside for its mission, the staff work to teach youth practical skills in sustainable living. Founded with a principal of work as an enhancement to education, all teens enrolled in the programs here are required to report to team leaders, learn group skills, and keep their grades up. It is exciting to see what's going on here, and also take part in some of the daily activities.
My specific title is "Energy Efficiency Intern". I am researching ways to "zip up" some of SHC's buildings so that the organization can save on fuel costs. What that translates to in my work day is: caulking! However, that's great, because ever since my VWW Women's Carpentry Class, I've become more interested than ever in sustainable and energy efficient architecture.

When I'm not doing online research or spending quality time with my caulk gun, I have had the opportunity to really appreciate what a truly beautiful state VT is. Gotta say, driving to work on the Beltway really couldn't hold a candle to this.

Time out for Chuckles

2008-10-02T21:37:00.004-04:00

Huzzah! We caught Chuckles today. This juvenile groundhog, whom we dubbed Chuckles, had taken up residence in our run-in shed. Through creative means we convinced him/her to move elsewhere. Unfortunately "elsewhere" ended up in a burrow under our garden shed inside our garden's perimeter electric fence. Dang. So we got a live trap. Turns out apples are a primo bait for wood chucks.

So after taking this picture, I lugged Chuckles down to the creek and freed him/her in our lower wood lot. Hopefully it's well enough away from the garden that we won't have a Chuckles sequel.

Power Up

2008-09-30T14:28:00.006-04:00

Above is our latest green/sustainable/energy-saving initiative. Davis, owner of Bright Earth Solar, and his sister Rian just finished installing a dozen photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of our shop. The panels are mounted on a fixed frame and are capable of generating a maximum of about 2.5 kilowatts. Over the course of a year this array should produce enough power to offset about 60% of our current electrical load. An adjustable array would have improved the efficiency somewhat, but would have increased the chance of damage in high winds.

Inside the shop is the grid-tie inverter (on right) which converts the direct current from the PV panels to alternating current in synch with the grid. The inverter connects to a meter (center) and thence to the shop's sub-panel (left), where the power back-feeds to the main panel in the house. Our power meter on the house spins backwards when we make more power than we use, which is a pretty nifty thing to see. The payback period will depend on how fast electrical rates increase here in Vermont. If they average 4% per year (which seems pretty conservative), the payback period will be approximately 20 years. But the state is already talking about a 6% increase for next year, so we shall see.

Next month Davis will be coming back to install two solar hot water heating panels on the house. That will help a lot, since we burn oil for our hot water now.

The Good Earth!

2008-09-03T18:56:00.021-04:00

Here are some images from our first growing season. The cherries were planted by the previous owners. They are sour cherries, but they still make pretty fine jam and chutney if Yvonne is involved! And bees go knutz over the flowers in spring.

This is the pumpkin forest that is now elbowing out the potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and a few other things. This shot is from July. Now in early September we have many pumpkins in the 30-40 pound range turning orange. Yikes! We are thinking about hosting a Great Pumpkin party.

Above are a small cucumber and a young butternut squash.

This is our first donation (potatoes, chard, kale, squash, beans, and cucumbers) to The Mission , a local homeless shelter. We've donated over 35 lbs of produce to them so far, plus an equal amount given away to friends at the UU Church of Rutland. And our basement freezer is nearly full.

We thought briefly about selling our extra veggies this year, but decided the good karma of giving away the excess was probably more useful to us all in the long run. Our objective this season was to learn about our soils, pests, weeds, and climate, and to feed ourselves in the process. We have largely accomplished those goals. It has been a good summer!

Swarm 3

2008-09-03T18:28:00.004-04:00

Sorry for not posting in a timely fashion. We've been very busy with harvests and bees.

Below is our fourth colony, now termed the duplex. Two days after the second swarm showed up, a third (also from the neighbors or a feral colony) appeared in our blackberries. That's three swarms in 10 days landing within 30' of one another. I think we're in a sweet spot for bees!

We dithered for a few days on what to do; we had very little extra bee hardware on hand. After the swarm stayed put two nights in the berry bushes, and with a forecast of thunderstorms moving in, we decided to try combining this swarm with the second swarm. We hit the bee text book and got the details on using newspaper to temporarily screen the two colonies from one another. A lot of beekeeping theory has become practice for us in a hurry!

This is a shot of the duplex with the newspaper in place. The bees chewed through it in about two days. We later inspected the hive and found the surviving queen. We named her Calamity Jane, and marked her as an '08 queen (red). (She might be older, but there's no way to know.) The race is on: these bees need to quickly lay in 60+ pounds of honey or they will not survive the winter. We're helping with sugar syrup feedings; they are sucking down a pint+ a day. There are plenty of things in bloom and the weather has been perfect, so they might make it.

Swarm, redux

2008-07-31T19:50:00.006-04:00

Last Tuesday (7/29) we went out to the bee yard to check on the ladies. At the same instant we both spotted this in one of the cherry trees:

Seems like we have a honey bee swarm every Tuesday now. What the heck?! I sort of expected Thelma's swarm the previous week, but no way did I think Louise's hive was going to swarm. Well, we eventually found out that Louise and her crew were where they belong -- this was someone else's swarm, or perhaps even a feral colony swarm that happened to land in our cherry tree. It was eerie that they were almost silent; a writhing mass of bugs, but silent. Trippy. They usually make quite a fair racket.

Well, I hate to turn away free bees, and we had some additional equipment (the hive body is still in primer, but useable enough in a pinch). This time we knew the drill and we were even dressed for the occasion!

Shake into hive, add top feeder, cover, and let simmer.

After we got these new arrivals housed we checked the other hives. We found eggs in Louise's colony, and eventually found Louise herself. The eggs were the key though. Bees exist as eggs for 3 days. The queen stops laying eggs at least a week before the swarm leaves, so we knew this colony had not swarmed even before we found Louise.

Over in Thelma's old colony things are going along pretty well. We found at least 4 of these beauties:

The peanut shaped thing is a capped queen cup. (The rest of the frame is mostly of capped worker bee brood.) One or more of these will hatch soon and we'll have a new queen in Thelma's old colony. We're discussing names even now. The fun part will be marking her. We practiced doing that with drones when we took the bee keeping class through the MCBA , so that training will come in very handy. It's a good idea to mark the queen so that you can find her a little more easily. Also the color indicates the year of hatch (2008 is red). Queens will live for 4-5 years, but their best egg production only lasts 1.5 - 2 years. It's really handy to know when she should be replaced -- a weakly laying queen means a weak colony.

To Catch a Swarm

2008-07-24T18:51:00.022-04:00

Tuesday (7/22), at approximately 1 pm I chanced by the bee yard. Thousands of bees were whipping around the air. Thelma's hive had swarmed! We had had some inkling that this might be in the works, but thought we had headed it off. Not so.

While honey bee swarms look downright biblical, they are really very manageable events if you 1) know what to do, and 2) don't panic. Swarms are the way honey bee colonies reproduce. The queen and most of the bees capable of flight (that's 15-25 thousand) make a mass exodus and search for a new home. They are very gentle while swarming because they have no home to defend. That said, when I gathered myself, I ran inside and told Yvonne what was happening. She alertly brought the camera so you get to see what happened next.

This is me and the swarm in one of our cherry trees. Eventually the swarm lands and waits for the scouts to find a new home. They may stay in the first spot for 20 minutes or 3 days, depending on what the scouts say and the weather conditions. By the way that's steely resolve on my face, not panic.

Here's a close up of the swarm wriggling in the cherry tree. That's the brim of my hat on the right.

Fortunately we had some extra bee equipment on hand for just such an occasion. I didn't figure to use it until next year, but that plan has clearly been overcome by events. I put the hive body underneath the swarm and we cut off the branch of the tree. Then we shook the bees off and into their new quarters, thus:

Once the cover is on, it suddenly looks like a normal bee yard again. Nothing to see here; move along, move along.

Today we took a look at the new hive and added some frames from the established hives. We put in a frame full of honey, and one of larva and capped brood. Folks say the presence of brood is the best way to ensure the swarm adopts the new hive as home. Predictably the bees had gotten a bit confused and were building comb from the top down. That's why they are all piled up on the inner cover. After this shot was taken I shook them down into the hive body, and Yvonne scraped the last of the burr comb off the inner cover. With luck the two drawn frames will convince them to build new comb in the right place (on the foundation, not the roof).

Hopefully the bees that remained in Thelma's old hive will have a new queen hatch out by early next week. (We added a frame of eggs from Louise's hive for insurance, so if there is no queen on the way the bees can make one now.) We'll keep an eye out for an unmarked queen next time we open up that hive. According to schedule the new queen should be making mating flights next week, and should start to lay eggs the week after that. If we're lucky we'll be able to find and mark her. Too much fun!

Compost is the Answer...

2008-06-28T16:38:00.012-04:00

...or at least it's a gardener's very dear friend. Compost adds organic matter and nutrients to soil, helps build soil structure, and increases the amount of water the soil can hold by an order of magnitude.

Here is a shot of the two compost piles we have underway so far, with a stack of hay in the foreground. We layer kitchen scraps and some carbon sources (paper, wood chips, and whatever else we can scrounge) in the hay and let it rot to make compost. In time we will add a third pile. The walls for the piles are just some shipping pallets that the previous owners left us.

Like all startup operations, we are compost poor this first year. We should have some finished compost by the middle of August, so that will be a start. Next year we will be in much better shape.

Our source for the hay is the grass from the pasture (most of our land is open pasture). We cut it with the sickle bar attachment on the Grillo. (The tiller attachment is the green thing parked to the left.)

The sickle bar works pretty well, though grass does tend to bunch up around the axle. The blue PTO shield needs to be a bit wider in order to lay the grass more to the sides. If I run out of things to do I'll add some arms to the faring.

In addition to composting the hay, we also apply it directly on the garden as a mulch, as this image shows:

Mulch suppresses weeds and slows moisture loss while it slowly breaks down (rots). All good stuff. In really weedy areas we lay down a layer of cardboard first and then pile the grass on top of that.

Summer, Sawdust and Skillsaws

2008-06-21T16:40:00.014-04:00

One of the high points of 2008 has been my opportunity to enroll in a program for Construction Skills for Women sponsored by Vermont Works for Women. I found out about it when I interviewed at the Department of Labor for a spot in the Step Up to Highway Construction program. Vermont Works for Women, a non-profit based in Winooski, VT, provides training and workshops for women exploring careers considered traditionally "male." In addition, VWW provides classes for girls to build their practical skills, express themselves creatively and expose them to professional female mentors.

Construction Skills for Women is really the title of a series of classes; the specific course that I participated in was for carpentry. The moderators of the program displayed high expectations for class participants. Each of us had to interview for the program twice, explain clearly in each interview why we thought we'd be good candidates for the program, and make a commitment to finish the program. Despite the sort of pedagogical spin with which I may have flavored this description, our program coordinators Rachel and Kristen showed uncanny insight in handling each woman's personal situation. I was repeatedly impressed with their "people sense" and ability to manage "situations" gracefully.

The educational aspects of these classes were most valuable. Though most of us hadn't really had much professional experience as carpenters, it became clear that all of us had little fear of getting our hands dirty. Classroom time Tuesday and Wednesday evenings broached topics such as what to expect from the construction trades, workplace environment, self-employment and job-finding skills. Fairly confident in my interviewing skills, I most appreciated the number of professional business owners, mostly women, who participated our class panel discussions. This generous gift of time gave me a lot of personal satisfaction. Women may not be common in construction or carpentry, but we do have a presence. Fab. I'm not ruling out power tools for Christmas yet.

In addition to great speakers, we also had the opportunity to accept on-site placements known as "job shadows." For one day (sometimes a few hours, depending on the work being done) we were allowed to work on active construction sites. I was able to do this three times during the course of the classes. Each time, I had access to a different aspect of the trade. My first placement was on site for a new bank building in Colchester. At this site, I got to use a drill, a circular saw, use a Paslode cordless nailer to set siding and operate a pneumatic lift. I also spent the second half of the day working with a really cool woman named Sylvia who had been in construction for about 14 years.

My next placement was in a private home in Addison County helping two guys finish remodeling work on an old Vermont home. That day, I got to cut and measure drywall, spray foam insulation, and briefly handle a Sawzall. I liked this job shadow for the opportunity it gave me to talk to the other guys on the job about their experiences in the field. It also pointed out to me how differently one has to behave in a domestic environment vs. a regular construction site. Navigating some of the upstairs rooms while wearing a full tool belt and work boots was a special sort of ballet.

The third job shadow I took had me working with the foreman installing cabinets in a new home. This was my first experience on a sustainable build, and I got to ask a few questions about standards, power usage, and materials. This crew was great. The camaraderie was palpable, and I never felt blown off or excluded. In fact, the day went by so fast at this site, that I was actually surprised to hear someone say that it was 4:00 pm! Never had a desk job like that.

Rounding out the classroom discussions and exercises, Saturdays during the course we worked on an actual construction project. As a class, we built a garden shed under the fearless supervision of Amy Judd, proprietress of Plane Jane Builders. Gotta love anyone who'd ditch the office in order to contribute to the skyline of Essex Junction, VT. Amy is not only a confident carpenter, but she is a gifted teacher in numerous ways. Most valuable is her talent for maintaining an active work site where everyone, regardless of personality type, feels at ease. She is also super at letting everyone discover their strengths, not just their weaknesses. Amy was really clear about everyone jumping in and "getting out of their comfort zone."

In any event, it was a great experience. Although I haven't landed a carpenter's assistant position yet, the experience I've had working with others in construction is invaluable. I will be spending two days (Saturday July 5th and Monday July 7th) on a Habitat for Humanity build in Milton. I am scheduled to go back again on August 16th, and look forward to sharing my time and energy with the volunteers on site. While I search for a job, the opportunity to lend my arm to building homes for others sure seems like a fair trade.

Bees Galore!

2008-06-20T18:30:00.006-04:00

The bees are doing well. This frame has lots of empty cells where new adult bees recently hatched out. Looking through the hives yesterday I saw lots of fuzzy bees. When bees first hatch out they are much fuzzier than the older adults. It will be another 3 weeks before our newly hatched bees actually start flying.

The populations of both hives look good; both "Thelma" and "Louise" seem to be laying well. Thelma's hive has a slight edge in population, and I saw two drone cells on Louise's comb. In about 3 more weeks all the original worker bees that came with the packages will have died off, and our new bees will take over all the jobs in the hive. We expect the population to spike upwards soon -- from the approximately 3,000 that came in each package to the full strength of 50,000-60,000 per hive.

Crap. No Raspberries.

2008-06-16T15:56:00.008-04:00

So now we know what the Mystery Shrubs weren't. However, it's not all bad news. We seem to have a kind of old-fashioned, culinary style rose known as rosa rugosa. So, for the time being, raspberry jam: no. Home-made rose water: yes.

Hits and Misses

2008-06-06T19:13:00.010-04:00

Here is some of our first harvest. It's a mixed bag of bolting spinach, red Russian kale and mizuma. Mmmmm. Stir fry! The kale and mizuma have been cut for thinning purposes and should continue to yield in quantity for months to come. The spinach is another matter:

Near the center of this image you can see the flower stalk starting to form. It's been quite dry and the spinach has decided the top priority is to reproduce while it still can. Doh! It's not the end of the world, but the greens do tend to get bitter when the plant goes to flower. So we're cutting those that have started to bolt and using them immediately in salads and stir fries. We've planted more spinach next to the strawberries (which are now up), so that will be along in 6-8 weeks.

Here's a shot of the bok choi which has also bolted and is very leggy (that's red clover on the right). The small yellow spots are the bok choi flowers. It still isn't too bitter, but it's never going to amount to much now, so we'll cut it out and replant it. A total loss, but that's the way it goes. This year is for learning. Well...every year is for learning, but this year especially so.

What's in a name?

We've gotten some feedback that we should rename this blog to something indicating that we're now "farming". Well, not quite. We're sort of "pretty serious gardeners" now. Farming will ramp things up about another order of magnitude. So we're going to keep the blog name for the near term, at least until we sell something.

Bee update

No images on this, but the bees are doing very well. We've dubbed the two queens "Thelma" and "Louise", and both seem to be laying well. We've seen eggs, larva, and capped brood in both hives. This Monday we took a look inside we saw several bees doing the waggle dance to indicate the location of a nectar source. That was very cool! The bees are very gentle, and don't seem to mind us handling them. In temperament our Italian bees are to bees as black labs are to dogs. The only issue with them is their burr comb production. That seems to have mostly settled down, but we still call them our bauhaus bees when we find new, creative features to their comb.

By the way, as many of you know, bees are responsible for at least a third of our food supply. And it's the best tasting third that they contribute to: fruit, nuts, berries, and some veggies like tomatoes and squash. I read recently that a melon farm will produce 80,000-90,000 pounds of fruit per acre when bees are available to pollinate the flowers. Without bees the yield is 10,000-12,000 pounds per acre. That's a really good reason to keep bees!

Tiny Veggies!

2008-05-29T13:36:00.006-04:00

Here are photos of our early greens. These were taken last week, after three days or so of rain. These are a sample of what we hope to be growing in somewhat larger quantities next year. All of them were planted in rows about two feet wide and 38.5 feet long. They are respectively Red Oak Leaf lettuce, Russian Red kale, mizuna and spinach.

Power Toyz

2008-05-27T19:41:00.009-04:00

Oh yeah! We're havin' fun now!

As you can see we received the Grillo and got it into action. It took me a while to learn how to engage the PTO. This has an automotive-type clutch and transmission. That is, an Italian automotive transmission. Mi parlo en po Italiano (I speak a little Italian), but I don't do it well: learning the ins and outs of an Italian transmission took some time. By the end of an hour, though, I was able to put this bad boy pretty much where I wanted it. The Grillo is a nice machine. It has 4 gears forward and 3 reverse; the forward/reverse control is in the right hand, the clutch in the left. It has independent wheel brakes, so swinging it around at the end of a row is pretty simple. The control column swivels to either side, and reverses 180 degrees entirely if the implement is to be pushed instead of pulled.

The tiller itself is just one of 4 implements we own. In due course we'll bring out the 53" sickle bar cutter, the chipper/shredder, and the rotary plow. I predict more fun will ensue.

We got this machine with a little (8 hp) Lombardini diesel engine. While diesel fuel is more expensive than gasoline these days, a diesel engine burns only half to a third as much fuel as a gasoline engine with the same torque (in our case 8hp diesel = 12 hp gasoline). In two hours of tilling this quarter acre plot into a finished seedbed I burned about 1/3rd of a gallon of fuel. Added benefits are the reduced maintenance of the diesel engine (on average they last twice as long as gasoline engines), and the flexible fuel potential. We're going to plant oil-seed sunflowers so in a real pinch we could use some of that pressed oil as fuel in the tractor, with some minor modifications.

After the tilling fun was over we planted some asparagus crowns, and companion planted some tomatoes and basil. We planted some strawberry crowns, so we'll soon have a bevy of strawberries (we hope). And we also transplanted our pak choi and tat soi which we had started in paper tube planters. Hopefully the deer won't get them before I get the higher electric fence into action. Another concern is that we have frost potential tonight and tomorrow night. I covered the sensitive things with straw this evening, so hopefully we'll weather this cold air without loss and get on to growing in earnest.

Da BeeZ

2008-05-26T13:28:00.014-04:00

Check...it...out!!

We are now livestock owners! As of a week ago, Edward returned from a business trip to the D.C. area with two packages of bees.

In the interests of general FYI, we did take classes in beekeeping back in 2006 from the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association. Boy, did we learn a lot! Ed has had a long-standing interest in beekeeping, and he found out about the class. When we found out that Yvonne could take the class for less if she came along, we thought, "That's a deal!" Turned out to be an even better deal than we imagined. In addition to the broad range of experiential data we received, beekeepers are some of the most colorful human beings on earth. Attending MCBA classes and meetings were educational in more than one sense of the word.

The important part, however, was how helpful and enthusiastic the club members were to get new beekeepers (the "new-bees") started. In the past 15 years or so, a great number of hives in the U.S. have been decimated by various blights, parasites and other less transparent factors. Knowledge of these issues is important for anyone planning to keep hives. Beekeepers have to know what they are looking for in their colonies to accurately assess the well being of their bees. Seasonal awareness of weather, nectar flow, pollen availability and neighbors' attitudes have all got to be on the beekeeper's radar. This preparation helped us greatly to start our own hives.

Last week, we started out bright and early Sunday morning to introduce our bees to their new homes. We carried the two packages out to the spot we'd selected between our blackberry brambles and the garden. Fortunately, the temperatures were balmy and there was little wind. We carefully pulled the queen cage (along with dedicated attendants) from the first package, quickly covering the opening it left on top of the main package so only a few more bees would fly out. We balanced the queen cage between the hive frames as we had been instructed so that the rest of the bees would be able to find her quickly. The cage holding the queen is often stoppered with a candy plug which the worker bees will chew through to release the queen. This cage had a small cork plug as well, guaranteeing some insurance that the queen would make it to her new home safely.

Later we would assist our workers in getting the queen out by gently pushing in the cork when we discovered her still in the cage a day later. The workers now had greater access to the queen's chamber and could enable her escape.

Then the real fun begins. We have to remove the can of sugar syrup that has been feeding the bees, while one of us (Ed) up ends the cage and dumps the buzzing, excited contents into the hive body. Only our bottom section has frames to get the hive started so there's room for two feeders to give the new occupants a food supply. Ed deftly handled this duty with verve and élan. Then we did it all again for our second hive.

We are happy to relate that few injuries were sustained. We both already possessed beekeeper's jackets and kept our hoods on during the moving operation. A day's inspection later revealed that the bees were starting to build out the wax foundations, gather nectar and generally make themselves at home. There was some burr comb on the floor of the hive bodies and between some of the frames Burr comb= any comb built in a random fashion around the frames.

It's best to scrape this off as soon as it is discovered so that later the hive body doesn't resemble a random mess of labyrinthine combs. In addition, it's best not to let the queen to have time to lay eggs in this stuff so that when it's removed, you are not killing off developing bees at the same time.

Here at the end of Week One, we were happy to see both of our queens busily moving about the hive, attendant bees on duty and eggs clearly present in the comb. There were even a few capped cells with honey! We also had to scrape out a bit of burr comb to abort some extracurricular building projects. One small piece of burr had some capped honey and pollen. So far, the apiculture experiment seems to be well under way.

Signs of Life

2008-05-07T11:40:00.014-04:00

Slowly, Spring is catching up to us. Nothing pleases a future farmer more than the sight of young snow peas stretching for the sky. In addition, recent surveys reveal small arugula, kale, and broccoli sprouts are joining the horticultural ranks. The potatoes that we planted last week are just beginning to green. As per tradition, April's farewell gift to us was a few days of cool rain. We felt lucky; most of April was dry (except, of course, on the days we had flurries!).

As the introspection of winter wanes, one welcomes the promise of new discoveries. Part of the fun of living here is that Ken and Linda, the former owners, are avid gardeners. Already established in a neat row behind the workshop are a row of blackberry bushes. Not far away from the blackberries, one of a row of cherry trees is now at the height of a full, snowy blossom.

A neat patch of rhubarb with its leafy-crowned, ruby stems is looking more ready each day for early summer jamming.

Judging from the nightly wossails of the local frogs in Otter Creek and the number of avian visitors that appear, the local ecosystem is in good shape. The cherry trees are attracting buzzing clouds of pollinating insects: bumble bees, honey bees, the smaller orchard bees and wasps. With all the news about declining populations of bees and other helpful garden dwellers, we feel as if our endeavors might stand a chance. Here's looking forward to summer.

Ah, Spring ... sort of

2008-04-28T16:23:00.007-04:00

We hear a lot of these little guys at night now. Ever since the snow melted the spring peepers have made nights very loud and exotic. The sound is similar to Maryland's insect chorus on August nights, but maybe louder. I'm sure we have plenty of tadpoles in the vernal pools in the back 6. The ducks and geese are eating something.

We've begun excavating the garden and planting some cold-tolerant crops (we're still a good 4 weeks from the first frost-free night). So far we have planted sugar peas, two types of chard, mesculin mix, spinach, kale, arugula, broccoli, two types of lettuce, mache, mizuna, and beets. The peas, chard, and arugula are all up. Hopefully they will stay up; we're supposed to have overnight lows in the lower 20s tonight.

Digging the garden beds has been a useful exercise. There is a lot of rock. So far the biggest boulder we've unearthed was the size of a soccer ball. The good news is that there is plenty of quality soil between the boulders. The soil maps were generally correct -- most of the soil we've worked so far is silt-loam, but there is a band of heavy clay towards the eastern end of the plot that the soil maps did not mention. We have submitted a sample for detailed analysis, and are waiting the results before we start guessing at soil amendments.

Our intention this year is to grow crops chiefly for our own use, and to get to know the place better. To that end, hand digging the garden beds is possible, even enjoyable for the first several hours. But larger scale production will demand a little more mechanization. That's where this baby comes in:

This is an Italian made "walking" tractor. It's a two wheeled tractor powered by an 8hp Lombardini diesel engine, with pivoting controls and mounts a standard set of implements on quick connectors. Ours is coming with a rotary plow, tiller (pictured), 53" sickle bar, and a chipper/shredder. The advantage of this system is that we buy and maintain a single power plant, rather than buying a separate engine with each implement. In time we can also add other implements -- log splitter and snow blower spring to mind, but they make all kinds of things for these tractors like carts, spaders, finish mowers, and even balers. We could have gone with a small, conventional tractor, but the neighbors have plenty of those for borrow or hire if we need them, and we wanted to be as miserly with fuel use as possible. Here is a link to just such a tractor in action with a rotary plow. I'll let you know how they are at handling rock.

The Move to Wallingford

2008-04-23T17:02:00.016-04:00

Hi All,

For those of you who have stayed tuned, we are in our fourth inaugural week of living in Wallingford, Vermont. After a lot of time spent on the road, skirmishes with disgruntled owner/landlords, scary basements and weird smells, we found a house in VT that we believe will be the site of our Future Farm. Wallingford is a small town just about eight miles south of the city of Rutland with beautiful views not too dissimilar from Switzerland.

Even though this is great news, it meant that we had to leave Middlebury, a fine town. We had hoped that we could find a new home nearby, but nothing panned out. Although we were intrigued by the area's offerings of vintage farmhouses, most of what we visited was either super new and situated on land inappropriate for farming, or super old, falling down and situated on land that would great for farming...eventually. We truly are going to miss some of the great people we met through the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society and Frog Hollow Crafts Center. Deb and Bud Smith, the owners of our apartment, were essentially our "hook-up" to most things Middlebury. There is a stimulating charge in the air of college towns; and we were most lucky during our six months as residents to have so many cultural events, community activities and great company all within walking distance.

Our move took the form of a two-pronged attack: On March 28, after the closing at the sellers' attorney's office in Poultney, we were able to borrow a van from the sellers' real estate office. We drove the van up to Middlebury, packed our things in and did a drive by the home of Chris and Susan English who had kindly been storing things of ours that were too big to keep in our town efficiency. After the secondary loading, we drove down to our new residence to make the best of the first week. Sans real furniture, it was sort of amazing how much work Ed was able to do. Mealtimes were saved by the fact that we had brought some of our kitchen stuff from the Englishs' pole barn and we had just enough of Yvonne's ceramic pieces to make dinner civilized.

The following Saturday, April 5th, we drove down to the D.C./MD to retrieve the balance of our worldly possessions. We had beautiful driving weather, for a change, and we made great time (about 9 hours). Once again, we were welcomed by our friends Steve and Andrea Matney in Glen Echo. The next day, Sunday, we wisely chose to goof off and socialize. We attended the 10:30 service at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring. It was great to see so many people and update them on our travels. It turned out that other UUCSS ex-pats were visiting that day, so it was somewhat like homecoming.

Monday was all business. Chris English also hails from MD, and had arranged to take off time from a family visit to help us load our moving van and his personal vehicle with our stuff. Chris met us at the storage facility at 9:30 on the dot. Because Chris and Susan had moved to VT approximately a year and a half earlier than we had, Chris arrived organized and armed with recent memory of the best ways to relocate everything you own. Except for the fine drizzle that kept up through the mid morning through early afternoon, we couldn't have asked for a smoother transfer of items. All three of us were largely in agreement about the best ways to pack a moving truck (i.e. putting the big things in the truck first and then fitting smaller things around them.) I have participated in moving "parties" that involved far more people and way less competence. The very next a.m., Ed and I were back on the road up to VT.

The turn around time was about 4 days (April 5 to 8). On Wednesday, April 8, we unloaded the van, again with Chris's help (he was on his way back up north that morning), got all the furniture into the house, and made sure that all boxes went either to the basement or garage to shelter them from the elements.

Chris left to rejoin his wife Susan in their home in Cornwall in the early afternoon (we were sorry; we had wanted to share a celebratory pizza with him), and we made it our business to put together the bed and the dining room table. One week's camp-out without them was enough.

At present, we are enjoying our first spring in Vermont. Late-night online seed buying has gotten us enough seed to start exploring what the soil up here will support (besides small boulders. The mineral capacity of VT soil is legendary). The property has a number of blackberry bushes and an established rhubarb bed. Young red shrubs which might be either raspberries or miniature roses (we're hoping for raspberries) are starting to put out tiny little pleated leaves. The lilacs are getting greener every day. The snowmelt lake that had occupied the five acres closest to Otter Creek is slowly evaporating.

We started last week turning over the rich, rocky soil to see the encouraging pink-brown glistening of several healthy nightcrawlers.
So far we've planted arugula, spinach, snow peas, kale, mixed greens for salad and broccoli. Now, to figure out where the asparagus bed will go...

Winter Rap Up

2008-04-15T21:08:00.006-04:00

It's been a long winter. This image is my car after a March ice storm (no damage done). Note the spiffy new Vermont tags on the car!

This winter was one for the record books, literally. All-time snowfall records were set state-wide. Burlington, VT (to our north) received 120.2 inches of snow this winter (or about 10" more than the previous all time record). I told folks before we moved here that I only grew tired of winter once in my life. That total has been doubled.

Our last snow (so far) was Saturday (April 12). There was no accumulation, but we had driving snow showers all day long. The snowpack on the mountains is still over 60" in most places, though the snow on the lower elevations has been gone for over two weeks at this point.

PASA 2008

2008-03-12T20:17:00.009-04:00

In early February we attended the annual PASA conference in State College, Pennsylvania. Last year's conference was, in a word, transformative -- that's in large measure why we're here now. This year built upon that experience. The conference was slightly larger -- approximately 2,000 folks attended, from 39 states and 8 countries. We again did the pre-conference, day-long track for beginning farmers and learned a great deal about high tunnels for extending harvests into winter, effective pasture management, effective marketing, and many other topics.

In the business portion of the conference we learned the latest on PASA's effort to overturn the PA state regulation banning certain specific milk labels (see this link for the full story). The executive summary is that Monsanto got to the Pennsylvania Ag department and persuaded them to ban the use of any phrase on a milk container stating rBST/rBGT was not used to produce the milk. Call me a zealot, but I view the elimination of the corporation as the sine qua non for democracy's continuance. And if you want to follow me to the barricades and face the big ag/pharma juggernaut head on, see The Future of Food. Other frustrations at the conference included the news that the dean of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences decided there was no need to replace the only one (1) retiring pasture scientist on his staff, because, in his words, "...there is nothing new to learn about pasture management." Absolutely amazing. And as long as I'm on my soapbox, we got to see King Corn at the conference. It offers more proof that our government is acting in the best interests of Monsanto, Pioneer , Archer Daniel Midlands , and other deep pocketed corporations, rather than we the people.

Beyond production and marketing workshops, book vendors, the art show, and political activism, we chatted up many of the equipment folks. I spent quite a bit of time at the BCS dealers booth. I'm convinced that's the solution for us, as opposed to small, conventional tractors and implements. I also bought a nifty stirrup hoe.

January changes, Part 1

2008-02-15T22:04:00.001-05:00

We've been a bit remiss in updates, and much has changed, both for good and ill, but mostly for good.

Let me start with my working situation. A few days before Christmas I found out that my contract position was to be terminated. I had been tele-working from our apartment, working on the same weather service contract for which I had worked in DC. It was a good arrangement -- I was working only half time, but that was enough to pay the bills, my task (code refactoring) was very interesting, and it was something the branch needed to have done. All persons involved (me, my management, and the government folks) felt it was a good arrangement.

That was then. A higher up on the government side got wind of the the situation and determined that I must be sacked (for reasons that are still closely held). So my role on the contract came to an end the first week of January. It was difficult -- I'd worked with those folks for the past 12 years.

Fortunately the SAIC project manager on our contract with the Environmental Modeling Center (or EMC, which is located in the same building as my old contract) saw an opportunity. Executive summary: I'm now working on a contract for the EMC under very similar terms as before (remote work from Vermont, part time). I've just started learning what the job entails, but it's got some pretty cool elements, starting with parallel programming on super computers. They have a unique set of problems with which I think I can help (beyond the theoretical meteorology that is).

Happy New Year/Spring Fakeout

2008-01-08T21:29:00.000-05:00

So here we are in 2008! A clean slate! Top of a New Year! New calendars for everyone!

Although I am happy to report that we have had a reasonably festive holiday season, the fact that it was about 61 degrees fahrenheit today was somewhat disconcerting. Last week, we were waking up to minus 3 degrees, and now the whole town looks as if the groundhog has lost his shadow for good. Last week, it was icy and boreal, and I was commenting about how "Norman Rockwell" the whole place looked. Today, my husband went for a run in shorts. Last week, a high of 12 degrees F was de rigeur. Today, piles of dirty snow resembling nothing so much as weeping granite contribute a strangely demoralizing mood. Things can change really fast.

It's certainly not that I haven't ever witnessed a warm spell before. I'm originally from the Washington, D.C. area where, annually, we would average about a week of balmy temperatures in the middle of January and February (and every single year the television weather reporters would claim that it hadn't happened before). Balmy defined as anywhere between 60 and 72 degrees F. However, that was one of the things that made winter in D.C. such a pain. That was a primo time to get sick. You'd just be getting used to the fact that you could walk around town with your jacket open and your hat off, and The North Wind would just sneak up behind you and suddenly smack you upside the head with a Polar Express Sucker Punch. Suddenly, with the alacrity of plunging mercury, you'd realize you were totally underdressed and you should have really brought your gloves with you that morning.

My whole uneasiness about the winter season stems from experiences like the last one. How the heck was I supposed to LIKE winter, much less embrace it if it was going to wantonly take a vacation in February? Getting used to the cold was enough of a chore, and I needed some consistency. To experience the same thing in Vermont was sorta bizarre.

We should have listened more closely to Al Gore.

Awesome!

2007-12-10T19:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a glimpse of Middlebury at its best (though this picture hardly does it justice). This is a view from the section of the Trail Around Middlebury (TAM). This part of the TAM skirts the golf couse on the Middlebury College campus. What you can't see from this small shot is that the Green Mountains there in the distance span at least 160 degrees of the horizon from southeast to northwest. That view is awesome and humbling; I often laugh and cry when I see it. It's especially compelling at night with a full moon, or when the ridge line is shrouded by a snowstorm.

Bailed on Cortland

2007-11-30T20:28:00.000-05:00

Last week we submitted and offer on a small farm in Cortland, NY. The place was both robust and a compromise of sorts. At 45 acres it had more land than we needed to start, but plenty of room to grow. It had a new 30' x 50' pole barn (with power), and an old dairy barn that was structurally solid, but also full of trash. The house was very well maintained, until you looked at at the basement; the back foundation wall was doing a slow motion tumble-in and most floors slanted significantly.

In short we knew there were issues to the place, but it was very affordable; a reasonable compromise, it seemed, and a good place to start, even if we didn't opt to stay there forever. We made an offer at full asking price but with a contingency to split the expense of repairing the foundation (as assessed by an outside professional) up to a reasonable cap amount. The owners balked, and countered with a substantially lower cap on the shared repairs. They also ran out and (virtually overnight) got a very narrowly focused estimate on the foundation repairs. By narrowly focused I mean that the estimate only covered the back corner, which was the worst place in the foundation wall, but far from the only point of concern.

Somewhere in the negotiations, I asked about one of the circled disclosure statements which indicated others held rights (of some kind) to the property. I figured this refered to the guy who was haying the two pastures, but thought we should know for certain. Good question to ask. Turns out the local gas company holds a lease to the place, authorizing them to drill for methane whenever (and pretty much where ever) they wanted. Ooops. Also turns out the owners had not told their agent about this lease. Double oops. The techincal term for that is fraud.

So now we had visions of owning the place and having the gas company sinking a gas well in the middle of our two year old asparagus or rhubarb patch -- and driving over our raised beds to get there. OK, that's perhaps a bit over the top. But between the neglect of the foundation and the dairy barn, and not being entirely forthcoming in the legalities, we began to re-think the deal, and eventually opted to just bail out before it started costing us any money.

In the process we took stock and re-examined where we were. It looks like opportunities in the Finger Lakes are there for us if we want them. The area has land that is both good and (relatively) cheap. But we find our energies and passions are here at the feet of the spectacular Green Mountains. We're going to refocus our efforts and find a way to make this work here in Vermont. We don't know yet what the answer is: we may find it in the spring when new properties hit the market, or we may wind up doing an internship this spring-through-fall and then figuring it all out a bit later. But, as our friends Chris and Susan pointed out -- we haven't been looking very long, really. It just seems like it's been a long time since we're living in such tight quarters, and away from most of our worldly posessions. But we're also learning the Dharma of patience and, hopefully, we will gain a little wisdom along the way. That alone would make the journey entirely worthwhile.

A White Thanksgiving

2007-11-28T18:58:00.000-05:00

We hope your Thanksgiving was good. Ours was white! Well, ok, just barely, but it was still great fun!

The image on the right is of Frog Hollow arts center and studio where Yvonne has been really enjoying working with ceramics the past few months.

Below is a shot of the Middlebury green on Thanksgiving eve. The gazebo is often used for outdoor activities other times of the year. For the next few months I think it will be mostly serve a decorative purpose.

And speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a really great day! Dinah and Mitch, two of the original members of CVUUS, invited us to join them at their house, along with some of their friends from Burlington. We had a wonderful day of fabulous foods and better company. Middlebury has been so good to us!

Back to the snow. While the higher elevations around here got better than a foot of the white stuff, here in town the snow melted rather quickly. We've gotten some intermittent flurries since then. For the record though, Yvonne and I are taking no chances -- our tire chains arrived this Monday.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we went up to Burlington to meet up with our friend Kolya and his family, and some folks we know from Claggett Farm (in Maryland) who were up for Thanksgiving. Kolya, his wife Sandra, and daughter Maria used to be our cross town neighbors in Takoma Park. Kolya worked for several years at Claggett, which is where we met him. Now he has a small farm at The Intervale in Burlington, and a spacious house on the north side of town. We had a wonderful time re-connecting with Kolya, Sandra, Maria, Kenji, and Gail. The last time we saw Kolya we helped load his moving truck!

Here's a picture of Kolya, with a custom made broadfork, at his going away party at Claggett Farm. It was much warmer then!

The Search for Land, Chapter II

2007-11-06T16:28:00.000-05:00

We just got back from a five day trip to the Finger Lakes. We linked up with our very excellent and indefatigable real estate agent, Paul, and looked at 10 new properties and reexamined three from earlier trips.

A second look at the three leading properties proved very helpful. A 43 acre farm in Berkshire remains “our 80% solution”. The missing 20% is generally expressed in idiosyncrasies; the pasture is bisected by a deep stream bed that we would have to bridge, the barn needs a new roof and some rafter replacement, and the house’s first floor bathroom has a very large jet stream tub on the first floor, but there are no bedrooms on the first floor.

An 8 acre horse farm in Groton didn’t look as good the second time around, and that’s ok because it went under contract the day after our second viewing.

The third place we took another look at is near Cortland. We saw the place at open house on the last trip, and our impression then was that the house was well cared for, but the asking price was too high. It has since been aggressively re-priced. Our reexamination was very helpful. We never had any question on the land -- it’s 45 acres, half pasture and half arable, and all well drained. The living space in the house has been very well cared for. But the owners have done bupkis for the foundation, which is in very serious need of fundamental repairs. This explains why it’s being sold “as is”. Paul suggested that we might offer them full asking price but toss in a clause that would require the sellers to set aside $15K-$20K in escrow to repair the foundation. The place has an old 16 stall dairy barn and after a second look we concluded that it’s in much better condition than we remembered. A little work on the roof would give us a large, solid structure to work with.

One of the new places was of interest too. It’s either a 7 or 17 acre place in Lodi with very new outbuildings. At least two of the out buildings have both water and power. The knock on the place is that the house is a doublewide mobile home, though we thought much more of it than we would have imagined. It is in very good condition, with ceiling fans in most rooms, sky lights, and a wood stove. It’s also surrounded by Amish farms and is close to wineries; both big plusses.

After three days of running around looking at properties we repaired to Gentle Giants B&B for a weekend of R&R. We chilled out, toured some wineries, and generally let the dust settle some on our search to see where we were/are.

So here’s approximately where we are: we found some places in New York that would certainly allow us to start the market-garden vegetable operation we envision, with plenty of room to grow. The Finger Lakes are beautiful, exciting, and inviting. That said, we have really enjoyed Vermont, and would really like to find a place here, but it’s very difficult to argue with the economics. Vermont really suffers from the pressure its popularity as a vacation and seasonal home destination puts on the land prices. We’re also growing anxious to have all of our belongings in one place again, but we don’t want to make a rushed decision. We’re going to cogitate and meditate on it a bit more, view a handful other listings here in Vermont and then see what we've got.

The Latest from Middlebury

2007-10-27T15:53:00.000-04:00

The big news in town was last Tuesday’s train derailment . A single track runs directly through the center of town, and, most days, a pair of freight trains run up to Burlington. The one cargo they always carry is gasoline -- this one was carrying 200,000 gallons, plus a few cars full of road salt. The train derailed and a small fire broke out. Things were a bit troubling, to say the least. Yvonne was working in the pottery studio at Frog Hollow at the time. She and everyone else within the center of town were told to evacuate. All traffic was rerouted around town. Things were a mess! Fortunately for us our apartment building was beyond the evacuation zone. Folks who live in the center of town ended up quartered at the VFW hall for the night.

Fortunately the HazMat team response was outstanding. Some gasoline spilled onto the ground and thence into Otter Creek, but most of it was contained. And most fortunately, none of the petrol caught fire. A specialized HazMat team from Pennsylvania arrived on Wednesday to help drain the gasoline and set the cars back on the rails. It wasn’t until Thursday that traffic was back to near normal conditions. The last of the street closings ended yesterday, though you can still smell gasoline as you walk through town.

In other news, we met the fellow who played Officer Friendly on the Mr. Rogers Show. He is Francois Clemmons and is on staff here at Middlebury College . We met him at church a few weeks ago! All this and celebrities too!

Next week we’re going back out to the Finger Lakes to look over some more properties. We have half a dozen places to review, and we’re going to reexamine three that we’ve seen before. It feels like things are beginning to come into focus for us. Here’s hoping! It will be great to have all our things in one place again.

Otter Creek Falls

2007-10-16T17:24:00.000-04:00

For my boating buddies, here's a shot of the falls mentioned in the previous post. I estimate the drop at 20', but it might well be closer to 25'. The line folks run is far river right. The whole creek is pretty shallow, so I think a creek boat is absolutely required to avoid penciling in too deeply. The good news is that there are no issues setting up for the drop -- the water above is pretty slack; no hairy ferries or other complications, apart from needing to nail that boof stroke on the lip.

The Search for Land

2007-10-15T09:38:00.000-04:00

As you might guess we’ve been pretty actively engaged in searching for suitable land and a home. Our business plan calls for purchasing a small place outright, so our “unfair advantage” (in the parlance of Joel Salatin) will be that we don’t have to pay a mortgage. That will take a good deal of the pressure off, particularly the first year of operations. But at the same time we’d like a place that is immediately livable, even if it eventually requires some measure of work.

We’ve looked at about a dozen properties here in Vermont. And while we’ve found places that would work, they often include too much upfront work -- either the house needs extensive reconstruction or the land needs to be cleared, or the soil maps report the place is mostly rock and we’d be looking at raised beds (and much $$). We’re casting a fairly wide net: we’ve been looking here around Middlebury, “across the mountain” (as they say around here when they mean the Montpelier area) as well as the Finger Lakes region of NY.

So how did the Finger Lakes get in that list? Our friends Robert and Elaine similarly emigrated from DC now live in the country outside of Kingston, NY. They encouraged us to consider upstate New York in our quest. A little googling and I found some very interesting prospects around Ithaca. So we took a trip out that way back in September. We looked at three properties on that trip, and one small farm in Berkshire, NY had about 80% of what we were looking for and was very affordable. We also took some time out to sample some local wines and chanced upon the Thirsty Owl Winery . We met the owner at the wine tasting and he was very excited about our mission. “Oh, you need to be here “ were his exact words, and he was able to tell us about the large number of Amish farmers who are relocating to Seneca county. Hmm, we thought. Amish folks make great neighbors and we stand learn plenty from them. We also visited the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca to get a sense of that community. And we checked out the very excellent Ithaca farmers market. All the way around things looked pretty good.

Two weeks ago we mounted a second expedition out that way and in a whirlwind we looked at 12 properties in 2 days. It was tough keeping things straight in hour heads, but we took lots of notes. In the end we were most impressed with the first place we looked at, naturally. We plan a third trip in early November.

One thing I didn’t appreciate until we actually started walking around properties was the real difference in land prices between Vermont and New York. I knew Vermont was home to many vacation properties and expected that to translate to higher land/housing costs. But the equally exotic Finger Lakes region (with better wine) -- are cheaper by a factor of 3 or 4. Yikes!

So I’m not saying it’s New York for us just yet. But it’s beginning to look that way.

Hello From Middlebury, VT!

2007-10-13T18:48:00.000-04:00

Hello from Middlebury, Vermont!

For those that haven't heard from us, we arrived here in Middlebury on September 5, and we’ve been enjoying the small town New England scene ever since.

So why Middlebury?

Our friends, Chris and Susan, moved from New Jersey to Cornwall, VT about a year ago. Cornwall is about 3 miles south of Middlebury. Chris and Susan have an empty pole barn on their property, and they very kindly offered us some storage space therein. That has been very helpful -- thanks guys!

So it made sense to find a place to set up base camp near where some of our goods would be. Middlebury is home to Middlebury College , and some short term housing is available for visiting faculty and parents. I trolled craigslist and found a furnished efficiency for short term rent right. “Furnished” in this case meant complete down to cloth napkins and broadband internet access. A furnished place made packing much easier -- we only needed clothes and essential personal effects -- everything else went into storage in Hyattsville (also big thanks to Bones & Andrea for storing some of the more delicate items -- thanks muchly guys!).

A second reason for being here in Middlebury is the land itself. Middlebury is located near the center of the Champlain Valley, which is home to 80% of the arable land in Vermont. Since we aspire to farm, quality land is, well, important.

We are well. Yvonne has found work on the prep staff of a local 4 star French restaurant, Christophes on the Green . I’ve been very fortunate to be able to continue to work part time for the same National Weather Service office (via SAIC) for which I worked for over 10 years down in DC. They have kindly given me a very interesting project to tackle.

Our apartment is right on the edge of the college campus, and we’ve been using their cross country course for our morning runs. The college students are generally quite pleasant, much more so than I remember them being when I was one. The college also offers some arts and entertainment, which we hope to take advantage of in the coming months.

The town of Middlebury is small, maybe 8,000 people, or roughly the size of town I grew up in back in Pennsylvania. Middlebury has much better restaurants though. Middlebury is a valley town, sitting astride a river named Otter Creek. Right down town Otter Creek has a beautiful 20’ water fall, which was harnessed to power industry in the 19th century. The ruins of some of that infrastructure still stand, and yes, boaters run that drop in kayaks. I saw a couple of guys in creek boats doing that yesterday, in fact. My day for that may come, but first I’ll have to figure out where my dry suit is. Probably need a creeker tool; my RPM is a bit too pointy for gnar like that.

One other claim to Middlebury fame is John Deere, the namesake of the company that still produces farm machinery today. Mr. Deere came to Middlebury as a teen to learn blacksmithing, then went to the Midwest and invented “the plow that broke the prairie”, aka the moldboard plow.

Middlebury is an agricultural hub -- the county stock yards are just 2 miles southeast of town. From our apartment we can smell the local dairy farms on every south wind, which some folks might not think much of, but to me it’s a wonderful accompaniment to a savory meal and a glass of earthy, red wine. Milk trucks the size of fuel tankers roll through town most daylight hours, and occasionally tractors haul loads of proto-silage or livestock past our apartment.

We’ve begun making contacts with people here in town. Our landlords, Bud and Deb, are wonderful folks, who take it upon themselves to help us out frequently. It’s handy that they know pretty much everybody in town. Bud also buys fair-trade, organic coffee beans (green) and roasts them in the garage out back. Most mornings the area smells of roasting coffee, which is different from brewing coffee, but it’s still very pleasant. His Indonesian brew is my favorite.

We’ve been attending the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society (CVUUS) here in Middlebury. Turns out CVUUS is the second largest UU congregation in Vermont, though Middlebury is nowhere near the 2nd largest city/town in the state. It’s been a very good experience thus far, and it often reminds me of our time at UUCSS (UU Church of Silver Spring, MD). As an aside, here in Vermont the UU congregations tend to call themselves “Societies” rather than “Churches”. In due course I hope to learn what drove that naming convention.