Latest Minutia
Today dawns with a change in weather, with the rain and fog of the previous few days ended. Overnight, it became windy and this morning we are enjoying some bursts of beautiful sno-globe snow falling. We live where winter usually means snow country, and there is nothing worse for snow-related activities than rain. There is a certain exciting drama to rain events during winter, and I admit to appreciating the thrill of that, but it really wreaks havoc on any sport or adventure that depends on the snow. Lucky for me, I don’t have any plan to be out playing in the snow cover that we have remaining.
I am saddled with the aftermath of my little cold and fever, which for me commonly means lung congestion. I end up wheezing and coughing for weeks afterward, to clear up what accumulated during the illness. I am not inspired to start an outdoor project with any gusto. I do have plenty of firewood that needs to be moved and stacked. We have a trail to finish cutting through the woods. I had hoped to try making a ski trail, and there is always the allure of building an igloo. Pretty much not gonna happen in the immediate future.
Cyndie is reviewing dog breeds again, and checking local providers, perusing what is available. We are still waiting for the arrival of materials that have been ordered for construction of the paddock fencing. This afternoon we will again be hosting visitors, who have offered to provide some labor and expertise toward chores on our list. We welcome the help.
When I was starting to come down with my recent illness, Cyndie decided we should restrict the cats from having access to our bedroom. That turned out to be easier said than done. I learned that our bedroom door doesn’t latch. They quickly learned it was easy to push the door open. Overall, I would say that they were doing pretty well at respecting our wishes, but it was proving to be an unwelcome inconvenience to us to have that door closed all the time. Last night we gave in and opened up the room to them again.
They paid us back by being total nuisances this morning, licking Cyndie’s eyelid, pushing a cold, wet nose against mine, and picking at the bed cover with their claws. Well, that’s not totally accurate: I should not be using “they” here, as these behaviors are almost exclusively attributable to the wee female, Pequenita. I think she was just so happy to be back in our bedroom, she couldn’t help herself from showing it.
That’s the latest news from Wintervale. Stay tuned to see what the weekend brings!
Misled
.
it seems obvious
-the balance of nature-
too much
of a good thing
becomes toxic
absence of bacteria
a problem
so who led us here
to antibiotic-resistant super bugs
food allergies growing common
over-prescribed pharmacological exuberance
inducing increasing psychosis
when even Louis Pasteur himself
proclaimed with his dying breath*
that Beauchamp was right
all along
.
.
*unverified (unverifiable?) claim that can be found promulgated by an always growing number of willing believers
,
“…Pasteur, like many of us, wanted to be successful and prove his theories about dangerous germs were the cause of all human disease. Unfortunately he had an intelligent opposition named Antoine Beauchamp who completely rejected Pasteur’s ideas and put forward that the biological terrain of the being is the cause of disease, not the germ itself. Beauchamp believed that germs and parasites will only survive in acidic and unfavourable conditions and therefore mere exposure to germs is not enough to get sick.
Beauchamp believed,
“The primary cause of disease is in us, always in us.”
Antoine Beauchamp, 1883″
from: http://healthyfran.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/hello-world/
Enjoying Everything
After spending a day in bed, recuperating from a fever, it feels odd to step out onto our property again. Just one day, and I feel like a stranger. Maybe spending much of that time buried in a book that describes a farm in the Shenandoah Valley contributes to my feeling alienated. That, and the fact I have been busying myself with visualizations of what our place will become over time, based on the inspirations and energy of Joel Salatin’s writing.
Cyndie, poking at the embers in the smoldering brush pile
When I stepped out yesterday evening, I was back to the place with the fence project in limbo. We have provided funds for the purchase of material for the two paddocks. We now await arrival of the boards, posts, wire, and accessories, and then we hope for good weather and available laborers.
One thing I am okay practicing is, patience. We haven’t even been here 3-months yet. I still don’t know what the property will be like during the spring thaw. We hope to be here for many years, so taking our time to get these fences just right is very important to us. I want to remember to be patient about accomplishing all the things we are envisioning. I also want to be cognizant of the many possibilities that we haven’t even thought of yet.
In this moment, I am back at the day-job, striving to return to normal function. As always, things are moving fast, and also moving slow. We are where we always are, right in the middle, …enjoying everything about it.
What First?
Monday was a day of rest. Whatever illness found me to be a suitable host has brought on congestion, coughing, headache, body aches, fever and fatigue. Between delusional-dream naps, that don’t feel as restful as I wish they would, I was able to read further into Joel Salatin’s book. That served both to inspire and intimidate me. Not an unexpected response, I would guess. I aspire to accomplish everything he describes, while at the same time, I feel weighed down by the burden of how many issues need to be considered and acted upon, and how daunting a task it is to get things done in a most efficient and beneficial sequence.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Or the fence, or the hay shed, or the breed of dogs, or the pickup truck, or the horse trailer, or a more local employment opportunity, or the source for hay and feed, or the deck maintenance, or the varmint extermination, or the critter-proofing of the log home, or the water sealing of the log home, or the re-calibration of the garage door opener, or the energy audit of the home, or the design and installation of a rainwater collection system, or the arena creation, or the exercise rounds, or the equine watering system, or the manure management plan, or the tractor attachment to move 1-ton rounds of hay, or the repair of Cyndie’s car after the deer collision.
Oh. Cyndie hit a deer last night. Oops. There’s never an efficient or beneficial time for that event.
The tally since we moved here:
John: 1 fox
Cyndie: 1 deer
There are plenty of opportunities for similar animal collisions in the cities, but this does feel like a result of having moved to the country.
Embarrassingly Easy
I have now successfully edited my posts going all the way back to November 30, to fix the missing links that allow viewing the images in their full-size. I find it a bit embarrassing to admit that the solution was always available in the form of a button to click, which creates the link. I guess the link was previously a default situation when I uploaded my images, and became a selectable option when the software was updated.
I let myself think I was too busy to pay attention to this level of detail. Funny how the mind works when it comes to things like this.
Not as embarrassing, but unquestionably easy, was our decision to purchase a share in Walker Farms CSA yesterday. They are our neighbors, and represent many of the philosophies that appeal to us. We came home with eggs, chicken, ground beef, ground pork, ham, and even some lamb weenies, from free-range, grass-fed animals that are not fed systemic antibiotics or any type of hormone, and are raised in a sustainable environment. 
That isn’t all we came home with… They loaned us the book, “The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer,” by Joel Salatin. I recognized having seen at least one of the documentary movies that are referenced on the back cover of the book, featuring Joel and his family farm. After reading just the introduction of the book, I am enthralled by it.
It immediately brought to my mind, the friend I consider a mentor, Ian Rowcliffe, in Portugal. Ian, you are so not alone in your visions and energies to improve our fates by altering the direction of so many aspects of the ways of the modern world. Visiting with our neighbors at Walker Farms, and discovering the writings of Joel Salatin from his Polyface Farms, has expanded my understanding of my own reasons this adventure that Cyndie and I are undertaking feels so right. Ian’s Forest Garden Estate fits right in with it all, and remains one of my primary inspirations.
It really is about more than just the horses, even though that is the primary focus I have been referencing for our reason for moving here. We are trying to figure out fences right now, for the horses, but fences lead to, and are connected with, all aspects of our future operation here. Managing manure is leading to reasons we might want to have chickens. Testimony from the Walkers offered good evidence of the value of chickens, and the introduction of Joel’s book pretty much cements it for us.
There are an amazing number of things for us to discover related to accomplishing all the things we hope to achieve here. As difficult as that seems to be sometimes, it is also surprisingly easy. You could say, embarrassingly easy… because we tend to embarrass ourselves over and over with each lesson we encounter.
Unfortunately, none of them are as simple as finding out the solution is just a click of a button.
Couple Possibilities
We are all about possibilities. The design of our layout, including traffic routes of people, horses, and tractor; location of the round pens; dimensions of the paddocks; location of the automatic watering trough; location for storage and management of manure; location and type of hay storage facility, …are all in play right now. We meet, once again, with our fence installer this afternoon, to discuss the layout of our two paddocks, and whether we are ready to pull the trigger and begin installation.
We also have an appointment this morning to visit a nearby farm to meet the proprietors, one of whom is a farrier, to discuss their operation and whether we can buy into a share of their CSA farm, to get meat and produce throughout the year.
It should be a productive day!
Here are two versions of our working images for planning:
Fancying Fire
It being a Saturday, I slept in. It felt great because my health is feeling a bit off kilter. I’m not certain whether it is a viral bug intruding on my system, or the result of a bit too much exposure to smoke from the bonfires I have been playing around the previous two days. If it is the smoke, that’s unfortunate, because all I want to do is go back down there and play with more fire.
There are two piles, and they are really big. The majority of what they are trying to burn is so green that it is reluctant to ignite. I expect we will have remnants of these piles around for quite a while, before fully incinerating the wood and re-distributing the dirt and rubble.
It has been a long time since I spent time around a bonfire. I am finding great fascination with the behavior of fire and how it seems to take on a personality of its own. There is an incredible difference in the dynamics of flames and embers. At times, it seems as though the embers have all the energy, and dole it out in a long, slow process. During those moments, the flames tend to look like mere decorations around the fringe.
After moving things around a bit, the flames will suddenly come to life with a roar that totally eclipses the previous power the embers appeared to hold. With the addition of a little movement of wind, the flames can take on a threatening demeanor that is in stark contrast to the calm energy that radiates from the coals.
I am very happy to have the burning happen when the region is frozen and covered with snow. I am also very happy to be able to make use of the very fine tool that Mary and Tim gave us as a house-warming gift. A 60″ log grabber! Thanks, you two! It works great!
Progress Continues
When I got home yesterday, the heavy equipment crew was just preparing to pull away from our driveway. I had a chance to introduce myself and deduce how satisfied they were with their day’s work. They mentioned, several times, being frustrated with part of it, because some of the ground was too frozen, and they ended up leaving some bigger chunks of soil than they wanted.
I was prepared to find the area looking “chunky,” but it wasn’t bad at all. It showed me they are pretty fastidious about doing the best possible job. That’s a trait I am happy to see in my service providers!
However, while they were pulling away in their trucks, I reached to open our mailbox at the end of the driveway, only to find the handle was missing! There was no way to open it. I had to go back to my car and get something to wedge in the side of the door. Upon closer inspection, there is evidence that something made contact with the mailbox, and that must have popped the plastic rivets that held the handle. I searched far and wide, but found no evidence of the missing handle. Tracks in the snow reveal their equipment was the likely cause. 
My evening project was then to fabricate a way for the mail deliverer to pull the door open. The quick fix was a piece of plastic line looped through the holes in the door and knotted. Problem solved. A small price to pay.
After that, I wandered over to the burning brush pile to enjoy the glow. The project is progressing nicely.
New View
Long ago, I posted an overhead view of our new property that I captured from the Google satellite view. Here it is again:
Compare that with the new view I discovered over the weekend that Google has updated:
