January 31, 2004
January 29, 2004
The new phonebooks are here!
Seeds!!
Our big seed order from FedCo is here!!
And looking out the window, if I squint a little and use my imagination, I can vaguely remember what this place looks like without 2 feet of snow on the ground. Soon, soon, soon! The 2004 farm season is upon us.
January 28, 2004
The mystery solved (or "Farming is a hard life")
I have sensed a buzz out there in the neighborhood. Where are they? Why isn't their car out in front of their house? Why no posts complaining about the cold?
Well, we have been in the sunny Florida Keys for three days, that's why. Highs for our three full days were 72, 77, and then 82. Those readings are degrees above zero. We went with my Dad (aka "Baba") for a fabulous mini-vacation.
This was Wavo's first big plane flight, and although her parents were nervous, she totally rocked in all respects. Although when we first got to our hotel after a big day of flying/driving/travelling, she was a little tired.
But after a day of travel, we had three days in the sun. Here are Maryellen and Wavo hanging on the beach under their little thatched chill pad.
And Baba hanging by the pool.
And Maryellen and Wavo were hanging too.
Baba and I went for a little fishing trip. The guy with the boat caught our bait by using a cast net. In this photog, the cast net is just hitting the water.
The hotel cooked up some of the yummy fish we caught.
And these are for Steph. Here is Maryellen trying her hand at the ulitimate in capitalist, non-environmentally sensitive, recreation. It turns out that she is actually pretty good at it.
Although I am not sure those flip flops are LPGA approved footwear.
Bascially we had a gas, and now the last few months of winter don't seem nearly so bad.
January 21, 2004
Ich liebe dich schatzi
Cornelia neglected to mention that she is a professional photographer. (Her boyfriend Josh is also great with the camera.) Above is just one of the great ones they got of Waverly. Thanks Corny and Josh!!
Also, Cornelia taught me how to say I love you, sweetie, in German. I was thinking it would be fun to be able to tell Waverly I love her in multiple languages so if anyone knows how to say it in another language, please post a comment here!
Farm business opportunity
This morning I am trying to put the finishing touches on our 2004 seed order. The federal organic standards, which went into effect in late 2002, require that certified growers use organic raised seed whenever it is "commerically available". However, the regs don't define "commercially available". And organically grown seeds tend to be more expensive. So it is not always easy to know what to do. But we have decided to err on the side of using as much organically raised seed as we can, both to keep our certification, and because supporting an organic seed industry is the right long term thing to do.
And that brings us to our business opportunity of the day -- there just isn't that much certified organic seed out there right now. I'd say a full 2/3 of the varieties I am ordering are not organic because organic versions just don't exist. But if they were available in an organic version, I would arguably have to buy it.
These new organic regs essentially create a huge new market because every certified grower is now required to scramble for organic seed if it exists in the market. And so what if organic seed costs 10-20% more? If it is available in quantity, our certifying agency has said that a marginally higher price alone will not prevent organic seed from being considered "commercially available".
So if your lettuce bolts this summer, save the seed and try putting it on Ebay!
January 19, 2004
Sled fest at the farm-chick (plus boys) reuinion
This is Cornelia's guest blog entry:
Greetings! By way of introduction, I have been Maryellen's friend since we were four. And look at us now! This latest chick weekend, hosted by Maryellen and Peter, included four out of the six high school friends, plus husbands, boyfriend and babies. (We missed you Rae, Tracy, Scott and Alex)
As always, we spent our time eating, laughing, sleeping, playing, etc. etc.
This weekend, we braved the cold and snow to add some new hopefully traditional activities for the glorious reunions. We can't wait to come back at harvest time. if not before! (The monopoly game is still going.)
We hope you enjoy this taste of what it was like to sled on the farm this weekend.
Chick Race (Lori wins, as usual)
January 15, 2004
Lara
Waverly looks longingly at the windows these days. She loves to go for walks, and never seems to mind the winter weather. But below zero is just too cold for a four month old!!
January 14, 2004
How cold is it?
So cold that I couldn't boil water for tea this morning because the propane was so cold it wouldn't come out fast enough to make the burner hot. So cold that when I went to take out the compost this afternoon, the dampness on my hand froze on contact with the metal doorknob of the back door.
January 13, 2004
Yikes
Vermont Public Radio has these great weather guys who are very knowledgeable, and very into the weather. But they are usually pretty even-keeled about things, and they seldom hype the weather or get all alarmist. That is why my ears perked up this morning when, despite their very mellow delivery, they used the words "extreme" and "brutal" to describe the cold front descending upon us tonight from Hudson Bay. Time to batten down the hatches, and stoke up the wood stove!
January 12, 2004
We're #1!!
I googled ''farm blog," and we're the number one site listed.
Beam me up, baby!
Maybe we should go into farming organic tribblets.
[Link swiped from an old high school classmate, Caterina.]
January 11, 2004
Scratchy daddy
As you can see, the beard debate continues.
January 10, 2004
Raspberries
Waverly has started blowing raspberries. (She's sitting in my lap blowing them as I type. Ahh baby drool on the wrist!) She may have figured this out on her own, I mean she IS brilliant after all. But I wonder if someone taught her at Christmastime. Lois? Uncle Pete? Auntie Jess?
Slow down pal, where's the fire?
Our friend Neera is heavily involved in electoral politics, and she has a theory that having a kid makes most people more conservative, at least in a political sense. I am not sure I am willing to totally sign on to that theory -- in some ways having a kid has made us more radical -- but it does have a certain intuitive sense to it.
Last night I went out to get a pizza and a movie. As with most things up here, that involved a little bit of driving, and mostly on back country roads. As I was whizzing along, a thought popped into my head. "Boy, it is about 25 degrees below zero right now, and if I went off the road into a ditch, or even just into a snowbank, I wouldn't last long out here waiting for someone to come along." So I slowed down a bit and put on my seatbelt (I know, I know, which I should have been wearing anyway).
Now, maybe I would have had that same thought even if I wasn't a father -- after all 25 below is pretty darn cold, and a pizza and a movie do seem like fairly paltry things to freeze to death for (even though the pizza from Positive Pie is really, really, really good).
(Side note: for all of you non-extreme northern readers -- to give you a sense of how cold it is, Maryellen pointed out that 25 below is to 25 above, as 25 above is to 75 above. So imagine 25 above, and then think 50 degrees colder. But I digress.)
The fact of the matter is that at least for a few years here, there is now a little one counting on me, and counting on us. So maybe Neera is right. Maybe it is time for us to stop goofing around and to get jobs over at the Free Republic.
January 09, 2004
Mars
There is a great photo of Mars up today at the NASA photo of the day site (linked at We are all made of stars at the bottom of this page).
Political dreamin'
I had a dream last night that John Kerry was my roommate and that he wouldn't pick up his socks. As a Howard Dean fan, I wonder what this means.
Maybe it means I need to lay off reading the political blogs for a while.
String theory
My favorite string searches so far this month that resulted in hits to this site: "cake" (3 hits) (ed. note: 3??) "long hair gone" (2 hits) "barefoot muddy farm girls" (1 hit)
January 08, 2004
Winter
Well it looks like the weather gods have finally decided to bless us with some real winter weather. It was -14 F this morning when I stepped out onto the porch to get some more wood for the fire. What to do when it gets this cold?
1. Listen to music from warm places, like the French Caribbean and Jamaica CDs I got for Christmas.
2. Renew the semi-annual debate about whether to grow my beard out. Pros: warmer face. Cons: as our friend Colin once said, with a beard I look like a Zionist freedom fighter/terrorist, circa. 1947 or 48.
3. Watch the dust collect on the window sill.
4. Check the calendar to see how many more days until it is May.
5. Say the hell with it, bundle up, and go for a snowshoe.
Wondering about the weather on the farm? I have added a link below to this site.
January 05, 2004
Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening
You can find the words here.
January 04, 2004
Busy
Well, the holiday rush is over, and now it is back to work. I begged off of a social engagement the other day to do some farm work, and the people at the potluck asked Maryellen, "What farm work could he possibly have in the middle of winter?"
Well, that is a good question. I have been working on a couple of things, both of which are not my strong suit -- bookkeeping and farm planning.
Having one season under our belt has taught us a great deal about the kinds of records we need, and how to organize those records. But we still have a lot to learn. I imagine it is a little like teaching a college course -- most of the work is in developing a syllabus during the first few years. Each year after that you tweak your system and get more comfortable with what you are doing. We are still in the first few years where we have a lot of work in figuring out not only our financial record keeping needs, but also our farm planning record keeping needs.
Today, I am attempting to close out the financial books on 2003 in preparation for getting our taxes together and preparing a balance sheet.
At some point soon, I also need to project a planting schedule, so I can figure out my seed and supply orders for the next month or so. The planting schedule is done backwards -- I start with how much of each crop I intend to market in '04, and then I work back to how much I have to plant, when I have to plant it, and where I will plant it in relation to the other crops for that year. This all has to be consistent with the farm plan that we submitted to the organic certification people last year, meaning that our crop rotations have to meet the requirements of the organic regulations for soil tilth and health.
Then, I will sit down with a wall calendar and schedule out the season. For example, the first week in April will say, "Start 150 lettuce seedlings, etc."
The more experience we get with this, the easier it should get. But right now, it requires some effort. But it is fun to start thinking about the summer of '04 already, and those tasty fresh melons and tomatoes!
