we spent our first day back on a farm yesterday. we went to a farm outside of boston that we will be working on through the winter. they are a non-certified organic veggie farm with over 40 acres in cultivation. we have been hired to introduce livestock to their acreage in the coming year. chickens and pigs most likely. we spent the morning talking cover crops and local predators (a coyote mother who likes to watch them garden from the compost pile). we talked winter shelters for chickens. we talked heat sources and found a great solution from a woodstove in an old green house.

it felt good to talk shop again. it felt less good to spend 5 hours bent over in the hot sun harvesting arugula and kale and potatoes and cilantro. but we had to put in some solid time with their college-infused garden crew. show we aren’t the bitter and wizened 27/28 year olds that we appear to be.

and so today, we are headed over to the berkshires. to begin our fall apprenticeship in the hippy hills of western massachusetts. where we will sing a lot of songs. and make a lot of farmer’s cheese. and bake a lot of bread. and have general merriment and be generally productive. and be reunited with my rag tag flock of animals.

we don’t have internet at this new farm. so i will do my best to communicate to you our goings ons. but a fair warning, that you may be in for a more heavily loaded iphone picture blog in the close future.

wish me luck.

in iphone photos of a friend’s farm:
1. happily colored honey bees. doing their job. in their little honey bee village.
2. flowers picked for nick’s sister.
3. out of focus photo of ants devouring a melon. 
4. pop-corn.  

i don’t know that there are many physical feelings of relief greater than that one i had today, in the open field of the turkey pen. panting under the hot sun as i labored with the bird’s water trough. after 3 straight days of 100°s and going higher. after lying naked and restless everynight with no air conditioning and no wind in the night skies. after covering myself in sweat and mud and stench from an early morning in the pig pen….

i was just finished with using a pail, i held it in my left hand and i heard a drop hit it. and then another. i looked above me and saw a dark, cartoon, rain cloud hovering there. well, that would be nice i thought to myself and the cartoon cloud obliged and let loose its contents. it poured. poured. for nearly 15 minutes straight. and we all stood there. all humans, birds, pigs alike. everywhere on the farm. and thanked the heavens for their mercy.

the skies cleared and the sun got right back down to his task at hand. as though the rain had been a temporary slip and would prefer you didn’t mention it. and so we are back to Sweat, Mud, and Stench. back to packing. back to chores. back to canning. back to cleaning.

photos: 
1. linens are washed and folded and shuttered into boxes to be sent north.
2. i am the inefficient packer. the one that likes to pack things in millions of little boxes and cases.
3. nick made a winter’s ration of tomato sauce.
4. the rugs are sunning themselves, preparing for their sentence of an indefinite storage.
5. the succulents are posing an issue. how do you pack a prickly plant?

its terribly difficult to get an accurate view of the size and scope of a farm such as cane creek. especially when the documenter in question –moi– likes to take up close or out of focus photos. so i thought i would share the bit that made it onto unc-tv last night about our farm. you can see me & nick herding escaped pigs. and there is a special shot of oscar and van gogh that made my heart lurch. it was shot back in the fall and i had nearly forgotten this footage existed. enjoy.

i am as cool as i was this past friday. when humidity broke and we were thankful. when we all…all 7 of us piled into the truck. seven people in one truck…such is the physical capacity of this old ford. piled into the truck and then spilled out of it to dinner in saxapahaw. onto the deck. cool enough to wear pants. cool enough to give in to my anglo-new england heritage and have several glasses of wine in lieu of dinner. cool enough to push away thoughts of packing. thoughts of leaving this home.

on the docket for this tuesday we are cleaning the feed shed. laundering rugs and linens. closing out the second bedroom. canning and preserving tomatoes. making and freezing pesto. a lavender harvest. possibly a run to the store to acquire more jars. with lots to do we are keeping it cool. nick and rudy are still asleep. fi and i are about to go for a long run. the cats are panicked, but that is par. rose, vangogh, and bella are digesting yesterday’s rotten tomatoes. the chickens are doing their rounds. all is calm…in welcome anticipation of the move ahead.

nick said to me the other day that maybe we shouldn’t take the cats. leave them here. the cats. the CATS. these are the stressful species for us. we can figure out the ear-less pig and his little sister. and the cow. and the honeybees. and the child biting dog. or the duck that wants to be a chicken. but the cats putting us over the Edge. we won’t leave them behind. i made that quite clear.  but i cannot believe we both entertained not taking them. that the normalized, domesticated, society-accepted animals are the bitch of it. what have we become? this week-end is dedicated to figuring the cats out.

we are being cooked, burnt, fried to a crisp down south. and so when the sun gets itself so high, hot, and mighty we mudbloods search for cooler grounds. for gardens in the early dawn. for creameries. for cold outdoor baths. actually, this morning, in the early hours. the heat broke. the winds picked up. it was delightful.

the tough part of it is that, we can’t just lounge about. these photos are anomalies of the past 2 days. rare moments where we have sat down and sighed and attempted to dry ourselves from the constant sweat. but things move forward. the farm, the move up north, the tomato plants. everything seems to be flying forward. we have 2 weeks left. the list grows longer, rather than shorter everyday. it should grow shorter. but we keep adding to it. stupid selves. so far, i have packed up and then unpacked a box of books and my winter hats. yes, 2 boxes. barely even boxes. and we have a whole house to box up. i think i’ll pack our socks tonight. just to make it 3, useless boxes.

photos:
1. the corn, hardly high enough, but its popcorn and it makes us proud.
2. girlfriends coolin’ their feet in the tub.
3. my raised beds. putting hailey in charge of planting them for the fall. i want to make sure they are in good hands.
4. basil is reason enough to grow a garden. unlimited pesto. which is in need as fiona & i eat it my the forkful.
5. sara at the feed mill.
6. the skinny creamery kitten trying to cop a lick.
7. how did fiona change ice cream flavors so fast?
8. we cracked the first melons of the summer this afternoon.
9. with 5 to 7 people coming in and out of these doors we go through a healthy amount of napkins.
10. onion bags.
11. there is no more sought after goal than goosebumps in the summer.

so of Top Priority when we return to new england will be a wardrobe renovation. more tweeds. and corduroys and smarter hats. more english country professor/sheep herder and less….well less of the above. it means a blow to practicality, but a win for glamor.  and so it must be done.

**thank you soulemama for the link to these beauties.

 

one of my favorite ways to unwind from the farm is to lie on my stomach in the grass behind our house and watch and kiss and touch all of our little animals. it silences me. it allows me time to make sure they are all individually o.k. to let them know i absolutely adore them.

it’s a good way to end a friday to think about the week-end. we have markets tomorrow. a pig pen to finish building. my godson and his parents coming in the afternoon. cookies to be baked. we have all hit a sugar low since last weekend’s double cakes for fi’s birthday.  and a couple rounds of croquet to be played. the course is set on the front lawn and needs to serve a purpose other than breaking ankles each time somebody’s foot catches a wicket.

on a much less picturesque note. the fish in the front pond are dying. in droves. Belly Up. there is a serious drought in our county (and i imagine the whole state). the biologists of the family tried to explain to me that this has caused a lack of oxygen in the water so the fish die. it is…..horrendous. on every level. you could imagine. and you will pardon my lack of photographic record on the event. it’s not something i want to remember too vividly. i just thought,  in the effort of full disclosure, i ought to let you know.

very best week-end to you all.

no need to describe the characters in these photos….i imagine you know who these guys are by now.

life is starting to feel a bit surreal as of late. maybe its how i am writing this, while eating a quick breakfast, and looking out onto our backyard where my one eared pig, vangogh, is sharing a morning meal with my little rose, with pascal the duck nibbling in between their faces and their 4th, and best friend, bella, the grass fed calf is looking on in envy.

or maybe it is because we stayed up late skyping with best friends in san francisco while drinking modelos and it almost felt like they were just dropping by to say hello.

or that i that i spent 5 hours with nick and the dogs yesterday combing through the farm. checking all barbed wire fences. checking any wells that may have been left uncovered. looking in every corner of this 500 acre property for the beloved farm dog, zeus. who had been missing since monday night when neighbors set off fireworks. and who, was just driven down the driveway last night by a woman, whose father had found the dog when his well went dry. worry and panic will get me nowhere.

or it could be that we are on the eve, nick and i, of another transition. another move. it will be the fourth such move in two years. our family is getting larger and more bizarre and more complicated. we cannot just pack up in the subaru and head north. we had to get a truck. and then a trailer. we have to have the state come to the farm and take blood from every chicken we are taking north. rose has to get an ear tag. all the animals need health certificates. its hard to imagine any of them passing, they are such a scruffy bunch. but, despite outward appearances, i believe them to all be healthy.

its the chaos in the details of the move. of where and how everyone will fit in on the farms up north where we will live and work.  but its complimented by a painful nostalgia for this farm that is already overwhelming me. we have never felt that north carolina could be our forever home. but i have also never felt so at home in my adult life. we have poured ourselves into this farm and into this house and into these animals. and i cannot grasp how i can create closure for such a year of our lives in just 21 days.

fortunately, the tomatoes are coming in. and this has created a good deal of distraction for us all. with harvesting. and ripening. and eating them with sea salt and cheeses.

photos
1. i hadn’t planted a single flower this summer, but the wilds are doing a stand up job at keeping the honeybees happy.
2. my aunt molly is visiting and she brought with her loaves upon loaves of baked bread. i love when people travel with such things. she wraps all of her bread in this bright white cloth to keep them fresh. it works perfectly.
3. sungolds. not as many coming in yet as last season. but i have to suspect that everyone who works in the garden is taking as many mouthfuls of these as i when harvesting.
4. a cerveza and some bread & butter to take in the afternoon storm and catch up on games of thrones with nicky.
5. the farm front porch essentials. water for the pups. and a broom to sweep off chicken droppings. add screened in porch to my wishlist for our own farm.
6. tomatoes to market.
7. our summer nighttime staples. me, a sundress from marie (thank you!!) and nick his bright orange shorts.
8. i don’t imagine these tomatoes will last the day. i’ve seen all five of us eying and fondling them.