making the leap

making the leap, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Soon the last of these great beasts will leave our farmette, and we will have a non-barn-chores winter. Although somehow we still have 15+ hens, so maybe we will still have eggs... I do love having those fresh eggs.

birthday cake pre-smash

before, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Here is a portrait of our son Yosi with his first birthday cake, red velvet flavor, held at a rakish angle by me, the Mama. In minutes Yosi was elbow deep in red chocolate cake and bouncing full of sugar. Yay!

Cake by Paul Johnson
Photos by Greg Pedrick and Wendy Block
Party guests / "Aunties": Anita, Katrina & Rebecca Newell, Susan Lacy & Jim Bernard, Wendy & Greg, mom & dad, Cruiser

Yosi's first birthday

Friends joined us to sing "Happy Birthday," eat cake and sip tea. Here are before and after photos of Yosi with his first cake. Mama chose her own favorite flavor, red velvet, and naturally did nto consider how this might look smashed on Baby's tray. This scene sparked jokes about "Baby's first cannibalism" and "Baby's first organ meats." Mama & Co. have tasteless senses of humor.

Happy Thanksgiving

family, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Here we are in Rhode Island at John's Mom's house for Thanksgiving 2008. (left to right: Marti "Aunt Mars" O'Brien, Lisa "Auntie Poo" Spear, Martha "Mama" Spear, John "Papa" Spear)

families are forever

100_3379, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Our dear sweet Yosi, all a-grin in his new winter hat from Ninou in France. Thank you, Ninou!

happy memories

Sessions House spring 89, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Here is a photo from my college album. This was my second residence; my first was an ultra modern building across the street. The cars look so old! I wonder if Sessions is still haunted.

quivering moth

quivering moth sketch, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

From a time long, long ago, far, far away -- two months ago when I had time to ponder and draw.

Yosef Spear Halloween 2008

Yosef Spear Halloween 2008, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

At daycare Yosi was a pumpkin, and at home he was a chicken for Halloween. We are pretty sure he knows he is our little boy, not a farm product.

which is the real chicken?

100_3376, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Many thanks to Auntie Poo for the Hallowe'en costume for Yosi.

Mama and Baby with new favorite toy

100_3324, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

A good friend gave Yosi this doll with lovely brown skin. When he first saw the doll Yosi was entranced and happy. I imagine that he somehow misses all the beautiful shades of brown skin in Ethiopia. We try to give him as many reflections of himself as possible, with characters in books, images on the wall, dolls and toys.

Grandpa and Yosi

100_3340, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Grandpa Sam Spear visited in October 2008 and got a laugh out of his new grandson.

husband and son

Facebook | John Spear's Photos - Yosef and Ethiopia
The two most important people in my life, one of whom is airborne and gleeful, the other of whom is very strong.

Cruiser and Yosi

Cruiser and Yosi, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Cruiser and Yosi settling into a moment on the living room rug this morning. Yosi is getting ready to crawl.

new parenthood

Being a new parent is like being the baseball as it is hit out of the park. Last night we had Junior in bed between us all night. The parent who is usually up and down all night (me) found this arrangement quite good, and my rest was better than it has been. The parent who usually sleeps through most of the night and then has baby duty for several uninterrupted hours in the morning (Beloved) found it not so restful a night, but we both loved having our son with us in and out of sleep and cuddling and snuggling. I think we will do this regularly, especially as the cold sets in.

Here is a photo of John's grandmother meeting Yosef for the first time -- pure joy.

Cruiser and Yosi

100_3265, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Cruiser the dog has finally begun to accept that if he wants any attention at all any more, it is going to have to come via the little interloper. And so a warm relationship begins.

Mom and Dad meet Yosef

Mom and Dad meet Yosef, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

What else is there to say?

Cityfile: Using Brain Expands Waistline

Cityfile: Using Brain Expands Waistline
Eureka! That explains it!

Kaldi's Coffee, Addis Ababa

Kaldi's Coffee, Addis Ababa - Lonely Planet Travel Guide
Here is where we will have a few cups of coffee the week after next. I can't wait :-)

A confluence of Marthas

MARTHA ALLEN: A confluence of Marthas - Lake Placid News
Here is a news story about an event I organized a couple of weeks ago. What fun! I know that once we get home with our boy, there won't be time for frivolity like this any more.

Yosef's gifts

martha spear 016, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Some of the bounty of hand-me-downs, thrift shop finds and other gifts for our son Yosef. Click on my Flickr to see more and views of the baby room in process: purplicious!

Rock hard abs

Rock hard abs « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

Home

100_2928, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

This is what our beloved new son will learn to call home. Photo taken during the winter of 2007.

Martha

Martha, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

A very long time ago...

our motto painting

our motto painting, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Years ago John and I came across this lovely painting (Millet? Courbet? I can't remember...) The art struck us and is a favorite ever since. Some day we will have a nice large print of this framed in our house.

en plein air sketches

en plein air ATCs #2 -- loungin' & nursin', originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Here is one of four ATCs (artist trading cards) for swapbot, mailed 8/1/08. Teh theme is "en plein air". These sketches were done with Sharpie. Click through for the other three drawings.

recycled cracker box

crackers, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Here are scans of three recycled grocery box postcards I did for SWAPBOT.

The top one is called "you are getting very cracker."
The middle one is "the iris and the sun."
The bottom one is "cracker rocket."

Fun!

having the decorator in

Art school makes me want to do something like this.

we are in Adirondack Life magazine!

Read about our farm here. There are also some splendid photos by Nancy Battaglia that we hope to post soon.

Martha news

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

With pleasure I write to tell you that I have started a new job as regional major gifts officer with the American Red Cross, serving the Adirondack region. I have also begun to grow a consulting practice here in the Lake Placid region. These past five happy years as development director for North Country School & Camp Treetops have been the most professionally rewarding period of my twenty years as a fund-raiser. Indeed this has been the job of a lifetime!

My change from a full-time to part-time development career is to accommodate our family-to-be and the demands of farming. As many of you know, we are adopting Yosef, a baby boy from Ethiopia, and, if there are no surprises in our paths, he will be in our arms this autumn. You can keep up with our news and our farm by looking at the websites listed below.

Please forgive the mass email format, accept my warm greetings and keep in touch!

Best regards,

Martha

Www.AdirondackPork.com
Www.MarthaSpear.blogspot.COM

God laughs at people who make plans

Hello, all. I doubt anyone can help me with this, but thought you might enjoy our latest farm FUBAR. We had thoughtfully planned to downsize our pig population with the baby coming, and were even thinking of having no hogs at all through the fearsome Adirondack winter. (The fox and barred owl have downsized our flock of chickens for us.)

But pigs are large and smart and don't have natural predators where we are. Two weeks ago we were getting ready to do a harvest (which means taping fairy wings to the grown six-month-old piggies, taking them to heaven and turning them into chops & bacon & ham). One of these plump little piggies, on harvest morning, started having a litter of piglets!

"Oh my goodness, that was a close call," we said to yourselves as we continued loading the other plump beasties onto the trailer... As it all unfolded, six of the eleven pigs we thought were ready for harvest were instead quite pregnant and ready to drop their litters, all within one week. None of these young girls were tame (we only tame & name the ones we intend to breed.) We had no nurseries set up. We had no idea they were pregnant! What a fiasco. We are the most ignorant, bumbling farmers.

So now, instead of downsizing our farm, we have 50 new piglets running around, six new mommas who are not tame, and holy moly, what a summer!

How on earth are we going to find an experienced, organic, humane and spiritual hog farmer to farm-sit for our sixty beasties while we go spend three weeks in Ethiopia receiving our first child?

God laughs at those who make plans.

Jay e-news

This morning we helped friends harvest their grass-raised chickens. It was wet, challenging, warm, squishy work. We had a good time, got a lot done and will eat some delicious chicken soon.

I love living in a place where we post on our town bulletin board as follows: We are looking for a used rooster, must be sociable. We will take chicks & hens off your hands. I still hope to find a used wooden yoke for carrying two water buckets at a time. For trade or cash.

baby shower wish list - airline miles

We are thinking of our baby shower gifts wish list. The biggest thing we need is help getting ourselves to, lodged in & then the three of us home from Ethiopia. We have asked our church to help us and they will.

Now I ask you to join in the fun and consider helping us also. Have some airline miles you can donate? I don't know how it works or how many we need other than "a lot." John will find out and we will post more details. Thank you.

EAT FOOD swap

Here is a swapbot journal for a swap called "Eat Food," suggested by Michael Pollan's line "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I decided to start this project with my pets. For almost all their lives my cats and dog have eaten commercial pet food. Now I can do differently, and sustainably, because our farm produces protein that we do not eat, in the form of pork liver, hearts, tongues & other organ meat. Instead of composting that meat, I am slow-cooking some of it with macaroni and oatmeal. In the morning when it is cooled I will chop some up and feed the animals with that. Not the pigs or chickens but the cats & dog.

The liver smells surprisingly delicious. I was afraid it would stink, but it is very nice. One of our cats snuggles on my lap as I type here, not knowing that the delicious smell will be in her belly at breakfast.

Why are you doing this challenge?

Because I live on a farm that my spouse and I started and we grow a lot of our own food. I feel like I am one of the good-guys and yet I still crave processed food and unwittingly consume stuff that I know must harm the earth. This is just a way to measure how I really eat.

Wednesday, June 4

Slow-cooked some dried beans with a handful of bacon ends from our hogs. I plan to make refried beans that I can freeze in small packets to be vegetarian protein for my meals. I can cook meat for John and we can share the vegetables and whatever else – pilaf, pasta, salad. We pretty much only buy meat from fellow small farmers in the Adirondacks. By now we are so used to the natural stuff that supermarket meat has little appeal.

What was it like to shop for food? Did it increase or decrease your food spending?

Earlier today I did a big shop and spent far more than I wish I needed to. Our most costly items are not even edible: laundry detergent, cat litter. I bought salad in a bag because I cannot resist it, although I have read Barbara Kingsolver’s book and I understand that I don’t have a right to salad that is not blooming in my own yard. I bought lots of fresh fruit and vegetables because I love them, but I feel guilty about it for the same reason – nothing like that is blooming in the Adirondacks now. Citrus and bananas certainly don’t even grow here at any time of year. I bought chocolate because there is no need to explain why.

Thursday, June 5 -- For dinner tonight I ate at a girlfriends’ potluck. I brought food that I had made from scratch: bacon-wrapped water chestnuts with peanut butter, apple hash with potatoes, and shredded pork. The pork was my own, naturally. The hash had organic apple, local asparagus & squash, imported rice and west coast organic blue potatoes. The water chestnuts came out of a can and I have no idea where they came from other than the grocery store. Girlfriends brought 1980s salad (spinach and strawberries,) store-bought turkey and quinoa with oranges, and various dips, nibbles & treats. Good wines that crossed an ocean. Chocolate cake made from scratch. Coffee from who knows where.

I cleaned out the leftovers making apple hash so tomorrow will be new cooking.

Friday, June 6

Processed food report: this morning since we were out of half-and-half I consumed some artificial flavored coffee creamer that is based on a corn by-product. It was delicious and guilt-inducing. I can’t believe I like this stuff.

In this summer heat I have been drinking lots of ice tea and juice. Although I do make my juice from frozen concentrate, it is just store brand and probably is not organic. Lunch was cherries & banana salad sweetened with refined sugar. I think the fruit must be imported, but no artificial ingredients in this meal.

Saturday, June 7

This morning for breakfast I will eat yogurt (store bought) with flax seeds, wheat germ & home-canned fruit, maybe marmalade made by my friend Nancy or grape jelly made by me. The oranges were not local but the grapes are.

How did "eating food" make you feel; did you notice any changes in your digestion, your skin, your mood?

Actually I feel like I haven’t really changed how I eat this week! I did intend to make my own yogurt and eat that for breakfast rather than the store-bought kind, and I haven’t yet. We ate some refried beans that I made from scratch and you can guess how that affected my digestion. My skin has been clearer than usual but that is most likely due to where I am in my cycle and the fact that I am getting more sun now that the days are warmer. My mood is happy, but things are generally going very well in our lives right now, so happy makes sense.

Sunday, June 8

Today was the first farmer’s market of the summer season. Last year we were the only regular meat vendor; this year there are four! We think we started a trend, or maybe we just got in on the ground floor. At any rate, we already have lots of regular customers, so the other meat vendors just watched as we sold our wares. Everyone was very cordial. I hope that they build up their clientele soon. We only sell at the one market and there are perhaps a dozen more at different locations, so we certainly do not have a monopoly.

Monday, June 9

We have very little box food left. I have not been replenishing those formerly-staples as we use them. Today I went grocery shopping and bought a gallon of whole milk to make my own yogurt with. Also a lot of fruit. The line, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” rings in my head, but I must have my dairy.

Got bitten badly by the evil little North Country blackflies and I have huge sore red bumps on my neck and scalp. So much for clear skin.

Tuesday, June 10

Ate yogurt with blueberries and grains this morning. The blueberries came from Florida. I am ashamed to say that for lunch-on-the-go I succumbed to an old favorite and got a baloney sandwich from a deli, with chips on the side. It was so yummy… Ate tuna salad later, recognizing that this stuff from a can probably harms the environment. I did not make the pickles that flavored the salad, but I did make the bread.

Wednesday, June 11

Feeling very pressured with work today. Couldn’t eat breakfast; felt too stressed. Around eleven I got massively hungry and ate a whole bag of red seedless grapes. (Forgive me, Cesar Chavez. Oh wait, that strife is over with now, isn’t it?) Then ate great swathes of St André cheese on my homemade (slightly stale) bread later in the afternoon. Took my hubbin out for dinner and ate a lovely Ceasar salad and an even lovelier burger. I am not doing so well with this “mostly plants” idea, even though I think of myself as a mostly a veg and fruit-eater. Isn’t it odd that I haven’t eaten any eggs during the time of this swap? Every day twice a day I collect eggs from under the warm hens, and wash the eggs in well water, and store them in recycled cartons in the fridge. Must eat some of my own delicious free range eggs! Good thing this swap is not about eating local or I would have only eggs, maple syrup and meat for every meal!

Thursday, June 12

Well, here is the end of my swap journey. I realized that I eat a lot more junk and processed food than I think I do. My kitchen triumphs were the pet food and refried beans. I ate way too much junk food. My husband eats what I put in front of him, so yes, he did participate. He said YUM.

tilling

This morning, unusually, I was up before John, awakened by the rooster crowing forlornly if not irritably in the locked-up-tight chicken coop. I kissed him (John, not the rooster), set an alarm for him, and went out in the mist to the animals. The birdies were very pleased to be let out into the fresh green mountain morning. I will just keep every sense attuned to the sound of that fox.

Then as I was about to take off my clogs and go inside for coffee, I heard the distinctive highway sound of an approaching small tractor. Yes, it was Ralphie, our friend who will plow for us for an hourly fee that must barely cover his gas. I was delighted to see him coming--he had said he would but not when--I turned around and ran out to the garden where I had left last year's soaker hose & plastic mulch to moulder under dried plant wreckage & dirt. I hauled that stuff out of the earth and shoved it under the unused pig shed, which took a good fifteen minutes of heavy muddy work. Ralph mutely began to move the enormous compost piles that we have been collecting. I greeted a surprised and nervous little brown garden snake, glared at the chickens who were thinking about flying out of their relatively safe yard to investigate. I hope no birds get preyed upon today and the garden snake doesn't get chopped up.

The garden will look like a perfectly frosted chocolate crumb sheet cake when Ralph is done with it. I must get in there, mark rows, plant & then begin the drudgery of weeding. We will grow such good stuff! Next winter we will eat garden produce all year long, thanks to my newfound skills as a home canner.

Meanwhile in our bedroom in the yellow house, John still slept. I hoped he would wake up curious about the tractor sound but it could just as easily be our neighbors (& Ralphie's ex-in-laws) doing something with one of their machines. So when I was done with the procrastinated plastic-removal I went inside the quiet house, stripped off my filthy muddy clothes & went to check on my beloved. He is so very tired at the end of the school year. He wants to nap when he can. Outside we hear a steady passage of drivers on the way to work; let him sleep in for once. I dress, pet John and reset his alarm clock.

All this before I have my coffee!

Now I'm snug on the couch with laptop, cat & dog. There is a pleasant hum & rattle of Ralph at work. John still sleeps -- oh, there was the rim shot of a toilet seat being opened. Sound waves of songbirds are vying with chickens for territorial rights. The river is high from a week of good rain, the trees are dark with foliage. Everything is damp and lush and ready to grow. Outside for the first time in days, the rooster now crows with brio on behalf of his flock of hens. The sounds float into the misty mountain air. I don't know about other roosters, but ours crow any time they are awake and feeling big.

fox + hens

Now that I am working from home I keep my ears tuned to the sounds of farm animals. Chickens have a particular distress sound, and--rarely--a pain sound. Or at least I construe it that way... Those distress and pain sounds launch me into the air and out the door as fast as my feet will take me.

Yesterday at dusk I was in my studio tinkering and heard the distress and pain sounds, and the rooster's alarm. I ran outside to find one bird down and the fox sliding away with another in its mouth. I shouted, waved, the piles of snow white feathers in the grass making me feel sad and guilty for exposing these birds to my learn-by-doing experiment in farming. There by a clump of irises was the white bird we call Ed Koch, crumpled and heaving. I ran to her, and she lurched toward me on the grass, perhaps her legs were broken -- suffering. My thoughtless innocent dependable hen was suffering. Her beady eye was intent, probably seeing me as another predator or maybe as her deliverer. I said, "Here, let me help you!" and I picked her up by her tender slim neck and swung her sharply. The neck bones crunkled like loose knuckles, and she was dead. I laid her down by the hen coop, loose flesh and white feathers and very little blood. But blood = suffering.

Why couldn't the fox just kill and take? Why does the fox leave a woeful dying mess behind? At least the birds of prey pounce and depart with no waste left behind. I was washing dishes the evening before last, again at dusk, and gazing out the window into the garden where a lone hen poked and scratched. Suddenly a bird shot out of the sky, hit the ground with a burst of feathers, one moment of scuffle, and the hen and bird were gone. I cried out for my husband: "John! Something's at the hens!" We ran to the garden together and examined the feathers that remained. A barred owl, he thought.

Yesterday evening's fox had run around the corner of the house with the second bird in its mouth, crying feebly. I chased, and we came to a standoff by the road. I thought the fox had succeeded in killing this bird and I was prepared to let it take the meal away to its kits, but the fox was more cautious than I and dropped the bird, tufts of feathers loose in the grass, and ran across the highway into the bushes alongside the river.

The second bird was more dead, perhaps dead and just twitching, but I couldn't be passive in that moment and I wrung her neck, too, just to be sure. Once again that narrow, liquidy tube of warm bones in my hands like prayer beads and cooked pasta in a velvet sock. Ahhh... when did I become capable of this?

I realized that I was shocked when I found myself carrying the second dead bird by its broken neck instead of upside down by its sturdy feet. I took the carcass across the road to the river verge, crying, "Here fox!" and threw the bird into the weeds where I thought the fox would find it. its dead wings fluttered in the air as if it were alive. One bird to compost, one bird to feed foxes.

That fox is honey-colored, fat and fluffy, not at all cute, very quick and shy yet bold. It knows our farm is a dependable source of fresh chicken. I have imagined shooting it. Our neighbors say, "If you're going to have a farm, you have to have a gun." And they are right -- there have been a handful of times when a sick or injured animal must be put down and those neighbors' .22 followed by a knife in the throat is the only merciful, ethical set of tools to address the needs of that moment.

If I get a gun I will have to practice and become very good. I have no anger toward the predators. I don't want to punish them, only stop them from owning my farm as their hunting grounds.

plein air blog post

Greetings from Upper Jay. I will be your farmer today. Please consider the animals in our story today: fox, hen, bluebird, pig. I am trying to decide how I feel about one of us killing the fox. Today we lost two chickens to a fox.

This is a truly remarkable day, one that ought to be recorded. So a snapshot: at the moment my sturdy beloved is strolling in from afternoon chores. Rain is steady and light, the good soaking we have needed and the Rockwell Kent light we have craved. Last night there was a light frost.

Just after dawn we were awoken by a chicken protesting. I am glad she alerted us before she painlessly died from a broken neck in the fox's jaws. We leaped out of bed, looked out the window. There was a fox, beige and honey colored, smaller then our yellow Lab, a rusty hen limp in its jaws. John & I ran outside, we faced down the fox with our red hen in its face. I figured out later when I cleaned up the bird bodies & feathers that the hens must not have felt a thing. There was no blood, just a very floppy neck and a spew of feathers here & there. I was sure my favorite barred rock, our only one of that breed, was gone due to feather fluff, but John found her later in the day, so she survived the attack. At least two dead birds, if not more. Initially we thought it had been four birds. I am glad it is fewer; there is such a high demand for our eggs.

Beloved walks in from among the fruit trees, under pouffs of golden, pinkish, lilac buds. He hefts his empty pitchfork into its slot on the barn wall. He is aggrieved, under seige. We found our best sow dead this afternoon, no reason why, no blood, no thrashing or extruded body parts. Perhaps she ate a bit of glass from the old midden the pigs are excavating in the pasture. Perhaps she had a heart attack.

So today has been quite an animal day. One healthy, productive, sociable sow dead, the first time something like this has happened to us. She's just laid out there in the straw, facing the wall, as if in a deep comfortable sleep. The carcass will become bear bait in exchange for use of the hunter's large equipment to remove her. I feel sad.

The same-day fox should be shot, said our friend and my beloved agreed. I protested with crossed arms. Beloved glanced at my posture and changed tack, from hellyeah to considering. Hunter told us of another friend and farm-ish competition who had killed a looting fox, had the thing taxidermied in a pose, with a wad of chicken feathers in its mouth, put on display in his living room. These are men I admire greatly. I have a lot to learn and they have a lot to teach.

We are living in the Adirondack State Park, which is maintained by somewhat artificial means. There are very few bears, moose or foxes. Few porcupines, pheasants, wild turkeys, deer, wild birds of prey. Each animal has evolved in relation to certain prey and that prey's food chain. The damage that humans have done to the East coast in a geologic instant has wrecked so much. Old people here recall colder, fiercer times when there were far more animals.

Romantic idealistic farmer, I. How can I justify killing a predator animal? We live in a gigantic, forested state park and a big healthy fox doing its foxy thing can only be a good thing for our ecosystem. More foxes and other predators could be delicately influencing the balance toward more moose, bluebirds, trout and other wildlife. Why should we just just shoot the fox -- surely we can spare a few hens and I would like to think that the fox does not hurt them!

***

Mid-July update -- the fox and its buddies have killed more than half our flock and prowls fearlessly through the barnyard at all hours of day. Beloved has tried to shoot it dozens of times but as this is the first time Beloved has hunted anything and he has no inborn sniper talent, he has not hit the fox yet. The borrowed .22 rests in the barn, ready.

recent American military history food fight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yldqNkGfo

This video is just splendid. I contemplated, cackled and sat somberly, all within the span of a few minutes. Here's hoping you enjoy it too. Via Neatorama.

natural organic eggs

natural organic eggs, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Today, Leap Day 2008, we have an abundance of eggs at Yellow House Farm in Upper Jay, New York. The eggs are sorted into four groups: brown, leghorn white, auracana cream and blue/green. I could also separate them by size. The variation is part of their charm. Totally natural organic chicken eggs. We have a flock of about 28 hens and one rooster named Teach. We get 12-24 eggs per day this time of year. Our birdies do right by us and we do right by them.

Here is a link to a photo of our egg makers.

Kiehl's

Kiehl's is a brand of lip balm and lotion (and many other cosmetics,) that I adore. I'm as loyal to their brand as I am to L.L.Bean and Scott's tissue. Good value, good quality. Only Kiehl's has changed since being bought by Loreal. The customer service is not as personal. I have been
ordering the same lip balm for five years and recently called to order some more, and the person sent me a size smaller than I usually bought. I hadn't even thought to confirm the size.

I used to go into the Kiehl's original store when I worked on the Lower East Side around the millenium. I loved the history of the building and its neighborhood, Peter Stuyvesant's pear tree & all that. So enjoyed browsing with others in the homespun rarified atmosphere, always good music, beautiful people, staff in white coats. Samples galore, generous and satisfying. No matter how expensive the unguent, a handful of scented glycerine soaps, and a few tubes of this & that took the edge off the price. But online one only gets thin plastic envelopes of creams and such. No more soaps or vials or little bottles.

That's my consumer report for the day.

Cascade Pass Rt 73 Lake Placid

Cascade Pass Rt 73 Lake Placid, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

I've posted some photos from this morning's drive to work. Quite safe at 25 mph. The photos do not capture the deep silence, the fresh still air, the creaking trees and little wind devils.

listening to Phish

I woke this morning from a dream where I finally had the baby, and was just getting used to her/it with my beloved, and the baby dream was snatched away, and I awoke crying into another dream, still dreaming. I truly awoke dry-eyed and pondering. My beloved & I made love twice today.

The moon is waning at about 97%, the hens are laying fruitfully, and we're sex monsters. My beloved says the moon has nothing to do with it, well, with female body tides, yes. And that's what farm life is all about: female body tides.

a bonanza swapbot day

a bonanza swapbot day, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Here is an official photo of the great generous pile of swapbot packages that arrived in today's mail. Thank you to all! I have opened the swaps and I am in bliss with folded maps, doodads, trinkets, pigs & chickens, homemade luxuries... Wow. Some days swapbot makes one's day.

SWAPBOT rhyme, rune + riddance

Cruiser, stove & sniffed thing, originally uploaded by adkpersephone.

Cruiser, the aging yellow lab, sniffs the riddance prepared & sealed by Colorfizz. In moments the riddance is among those glowing coals, burned up to black ash.

hockey giggles

As the wife of an ice hockey rock star & sister-in-law of a Bruins maniac, I have developed a keen appreciation for hockey humor.

Rosie the Riveter

Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

Boing Boing posted this photograph today, making my day. I always enjoy iconic images of people of color, particularly women.

Today I shoveled out the chicken coop. This is the sort of chore my hubbin does daily without breaking a sweat or making comment, but I am not as brawny as he is.

Chickens + DH

One of my SWAPBOT partners asked me to post some chicken pix, so here are two plus a bonus picture of DH.

Crested Hens

Here in Upper Jay resides a group of silly, artistic, flamboyant, oenophile women called the Crested Hens, of whom I am one. We have lunch together about once a month and give each other gifts for birthdays or no reason at all. Here are scans of my gifts to the Hens this month. The chicken images are from a book called "Extraordinary Chickens" by S. Green-Armytage.

splendid absurdity!

From Neatorama, a musician of the body. And French, too ( I think.) Reminds me somehow of that strange, glorious movie, the Triplets of Belleville, which my husband slept through.

M-m-m-m-Martha! Marvelous Martha!

Sesame Street classic that naturally appealed to me then as well as now. Hoppy New Year.