industry

Wes and I recently watched this video from PBS Nature about the current state of the salmon industry. It was thoroughly disheartening, in much the same way that the Midwestern farming industry and even the childbirth industry is for us. The similarities are striking: in each instance we find ourselves asking the wrong questions and looking for solutions to problems we ourselves have created. In each case nature gave us a better model than those we have since created. Industry, indeed. You can help contribute to the health of our country's salmon population here.

brown county state park

The Kendall family took a brief trip as soon as Wyatt was out of school to Brown County State Park.We did a little camping, a little swimming, a little bike riding, and very little sleeping. Vacation? Not so much. Fun shared experience with memories for the long haul? Definitely.

1912

This last weekend I traveled up to northern Indiana for the memorial service of my great uncle. It was a couple days spent in the company of family and friends remembering a fascinating man. On top of being a doctor and visionary in the medical field, Uncle Bob adored firetrucks. I can still remember sitting with my brother on his 1912 engine when we were kids. The 1912 was a treasure he restored and drove across the country as part of The Great Race in the 80's and remains the oldest operating fire truck in the world.  It was a joy to climb up into it one last time...

house and garden

We have been quite busy the last couple of weeks here on the "farmette." Above you can see our latest major home improvement project: changing out stained, nasty carpet in the living room for painted flooring. We love the result, and swear the air quality is exponentially better, but still have the last 10% of the project to do...the most difficult part, I'm learning. I'm also in the process of stripping out the kitchen entry way and giving that (tiny) space a much needed makeover. I feel the home improvement inertia and think I need to just roll with it.

The garden work is also taking up huge swaths of time. Spring food is coming in, we are getting lots of perennials in the ground, and trying to stay on top of the sheet mulching game. "Speedy," the other of the mystery chickens, was a major hindrance to this work, so she was transferred (via stroller ride with Elise) up to Grammalis. She is happy in her new home, and we are happy to visit her there.

A quick story to end: Elise was picking spinach in the garden a few days ago. I didn't want the spinach to end up in a wilted heap who-knows-where, so I reminded her that the job wasn't finished with picking - she needed to wash and spin it and put it in the fridge. I went on about my garden business, fully expecting to trip over the wilted heap in an hour or two. A bit later, I went into the house and heard Elise in the bathroom. I went in and asked what she was up to. As she replied, "washing the spinach" I took in the scene in it's entirety: Elise on her stool at the sink, sink filled with water, spinach floating in the water, and Elise holding a single leaf in one hand, using her toothbrush in the other to scrub the thing. Gotta love that little farmhand.

polly

For those of you who didn't know, we involuntarily (but happily) adopted two mystery chickens early this past fall when an unknown stuck them in our coop while we weren't looking. One of them was in bad shape and faster than any chicken I'd ever seen and the other was a bantam, a tiny thing I really doubted we had any use for. The latter, however, proved to be the best pet the kids could have asked for. I'm using the past tense because this week, Polly, as she came to be known, went missing...probably the victim of some unknown predator in the neighborhood. This loss was felt more deeply by me than I would have expected...I can still see Elise carrying the bantam around the farm, talking to her and singing to her...