Not-Exactly-Wordless Wednesday: Spring at Last?

The little Garden of Good and Evil stature finally emerged from being buried deep under a snowbank all the long winter only to to be covered in snow again last week.

We had begun tapping the  silver maple trees.

Syrup boiling was suspended briefly.

But the sun came out and melted the last blast of winter pretty quickly. (Knock on wood-- last year we had a huge snowstorm on May 1st.)

The redwinged blackbirds returned in a huge flock, hundreds and hundreds of  birds in all the trees, just for a couple days.

A snippet of the sound.

The bees in the tip bar hive survived this brutal winter and began cleaning out the hive and scouting around.

I noticed  my bees were working over a dried, dead hyacinth pot I had moved outside to re-plant the bulbs,  so I brought out a pot of blooming daffodils--probably the only flowers blooming for many, many miles, and they quickly discovered them.

Each daffodil flower had 5 or 6 bees working it all afternoon.

I also put out a pie pan with slightly diluted honey (from my harvest from last fall) and a piece of bark  for a landing strip - and they were very happy.

A crew of friends from the UU church who call themselves the “Arborcidal Maniacs” came over to help remove a large dying ash tree at the corner of our garage. 

Cutting down this tree was heartbreaking and made an unbelievably huge mess.

Our friend Mike came back the next day, Sunday,  and worked on the tree cleanup all afternoon! (THANK YOU, Mike!)

We left Mike to his own devices  because we  spent the afternoon in Minneapolis, celebrating daughter Cadence's birthday. It was a glorious spring  day, so we walked to the Modern Times cafe...

(crazy sidewalk sandwich board at  Modern Times) 

We got our sandwiches “to go” and had a picnic at Powderhorn Park.

Happy birthday, dear Cadence!

It was a perfect day until we got home and discovered that Zinnie was missing.  After contacting all the neighbors,  walking the  woods, checking all the buildings, and  driving all the roads in a  2-mile radius with no sign of ZInnie, I posted on my Facebook page and two lost pets pages. Within an hour  over 100 people had shared  my lost dog photo. Within two hours two people  I did not know posted that they had seen her  jogging with people on the Douglas Trail that afternoon (apparently she had followed someone jogging past our farm while we were cleaning up wood and gotten lost on the trail.) Someone took her home and contacted Animal Control. The next morning I bailed her out and got her a new collar and tags. She was very happy to be home after spending a night in jail. Whew - I was a wreck worrying about her.  Thankful for the power of social media in finding a lost pet! 

Yesterday was Rog’s birthday. For his birthday present I got him a new used 20-qt mixing bowl for the Hobart mixer AND got the mixer  repainted. Above you see the “before,” a mixer that works great but is so ugly, with chipped industrial gray paint. 

I am happy to report that Rog was totally surprised and totally delighted with the squash-blossom yellow mixer makeover. I found a wonderful guy, Kevin, owner of Auto Refinishers plus in Rochester who sandblasted the old paint off and repainted the mixer with automotive epoxy for a reasonable cost. I will spare the details, but suffice it to say that moving this 189 lb. beast in and out of the pickup by myself and keeping the project a secret from Rog was a challenge.  

This may very well be the only bright yellow Hobart mixer in the world. It will be the centerpiece of our commercial kitchen. (I love that I am married to a man who is overjoyed getting a mixer for his birthday!)

Last night, we had a Birthday Mirthday Bonfire, burning the three huge brush piles from the felled ash tree in a huge bonfire. We roasted hot dogs and had chile,  deviled eggs, cupcakes and beer...

followed by music in the barn.  Thanks to everyone for making Rog's birthday such a fun celebration!

Today the snow is nearly gone--these two last small patches of snow and the ridge of snow that slid off the roof on the north side of the barn will surely be gone after today's forecast 70 degrees!  Happiness!!!

Fall Equinox Weekend

We did what is probably our last  market baking for the year this weekend.  Night comes considerably earlier these days and we got kind of a late start on the bread Friday evening.

Rog baking by headlamp. We baked in the dark and it was still dark when we got up to head for market!  It is a bit more fun doing the farmers market on the long days of summer.

After the Saturday market, people showed up at the farm in the afternoon for the first Fresh With Edge tilapia harvest.  Chris waded through the pond with a net to round up the fish.

Some customers even caught their own dinner.

The tilapia tripled in size over the summer, growing from about half a pound to over a pound and a half. A few tilapia eluded Chris's net, but he figures they will be easy to catch as the water temperature drops during these brisk fall nights and they slow down.

Saturday night after tilapia fishing, we had an end-of-the-season wood-fired pizza  party for the CSA members --but I neglected to take photos.  We are so appreciative of the 14 families that subscribed to this  years's summer CSA and  support our farm so heartily! Thank you.

It has been such a busy, happy week, following last week's family reunion. We have been overjoyed to have both daughters home.

This morning we took them out to brunch at our family's favorite Minneapolis breakfast spot, the French Meadow Bakery, before Cadence headed to her job and Sara flew back to North Carolina. It was a glorious fall day and we brunched outside in the brilliant sun.

After brunch, Rog and I sped home to open up the farm for the afternoon. A perfect day, with fantastic music from Thomas and the Rain, and lots of fun, friendly people visiting the farm, many for the first time.

This evening we managed to squeeze in a couple of small but important farm jobs, including moving the mother hen and her big brood from the barn to the coop. I am confining the entire family to the middle room of the coop for a few days so that they will learn to return to the coop at night, not the barn. Here is a family portrait taken in the coop tonight - you can see about a dozen of the 17 chicks.

Now, off to bed...This will be a very busy week, devoted to preparing for the 3rd Annual Squash Blossom Farm Fair and Cow Puja next Sunday.  The long range forecast sounds ideal and the event promises  to be amazing -- hope you can join us!

Wordless Wednesday: CSA Day

Works in Progress

Rog and I have played with mud and clay all weekend. We made not one but two attempts at mudding the new bigger and better clay oven. The first attempt, using an innovative, experimental, time-saving construction strategy, failed structurally, so back to  the old tried and true method of using wet sand as the base. Rog found some wonderful clay at a house-construction site that the contractors were only too willing to let him haul away for our oven.
These are my farmer-hands, packing brick-shaped wads of mud to build the inside wall of the oven.

 Rog constructed the opposite side.

It was a sultry, hot weekend to be doing this project. Actually, sultry and hot to be doing anything at all.
Rog built the massive table that supports the oven from old barn beams he found on Craigslist (our go-to source for farm projects.) I hope we sited it in the best spot --this oven is not going anywhere now.

Nutmeg supervised from the shady spot  below the table.

The oven with its  inner coat of  mud complete. A thick insulating layer will be built over this.

Tonight Rog ascertained that the clay was dry and  hard enough to remove the sand from the inside.  Here it is emptied out, ready for the insulating layer. This oven is twice as big as our current wood-fired clay oven - we will be able to bake a dozen loaves of bread at a time.

When not up to my elbows in clay, I finally tackled a project I have been wanting to do ever since I was inspired by a mosaic idea I saw on Pinterest last winter/ This is the first one of a pair of  tall, narrow panels to flank the doors of the granary/farm store.   Old cups and mugs are cut in half and mortared in to become planter pockets.  I sawed large floor tiles and dishes into 1 1/2 inch square tiles.

The guard on the wet saw I was using did not allow enough space for me to cut the cups, so Rog cut them for me with his angle grinder. Happily, he did not  cut off any toes with this procedure.

Tonight we hung the panel along side the  door; tomorrow I will  plant the vessels (maybe with herbs? or succulents? or moss roses?)

Israel and Cadence are making major progress painting the house, even working on these hot, hot days, and doing a fantastic, meticulous job.  I am not sure how we are going to reach the peak, though.

Their band performed at a wedding Saturday, and after dropping off the equipment and the car, they walked home. They definitely add a dash of vibrancy and character to the village of Douglas!