A Most Beautiful Wedding and Some Pretty Pigs

We arrived home late last night from a quick jaunt to Vancouver, Washington, where we had travelled for the wedding of our niece, Annie, to her true love, Sean.  It was a beautiful and fun event, and we were so happy to celebrate with Roger's family.  We wish Annie and Sean many decades of happy adventures together.

It was a whirlwind trip so we did not have time for touristy explorations, but we realized we were very close to the farm of a former colleague of Rog's and could stop for a few minutes on our way to the airport yesterday morning.  April used to work as an engineer in Rochester, but returned to farm near Vancouver, where she grew up.  April and her husband Brad have April Joy Farm, a picturesque, 28-acre farm where they raise a spectrum of organic vegetables and heritage pork. They operate a veggie CSA,  sell produce to restaurants and markets, and sell their farm-processed pork directly to customers.

We accompanied April to feed her Tamworth pigs, a pretty red breed with big ears. Ginger and MaryAnn are the two newly-acquired young sows.

Rosie is the queen of the farm. She is due to have piglets next week. I wish I could have seen the newborn piglets, but probably a good thing  they hadn't arrived yet or I would have been so tempted to  sneak one home on the plane!

April acquired Rosie when she was only 30  pounds--she is about 700 pounds now.  She is a beauty.

April built this enviable chicken tractor on an old  trailer her brother had. In the background you can see some of the table grapes, planted the first year she bought the farm. There is also a small orchard and a large, new high tunnel greenhouse on the farm.

 

What fun to see an old friend and kindred spirit and her amazing enterprise! We hated to leave this idyllic farm (not to mention the beautiful green, spring morning) so soon, but we had to get home to our own sweet little farm - and a foot of fresh snow.

Wordless Wednesday: Weeds Drawing on Snow

Wordless Wednesday: Frosting and Icing

Wordless Wednesday: Can We Go for a Walk in the Snow?

Wordless Wednesday: Icicles, Frozen Eggs, & Other Winter Delights

A Perfectly Wovelly Afternoon

Time to give a little note of appreciation for the wovel, our shovel on a wheel.

I just cleared the snow from the driveway (450 feet long) patio, the parking area, in front of the barn, the paths to the chicken coop and loafing shed, not to mention the deep compacted hill at the end of the driveway left by the snowplow, all using the wovel - in just over an hour! It probably would have taken slightly less time with the snowblower, but it would not have been nearly as enjoyable. I got a little fresh air and pleasant exercise, with no snow blowing in my face or noisy engine or gas fumes or wrassling the heavy snowblower in and out of the barn or around corners, and absolutely no back or arm strain. Plus, no carbon emissions.

This was perfect wovelling snow-about 2 inches deep and not too sticky. I do admit, if there is a foot of heavy snow to remove and it's 20 below zero, then I'll probably choose the snowblower.  But the wovel is now going on 5 years old, is still going strong,  and has been one of our best tool investments.

Casa Sin Dueno

Wednesday was the birthday of our new son-in-law, Israel. Cadence invited us to dinner at their place and I made Israel's favorite dessert, flan, my first attempt.  We divided the birthday candles among the four little ramekin-sized flans and Israel made a wish and blew them out. (I suspect his wish might have had something to do with warmer weather.) The supper was wonderful and the flan turned out pretty darn delicious, if I do say so myself.

Afterwards, we persuaded Cadence and Israel to play a few songs for us. They met when Cadence was studying mariachi music in Mexico City, and Israel was teaching and performing Son Jarocho music. Since then they have traveled in Spain and the Czech Republic playing Son Jarocho together. Now they are preparing for their first U.S. concert, at Crossings.
Son Jarocho is the traditional folk music of the Veracruz area of Mexico, with influences from indigenous,Spanish, African, and Caribbean music, played on specific stringed instruments.  Israel primarily plays the Requinto, using a piece of cow horn to pluck the notes, and Cadence plays the Jarana,which almost serves as the percussion.

The Leona is another traditional  guitar-like jarocho instrument. It much larger than the requinto and the jarana, and has a deep bass tone.

Israel has built many of the instruments himself. The body of these instruments are carved from a solid piece of wood. He showed us a jarana he is working on now.

He has also built a marimbol, a large keyed soundbox, sort of like a gigantic kalimba.

Cadence's first instrument was the cello, and they are working on a few songs together with it.  It's a  beautiful combination!

Cadence and Israel would be honored to have you hear them perform at Crossings in Zumbrota on Sunday, February 10th! I taped them practicing to give you a sneak preview:

Israel on requinto; Cadence on jarana