News from the Country Estate 10/18/09

Greetings from the Country Estate!

A cold rain falls outside, soaking everything. Its a good night to be inside in a warm dry house.

Autumn is in full swing here in Maine at the Country Estate. We've been spending a good bit of time walking among the leaves painted by the Great Artist. Our search for land on which to start our own country estate has yielded two front runners both around 25 acres, one in Alna and one in Dresden. So we've been following orange survey ribbons marking boundaries and looking at trees quite a bit.

On the work front, I've been subcontracting for a growing company called Sustainable Structures while I plan my next long term move in my building and woodworking career. So many aspects to it and such a short life to master all of them!

I've decided that I want to raise some oxen. An Ox is simply a steer (a neutered bull bovine) which has attained the age of four years and, presumably, is trained to work. Oxen require a lot of work to care for them, but can work in situations a tractor couldn't dream of (yes, tractors do dream. they even have psychoanalysts to interpret their dreams). Some of the land we've looked at presents challenges as to how best to harvest timber, and a team of oxen would meet some of those challenges. Don't get me wrong, I still want a tractor. KT says I will NEED a tractor, but Oxen will help too.

Milk Crisis

Coming from Wisconsin, milk has always been part of my life in one way or another. Whether I'm having a four-serving bowl of Cheerios with a quart of milk in it, or a quart of vanilla yogurt, there has always got to be a large quantity of bovine lactose based food in the house.

A friend recently pointed out to me that the roots of milk consumption among the lower classes go back to the days of medieval feudalism in which the lord of the manor owned the meat of the livestock, but the peasants could take the milk. In those days, milk was the primary source of proteins and fats for those who could not afford to eat meat. That legacy lives on as we continue to pour skim on our wheaties every morning and add half and half to our French Roast.

This article refers to a so-called milk crisis of boom and bust cycles that hurt both customer and farmer. Just a few years ago, I would be sent to the Super America station with a five dollar bill to get TWO gallons of milk (1 skim, 1 2% if you were wondering). Our household drank those two gallons in about a day and a half, and subsequently would run to get more. By the time I moved to Maine the days of cheap milk were over, and we had gained a taste for Organic whole milk (especially the widely available Organic Valley milk, approx. $4 per half gallon), the price of milk had risen to over $3/gallon and higher. After drinking organic whole milk in glass bottles from somewhat local farms, we've found our own solution to the milk crisis: buying farm direct, raw/unpasteurized, fresh, whole, non-homogenized milk right from the bulk tank @ $4/gallon. Its pretty much the best milk you've ever tasted. The farm is located not 10 minutes from here on a corner in the road named after the excretion of the bovine (a picture of the sign is here)

Come to visit and we'll pour you a tall glass of this pristine bovine secretion!

Up with the Sun, 41 degrees fahrenheit.

Everyone needs a little holstein steer mooing at them when they come in the drive way.

And chickens to lay fresh eggs (that black rooster attacked me not two minutes after this photo. I was ready for him though, as I had a stick. Gotta show him whose boss.)


Recent porch restoration job. New Framing, post feet, decking and a couple steps.


The time comes every year to pull the boat out of the water. The back end of my truck is almost in the water, while there is a trailer underneath that boat strung out on 3o some feet of chain.


If you look close on the left, you'll see my friend Paul in a little dinghy leaning under the boat adjusting the jack-stands that stabilize the boat on the trailer.

After a couple hours we had her on the hard and the mast dropped (no easy task, but this time pretty painless) and all the rigging tied up and ready to roll. I dragged her to my house first because I had to go to work.



Today a new job starts on Westport Island.

In the soup.

We're in the soup tonight. After a bunch of great fall days, we're getting up to 1 1/4" of rain all at once. A dreary day in general in the Midcoast, but for us a very typical Sunday:

up at 7ish (which is sleeping-in for us)
cereal and milk
drive 40 miles while looking at 4 different properties for sale like this one
get coffees and a sticky bun at North Cottage Coffee
we've been to this church twice and will probably continue going
have lunch at the Big Top Deli in Brunswick
KT decides not to play soccer game (raining, tired etc)
Drive home
Sit in chairs
Decide to make soup from whatever vegetables and what not are in the kitchen
(Potato, turnip, fennel, carrot, green onion, garlic creamy-style soup)
eat soup.
Search for more properties, finding 30 more to look at.
walk all over house and laundry room trying to find wireless internet signal.
Shower
Blog
In bed by 8:15pm

A day in the life.

Went to the Common Ground Country Fair. It was a hoot, but we are all peopled out.

ok gtg

News from the Country Estate 9/18/2009

Working, dawn till dusk, six days a week as much as I can. Winter's comin' who knows what it will bring?

The chickens have been laying eggs out in the yard somewhere's. Bad chickens, Bad.

I scraped ice off my truck window yesterday morning.

That's it.

Laborious Day

A happy labor day weekend to you all.

I'll be celebrating by working most of the weekend.

Especially monday, laborious day.

Mist

A mist rises over the field to the north over freshly cut hay. The birds sing. And I can faintly hear the chickens clucking.

News from the Country Estate August 31

Greetings

Instead of flying, next time I'll just ship myself home in a big box. Now that would be a fun package to open on the porch!



Despite the so-called economic crisis, we've been keeping busy. Here are some pictures from a shed now dubbed the "studio". Note the custom plexi-glass gable windows.


I had the pleasure of trimming out a room for our friends over at Tandem Glass Studio and Gallery.
And the hens are finally laying eggs in earnest. A size comparison from biggest to average size egg.
I went out to find ELEVEN eggs in the coop this morning. I couldn't even hold them all, I had to put three in my pocket.

Well, we've got about 10 days of nice weather ahead, so if you need us, we'll be outside.

w

Flying while bearded.

A little belated grousing about flying and the attendant security rig-a-ma-role.

So I'm flying home from Milwaukee, with a couple of smallish oil lamps with no oil in them, just glass, in my carry on baggage. Of course I get my bag searched at the security check, I was expecting that....

Then I'm waiting to board the flight, still looking a little sleepy eyed (6:40am flight), and this TSA minion keeps eyeing me up, then, right when I stand up to join the boarding line, he comes over and asks to search my bag again. Since he has the power to summarily detain me with meaningless questions and make me miss my flight, I assent. I tell him this is the second time I've had my bag gone through. He gives me some speech about if I've had the propaganda, I mean, training that he's had I would understand the tactics of OUR enemies. All the while, he's not even searching my bag. He barely even opens it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been profiled. Currently I wear a beard, some would call it an Amish style beard, that is no mustache, about three quarters of an inch long. Other than that, I'm wearing a plaid shirt and a hat that looks like a John Deere hat (it actually says John Moose and has a jumping moose). Other than the beard, I basically look like a farmer on holiday......

blah blah blah. people wonder why I don't like to fly. The total loss of the rights of personal privacy and free speech. And the right to wear a beard.

That is all.

W

Heartland

Greetings,

I find myself in the land of corn and beans and big trucks and flat land. I'm in the Land of Lincoln with my kin, some of them anyway. Seeing pictures I haven't seen or have forgotten, hearing old stories for the first time. Its good to be here.

A long day of travel brought me hence. Despite my continuing grudge against flying ( mostly due to the ridiculousness of the security measures and the ever present TSA (Thousands Standing Around)), my last two jaunts out to Milwaukee have been nothing but pleasant. Part of it is due to my willingness to splurge on creature comforts like the New York Times, hot coffee, hot breakfast, and a shoe-shine I think, but in both cases the flights have been genuinely pleasant and easy experiences. I still prefer to drive out in the Mercedes if I have the time, but who has the time? I've been crazy busy with work for the last six weeks or so! What recession?

Also, the feeling of still being on the boat is gone.

w