If the shoe fits...

I joined some friends for the day since Art is off in sunny Arizona. They have a rope tow set up in their back yard with several runs cleared for skiing. They also have many trails carved for snowshoeing in winter, and hiking in the summer.
We had about eight inches of fresh fluffy snow last night so it was beautiful.
We spent a good part of the day hiking around, then headed inside for chili, venison stew, chicken soup and fresh baked bread.
It warmed up about twenty degrees over what it has been all week. Still amazing to me how warm the teens can feel after a cold snap.
A great day :-)

Sustainability

We pride ourselves on being relatively self-sufficient, and strive to become as self-sufficient as possible. We love our greenhouse and were thrilled that it and our fields were so well used this last year. I am enjoying taking veggies and fruits grown from our yard out of the freezer for dinner. I admit that in many ways I grew up in a bubble and didn't really connect where my food came from, or heat, or the materials that built my home...
My parents always fished, and I still love to go fishing to this day but I think one of my earliest memories of connecting where my food came from happened when my friend Holly invited me to visit her grandparents dairy farm. I was maybe six or seven?? They had slaughtered a cow that day, and the boys were 'playing' with the entrails. ((Gross!)) But we watched them as they processed the cow. I'd like to say it freaked me out, but I didn't do the vegetarian bit until college. The idealistic I can't eat things with eyes moment in time that many of us go through... That pattern was broken by a great big burger for me. I just love the taste :)>
It has also been so much fun raising our chickens. Granted there is no killing, just taking their eggs. We have talked about raising meat-birds. We have also talked about raising a pig. We have a stall for one in our greenhouse. We have friends who raise one each year. Their three kids pick a name for it, and they feed, water, and care for it for six months before it goes to slaughter. That is their primary meat source for the family. The kids understand this and they know what their pig was fed, they know that he was healthy, and not chemically injected...
Hubby and a girlfriend of mine have been trying to connect to take a hunter's education course. You have to take it one time, and it provides gems like don't run and jump over streams with a loaded gun and don't point your loaded gun at anything you don't want to kill... I am on board with taking the course. Education is never a bad thing, and it may prove to be useful someday.
I have had a varied opinion of guns throughout my life. When I was very young a friend's father used to go elk hunting each year. They were all very excited when he would get an elk to feed the family that year, and quite frankly elk jerky is wonderfully delicious. Right around junior high a few boys in our neighborhood were playing with a parent's gun and one of them was accidentally shot and he died. It was very sad. This certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.
I am not a big fan of using a gun as home protection. Too many variables for something to wrong, and I don't like it. But for food it makes a lot of sense to me. I am not sure I could pull the trigger on a deer at this stage, but the fact is I am willing to eat the meat so it would be a little ignorant of me to say that hunting them is wrong...
This last weekend we went up to Manchester to the gun show. It was really pretty cool to walk through the streets of the Queen City seeing women and men carrying rifles and handguns. You don't see that too often! It was jam packed in there. I think there was a line of maybe a hundred or so people waiting to get in when we arrived. No, there weren't any Ted Kaczynski types roaming around. Definitely a more conservative crowd. Lots of 'Obamination' jokes.
We were there for a few hours. Hubby found the 45 he was looking for pretty much just as we walked in. He got a Ruger 345. He was thinking I would want to get a pistol myself. I did like the Walther P22, but I don't think I am a pistol gal. So I set off to look for a shot gun. I would probably use it for 90% target shooting, and 10% hunting. I loved the beautiful wooden handles they had on the 22's, but other than popping a squirrel in the butt (or rather nearly popping as I would likely miss...) they are used pretty much for target and competition. I did get very excited when I saw that they had a P90 for sale. Not the fully automatic military model, but a commercial version. Still made by the same company and still the same look. I told Art that THAT would be the coolest Stargate souvenier ever!! But there was no way hubby (or myself for that matter) was going to drop $2500 so I could have the same gun that Jack O'Neill and company used in Stargate. I was about to give up when I saw a nice Mossberg Rifle. It was a lightweight, but not all black, had a little gold trigger, and a nice scope, and strap. We'll see what happens from here...

Back to work

Things have been picking up with the fire department. A couple of weeks ago the guys had a professional come in to show them how to correctly use a chain saw. Unfortunately, he dropped a tree on a beautiful blueberry bush. The owner thought it needed pruning anyway, so no harm no foul. Not a week later they had a call for a chain saw accident. Rule of thumb: Chain saws and ladders do NOT mix! The guy didn't do the ultimate Darwin award manuevre of putting the ladder on the part of the tree he was cutting off, but close enough. When the tree branch freed it came around and swung at him like a baseball bat. He did an endo and fell about 20 feet to the ground.
Car accidents are the number one foul weather call the guys get. We live on T Mountain and the whole town is a series of hills. Most of our roads are unpaved which helps with maintenance and allows to flatten frost heaves, etc. The rest of it needs to be diligently salted, sanded, and plowed. I paid almost $7g to Morton Salt earlier this month for our first of many loads of road salt/sand.
Not sure what happened last night. The weather reports have been saying rain turning to snow turning to rain... for over a week. That is the worst of the worst because it usually means that we end up with no one's friend- ice. The temperature has slowly been rising from the teens and early twenties up to the thirties over the last couple of days. Later last night it started to snow. We got about two inches before it warmed to the upper thirties and turned to rain. Result? The inch to two of snow was now a block of ice. Even better the plow trucks don't come out for just a couple of inches so the roads were coated. Why they didn't salt or sand I am unsure. Budget concerns could be a possible reason there. So many of the town's budgets in NH were depleted last spring due to all the snowstorms last year, and just budget cuts in general. Add to that our town is getting less (as are most towns) money from the state and federal governments.
The guys were toned out at about 10:00pm for a motor vehicle accident on the North side of town. The car had bounced off a tree and was laying in the middle of the road. It was so icy they had a hard time getting the engine up our main road (state route). They determined that was in a different town, but before they could even ease their way back to the station there was another call so back out they went. Then a third. He got home after midnight. No major injuries, but it makes for a restless night wondering when the next call will come. Luckily it warmed to about 40 by the middle of the night and was raining hard enough that it must have washed the snow/ice mess away.

The S word

The winds of change may have arrived this week. Yesterday morning I had the windows open upstairs as I did laundry, and vacuumed the upstairs. By four in the afternoon I was putting on a sweater. The P68 in the living room even popped on for a bit that evening.
This year it has seemed like a really warm fall. Part of this may be true, and part of it may be new windows, doors, and added insulation we added this past spring. Our pellet stove has usually gone on in September and has used up two plus tons of pellets at this point. I can think of three, maybe four, times that it has come on at all, and it has only been briefly, so far. Of course, right on cue, it popped on as I was typing this...
The last few days we have had alternating forecasts saying flurries, clear and cold, or the S word- snow!
I grew up in Colorado so I am not a stranger to snow. But, contrary to popular opinion it does not snow much on the front range where we lived, and it doesn't last long- usually a day or two and then melts.
Moving to New England was a wake up call. We moved right after Christmas and snow was on the ground. They had said it came early that year so they didn't get to finish raking up leaves, and it still stayed until nearly May!
I have a love hate relationship with snow. This time of the year I romanticize it a bit. I look forward to making snow angels, going ice skating, and playing with the dog. That will change quickly with shoveling, and tramping out to the greenhouse three times a day for eggs and to give the girls unfrozen water!



Last year was a real test. It snowed on Tuesday and Friday, with an occassional small flurry or two in between. I think I put more gas in the snow blower than I put in my car over the winter!





I was at a meeting with the selectmen to set our tax rate today, and as often comes up the driveway plowing was discussed. We have a weird little town that works driveway plowing into the taxes. There is a ton of discussion about whether it's advisable or even legal, but we have done it for years... My feelings- get rid of it. Not that I wouldn't LOVE to have someone plow my driveway- but, the fact is that even though I pay for it in my taxes and a plow driver does drive past my house at some point...







They rarely if ever do more than a single swipe with their blade right by the road, and more often they shove the big pile of snow right in front of my garage creating even more work than if we had no one do it all!








Of course, hubby is on pins and needles waiting for it to snow. His life long dream of doing ski patrol will become reality once we finally get some white stuff on the mountain! Plus he has some new skis to try out. Someone finally convinced him that his 1980 210's were just a little too long and geezerish for him to have any credibility on the slopes!
Then there is the business. Pellets were in super high demand this year, and the longer it stays warm the better off we'll be...
I love snow at Christmas. Trekking through the snow covered woods to get a Christmas tree, and the decorative lights reflecting off of the snow and ice.





Nothing beats a bright red cardinal in fresh fallen snow! But, since we spend Thanksgiving at the beach, I prefer it to wait until December.






The malapuppy loves the snow! You cannot get him inside the house when it snows. He just curls up in a little ball and accumulates a nice warm snow blanket. He loves to follow in our path (read- ride on the back of our skiis) as we go cross country skiing around the yard.








Snow shoeing is something I want to try this year.











Our friends have a ski hill in their back yard and Art has a great time with his friend and their kids going up the rope tow, then down through the trees as fast as they can!
I do love the seasons, and think I would miss them terribly if we ever left New England.

So bring it on!

Hanging with the girls...

I was lucky enough to have a day away with a girlfriend, and later in the week girl's night.
When we lived in Denver one of my favorite things was getting together with the girls for dinner, drinks, and fun. When we moved to NH we were pretty distracted with starting the biz and most of what we did revolved around that. Now that we live in our little town we are finding more social time. We have some good friends that we enjoy spending time with.
My girlfriend grew up around here so she knows some really cool places to go hiking. Through her home school group she also started doing Geocaching, which is finding a box in the woods, using gps coordinates, filled with little toys and trinkets. The kids take a toy and leave a toy as well as a record that they were there. They also do Letterboxing. Each member has a stamp- the really cool ones are hand carved. You leave a stamp in their book and stamp your book with their stamp. She has a few kids who love to run around to find these boxes in the woods. Fabulous idea- both of them.
This week we headed down to Brookline to Andres Art Institute to hike around and do Letterboxing and Geocaching. Not what I expected at all. Sculpture in the woods would have been a better description.

Girls night was a blast. My friend invited me over with her home school Mom friend's. So many people in this area home school. Very cool. Good for them! We ate pork from my friend's (last year)pig, squash (from my garden), garden salad from another gal's garden, home made bread, and I also made a Pear crisp for dessert served with our local dairy's ice cream. I brought a bag (think paper trash bag size) of pears for my friend's (this year) pig, and another bag that the girls divvied up. We played Cranium, which is a mish mash of other games like trivial pursuit, charades, pictionary, etc. I am terrible at these games. It is embarassing. At one point I had to hum I Will Survive, and everyone looked at me like I had just sprouted extra arms. Yeah- We didn't win that round... or the game... But we had a lot of fun!

Back in the saddle...

almost. With only one (scheduled) trip left this year I thought it would be a good time to look back. One year I spent over 60 nights away from home. This year I had a mere 51, and Art 57. Oops, forgot one- I had 55 and Art had 61. It is good to be home!

MIA-
Yesterday morning I sprung the chickens as soon as I got up. I feel bad that they have to stay in their coop all week, even though the gals pick weeds for them and leave the light on all day for them. The morning rushed by and we had to dash over to Art's folks to get Polar. I forgot about my little chicks! I have left the house without putting them away before and when I came home they are always snuggled up in their coop for the night- with Elliot keeping one eye at the door of course! Still, I went out there as soon as we got home. It was really windy and the leaves in the trees make creepy scary movie sounds in the fall, so I strapped on my head lamp and brought Polar with me as backup. Got to the greenhouse, turned on the lights and OH NO!
The back door had blown open. Uh oh! The coop door was blown shut! Oh boy... Maybe they got in before it blew shut. Empty. Panic set in. I frantically search the greenhouse. No chicks. Look out behind the greenhouse where we found them last time. Nothing. I try to get Polar to help me but he is off sniffing and piddling on his territory- figures... Search behind the greenhouse in the weeds. Nope. Around the front, in the front part of the greenhouse- shut tight. Then I heard something. So did Polar. Back to the main greenhouse to check along the short wall again. I hear the sound again right outside. Run, trip because it is dark (and I am a clutz), get up run some more and find Elliot tucked against the outside of the greenhouse. A pile of chickens were stacked on top of each other huddled right next to him. One by one I lift them over the short wall into the greenhouse. They seemed glad to see me. Wait a minute. Elliot and six. Count again. one two three... six. Who's missing? Scramble around the bushes- nothing. Count again. Missing one Australorp. Ginny. Start the search again. After 25 minutes I realize that finding a black chicken in this dark night is not going to happen. I hope and pray that she is just snuggled in a bush somewhere for the night. What if she was scooped up by a Hawk?!?
This morning I went out first thing with Polar. I went in to check on everyone else first. All present and accounted for. Elliot crows hello! Off to search the same pattern and out into the field. After about a half an hour I decide to let the others out into the greenhouse for a while. I go in and I see a little black dart run under the bobcat. Could it be? Ginny poked her head out and started doing her unhappy moan. I scooped her up so fast! I opened the coop door and she ran right in! Poor thing.

Happy Anniversary

Art's parents celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary last week. Pretty impressive. We all brought dinner, drinks, and dessert and headed over for the evening. We had a great time. Pam was even able to come up.

Get a job

Art's lifelong dream job was to be a helicopter ski guide. He is now one step closer to that dream. He is now a proud member of the ski patrol at a local ski resort. That was one job he was hoping he could get after being EMT certified. He was right. So now he has another job. If you call skiing once a week, and the occassional weekend, and getting paid for it work. Yay for Art! So for those keeping count Art now has the pellet biz, volunteer firefighter, volunteer emt, and ski patrol. I have the pellet biz, fd auxiliary, and treasurer. Darn, he's one up on me. I need to get a/(another) job!

Elliot's Big Day!

I let the chickens out of their coop each morning so they can scratch around the greenhouse. It's kind of like an extended coop as the walls are intact but roof (which was plastic) has worn down and off allowing a LOT of weeds to grow and ways for snacky bugs to get in for them. The back door is the weak point as there is a gap underneath.
Today, they flew the coop, made a chicken run... escaped! I went out to give them some scraps from lunch, Ody, and freezing veggies from the garden and this is where I found them...

Behind the greenhouse- OUTSIDE! Silly birds. At least they were in the trees. As soon as they saw me they started chattering away like they always do... then... my (rooster) Elliot gave me his FIRST CROW! I'm so proud (sniff) Cock-a-duddle-llle. Not too loud and not quite confident to get the whole crow out, but he was standing tall and doing his best! I congratulated him and the girls all flocked around so he fluffed up his feathers and did it again! Too cute!

Still- outside... so
...I sent out reinforcements to round them up. They are so afraid of Art- Chickens!
They ran to the East side of the greenhouse and hid in the weeds. Yeah, because we can't see you in there I tell them. Not the brightest.
Back inside the big man strutted around and cackled a bit and the girls seemed in awe. They even let him take a tomato bit for himself.
Everyone else got to feast on the snacks I had brought for them, too.

Cruising

For the first time in ten years, since we have been in the heating business, we took a vacation in September! It felt very weird, but very exciting. Fall is the best time in New England. The bugs are gone, the humidity is low, and the temperature is just right! We thought we would go North to see some early foliage. We were off the mark on that one, I am guessing because the coast is a little warmer and later on leaves, but it was beautiful none the less.

I enjoy cruises because our cell phones don't work, hubby is too cheap to pay for wi-fi, we have no phone, and people can't get ahold of us.
Our first stop was cancelled because the port was closed due to remnants of Ike. Frata rata rata frata... so I still have not seen the Bay of Fundy tides. We saw the mud flat when the tide was out in Nova Scotia last year, but the port of St. John in New Brunswick was closed. So we had a day at sea sipping the drink of the day and reading books instead :)

Halifax we have been to (last year) so we shot down to a great coffee place to watch the harbor. Helicopters, and a cool looking cruiser were among the highlights. Tons of sailboats as we were leaving. They looked like toy boats in the water compared to the beast we were on.

Mid-week Art got sick so we did not do much in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We took a little walk around and then headed back to the ship where he could rest. I watched a movie in the lounge and worked out until dinner time.

Another day at sea relaxing, reading, and drinking... We did see whales off in the distance.
By Bar Harbour Art was feeling better. Though I have lived here over ten years we have yet to make it that fa'a No'th to Bah Ha'abah. It was a great little town. Kind of like a liberal Portsmouth... or maybe more like Boulder, CO on the water but beautiful nonetheless. We wandered around town, and had some calamari and Sam on the patio at a local restaurant, then looked through some of the shops and investigated a nearby sandbar- tide was coming in so we headed back.

Then we hopped on the tour bus (so cliche but when you only have eight hours...) up Cadillac Mountain. This is supposed to be the highest mountain on the Eastern Seaboard, but I swear I heard the same about another hill last month when we were in Ogunquit so I will take that with a grain of salt. Great ride up on a rare cloudless and clear day. You could see Mount Katadin in the distance, as well as all the little islands and hills in the harbor.
Then back to Bean Town.
We had to hurry off the boat because Sunday was the day of Harvest Festival in our quaint little town. The fire department does a roast chicken lunch as a fundraiser. Sold 110 chicken lunches. Boys outside cooking the chicks over an open fire (of course) and the auxiliary inside serving the chick with corn, cole slaw, potato salad, a roll, and a dessert (from our cookbook which was for sale too ;) Then outside to mingle, listen to the band, eat maple cotton candy, and drink fresh pressed apple cider. Think stereotype and you have it! Some folks even dress up in old time clothes (don't know why... don't wanna ask... in case they try to make me do it too!) Good week.

A Walk in the Country...

10 Great Reasons to have Chickens

Araucana Chick

Black Australorp Chick
Well, we picked out our chicks. We will get three Araucanas and three black Australorps. The Araucanas have the great green and blue eggs that are so delicious, and the black Australorps are supposed to be quiet, even tempered large chickens. The malamute of chickens if you will.

From My Pet Chicken My newly bookmarked resource.

Ten Great Reasons to have Chickens

Great-Tasting, Nutritious Eggs
We all love our dogs, cats and fish, but do they actually produce something edible? Or pay their own way? Chickens do, and once you've dined on their eggs you'll never reach for a dozen in the supermarket again. They're so much more flavorful, in no small part because you'll eat them when they're only minutes or hours old, not weeks or months. You'll even see the difference in the yolks, which are a healthy orange - not the pale yellow you're used to.
Plus, you can feel good about the organic eggs you'll be feeding your friends and family. All it takes to get organic eggs is organic chicken feed! Research shows that chickens allowed to roam freely and eat grass lay eggs that are higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin E and at the same time lower in cholesterol than store-bought, too. (Think of your hair and skin...)

Chickens Have Personality Galore -- Seriously!
Each chicken has their own completely unique quirky, kooky and endearing personality. They're stunningly beautiful too, parading around in a variety of colors, patterns, shapes and sizes. You'll name them, spoil them with treats, and pick them up and hug them any chance you get.

Get One Step Closer to Sustainable Living
Do you find it disconcerting how far removed we all are from the animals and plants we need to survive? How our fast-paced lives and ever-increasing demands are trashing the planet that sustains us? Believe it or not, keeping a few chickens in your backyard equates to taking a stand against all this. Read more about sustainable living with chickens

A Healthy Lawn without the Chemicals
Chickens LOVE to range freely, and allowing them to do so kills the proverbial two birds with one stone: they'll eat any garden pest they can get their beaks on (earwigs, grubs, beetles, even moles) and they'll turn it all into treasure in the form of fertilizer. Say goodbye to toxic, costly pest control solutions and wasteful bags and bottles of store-bought fertilizer. Chickens will even cut down on the amount of mowing you do because they love to eat grass. That's right -- you sit in a lounge chair with your mint julep while they do the hard work for you.

One Man's Unappealing Leftovers are another Chicken's Feast
Chickens can eat almost anything people can, and they adore "people food" -- so you can throw those unwanted leftovers into the chicken run. No more feeling guilty about letting them rot in the fridge or throwing them out! Watch out for the garlic and onion, though, unless you want your eggs tasting funny.

A Balanced Compost Pile
Composting is a wonderful way to reduce your ecological footprint, and a nitrogen-rich compost pile is a healthy compost pile. What better to provide the nitrogen than chicken poo? Eggshells are a great addition, too, especially in areas where there's lots of clay in the soil. At the end of the composting process you'll have "black gold" soil, so called because it's so rich and fertile.

Handy Leaf, Weed, and Grass Clipping Removal
Leaves, weeds and grass clippings are a treat for Gallus gallus domesticus. They'll happily dig through whatever you give them, eat what they can, and pulverize the rest. Give a small flock a heap of yard and garden debris and a week later it'll be gone without a trace. No need to bag it and pile it by the curb!

Save a Chicken from a Factory-Farm Life
If you're aware of conditions in factory farms, even in some of the so-called "free range" farms, we needn't say more. If you're not, please research it. Factory farming is terrifyingly cruel. The good news is that by keeping a few pet chickens of your own, you're reducing the demand for store-bought eggs and sending a message to those factory farms that you don't want what they're selling.

The Very Definition of Low-Maintenance
Chickens don't need to be walked, brushed, or fed twice a day. Essentially all you have to do is gather eggs daily, fill their food and water containers a couple of times a week and change their bedding once a month! (For more on chicken care, take a peek at our free chicken care guide.)

Be the Coolest Kid on the Block
Despite their many merits, backyard chickens are still relatively uncommon. Wow neighbors, friends and family by being the first person they know to have chickens. Amaze them with the green eggs from your Ameraucana hens. Confound them by scooping up your pet chicken and cuddling it. Astound them when your chicken falls asleep in your arms after you've lovingly stroked its comb and wattles. Make them green with envy at the lawn your flock has made effortlessly fabulous.

Chickens are, after all, the most "chic" pet you could possibly have. And we think it's time everyone knew.

Contractors are messy and I am a mess!

It is contractor time at our house again. Windows are the top priority for the post and beam part of the house, but they are also installing a ventilation system for the basements, replacing front door, new back door, running wire, installing a storm drain outside, etc. etc. etc.



Some was done while we were gone, but the bulk is being done right now. My house is hard enough to keep clean with just Art and the critters to clean up after. Add the contractors, three weeks of laundry (one week before that didn't get done and two weeks gone), cable modem failure (again...), a biomass presentation for the Chamber, new piggy-back, early buy, new web page, second job as treasurer, raking now that the snow is mostly gone... Any moment now I am sure my head will spin right off!