Party Hardy

For those of you not in the know (a group which included me not too long ago), tonight was National Night Out.  In celebration of this event, our block got together and threw a mighty shindig, complete with a visit from the fire department, more food than you can imagine, and many many friends and neighbors.  As a special treat for us, I made a gargantuan salad almost exclusively with the products of our garden.

Good food, good friends, good memories.  Thanks to all who came.

Strawberries Out Our Ears

I am ashamed to admit it, but I grew up in Los Angeles. Along with the smog and the traffic and the cranky people, LA produces some spectacular strawberries.  They are positively huge.  Sweet, and good.  However, until moving to the northwest I never had anything with which to really compare them.

Our strawberries are NOT large, by any stretch of the imagination.  But what strawberries in the northwest lack in size they make up in HUGE taste.   How one little berry can pack so much flavor and such intense sweetness, I will never know.  They are so small they don't even begin to approach round, but in their little football-shaped frames there are quite a few surprises.  If you have the chance to try these sweet little explosions of flavor, I strongly recommend you do.

Now excuse me while I wipe the drool off my chin and go raid the fridge one more time for the fruits of our harvest today.

Night Banjo

 It was hot today, not so hot that you don't feel like doing anything, but spring is clearly gone in the northwest and summer is here for the interim.  However, come evening the breeze blew the heat out and as the stars came out the air became pleasant and sweet again.

I found myself this night on the back porch with no one but myself, two dogs, an oil lamp, and my (borrowed) banjo.  It was bliss.  I was not precise but very productive - learning three new songs in less than an hour.  I will spend the next few nights working over those songs, adding pull-offs and hammer-ons, and if I'm lucky a few drop thumbs.  I will make them mine and will add them to the growing litany of songs I know that are older than my grandfather's grandfather.

While I played, everything else melted away and my life reduced down to the music and the lamp and the evening breeze.  My unemployment was unimportant.  The weeds in the vegetables for the time being forgotten.  It was wonderful and it was mine.

Seriously, We Need a Cow

We have friends staying with us while they look for a home nearby.  We love having everyone here, all of them, but the speed at which we go through milk is astonishing.  We have six kids in the house, all under 10, so you can imagine how much we drink.  Add to that my cereal habit (still, can't help it), and we're going through nearly eight gallons of milk a week.  It's amazing.

Now, how to get a cow past the City Code Enforcement???

Our Newest Additions

Okay, they're really our daughter's additions to the flock, but it's all one big flock anyway.  Two weekends ago SuperSuris had the first major alpaca sale in the Spokane area in as long as anyone could remember.  It was a great time, rain notwithstanding, and approximately 15 animals were sold - a great first go.  Two of those animals, a white suri by the name of Luna and her female cria, were bought by our daughter as a set.

Luna comes from famous lineage and her fiber is pure white and has great density and lock.  Her baby, who we've been calling Cinnamon Roll until our daughter gets around to giving her a proper name, is a feisty fawn-colored female with truly stupendous fiber.  I cannot wait to spin up some of what that little girl has growin'.

Luna and her baby will stay at SuperSuris for the time being as we continue to work towards our own little piece of heaven in the country.  Sadly, my unemployment has moved that out a bit, but we continue to try and get there.  In the mean time we continue to work at SuperSuris every weekend, so if you're in the area come on out and see us anytime!

Summer is Blooming

Yes yes, I know the typical season for blooms is spring, but we've had such a weird, wet, and cold spring that everything seems to be blooming again, as evidenced by this photo.

The farm is not just beautiful right now - it's absolutely resplendent.  The animals are waking up after a long cold spring, there are babies being born, there is shearing and mucking to do, spring cleaning, gardens to plant, pastures to reseed and water - and all of it simultaneously back-breaking and enjoyable.  The animals are happy for the care and attention and we're happy to give it.

And we have babies galore right now.  The first living being I have ever witness born aside from my own children was a little white male alpaca born on my birthday of all days.  He has a little brown spot on this head, like an odd little toupee, which will help us identify him later on in the sea of black yearlings that we're bound to have.  Many others have been born, as well as one little brown and white male who has the distinction of being the first living being I have delivered/caught, ever!  He was stuck in his momma a bit and I had to do a little pulling and shifting to get him out.  And what a gorgeous boy he is too.  We have our eye on him as he matures, though with his mixed coloring he will likely have limited utility as a herdsire.  I still love his fiber though.

So summer is breaking, the days are getting warmer, and we're getting busier.  Now that I have a surplus of time on my hands, I hope to keep y'all up to date on farm doings here - more often than I have.  Happy almost-summer, everyone.

What the . . . ?

Well, what could have broken me out of my stupor and finally gotten me to update this blog?  Well, honestly, that's the crushing unemployment that did that, but a contributing factor was the following story posted on CNN today:

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/06/23/does-4-h-desensitize-kids-to-killing/?hpt=hp_c2

Not long ago CNN ran an Eatocracy article where a prominent chef extolled the virtues of purchasing meats from 4H programs rather than big factory slaughterhouses, etc.  I read this article with raised eyebrows, totally agreeing with the author yet waiting for the hateful comments to start flooding in.  So many arrived, in fact, that CNN ran ANOTHER article (linked above) just discussing the comments.

Rather than supply my own comments on CNN.com (where I'm quite sure they would be lost in the flood), I've added them here.  Yes, part of 4H concerns the raising and eventual slaughter of animals for food.  However, are they less humane (wrong word, but it's what people say) than the factory slaughterhouses?  I think not.  I have seen many 4H cows raised in grassy pastures out behind kids' homes, pampered and groomed, and even loved.  Those same cows went on to make hamburger and steak for those kids' families and others who purchased them.  How is that as bad as putting hundreds of cows in paddocks covered in literal feet of excrement before shuffling them off to their deaths.  I think not.

I understand that a great number of people think that killing and eating animals is wrong.  I can't blame them for their opinion and I won't try.  However, I personally see no issue in raising one's own meat supply, treating that animal with care and sensitivity and, yes, eventually killing and eating that animal.

Please, don't vilify a program that has helped literally millions of kids learn about their world and their food supply.  You might as well get angry at the boy scouts for teaching kids to trample into the forest - never mind their proven history of helping to bring up responsible, caring adults who contribute to society.

Thus endeth the rant.

Have I Mentioned . . .

. . . how much I love playing the banjo?

Animal Joy

My father would call it "yet another episode of anthropomorphic theater," but I must say I have seen the joy that hides in the hearts of animals.  Spring is the perfect time to witness the proof, of course. 

As the days have grown longer and the sun warmer, everything seems to be happier.  The birds flit in and out of the fences, singing merrily to the sky, the eagles swoop and dive - not for food but for the joy of warmer air fluttering their feathers.  Even the bugs and the bees seem to be reveling in the sun and the new found warmth.

There is a particularly cantankerous group of "old men" at the farm, retired herdsires with good lineage but more years under their hides than others.  Because their pasture is in seed their world is limited to the barn and a small sandy yard between it and the next barn over.  That's not to say they have no entertainment.  Once a day they get to stand lined up along the gate - like the dirty old men they are - and ogle at the females as they traipse by on their way to their food.  But they certainly lack constant access to grass that the other groups enjoy on a daily basis.

Today, as we do every weekend when we clean and feed, I shuffled the younger males into the barn and let the old men out into their pasture to graze.  The sun was mostly hidden today, but the breeze brought the scent of fresh grass to their noses and those old boys took off like a shot.  From the time they entered the breezeway until they felt grass under their feet, maybe twenty-five feet at most, they shed years of age.  They hit the grass at a full tilt and began tossing their heads and pronking, dancing about with their lustrous locks swinging back and forth - just like crias do when the sun is beginning to set and the time to dance arrives.

Anyone who witnessed their romp - the dancing, the leaping - would have a hard time arguing with me.  It was animal joy and a wonderful thing to see after a long winter of snow and muck.

Shining Sun and Green Fields

Saturday was wet and wooly, with many a hail storm and that wet slucky mud that likes to pull the wellies right off your feet.  Not so on Sunday, as you can see.  The morning dawned clear and bright and I had four blissful hours at the farm with nothing but me, the sunshine, and 180 or so alpaca.  It was exactly what I needed. 

As you can see, the winter wheat is coming back strong and the ranks of tourists are set to follow shortly.  While the animal work at the farm always slows down right about now, the people work kicks into high gear.  Our friends' shop is near to opening again with a whole new lineup of products, including our candles!  We can't wait to see how well they do.