gangsta

Can't Tell Me Nothin' from Zach Galifianakis

that's will oldham in the background-hillarious!

yeay summer!

love this life!

for A and M

wish it was a vampire instead

i gave blood today for the first time ever!!! i finally weigh enough-
oh god! all muscle though baby all muscle!
i have good veins and i didn't even get light headed!
fucking champ y'all!
osiris might have malaria from his travels to syria so he wasn't able to bloodlet. but while i teased him about the real reasons why he wasn't allowed (you know, all of the man sex and shooting up back in '76) he was good for stuffing junk food and power ade in my bag while we waited for my blood pouch to get full. good boy! we never get junk food on the farm!
anyway, we finished the day against nurse orders and got some beer and painted a new banner for our first farmers market on saturday. thank the vegetable gods! i need some socialization!
my rogue d' hiver. the blood red lettuce awaits you!!

the 70's

really?

live free!

"we still remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. but we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else...
one reason to eat responsibly is to live free."
-wendell berry

i opted to stay home and make rose cordial while the mens went on a mushroom hunt- what a perfect gender assuming scenario. nonetheless, i absolutely revel in my time alone on the farm, even though i do yearn for female companionship of the human-kind like the mosquitos for my bare skin.
rose petals underneath sugar piled with lemons below boiling water. viola!
i hope it turns out as yummy as i think....

that fence is done

a hammer in my hand feels good, feels natural. suddenly i have purpose. i have strength. pounding the stakes into the ground high up on a ladder i can see everything and i see no one coming to judge me. i prove nothing to anyone but myself. i’m strong. i have purpose. i’m a carpenter’s daughter but a fatherless girl searching for the skills that skipped over my little frame. i love that hammer. this lesson in letting go.

i'd do him

a superb bird of paradise dances for the lady. wow!

in the news...

"porn star jumps to his death after murdering co-worker with samurai sword."
wait i think i saw that movie

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/05/porn-actor-accused-murder-dies-cliff-standoff-la/

i just finished burying my favorite chicken black beauty. my aracauna mistress with baby blue eggs. my favorite because she was the smartest. always finding her way out of the run while the other girls just pecked around. she was kind of an outsider too often doing her own thing away from the rest of the flock. she had this strong independent presence, plus she just looked tough! all black head with blue glimmering neck feathers and brown speckle ridged feathers like wood grain everywhere else.
the wild neighbor dogs came over right after we let them out of the run to roam. bella was taking a nap. i was inside. the neighbor came and broke the news. she was nervous. i told her it was okay and it was life and that dogs just do these kinds of things. she showed me black beauty and after she walked away i thought of life and death and all the things that just happen. i took her back over by the coop and covered her with dirt and lupine. my black beauty.

i found another swallowtail today. i know they’re everywhere right now but when i find them i like to think instead, that they find me. my grandma bev would put out her arm or a finger and a butterfly would always land on her. she had that kind of magic with birds and all kinds of other animals too. they liked her. there were all the squirrels, the stray dogs, the daddy long legs we named herman that she let live in the corners of the house. she was the st. francis of the neighborhood. the saint of my life who showed me the fun of rolly pollies and the sweet taste of honeysuckle.
so as i cradled that pretty fragile thing into my room i thought of grandma. and as i gathered all of the brightly colored, sweet smelling flowers today i thought of her too.

my bluebird sings

the month of may-hem is over. for many of us here on the farm and many others i adore afar, it’s been a bitch.
part mercury, part spring, part weather, part life equaled a lot of change. a lot of loss. the latest frost in 50 years claimed the hundreds of big and beautiful tomatoes and eggplants we watched blossom from tiny little seeds. grapes and peaches were bit with the black tongue. the potatoes took a hit but seem to be bouncing back (must be an idaho/irish thing!!). we’ve only just started transplanting from the greenhouse most of what has been begging for earth, air, and sky. what a season to be a farmer in the sierras!
the beauty in all the bummer is that this pacific northwest-like weather has brought unusual abundance. all of the berry bushes have twice as many flowers, which means twice as much fruit. yummy!
by the way, next to my favorite the raspberry, we have strawberries, blackberries, boysenberries, blueberries, elderberries, black currants, and the area famed mullberry tree. mmmmmmmmm.
and there are hundreds of birds on the farm-ones missing from the trees for ten years or so. it was a lovely day to see a tiny nest in the rose bush filled with even tinier baby chicks, pink skin and whitish mohawks, so new and fragile. the mating calls of the ravens are a click clack like i’ve never heard before and the morning songs of countless other birds make waking up so damn early almost pleasurable.
so friends, as you cry from heartbreak just remember that may has passed and june is here, summer is on her way carrying sunny days and new love. so come eat some freakin’ berries! possibly bathed in liquor as a sweet reminder that may came only once this year!