It's harvest time

Last Friday I had the opportunity to help a local farmer with his harvest.  To be honest I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but my friends Jenny and Travis were going to visit Brandon at his farm, so I wanted to tag along.

I got to know Brandon this summer when he came out to play frisbee.  I had heard about his experiments growing these grains that aren't native to North America, but can be part of sustainable agriculture.  These crops provide the best bang for the buck, since they are all high in protein.  He received a grant to grow grains in southeast Ohio, to see if this is something that can be viable for the area.  He is growing amaranth, quinoa, millet, and buckwheat.  I only got to help harvest the amaranth and millet. (Oh yeah, and some heirloom corn that is going to be used at the local bakery for tortillas.)  

But back to the A and M.  The amaranth is beautiful with this intense maroon plant and flower.  Here is a picture I borrowed from some online source.  Some of the types are completely maroon.  Even the leaves.

After harvest, it must dry to make it easy to get the seeds out of.  Then it gets threshed.  Which is basically stomping the heck out of it.  Then you get to sift it through a mesh to separate the seeds from the rest.  This gets tough but can be meditative.  So the threshing part is more party like and festive.  Winnowing (the separation state) is more focused.

The same process goes for millet.  Though, we only harvested and threshed the millet.  Didn't winnow.  

So that was my farm experience.  

Dream

The other night I had very vivid dream.  I often have dreams that I remember but not as much as this one. You'll have to bear with me as I give background about the characters.  Although one character you will all know and I why he is in my dream, I have no idea.

It started out with me walking uptown, most likely to work.  I ran into Ryan Sittler, a guy on the OU frisbee team who was working with a local landscaper.  (Now this doesn't seem too weird because he works at a local farm, so landscaper/farm, same venue.)  He was removing some stumps in front of Stephen's restaurant, which is located across the street from where I work.   I stop and say hi, and Stephen comes out to say hello.  (I know Stephen from when I worked at the eye doctors.  He is a friend of my old boss and plus he's a fellow siciliano.)  We chat and then Stephen turns into Chris Collinsworth.  Chris is the coach for a soccer team that is sponsored by Stephen's restaurant.  Chris is trying to recruit me to play on the team.  Of course, I would love to play, but I am old and the knees aren't cooperative these days to play.  I decline, but he pushes on.  He convinces me by telling me that Jamie Landheer and Mel Sheetz are playing.  

A little background here.  Jamie and Mel are outstanding ultimate players that I dearly love to play with.  Apparently in my dream, I figure if they can play awesome ultimate, they can play awesome soccer.  So I decide to play.

Our first game comes up and the three of up don't even play in the first half. So of course we are losing by two.  In fact there is a young girl playing.  I have to doubt Chris' coaching abilities at this point.  However, I never get to prove myself, as I awoke, or moved on to another dream. 

Then I saw Stephen at the Farmer's Market the next day.  I didn't see Chris Collinsworth though.

Analyze that.

Kids!

Here are a few photos from a couple of weeks ago.  We were in Cincinnati to see my bro, who was in town for the first time since last christmas, and my cousin from Alabama.  I hadn't seen her in a long time either.

We all met at Nonna's house for an afternoon.  Mary Beth and Rex and Carolyn were there too with their kids.

Joey and Lucas.  A little out of focus, but I like it anyway.  They have an older brother too.  They are all lanky kids.  (who would make great Ultimate players, hint hint)

Here is Jeff with one of Carolyn's youngins.  Jeff was pretty good with the 3 Carmody kids.  They seemed to see him as a jungle jim.  Jeff didn't seem to mind either.

These two remind me of Jeff and I.  Two peas in a pod. 

We also spent a little time with Tif and Roy on Sunday before we went back home.  I love this photo of Hazel on her new swing set.  

The newest edition to the Stephen's family, Jade.

We are in it again!

The cool thing about having a friend publish her own webzine is that if you are lucky, you are asked to be in it. This time Kent got in on the action too.

Check out the link below. The picture of me is in the back of the old truck. One of the last rides we ever took in it too. Oh the memories...

getoutwebzine

Enjoy

Weekend update

We had a productive weekend here at the homestead.  

Friday, I played a bit by going to an art opening at the Dairy Barn and Kent worked on the truck.  Oh yeah, we bought a truck.  A 1981 baby blue Ford F150 pickup truck.  Straight six, as they say.  It is frickin' big.  Anyway, Kent worked on that, I saw the quilt show at the DB, and I did make some homemade applesauce.

Saturday was a play day, mostly.  I went to the market, farmacy, kroger in the morning, while Kent got some more work on the truck.  (That was our work for the day.)  Then, we went to a cookout sponsored by the Off Campus Housing division of OU.  They were trying to educate the students on how to be a good neighbor and resident of the city.  Seems like a good idea to me.  Kent wanted to go since it took place in our ward and then the students could meet their representative.  

Then it was off to the Paw paw festival.  This was a very good time.  The music was fantastic and the food was delightful.  Mostly we chatted with people.  Go figure.

Last night we went to the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network's fundraiser.  Again, good music, great food, and plenty of shmoozing.  The band was the Randys and they played a wide variety of covers.  My favorites were the Louis Prima and Dean Martin songs.  

Today, we worked.  We are still working on the garage to get it ready for the transformation.  Mainly this means cleaning it out.  Boy, do we have a bunch of stuff.   Thankfully our neighbors came over for awhile to give us a break.  Then the winds started and we all took cover.  So far, no big branches have fallen around us, but we'll see.

That's our weekend.  Busy busy.  It is supposed to cool off tomorrow, and I think this town is looking forward to it.  It's been so humid here, the cooler weather will be a welcome relief.

I am a believer

Last week, I bought the required digital  converter box for our TV.  Since we don't have cable, we will need this to watch PBS once everything goes digital.  Well, I am a believer.  I thought this whole digital TV thing was hocus pocus.  A way to get people to buy more crap.  Well, my shows now come in crystal clear.  I can see every hair up Wes Cowan's nose on History Detectives, the cracks on the vase of Antiques Roadshow, and the winkles on Bill Moyers forehead.  Plus, we now get 4 PBS stations.  Apparently, WOUB has all these digital channels that I didn't know one could get.  So now I can watch Rick Steve's Europe on the International channel.  The others are a kid channel and WOUB Learns.  The Learns channel shows a lot of the history detectives and NOVA type stuff.  So who needs cable.  

Final days in Vermont

Our final day in burlington was spent at the Beach.  It reached 82, which was warm enough to brave the water and throw a little disc.  We started with lunch.  A plentiful spread of cheeses, hummus, pesto, salsa, bread, carrots, and these delightful pita chip things, that I must tell Kroger to start carrying.

After beach time, we enjoyed dinner with Bryan and his fiance' Elizabeth.  We met BY long long ago, when Daron first went to Burlington and he brought this rag tag team down to Arctic Vogue.  BY was among the players and we have the joy of playing along side him in many a tournament.  I think we even won a few with him.  

Our last day in Vermont included a long drive down the spine of Vermont to visit our long lost friend Herbi.  Herbi worked with Kent at BH and we have enjoyed her friendship for many years.  about five years ago, she received her Ph.D and pursued a faculty position in up state NY.  Although we've seen her a few times when she came back to Athens, this was the first time we have seen her in Vermont.  And let me tell you, if you know Herbi, know that she is in her element.  Herbi and her partner own 10 acres of land on a mountain the overlooks another mountain.  Her garden is bountiful and the dogs (Yep, she still has ruby and spike) run free.  

Here we are chowing at the beach.  It was a little overcast at first but then the sun came out.

Herbster at home.

Spike and Rubes!!!

Btw, spike still chases the ball like it's crack.  Some things never change.