Photo Gallery

 Stefani and Seamus watching the cycling race

 View of the grain silo, hen house and seedling house 

 The professional cyclists speed through during their first "lap" during the Batten Kill race. 

This was around mile 50, Meeting House Road, where we live. 

 Inside one of the three greenhouses where lettuces, leeks, beets and escarole will soon be planted.

 Chris cutting potato seedlings

 Inside of Blue Gold potato 

 Our friend Amy gave us a jar of local, raw honey when we visited the Farmer's Market in Troy, NY. 

"You're farmers," she said. "I can't imagine you are making that much money. 

A lovely gift from one farmer to another.

The view of the farm

Farm Fatalities: a cold-blooded killing and three blind mice

This week was my fourth week on the farm. And last weekend it poured for 36 hours. I didn’t even leave the apartment on Sunday, yet Monday morning I somehow felt like I got cheated out of my weekend. I was completely unmotivated.

It may have something to do with the fact that Chris was up in the barn, above us, working for an hour in the middle of the night Sunday night. One o’clock to two o’clock. And it was pouring. And rain was dripping down our wall. At 2:00am when Chris made it back in, he was so bothered by the rain he started shuffling all of our electronics and books across the room. It was just a long weekend; a weekend of driving rain and chores and not as much sunshine as I’d like.

Chris killed three mice on Friday while digging out around the greenhouse. They were burrowed underneath some soil; underneath a row cover about two feet beneath the dirt. Chris took a shovel and just beat them, and somehow all three of them died. They were pretty mice too- a silvery gray. Shiny like the moist arched back of a dolphin. I called them moles. I know mice are not good for our plants, but they were just doing their thing and then “bam” a shovel hit them on top of the head. I guess some days are like that. I assume the three of them weren’t blind, but they sure did run.

Announcement: The baby chick that was born last week died during the weekend storms. (photographed above) The mother hen was not a good mother. She nestled down in the pasture during the first few sprinkles on Saturday and for some reason just decided to wait it out. I guess she just gave up after about 24-hours of driving wind and rain. No sign of the baby bird Monday, and by Tuesday I had completely given up the search. I’m regretting turning down the offer to raise a baby chick. Farmer Thomas told me that I should take the chick and raise it as my very own. “It’ll follow you anywhere. It’ll be a loyal pet.”  I’d have made a better mother than that dumb fowl.

Many of our pepper plants are looking puny and sad; plants that have been in the soil almost a month now. The germination rate has not been great and they got overly dried out. Now they are damping off and dying. This week we potted on almost all of both the hot and sweet peppers: Big Bomb, Flavorburst, Highlander, Inferno, Jalafuego, Fatali.  Several, however, didn’t have any root left, so I simply tossed them into the big pile of dirt outside the greenhouse.

And then there’s the feral rooster that decided to burrow down at night, right in front of our window. He doesn’t crow at 6:30AM like all the other roosters, initially he decided to start his bellowing at 5:30AM. Then he went ahead and bumped it up to 3:30AM. Chris received approval from Farmer Thomas that he may indeed kill the rooster by any means possible. There are way too many roosters on this farm. The hen to rooster ratio is not so great. Chris whacked the rooster over the head Thursday night with a board. I made him go out three times to make sure it was really dead. Unfortunately, roosters do not make good eating.

More barn cleaning all day Friday brought out two more skeletons. Have I mentioned the skulls and skeletons we continue to pull from the barn floor?  Shoved between insulation and straw and massive beams we’ve found all sorts of dead things. I think this is where the barn cats have brought there most handsome kills. I’m still not sure what the largest of the skulls is: opossum? raccoon? rabbit? The lumber will be delivered Monday and if all goes as planned we’ll have a new barn floor (well, the half we’ve been repairing… the other half was replaced last summer) by the end of next week.

And I finally asked Thomas about Oscar Wilde, the cat that we met during our first visit to the farm in February for our interview. We’ve seen three other cats, but no sign of Oscar Wilde. Chris tried to convince me that I had remembered the cat’s name wrong. Thomas said Oscar Wilde got ran over by a car prior to our arrival in March.

Thus is farm life: storms and winds and driving rains will change your plans and keep you awake at night. Animals will die. Plants won’t make it. There will be carpentry projects that I will hate. This is only the beginning. I know it will be harder when deer eat the lettuces and birds pick all the blueberries and the tomatoes have hornworms.  And I do realize the piglets Chris and I will pick up next week will be butchered.

Grown with Love

I've cut my fingernails to the quick. There is no nail left. The tip of my finger sticks out past my nail and it's an odd sensation. It's sad. It's not feminine. I've never done this before, but it's the only way to keep from digging out mounds of dirt from underneath my nails each and every night.

I'm eating so much peanut butter, avocado and full fat yogurt. I need energy. I can not survive on wilted spinach and roasted bell peppers. I did make squash enchiladas for the first time this week though. Amazing. Just as good as my mama's.

I've cut 1,500 pounds of potatoes this week. We will harvest close to three tons by the end of the season. My wrist is killing me.

Today I found a skull while cleaning in the barn. I think it's a rat skull, but it could be a really massive snake.... I put it on our front door mat to startle Chris.

Monday the first veggies of the season went into the ground: Red Zepplin (red) onions, Candy (yellow) onions, and Sweet Ann peas. Garlic and Strawberries have been in the ground all winter, so this was our first planting. All other planting we have done has been in the seed house which is a highly regulated environment. Everything that lives in there lives happy and healthy. It's sheltered from the harsh, real word we'll subject it to soon enough.

Broccoli, cabbage, (more) leeks, and (more) bell peppers were all planted this week too. Additionally, I "potted on" a massive amount of celeriac, or celery root, or German celery. This simply means I took them from the tiny little cells they were in and put them in a more spacious cell. They are still in the greenhouse (after being planted on March 15th) and still are quite small, but now they have more room for their roots to grow and flourish. It took me from 9-12 to finish all six 122 count trays.

Twice this week I've been able to just wear a t-shirt sans fleece jacket or cap. Yeah, sunshine. But my right ear somehow got seriously burnt. Sunblock those ears people!

Chris would really like to catch the chickens when they get out of the hen house and put them back in. I find this highly entertaining to watch. Farmer Thomas makes it look so easy. Chris just looks, well, like a wild man flapping his own wings.

Farmer Thomas shared some of his special spicy pepper seasonings from last year. They're pretty dang hot. But smells oh, so heavenly: roasted peppers Yum!!

There will be another farm animal joining us in early May: a hog! I'm really excited about this, as is Chris. We have a few renovations to make to the pig pen, but I'm excited to see how this whole "hog" thing works. We were offered a share of a hog just last week. Three families were going in to split a hog and were looking for a fourth. They asked if we were interested, you know, in the fourth of a hog. No, not this year.

I'm currently enjoying a bottle of wine from a local winery. It's actually about five miles from our farm: Amici Vineyard. New York boasts over 1,500 wineries. There are local wines for sale all over the place. I've got my work cut out for me.

So, that's the latest. The "I'm only at the library for a limited amount of time" bulleted list.

Tomorrow's Friday. Then Saturday we hope to go into Troy, NY and go to the Farmer's Market cause I just can't get enough. And now we actually have some friends to say hello to. (Amy the beekeeper and Cody and Christine from Homestead Farms. The Denison's will not be there yet.) And we go to market in Glen Falls, not Troy. So, you know, it's different.

I also hope to make it to the co-op in Cambridge. As you know in addition to Farmer's Markets I love health food stores. I do. I guess there are worse things in life. We didn't make it to the co-op last weekend. The big cyclist race made it a disaster for drivers and people were out in droves. Also, after the drama that was my tetanus shot from the Health Care Clinic we were just simply ready to go home. (Dramatic only because I am so high drama.)

All is well. My tetanus shot is almost not sore anymore. Almost. We're learning so much every day. I am personally thinking about checking out a children's book from the library to help me learn all the farm equipment.

Weekly Wrap-up

Apologies for the mess of a blog these days. I have one hour at the library when I log onto the internet to get all my business taken care of.... and I really want to let you in our lives and what we are doing. (But I have to pay bills and order things on Amazon too!!)

Today is a gorgeous Saturday, it's the big cycling race, Tour of the Battenkill (which goes right by our farm!!) I'm hoping to find the Food Co-op, perhaps join and find somewhere to get a tetanus shot. I haven't had one in 13 years and evidently you can get tetanus from dirt, soil and manure--- all of which I'm covered in daily.

We are well. We are sore and working very hard, but feel great. Next week, if all goes well we will have the water wheel out in the field and get potatoes and peas in the ground.

It's finally getting warmer (60's) and I can't wait for our first harvest and Farmer's Market days.

Again, it's a mess around this bog I realize--- but I don't want to leave you all wondering what's going on with The Chambers. Love LOVE--

Quick Pics From Around the Farm

My first seedlings popping up!

Chris looking out over the rows of garlic.

Elanor and Franklin, the pet donkeys

Chris's rhubarb coming up nicely

One of the feral roosters. He scares me!

Chris fighting with Winston who managed to steal Chris's hat right off of his head.

Stefani sitting out of the wind, in the sun, by the potato washer: Friday at 5:00pm. Hallelujah!

(Just out of the picture, my glass of wine...!)

Thoughts from Tuesday

April 10, 2012

Today I used the shop-vac in the barn. I shop-vacced insulation people, and the entire time I was thinking, “Seriously. I am not doing this. This is ridiculous.”

Over many, many years dirt and hay and bulbs of garlic had fallen through the slats in the barn floor. And last week we ripped up the floor. So now, before a new floor is put down… I’m supposed to collect as much dirt and hay and bird feathers and layers of onion that I can.

With a shop vac. (Still not sure how this works, seeing as though the vacuum sucks up the pink insulation as well as the dirt. And there is lots of dirt. And lots of hay. And did I mention that there is no floor. So, I’m basically teetering along the beams trying not to fall, trying to look below while trying to shop-vac up as much straw as possible.

This is when I begin to wonder if I’ve just been given then task to see if I’ll actually do it.

This morning I felt nauseous by 10:00 even though the day was gorgeous. My yogurt and banana and piece of toast had worn off and I felt like there was no way I could crawl into the 90 degree greenhouse once more. But I did. And we worked until 12:45. Cutting legs off of tables to keep newly potted plants off the ground before we actually plant them in the ground.

I still feel like not much help at times. If only I were stronger or taller or were, I don’t know, a male. I was more like Carpenter Chris’s helper today; doing things he’d ask me to do- going to get a screwdriver, picking up boards, putting nails in my pocket, marking the spot where he’d later use the saw. It’s still somehow draining.

And unfortunately I forgot to set my avocado out of the refrigerator last night and didn’t set it out until this morning, so it wasn’t ripe. For lunch I had a chicken sausage with a few spinach leaves and shared some chips and salsa with Chris instead.

Then I shop-vacced and tried to make myself useful, sweeping, moving pallets, pulling nails and throwing (more) rotten boards in the back of the wagon.

At 3:30 I’d had enough so I headed out to Greenhouse Old 144 to turn rows. It was excruciatingly hot in there. I knew the sides would roll up, but I had no idea how to do it… so, I worked in the hot hotness turning rows in my long sleeved t-shirt, tights underneath my pants and two pair of socks. I seriously considered taking off my shirt and working in my sports bra, but I wasn’t sure of the farm rules yet. It is only my first ten days still.

Being in the greenhouse earlier today and in the huge grow house this afternoon, sweating while knowing it’s in the 50’s outside made me a little nervous about the summer that is to come. And all the time I’ll be spending planting and harvesting in those very green houses.

Chris joined me and we shoveled our arms off until about 5:30pm. I try to shovel with my entire body. I try to use the stir-up hoe with my thighs and legs. My right arm and shoulder could easily bare the brunt of the work, so I try to thoughtfully and purposefully use other muscles for pushing and pulling and lifting and turning.

No wonder I’m exhausted at the end of each day.

…

Tomorrow night is our “party” at Justine and David's place, Denison Farm. Tonight I prepared no bake cookies for the second time this week and Chris made his famous cream cheese salsa dip. I’m excited to meet some other people interested in organic, sustainable farming that our closer to our age. But at the same time I wish I could be wearing make-up and look fancier and at least showered to meet these new people. I guess it’s just me.

I still find it fascinating when I see bits of last year’s crops peeking up in the greenhouses and in the rows outside: lettuces, carrots, and onions. I like seeing all the pink segmented earthworms crawling away from me and back into their holes when I turn over a huge hunk of black soil. So many earthworms. And spiders. Today I saw a field mouse. He got temporarily hung up in my stir-up hoe…. but I let him get away.

Evidently we are supposed to kill mice when we see them….

Meditations from Monday

April 9, 2012

All of the days run together. I don’t even recall, in this moment what I did today. What I ate of breakfast, or how I even managed to get showered and fed all before 7:00pm.

It’s work. It’s outside. And it’s exhausting. Sometimes not in the moment so much, but at the end of the day, I realize just how tired I really am. Go for a walk? Forget it. Go run errands? No way.

At the end of the day there is dirt under every fingernail. Solid black dirt. There is dirt in my snot, dirt in the corners of my eyes and dirt on my Q-tip when I pull it out of my ears. This nighttime showering thing is completely new to my routine, but completely necessary at the same time and really the only way I would be able to live with myself (and Chris) at this point.

I started my day learning to drive a standard transmission. Yes, a stick shift. This is only because there was not way Chris could drive both the tractor and the Chevy down to the soon to be rows of peas to fertilize, till and cover the beds. We threw the brand new row cover, fertilizer, buckets and shovels in the bed of the truck, I got my five minute lesson and off I went.

I get it mentally; it’s just my feet that don’t cooperate. The ignition starts without a key, someone has to lean on the side of the truck for the bed to close properly, there is chicken wire on the back hatch where glass used to be…. You know, a real farm truck. Not one of those 2012 four-door megaton, leather seats, power windows trucks with heated seats and a DVD player in the backseat. What’s the worst I could do? Besides kill the engine no less than ten times driving back and forth across the pasture in first gear.

We did our thing in the rows while the wind blew. We raked and weeded more in the greenhouse we tore the bed our of last week. After lunch Chris had a chiropractors appointment. (And we’re not even one month into this thing…) So, for the first time I was left working alone with farmer Thomas.

Conveniently during lunch the ground cover and the plastic top for the greenhouse we’re rebuilding arrived. Perfect.

This afternoon I drove stakes into the ground with a sledgehammer. I looked Thomas right in the eye and said, “What if I hit you?” I think he responded with a grunt and a grin that meant, “Seriously, just hit the damn pole….”

So I know I swung a lot more than I should have, but the poles got into the ground. Then more shoveling and turning over beds in the 96 foot house while we waited Chris’s return to unravel the massive plastic tarp that the wind could whisk away in no time. Seriously, the wind up here…. It is not to be taken lightly.

We completed the greenhouse around 4:30 and stopped for the day.

Margaritas in hand (out of a pre-mix Jose Cuervo special that we picked up at the wine store) we trudged uphill across the pasture at to the pond. We sat on these massive rocks which made up some historical stonewall that Farmer Thomas had told us about previously and looked out at the gorgeous view. Silos, farm houses, freshly tilled soil, green pastures, trees and mountains in the distance.

Today was hard work. I am sore, I am tired, but it feels good.

For dinner: acorn squashed stuffed with rice, ground turkey and cheese. Followed by hot cocoa… I’m happy.

Potting On

I've completed my first week of living on the farm. It's had it's moments when I wondered, "what on earth have I done?" However, most of the time I am living in the moment, be it shoveling, seeding, feeding spoiled carrots to Franklin the donkey, potting on, or pulling up rotten boards that make up the barn floor.

I have written each and every day-- though not blogged-- and have really enjoyed the work aspect of the farm. Even though right now we are doing alot of pre-season preparation work that I don't find all that exciting: picking up limbs, trips to the city dump, cleaning the barn... I know it's necessary. Just perhaps not as rewarding as, weeding carrots or harvesting strawberries or bundling beets for CSA members.

And, in all honesty, we did have a day and 1/2 off this week.... On my first week... We got finished around 3:30pm on Tuesday (so Chris and I sped into town to get some laundry washed.) And we completed all the chores left for us Wednesday afternoon, and the farmer had other business to attend to Thursday... so we got to wander Washington County some more. We did exciting things like renewing our drivers licences and getting library cards. (Thus the internet access....)

Within my fifteen minutes remaining with the library internet, I'd like to tell you a few things I've learned just this week:

I won't be driving a tractor ... since I can't drive a standard. And that's a little disheartening. I feel like a pansy. Like a girl. Like a prissy NYC girl.

SPF applied at 8:30AM does not last throughout the day. One must reapply at lunchtime. And being in the greenhouse does not mean you are protected from the sun's rays.

Physical labor is tiring. Working 9-5, eating dinner at 6:00 and going to bed by 8:30 or 9:00pm is not unreasonable.

It felt incredibly reaffirming (and a bit successful) when the seeds I planted on my first day labled Kolibir (Kolrabi) and Moneta (Beets) popped up above the soil in their tiny cells. I was so fearful that somehow my entire tray would indeed not grow into little plants as they should.

I like the donkeys and chickens barn cat and two lazy dogs that sun in the front yard. The animals make the farm the farm. Sort of... until there are potatoes to dig up. I have been on the hunt for a kitten I keep hearing in the old pig pen but I haven't found him yet.

Even in a small barn apartment, our kitchen is a nice size and I'm happy to be cooking all of our meals again. Chris makes amazing over-easy eggs- just perfect with that warm yellow center that oozes nicely over the farm bread I purchased at the local Hanford grocer. (Eggs from the hens right outside our door.) It's a local bread, five ingredients and I mainly chose it because it was called "farm bread." I've made squash, brussels sprouts, rice and beans, avocado and tomato sandwiches and a nice bready-apple thing that I created this morning for breakfast. The only thing from the farm we've been able to eat at this point are shallots, onions and garlic from last year's harvest.

I feel good. I'm doing well. I need a tetanus shot (evidently you can get this from soil and dust and manure... all of which I'm digging in daily... Who knew?) But other than that we are well. The people we interact with are nice. The communities welcoming. These are farming counties... huge farms and hard workers. These people have mud on their boots and dust on their trucks and their businesses are closed on Sunday. It's nice to be a part of something bigger than me. Growing real, healthy food. It feels good.

Oh, and ending the day in a warm sunny spot with a glass of wine feels perfect. A slice of heaven.