It's that time of year again when the pool gets cleaned out. The draining of the water and shoveling of the muck happened a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately there was no cement work necessary and today an eager gang made short work of the painting.
We've had cool weather so far this spring, but temps are suppose to be more summer like toward the end of this week, so the spring-fed cooooold water will be great relief on hot days.
Last weekend we had picture perfect weather for the Raccoon County Folk Festival. Organized by Pete McDonald and some other folks it's a great local event for the music community held at a lovely setting in Burton. If you've never been, make it a point to go next year.
Each year there's a fiddle contest where you can hear a wide variety of styles. This year the first place prize was taken by multi-instrumentalist Zach Smolko of Helper T-Cell fame. Who knew such a zaney musician could also fiddle so well.
Farther afield, the summer got off to a great start when Paul, Laura, Helen and Jack took off to the Mt. Airy Fiddler's convention in North Carolina. Helen and her friend Lila played tunes together for the first time. After playing a tune through once or twice, they decided they were rehearsed enough to compete on the big stage. Let's hope they have many more tune sessions to look forward to.
There's a lot of ways to plant a tree - some easy and some hard.
Last fall we hired a guy with a tree spade to move a nice maple to the front of our house. Call us impatient, but we'll enjoy it's leaves and shade this summer. See the clip below.
But not all trees go up quickly. Each spring Paul orders seedlings to replenish his supply of Christmas trees. There are plots all over the farm. Here are some photos of him planting in front of our house (Villa Mir II).
Carol was at the farm for two weeks late March to early April to help along the finishing touches on the old house. Here's a long overdue gallery of photos of the renovation.
The News Herald has done a nice story about Kate Jackson's shop, Knitting on the Square. We're fortunate to have such a great store in Chardon - I can't go in there without buying something. And there's a cozy spot right by the front window where there are always people knitting away and chatting about whatever comes to mind. I haven't availed myself of that yet, but I plan to whenever I get a free moment while I'm in town. I only hope a shop like this can survive in the current economic climate. Her yarns and books are not cheap - they are lush and gorgeous and like the puppies and kittens at the pound, they whine at you from the shelf, "Add me to your stash, please!" Impossible to resist. So hopefully, the clientele will continue, because, as they say, life is too short to knit with bad yarn! Thanks, Kate!
Well, I've been pretty lax about posting lately. Have been in Ohio once since the accident - picking up my car in early January. I hitched a ride with Mike on his way back to school in Pittsburgh - he was kind enough to go out of his way to drop me off. House is looking good - photos after my next trip which is mid-February.
Anyway - a post. Paul gave me a dvd for Christmas which we just got around to watching. Its called "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" and is an autobiographical story of a somewhat wacky Illinois farmer who struggled to keep his family farm and eventually turns it into a CSA farm. "Angelic Organics" is the name of the farm, for those of you who live in the Chicago area you may want to check it out.
The film itself is touching - narrated by farmer John Peterson, it has wonderful real characters (love his mom!) and lots of video from his childhood that talks about the old-timers. The clash between John's counter-culture lifestyle and friends and the locals is both scary and amusing. The 'bug video' is funny as hell! Very 'helper T-cell-esque'! Here's a trailer, and if you want to see the whole movie, you can get it on neflix. Thanks, Paul!!
