·:[ high hopes gardens ]:·
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Linda and I snuck away from the farm for 20 hours this weekend to Iowa City.  We had tickets to see Steve Earle and Allison Moorer, a couple of acts I saw at SXSW in Austin, TX last year.  Steve is a rare hippie country singer, but his latest CD is more folk with a hint of hip-hop and won the Grammy for best contemporary folk album this year.  I got the last two seats in the house about a month ago.  The Englert was a nice venue, restored by a big community effort.  There is a tuxedoed man to greet you at the door and volunteer ushers wearing black pants and white shirts.

He played a good mix of his old tunes like Copperhead Road and most of his new CD. 

Before the show we ate at Devotay - a fine dining restaurant that features hordes of local producers and run by Chef Kurt Friese, who is one of the founders of Edible Iowa River Valley magazine. 

Of course, we stopped at Prairie Lights Bookstore as well and did well to keep the bill near 100 bucks.  We picked up Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, a compilation honoring the late Paul Gruchow entitled The Grace of Grass and Water, The Flower Farmer, by Lynn Byczynski, which updates the Organic Flower Farmer which is the single most valuable how-two farming-related book we own.  We also picked up the latest Wapsipinicon Almanac, a seasonal magazine still using the traditional Linotype press and good writing published in Anamosa, Iowa, and Red Bird, the latest book of poetry by Mary Oliver.  We couldn’t wait to read her latest, so after the show, we took turns deliciously reading alternate poems until we finished the book.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #70″

I was in and out of the workshop this afternoon and when I returned one time, Martin had a piece of wood in the bench vice and was trying to turn it to observe, and ultimately try to break the wood. Dad counseled him that it is indeed important work, that we should try different kinds of materials, but that we should also wear some goggles in case a piece flew towards his eye.

So, he tried odd pieces of things from the garbage - vinyl, wood, sticks and watched deformation and shear at work!

one year ago…”Tree Mulching”

We’ve always bee forward-looking about having supplies for future times. Years of canning food for the winter, buying meat by the hundreds of pounds at a time, and most recently signing up for a wind turbine. Now, I’ve locked in most of the fuel to heat the house next winter. There’s no one who predicts that the pellets will be cheaper next fall than they are now - so “investing” in this cost now will probably beat money invested in the market! With corn prices rising with no end in site, it will not be cheaper to burn wood pellets rather than corn in the corn stove.

We hauled home 4 tons of wood pellets home today - this is about 1/4 of the pile - these are tucked in the attached garage.

There is a bit of a strange warning on the bag:

I’m glad that the “Not for Human Consumption” warning was on the bag before I drizzled the wood pellets with a light raspberry viniagarette dressing for my daily requirements of fiber.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #69″

Even though the ground is still very wet, we couldn’t put off cleaning the hen house much longer. The last few years we were able to do an early spring/late winter cleaning, but this winter did not provide that opportunity.

We had a better system this year - to keep the scoopers engaged the whole time, we alternated between loading the tractor bucket and a small trailer - while one was off dumping, the other could stay and be filled.

We also moved much of the winter household compost as it never really heated up this winter and acted more as a storage area than true composter. This bin is designed with removable panels, so here it is with the front panel removed, ready for scooping.

The resulting pile ‘o stuff - soon to be properly turned and magically turned into black compost for future gardens.
one year ago…”Putting Down Roots”

There’s a new landmark on my way to work - the Paragon Prairie Tower in an office park in Urbandale, IA.

The placque adjacent to the tower gives this as part of the explanation of the tower.

“The Paragon Prairie Tower rises from the landscape as a dynamic symbol of the the accomplishments and aspirations of the people of Iowa and the Midwest…The Paragon Prairie Tower recalls the presence of agricultural structures such as grain silos, where for generations we have traditionally stored the bounty of our harvests.”

The description mentions that the scene is of native prairie plants dancing in the wind - but I also see human figures in the tower.

The tower is made up of hundreds of thousands of glass fragments from Ravenna, Italy and stands 118 feet tall.

Here’s a close view of the individual tiles that make up the mosaic of the tower.
I just wish they would honor the tower by planting the native grasses depicted on the tower in the grounds around the tower instead of the same old irrigated kentucky bluegrass and fescue that is ubiquitous around every midwestern office park!
one year ago…”Equipment Day/Fresh Air”

Last year a group of people in Sydney, Australia started what they call “earth hour.” Earth Hour is a voluntary one hour time period where people and businesses turned off their lights.  Over 2.2 million people and over 2,00 businesses turned their lights off last year in Sydney, including the Sydney Opera house.  The sponsors (The World Wildlife Federation, Google, Hewlett Packard) hope it sparks thought and discussion about the effects of global warming.  As a bit of a reminder, just this week a 160 square mile piece of ice broke off from the antarctic ice shelf and will soon drift into warmer waters and melt.  This year’s event has moved beyond Australia and promises to involve many more people.  The earth hour is set for 8-9 pm Saturday March 29.

one year ago…”Moving Fencing Material into Place”

Maybe I’ll start a “handy hints” category.  I’ll see if I come up with more, but we’ll start with this one that works for farm and town.

Whenever you need to bring a propane cylinder to town to refill for the grill, set it in an old milk crate.  The tank won’t roll around in the back of your truck or in the car!

one year ago…”Getting Piled Up Chores Done”

Oh my - this important day has already reached us without fanfare or warning. It is the day to celebrate St Urho’s banishment of the grasshoppers from Finland to save the Finnish grape crop. Some people have claimed that the story is not entirely accurate, but then again, nobody argues with the guy who claims to have moved the snakes off the Emerald Isle?

St. Urho got some good run in the Minnesota Monthly magazine with excerpt from an article about Minnesota Favorites.

Minnesota is known for wild rice, hotdish, and mojakka. Okay, so maybe the Finnish-American soup (pronounced MOY-a-kah) hasn’t quite caught on yet outside of ethnic enclaves. That soon may change: the annual St. Urho’s Day Mojakka Cook-Off held in Cloquet has helped popularize the fish- or beef-based stew since the event’s debut in 2003. According to the Ode to St. Urho, the Finnish hero “ate culla mojakka effery hour” to maintain his Samson-like physique. A remarkable feat, considering we weren’t able to finish the bowl we sampled at the Family Tradition Restaurant in Cloquet, due to its odd tinge of allspice and rutabagas. At least it tastes better than lutefisk. For more information, go to www.mojakka.com.

one year ago…”Artists in My Music Collection Night at SXSW”

I had to get the truck out of the shed to fetch a new applance this week.  It wasn’t a good day to drive out of the shed.

The soft ground makes me leery to drive off the gravel, unless I have to.  It was the dishwasher that died, so we used it as an opportunity to get a more energy-efficient  model and to try a new brand - Bosch - as I haven’t been impressed with the trio of Frigidaires we put in when we moved in.  Linda asked in an email what skills it required - here’s my answer - “Skills?  I have skills.  Mainly heavy lifting, swearing trying to get it into a cavity, and hooking up water, drain, and wires.  And a lot of laying on the floor in puddles of water. That’s about it.” 

one year ago…”American Music Night at SXSW”

Here’s something we haven’t seen since the end of November - the gravel on the driveway.

The roads are a mess, but now it is because of melting snow and clogged culverts from the run-off.

one year ago…”The Batholith”

Linda sat down at the computer and found a web browser open with the following in the Firefox “search in page” panel.

I could imagine it might be a bit of surprise to sit down to your home computer and find out that the person before you (most likely your husband) had searched for a wife, and been given options to view the next wife, previous wife, or highlight all wives!

Actually, Claire is to blame, she was doing an assignment on a famous person’s wife and used the search box.  Not a good thing to be looking for so close to Valentine’s Day!

one year ago…”Snow Sculptures”

Today Forbes Magazine published a study of the “Smartest Cities in America.” There was only one state in the union with two cities represented - and no, it wasn’t a state on the East Coast or the West Coast, but Iowa!

If anybody’s keeping track of these things, Ames, IA, home of Iowa State University, came it at number 6 in the nation and Iowa City, just slipped into the top 10.  Here’s the list:

1. Boulder, CO
2. Bethesda, MD
3. Ithaca, NY
4. Ann Arbor, MI
5. Corvallis, OR
6. Ames, IA
7. Lawrence, KS
8. Cambridge, MA
9. San Francisco, CA
10. Iowa City, IA

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #60″

Every once in a while, it’s good to google yourself to see what comes up.  I did that yesterday and found two publications in the past few weeks have included quotes by yours truly.  One was a story from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about Stern Tanning Company’s relocation from Sheboygan Falls to Milwaukee.

Iowa farmer Mark Runquist, who raises sheep, also is eager for Stern Tanning to ramp up its business.

The Runquist family’s small organic farm, located near Marshalltown, has used Stern Tanning to help create around a half-dozen sheepskin rugs annually over the past five years. The rug sales help supplement the family’s farm income, and Runquist said there are few other U.S. tanneries that provide sheepskin tanning.

The other story was from the Cedar Rapids Gazette concerning the public hearing on the proposed coal-fired plant permitting.

“I’ve sat through five presentations by Alliant on this plant and they’ve given us every conceivable opportunity to ask questions,” said Iowa Valley Community College District Chancellor Tim Wynes. “Don’t make this decision based on a fear — fear of the unknown.”

But in this case, the unknown fear was bigger than most the Iowa Utilities Board has previously considered — the fear that carbon dioxide emissions of coal-fired power plants may be deemed so damaging that federal regulators step in to halt their use or require extremely costly environmental controls to capture the carbon. “Alliant management should be fully aware of and financially responsible for this risk,” said Mark Runquist, a plant opponent from Melbourne. “Alliant plans to benefit financially by the operation of this plant. They should assume the risk.”

So, if you haven’t lately, it’s good to Google yourself to see what’s out there about you.

One year ago…

Last week’s Thingamajig Thursday was part of this piece of folk art made by our friend and art professor.

The eyes are a couple of electric fence insulators and the body is a brightly colored combination of found wood.  Even though it has been outside through blizzard, cold, storm, and ice, it has maintained its color while keeping an eye on the place.

one year ago…