There will be conference sessions, a chance to meet with female leaders from around the globe, and a visit to Capital Hill.  Look for more in March.

Kids and baby animals are hard to beat.

Extremes in any domain are interesting.

Martin’s new found love and interest in cooking gave us many great meals.

The promise of a neat spring garden always brings hope.

Linda’s wild look in the White House captures a moment.

“Walking the Talk”

Claire as a professional at her work post in DC.

Dad and Martin up on the North Shore of Minnesota.

Martin’s initiative to carry a big pack, rather cheerfully over 3.5 miles of portages.

Emma exploring new foods in Boston.

Taking care of some of our own responsibly-grown meat.

Visiting with women farmers from around the world at our farm.

The majesty and scale of the new wind turbine farm just south of our farm.

Finally, after 20 some odd years (who’s counting, exactly) the love of my life shining a little light of hers.

This afternoon, for example, it was in the upper 50′s a far cry from the common sub-zero usually on this day.

Heck, we were even able to get laundry out on the line!

Linda with a candle not in the wind.  It was the warmest winter solstice in memory.

The bonfire fueled by the wreckage from this year’s windstorm, was one of the hottest and brightest ever.   There were some trunks 4 ft across that didn’t burn much, so will be a bast for next year’s fire.  Oh yeah, and we still have three more piles from the storm sitting in wait – we might have to increase the party occasions to get rid of them all.

This type of water pump handle was familiar – it was interesting to see this woman “pump” the handle up and down, like I remember the pump on my grandfather’s farm.

one year ago…”Signs of the Times”

Many of the folks who stopped by were international visitors who are used to living in rural areas, and were thrilled to get out to the country after spending a week in hotels downtown.  One of my favorite moments is when one of the visitor’s eyes light up when they see or smell something familiar to them – whether it be the aroma of a fresh herb in the air or seeing and old standard-breed chicken.

Here Linda speaks with Mrs. Silas Samsom Buru, a farmer from Ethiopia.  Although she had never traveled more than a few miles from her village in her life before this trip, she was on a panel at the symposium panel with VPs from Wal-Mart, Kraft Foods, and NGO Director Generals and was a natural at expressing her viewpoints.  She spoke about a new crop insurance program that pays out not based on an individual farmer’s crop loss, but instead if average yields fall below a certain level in the region.  Farmers can pay with cash, or improve their long-term farming sustainability by soil organic matter improvement to make the soils hold more water through droughts.  She said the program has the possibility of improving the lot of the next generation so they will not need so much outside food aid.

The woman in front of Linda is Nelly Velandia from Columbia.  Nelly practiced civil disobedience by setting up a farmer’s market in towns where they were not prohibited, on the steps of the government building.  The markets were a huge success and the rules were changed.  In Bogotá, she even convinced the mayor’s office to help cover the cost of setting up markets in parks and public squares.  The markets offer poor rural farmers a much more profitable return and urban residents cheaper, more nutritious food.

It was uplifting to share stories among these women of their efforts to improve their corners of the world.

one year ago…”Oxfam Event at High Hopes Gardens”

Peppers like this are easy to preserve – they don’t need to be canned or blanched – just cut up.

Ready to spice up winter dishes!

one year ago…”Updates from U of MN”

This means many changes for us.  Linda will continue her teaching job and hope to get many of the courses completed over the summer and during J-term.  There are also a community service portion of the curriculum which will require volunteer work at a local hospital, hospice,Veteran’s Home or other such place.  There’s an internship with an existing minister, and a special project as well, so while she won’t be spending much time in Chicago, her energies will be directed at ways outside the farm.

Of course, that means something substantial needs to give – and to that end, activities at High Hopes will be curtailed.  We’ll probably concentrate on providing solely for our own needs and not growing and marketing crops and animals for others.  It’s hard to predict what that transition will look like, but it will be different.  She’s still committed to being an advocate for sustainable farming, through education and whatever other kinds of speaking engagements arise.  We just won’t be “farmer.”

When we started down this path 15 years ago, there were very few people also doing it.  Now, there is a local food group, the importance of diverse and healthy foods is once again approaching a main stage in the American psyche, and there are many good people behind us.

To that end, here’s a link to a story about Linda in the UU World magazine.

one year ago…”Linda at Roundtable with Secretary Vilsack”

Today we went and checked, and had to add some more supers to the hives. They’re almost as tall as Linda. Should be a good year for honey, even if it isn’t a good year to get all dressed up in a bee suit.

one year ago…”In Theory”

Here’s the kid version of the American Gothic with some of the garlic we pulled today.

The parents and their gothic pose.

oe year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #216″