Irene

Well, the greenhouse roof is now "in a heap on the ground over collapsed posts" (as I feared in the earthquake). The hurricane took down the 3 largest persimmon trees in our backyard, two of them fell onto the greenhouse and took it down. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. However, the ranch-like arch that I put over the entrance to the goat pen caught one of the trees and kept it from smashing the fence and probably the chicken coop run. So... that was good.

Some photos Crystal took of our yard after the storm...

 

All Shook Up

Progress on the greenhouse so far:

Over the past few weeks, I finished the last row of tires, set piers, and put up posts. The posts are a collection of what we had down on our property - 2 cedar, 2 oak, and 2 maple. Cutting and peeling posts is hard but I enjoy it. Almost wish I needed more. After setting the posts on the piers, I got 2 oak beams and 2 cedar beams w/ the help of Jon Sola. I peeled all 4 of those and then decided the cedar were too narrow. So I set double 2x6 beams at the South that I also got from Jon leftover from a barn we took down on his parent's property. Next, I took a trip to the Amish lumber mill to order rafters and ceiling boards, all poplar. The order process consisted of me writing down what I wanted on a sheet of paper and putting my initials on it. I was there on a Saturday and they told me to come back Thursday. I talked to a friend who asked for some wood and was told to come back but when he showed up again they didn't have it. I didn't get my hopes up to high b/c of his story but when I showed up looking for my order on Thursday, it was there all bundled and ready to go. I think my friend forgot to write down what he wanted and initial it. I set the rafters on Friday and had Jon's help again putting up ceiling boards Saturday.

Northwest corner: Posts, oak beams, and rafters

View from the Southeast

Today the earthquake hit Virginia and it was pretty strong here. I was in the middle of a meeting at work, in a corner office on the second floor, and the whole building shook and swayed. I've never felt an earthquake before and it was definitely unnerving. As soon as we all got out of the building and I realized everyone was ok, I started to worry about the greenhouse. I began to picture the roof down on the ground in a heap over collapsed posts. But when I got home....

It survived!!

Antidote to Capitalism Gone Wild

http://www.lewishyde.com/publications/the-gift

This is the best half of a book I've read. In the first half, Hyde examines the role of the gift in various traditional cultures and contrasts that with it's commodification in ours. Second half was less interesting to me - two separate essays, one on Walt Whitman, the other Ezra Pound. In fact, I think I tapped out about three quarters of the way through Walt Whitman, skipped the piece on Pound, and re-read the first half. How's that for a book review?

R.I.P. Sophia

Sadly, we lost our beloved Sophia last night. I found her in our backyard this morning. One of our own dogs may have been the culprit but we can't be sure.

One thing we do know is that she was the most curious and adventurous of all the GGs. Each day when I got home she would have escaped and come running to the back gate to meet me. She would often fly out while I was working in the backyard and follow me around, leaving the other 2 GGs to pace back and forth, cooing along the fence line. When I was working on the roof over their run, she found a way to fly through a two foot opening that I hadn't finished yet, walk over the roof of the coop (about 12 feet high or so), along the cob wall and down into the hay I was using to mix cob. I never worried much about her wandering because it didn't seem like she wanted to escape, it just seemed like she wanted to be where I was. Quite flattering actually. I don't want to say I picked favorites or anything...

I don't know when she got into our backyard or how she died but I'm not surprised that her wandering got the best of her. Poor girl. We will miss her something terrible. We love you Sopia!