Tons of pictures

This is the camera that I have been using.  Yup, all of the photos on this blog, plus my web site have been done with the Olympus.  I could take around 30 shots, without flash and in temperatures above 30.  It ate up batteries, 4 double A’s.  It had a 3x zoom and auto focus, which didn’t always work.

I talk about this camera in the past tense, only becuase I have a new camera.  Yes in dee dee, cream of wheaty, it came yesterday.

I was like a little kid getting a birthday gift.  Unpacked the Nikon D60, plus the telephoto lense, plus the macro lens, plus the fisheye lense, camera back, battery charger, battery, extra battery, camera bag, mini tripod, regular tripod, lens cleaner and USB memory card transfer thingy.  Sat down and discovered that there was no memory or picture card. The camera came as a package with most of the add-on lens.  I did get a zoom lens, 55-200.

What?  I check through everything and relized that the 2mg. picture memory card was missing and that the extra one that should have come with the USB transfer card was not there as well.  I called the the photo store in the Bronx and they said they would send it right away.

I am a bit (ok stop laughing Lili) impatient and so I went down to my local camera place and got a 1 mb picture card for $29.99.  The home again and out I went to play.  For about 3 hours.  90 photos!  still have battery and room on the card.  There is a lot to learn.  F stops and lens, lighting and which lens to use for which shots.  This will keep me busy for a while.

The light was not as good as it was in the morning, so lots of fog.  But here is where I live.  These were all taken on our land, or on the road above our house.

Time to write about the bail out

Over the weekend, a group of folks in Washington agreed to bail out AIG with a couple of qualifiers.  Before this can actually go into action,  our elected officials need to VOTE on the package.

I feel like I want to, no need to exercise my voice and remind those representatives that they represent me.  Not Wall street.

I don’t claim to be a financial whiz, however it seems to me that this is a mess that is being rushed into.  It seems that the call to arms is all about the CREDIT market. If the government does not infuse the market with cash, then banks are supposedly unable to give out more credit. No one is saying that this will fix the problem either.   This is a quick fix that won’t fix the problem.  I think the underlying problem will continue to fester.

Isn’t giving credit the issue?   The scare tactics that wall street and congress use are words that evoke danger.  Global market meltdown.

Support from the American people that is gained by use of emotional terror is not true democracy.   Don’t try to get this bill passed by threatening us that the market will crash and no one will get a pay check.   Bankers will continue to lend to folks with good credit.   We will still be able go to work, be paid and buy food.

At this point the unemployment rate in Vermont is 4.9% up 1.1% from a year ago.  http://www.vtlmi.info Folks,  that means that 95.1% of us Vermonters have jobs.    Last time I went to town I was able to go to the market and  have a huge selection of food products.  Farmers market’s are thriving and we are actually seeing lower gas prices then earlier this year, around $3.50.

OK, so times are tight, but we should stop with all of the negative focus on what is wrong, and look at the positive while we all tighten our belts.  We are Americans and are able to do whatever we put our minds to.  We also have the right and obligation to speak to our Representatives and tell them how we feel about this.  I did this morning, now it is your turn.

Lili is my friend

Lili and I talked tonight and she gave me a bit of flack that I didn’t list her on the prior post as a good friend.  She is, but couldn’t play hookie on Thrusday, so she didn’t get a mention.  She checks my blog daily and so I am guessing she will see this and laugh.

Lili and I are good friends inspite of the fact that her husband and I are on the opposite sides of the political fence.  He and I try not to talk about politics and when we do, Lili remindes us to stop.  Lili is the mother of 3, one of whom is Elysha, my helper last year.  Lili and I walk a couple of times a week if we have our act together. Lately she has been super busy with running her brood of kids around to various events.  Add to it working full time and she is a busy lady.

Lili is Swiss and sometimes has a really good stash of chocolate at her house.  I would post a picture of her, but I don’t have one. I will soon.

The UPS guy is scheduled to bring my new Nikon D60 on Monday with an extra telephoto lens.  It has been about 20 years that I have used a really good camera.  I did a ton of black and white photography at Proctor Academy and then  I began to study it seriously in college. Finally I decided that having a teaching degree would be a bit more stable. I switched from a Fine Arts major and figured that I would still continue with taking pictures.

My camera was stolen out of car while I was living in Boston and I shortly after I married, moved North and started a family.  I couldn’t really justfy getting a good camera so I have been using an old Olypmus digital camera that holds about 10 pictures.  No seperate lenes and in cold weather I can take about 1 shot, then bring the camera inside and warm it up before I can take another.

Lili likes the pictures that have been posted on the blog and I have been looking at different cameras for a while. She is a great encourager.  I will have to take the camera with us when we take our next walk.  I am sure it will drive her nuts.  She won’t want me to post one, but tough luck.  Bust my chops for not giving you a mention and the next thing you know,  you will be the topic of the next blog.  Hee hee hee.

Road Trip

The nice thing about good friends is that when you call and ask them to join you playing hookie, they do.

Springfield Massachusetts is the home of the Eastern States Expo and is about 3 hours from here.  We left early and drove in the fog for most of the trip.  Arriving at the opening and finding mostly fair concession booths and paved walkways.  Very little agriculture, which surprised me and bummed me out a bit.

The agricultural stuff that was there was kept behind glass and on the far edges of the fairgrounds.   There are buildings that are dedicated to each of the New England States, and we went through all.  Vermont had the usual suspects represented: Ben and Jerry’s (sellouts)  Cabot, Maple producers, Green Mt. Coffee,  Cider and a couple of clothing companies. Oh yeah, and Beer. As if Vermont is a fashion capital and we grow coffee here.

Maine did a much better job with agricultural promotion: blueberries, maple, smoked salmon, forestry and my personal favorite, Lobster. They also highlighted Maine State University, Maritime Environmental studies and the Aquaculture industry. The longest food line in the entire expo was the line, 50 deep,  for a baked potato.  Good Job.

New Hampshire was predictable as a cross between Maine and Vemront, but they had a working lottery booth selling tickets. Huh?  What about the White Mountains?  The timber industry? They did have fudge though.

Rhode Island was well done.  Clams, stuffed quohogs, a bunch of information on their museums, berries, and beeches.

Connetecut was just odd.  Casinos, Timex and legos?

Massachuettes was a money maker for me. They had a state treasury table that would look up your name and see if there was any unclaimed money. Yup,  a Tootie Roll dividend from the 80’s with a payment of $5.96 with my name on it.  whoo hoo!  They had lobstah too, 2 bucks less then Maine’s but it didn’t look as good.

If you wanted to get up close to an animal you could pay $5.00 to ride an Elephant or $.50 cents to feed a camel.  I don’t know how I feel about the elephant.  Sadness that she isn’t with other elephants in the Jungle where she belongs, or the usual thrill to see one.  I love elephants, and this one was loved by her handlers. You could tell with all of the hugs and scratches she was getting.  But really, walking around on pavement wiht a bunch of kids on your back is so so very un-natural.

So the highlight was enjoying fried dough bits with powered sugar and sugary lemonde with good friends.

Fryeburg Fair, in Fryeburg Maine begins this Sunday.  It will be my 20th year to attend.  It is THE fair to attend if you are looking for a real agricultural fair.  No Elephants no camels.  Just real farm animals that you can see and touch and talk with the farmers.  Huge barns full of quilts, knits, jams and jellies.  foresty day and skillet toss.  Yup, lobster rolls from the church booths and fried dough.

Update on BRF Merinos

flock of merinos and polypay

Green Top Farm is the new home of the core flock of Merinos from Black Ram Farm.   Green Top is a sustainable farm, raising lamb, pork, beef and veggies.   I headed over on Monday to begin sorting viable wool for use as yarn.

Polypay is a newly recognized breed of sheep, developed in the 1970 and combines the attributes of 4 different breeds: Finn, Rambouillets, Targees  and Dorsets.  The result is a highly prolific dual purpose sheep.   Here is the link to the American Polypay association for more information. http://www.countrylovin.com/polypay/history.html Dual purpose is a term that signifies the breed to be for both meat and wool.

Almost all sheep have wool and theoretically, all sheep can be eaten.  However, certain breeds are known as either wool sheep, like the Merino or as meat sheep like a Dorper. (Dorpers are hair sheep, which is a whole different blog topic ) I quickly agreed to help Shelby with some of the sorting because it gave me a good excuse to see my old flock and Shelby is just a really nice young mother with her hands full.

Lucian, their very active little guy is so cute and Shelby has her hands full.  So from one mother who’s kids are off to one who has to have eyes on,  all the time,  a helping hand is carmic payback for all of the help I was given when I was in the thick of things.

When the shearers came a while back to the farm, they had forgotten the shearing bag stand, so the wool was not fully skirted, sorted or stored. the pile is huge, but we made a good dent in it.

The merinos have settled in well.  Moses is looking good for being with the girls, as is Jason.  Although I don’t think Jason is getting any action at only 8 months old.  Moses is the Man with 100 plus polypays ewes.

He did break into his schedule to come up and get some attention for me. It felt good to have him know me.  Tiny is getting huge with babies.

Tiny didn’t come by, this is as close as I got.  Wu did though.  So did Annie. I was able to give them each a scratch under the chin.  The Merinos hang with each other and move around in a clump.  Easy to find them in a flock of 130 because of the black sheep.

Shortly after returning home, I got a call from Jo Anne.  She is still pretty sick and could I pick up the kids at at school, grab her prescription and some bread?  I headed up to Davis Hill farm to swap cars (carsseats)  to find her absolutley flattened out on the couch.   Difficult to rest up if you are farming full time though.  Jo still has to help out when one of the “boys” calls for support.  Charlie is Dad and Tom is the husband, combined you have over a 100 years of boys.  Throw in the two little ones, Ben 6 and Carson 3,  Jo is living in a basition of testosterone. An island unto herself and bogged down with a horrible chest cold.

Started to pull together dinner for the boys, then headed off the get the kids.   Returned to hear that a cow and calf were out by Grandma’s and a cow and calf were out at Pete’s.  Tom needed help wrapping bales and pulling machinery while he got the tractor from a hay field about 12 miles away.

I helped out with Tom untill a hydrolic hose broke on the wrapper, then headded back to check on Jo.   Grabbed a quick bite, then back to the barn to help with heifer chores, then off to get the harrow rake, then back to heifer chores.   The boys milk out new mothers, then bottle feed new calves with 1st milk. Older calves then go to buckets of milk and are weaned at 8 weeks or so.  Pigs get fed the leftover milk as does the barn cat.  I helped where I could, then headed back to the wrapper which Tom was able fix.

Charlie and Tom let me go at that point.   Got home at 8:00.

Jo called this morning sounding much better.  Rest and sleep is the key.  I am enjoying the quite here with bottomless coffee, the heat turned on (Bub’s away),  knitting and no chores.  How delightful.