September First

It’s a small joy, the moment the sd card is removed from the trail cam after a long week and placed into the computer.

The first photo appears, evidence of the hands behind the curious camera and the even more curious mind of what lurks when no one is around.

Will a record-breaking buck step out from the shadows for a taste of sweet corn?

This hope is why the dusty cameras find themselves back in place, year after year.

Another year of scrolling through the activity of the cautious, hoping something great will expose itself.

It’s all pretty great, really.

A new week begins, the cycle continues.

What will appear?…

Happy Labor Day!

Swim - Victoria's Secret (Alessandra Ambrosio and Behati)

Camaro News August 31, 2014

The compact gearbox is also expected for the sixth-generation 2016 Chevy Camaro. Probably the upcoming 2016 Cadillac LTS, too. General Motors won’t confirm any of this, but global product chief Mark Reuss shared that the mass-produced automatic

kazantip 2014 +18 (Video and pictures)

Kazantip is more than just a festival. It's not just the twisted metalwork sculptures or the weird little bars dotted around the site. It's not even that it has a rich political theme, setting up a "Republic" with ministers and a "PreZident, " and guarded by military-style "Typhoon" guards (they look mean, but they don't bite). It's that this unique event genuinely goes beyond being a great party—which it is—to create something that feels more significant.


But really, the music was just a backdrop. Visually, for example, Kazantip is breathtaking. A ceremony takes place a few times over the festival, where hundreds of people gather on the beach, take a yellow balloon, make a wish, and then release them together at the moment the sun goes below the horizon (sunsets at Kazantip are beautiful, and an event every day). At night, the whole site is lit up by a boggling array of lasers, coloured lighting and searchlights. A wide and imaginative variation of costumed dancers frequently appear on the stages and podiums: storm troopers, robots, girls with huge hats like something out of Fantasia. And that's not to mention the sea, which stretches to the horizon without interruption, giving a kind of edge-of-the-world feel to the Republic.


But the most remarkable thing about Kazantip is the state of mind everyone is in. It's subtle and implicit, and difficult to describe. In the Kazantip Republic, there's a new set of rules, and as a result you feel free from the social pressures and barriers of the outside world. People interact and express themselves just as they feel. On the dance floor, for example, everyone was jamming out in a way I've never seen before. It's easy to be cynical when reading the festival's constitution, which talks about a project with utopian aims, but ultimately, Kazantip is exactly that.Daniel Petry (RA)

Reviews: 
Carl Cox: “You really have something unique here. Everyone who has played here, they put this on the map, they wanna come back every year to play. I'm gonna be one of them.”

Seth Troxler: “It's like a mix between the UK Glastonbury and the Burning Man in America. It's a big festival vibe, but in the same time it got a really alternative lifestyle.”

Guy Gerber: “It's something like expression of freedom, and it's few places where you can do that anywhere else in the world. It's kind of like represented utopia.”

Sven Väth: “It’s like a Mad Max movie, but much more colourful and friendly.”

Five Favorites, May 14th Edition

1. My new irrigation boots. Because if I must tromp around in the mud moving sprinkler lines, I may as well be wearing cute boots.

2. This new "Hepburn" dress at Lady V London. Just lovely!

Image from Cooks Country

3. Key Lime* Icebox Pie. Graham cracker crust, 2 cans sweetened condensed milk, 3 egg yolks, 3/4 cup key lime juice. Mix the three filling ingredients until smooth, pour into prepared crust. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, cool 1 hour on the counter and 3 hours-overnight in fridge. Serve with sweetened whipped cream. 

*You can substitute lemon juice. 

4. Strawberries. Our local grocery store had 2 POUNDS FOR $1.48!! And they're SWEET! I bought... um... a lot.

Putting Life on Hold

I've been browsing the farm classifieds for sheep, pigs, ducks and dairy cows for the last few months. After all, we were going to break ground on our dream house this Fall and would finally be living on a nice little chunk of property. 

Our last chance for financing fell through, though, and it's pretty official that until our ground has no crops on it and our taxes show no indication of agricultural income from the property, we're sunk. The absolute earliest, then, is 2015.

That stings.

Bye bye awesome mortgage interest rates, most likely. No living on the property means no livestock. No house means no adoption. 

Jezu ufam Tobie.

Involuntary Plantslaughter

This February I attempted to grow sweet potato slips from some sweet potatoes we gleaned last Summer. Five potatoes were cut in half and donated to the cause of regeneration.

I dutifully kept them in 1" of water until roots sprouted and watched with excitement when, afterthree months in said water, one of them grew leaves!!

I beamed with pride at my little sweet potato -- no one believed it would ever sprout, and it wasbeautiful. Sure, the other 9 never made it, but the one that did was thriving.

My husband planted it last week.

Trying to be helpful, I weeded this week.

"Why is there that one huge weed in this otherwise clean bed?"

*snap*