TROUTS LATEST PHOTOS
May, 2009 - Issue #96
COLORADO - 1977
Bob and Ned at a Fleetwood Mac concert on May 1, 1977 at CU - Boulder - the beginning of a cheap sunglasses tradition. Put your cursor on the photo to see what Bob and Ned look like in their sunglasses thirty-two years later.
FARMERS HANDS
We stopped by Edible Earthscapes to see our friends Jason and Haruka on the first day of the month. Click on their photo to view a larger image.
We were taken by Haruka's hands. They are both graceful and strong and stained with red dirt from months of honest work coaxing vegetables out of the soil.
TORNADO WATCH
A terrible fascination gripped us as we watched this storm brewing, sitting on the front steps of our trailer in our bare feet. When the clouds began to curl we ran through the woods to the farm house next door!
PLUGGING AWAY
Once again, we found ourselves drilling, plugging and waxing hardwood logs. The tiny dowel we insert into the log has been inoculated with mushroom spores. Bob, Chris and Lynette place oyster and shitake plugs into the holes we drilled and pound them in with a rubber mallet. Sarah and Hannah used hot wax to seal the plug and the ends of the log.
SO MUCH FOOD, IT HURTS!
Yikes! What are we going to do with all this food! Bob showers in the drops of water falling from the kale he harvested on the second day of May. We blanched it, filled a gallon freezer bag and put it away for next winter because later that same day we brought home two of our three CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares. The kale is just a small percentage of what Bob is harvesting from our garden these days. Check out our peas, wheat, parsley, lettuce, onions and more here: Amazing Food
SPEC AND THE TURKEY DOWN THE ROAD
Camille took Lisa up on her offer to come out and drive her pony, Spec on the first Sunday in May. There are more photos at Lisa's Ponies
BRIAR CHAPEL 5K RACE
Adah warms up before the race. Samantha, David, Moya, Jack and Kate celebrate after the run.
ARCHIVISTS
Tami seldom goes anywhere without her camera. She took the photo of our gang celebrating after the race, above. Camille was in stealth mode when she caught this photo of the law with their drug sniffing German shepherd so you have to look close to see the dog standing on top of the stone wall.
CLINK-THIRTY
Most evenings call for a toast and sometimes we're lucky enough to share that toast with good friends like Haruka and Jason.
666 IS AN UNLUCKY NUMBER
May seemed like a good month to drive a couple thousand miles to visit family. Our 1995 Ford Escort, Christine seemed game but a couple of hundred miles into the trip, she died on Highway 95 outside of Richmond, Virginia. At the moment her fuel pump blew out, the odometer read 184,666. Bob says he's not superstitious but Camille found herself holding her breath when the rental car we hired to replace Christine reached a similar number on the odometer.
SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO GO WITH IT
We were visited three times by the State Police and once by a helpful truck driver named Stanley Sugar between the time Bob managed to nudge the car off the highway and the arrival of a tow truck.
CHRISTINE GOES TO THE DAY SPA
We left Christine at Elliot's Tire and Auto Service for a week, rented a car and spent the night with Ned before continuing north.
BOB AND DEB'S
The next night we stayed with Bob and Deb in Lancaster. Deb showed us the baby robins nesting on their front porch. Teresa took us on a nice hike along a creek. More photos on this page: Visiting the Lancaster Illos
NEW JERSEY, HERE WE COME
We had three destinations in New Jersey - Haddonfield, Atlantic Highlands and West Long Branch. Here's a photo of Bob and Camille in front of the beach in Long Branch, not far from where Camille lived with her parents and five brothers for seven years. And here's a photo of brother Jim, cousin Mark and Camille in front of his house in Atlantic Highlands. See more photos on these two pages: Another Great Visit With Our New Jersey Relatives and Memories Along the Jersey Shore
TWO NICE NIECES
Our next stop was Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Camille's mother, father and brother John and his wife, Darla live there. Their three grown kids are Aphia, Charity and Brandon. Aphia and her partner, Michael live in Gettysburg and love to hike so we joined them for a treck up Tumbling Run. Charity and Jason joined us at John and Darla's for a big potluck and fireworks.
THE WHOLE GANG, INCLUDING MOM
John and Darla's parents, children, grandchildren were all on hand to enjoy a beautiful spring day. John set up the camera and snapped this picture. There's a larger file if you click on the photo. Mom, as always, is a ray of sunshine. More at: Shippensburg Mini-Reunion
MATT AND JENN
We joined Matt and Jenn for a culinary adventure in local food at the Summer Farm Start fundraiser for PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) which was held beside the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg. Matt talks with farm patrons. Bob enjoys a local brew with one of Matt and Jenn's farm interns.
NED AND FRANKIE
There's no point driving all the way to Jersey without a stop in DC. Ned always shares his house with with characteristic bigheartedness. We went hiking, took some sunglass photos and went to a party wtih Frankie. Read all about it here: DC Family and Friends
THE GIFFORDS
We also had lunch with Camille's aunt Jeanette, son Brian and daughter-in-law, Maggie. We had a nice time sharing news and stories from the year. We are very lucky to have a large and loving family.
HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN
We picked up Christine at the day spa and drove home to find our garden had burst into incredible dimensions and fragrant gardenia blooms to bring inside. Here are more garden photos: Amazing Amounts of Food
THIS MONTH'S QUOTES:
"We cannot escape most of what was already set in motion before our birth, such as being moved around by larger forces, for necessary employment, or alleged opportunity, or for "quality of life" as measured by consumption (a corporate yardstick if ever there was one). We find ourselves living in an unfamiliar land, ungrounded and psychically uncounseled by our ancestors through the living memory of a native community." - Joe Bageant
"The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to people but to poor ideology and land-use management is sophistic." E.O. Wilson from his book, The Diversity of Life
"We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?" - Wendell Berry
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