Greenhouse framing in progress!

February 13th
(posting photo on Valentine's)

It has been a strangely dry winter. The rains have to be coming. We're aiming to get the roof on next Friday the 20th.
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February 6th & 7th













The little greenhouse model is coming to life! Tall and making me want to be a little plant and live in it... Temporary bracing and two holes dug for the "hurricane" feet on the north side - to anchor our mobile greenhouse. This is what I found when I came back from a section of the WSU & Fresh Earth Gardens 'Modern Organic Farming on Small Acreage' class. Rode up with Anne of Gales Meadow Farm to see her seed presentation. Speaking there next weekend on organic amendments and fertilizer. Neil is awesome. Hot, sunny day on Saturday!
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January 30th & 31st














We leveled the two floor sections and Neil installed the south wall while I was at a chicken workshop in WA. We primed and painted lots of boards in the basement for next week.

caught in a vortex

Not sure I could stop the greenhouse at this point. I am driven by dark unseen forces. I was out there in the dark last night tired from work just standing and staring at the tarp covered shape and wondering why i am building a greenhouse on a rental property and not looking for a real career. BUT I always did like the scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where the dad guy freaks out and builds a model of Devil's Tower in his living room. Needed 2 10' 2x4's so i did hit Home Depot for those.

Pallet Nocturnalis + Sunny Garden Hen

by Neil:
Dragged 4 jumbo 12 foot long pallets from the steel working place down the block. Took one apart each night after work this week. I got about 6 good long 4x4's and 13 good 2x6's. One of the rejected 4x4's was oddly light and the other had a long resinous split. It still gets dark so early here this time of year that this job required a headlamp. This is a quixotic activity that is as much about destroying as it is creating. So now I have enough wood to build the frame for the "deck" portion of the greenhouse - And most of the 2x4 and 2x6 slats that will be the flooring. Got some "Oops" paint from Home Despot to prime them and begin the waterproofing process. It is also damp here in the winter - so water based paint dries real slow. I still don't know how i am gong to fasten the corner posts (uprights) but ....The wood sits painted battleship grey on the sunken patio. See you next week for an exciting episode hopefully having something to do with "brackets".

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by Naomi:
Neil breaking a pallet apart each night, in heavy rain with winds gusting to 30+ mph, deeply inspiring. He is on a mission. So glad the weather is still and dry today and for maybe a week ahead.

The garden has been on it's own the last month, but today it was in the 40's, sunny and calling for love. Some plants that should have been brought in or covered, passed on and there was a lot of cutting back to do. The catmint has formed this beautiful open swirl of this past year's growth to reveal the new growth in the center. The leeks are alive, the fava beans are almost all dead, some rogue survivors, a good reminder to keep planting diverse cover crops. I pruned the grapes and the arctic kiwis, I had been patiently waiting for the new year... All 6 worm bins are still thriving! Need to design one larger bin that we can efficiently harvest from. Thinking about consolidating all of them and the regular compost and the decomposing food-in-waiting 5-gallon buckets to the north side of the house, to make a service corridor.. I dream of this and have designed a little tiny home for us with this in mind. Aggressively trying to truly manage all of the food waste of six of us who mainly cook and eat at home in this rental duplex, I have a ways to go and am experimenting. It is a challenge. I dream of also composting for our neighbors when I figure it out.

We have started actively mapping out vacant lots and I've been drawing up a 375 - 500sq' footprint design, two-story/units, with as much garden space possible, based on a standard 5,000sq' lot. The hens, their run with a rain garden along its perimeter between sidewalk, the greenhouse, hoop house, workshop, planting shed, worm and hot compost, bike shed, annual beds, perennial fruits, nuts, herbs, veggies, flowers. My work may vary over time, but we really want to put down roots and more than any other goal, I want to craft our urban homestead. A double lot and our food potential would be incredible, but to afford that, we'd need to go further out. We're weighing proximity to neat community and downtown/center of work potential. More on that soon!

As for the ladies, they like the mild weather and got lots of chopped greens. All eggs stopped on Thanksgiving, which was exactly when Mayhem or DIO started in 2007. Everybody molted through the holidays and they are all fully feathered again, combs and waddles still a bit pale. Today was DIO's third egg back (she molted first, alone, gotta be her). Lima had gone into an odd partial molt last February, risen to top bird, dedicatedly tried to lay good eggs and finally this fall went through a true molt and her golden feathers are gorgeous. We're so happy she is healthy. Yay! I hit their dust bath area with rake hoe to loosen it up, they love that.

Our garden areas are really squirrely in terms of quality spots for food. We will sow a lot of flowers again and we're trying to figure out what areas we'll fit our veggies in. Also thinking about what other perennial fruits we could try to fit in, prioritize investing in. Drooling over the FEDCO seed catalogue. Neil made me two cool aqua indoor transplant shelving units for the south window for late winter/early spring.

I'm taking sections of the Master Gardener course this winter, to go along with the Organic Gardening Certification program I took this fall. The first section is this Thursday on Entomology and held less than 2.5 miles away. Woo hooo!!! Oh and I was interviewed for In Good Tilth magazine on soil amendments and already have a few issues in envelopes to mail to a few of you who I think will get a kick out of it... On Thursday I was interviewed by an AP writer on Portland chicken-keeping. I was nervous at first, but once I start talking about chickens and urban gardening and farming.. it is hard to stop..... eeps! I will let you know if an article comes out.


Much love,
Naomi and Neil

Starting out OK

Happened upon a bunch of wood last weekend. The convenience store just a few blocks south of here was tossing out the old counter top and affiliated 2x4's. 49 of them to be exact - mostly about 4' - and no 2 alike. I guess I am a gleaner and always have been. Nothing like found materials and why is that? I made 3 trips with the dolly and spent a good while pulling nails and screws out with a crow bar on a sunday morning. yee haw. I hope the convenience store is not closing. I have only been there once in the 18 mo. that we have lived here and did not buy anything - but somehow I find those places comforting? Maybe it is because of how they look at night or maybe how they would look if you painted a picture of them at night. Blurry beer neon through window in the rain and cigarettes so much a carton.

Still having slight storage issues as far as the wood but we shall work that out. Some is in the basement and some in the secret room under the front porch. The rain season is here and it is mostly making it impossible to work out side with power tools or paint. So we are inside and have got the craft room up and going finally. And will be very patient about the time line for the greenhouse. But partly this blog is to chart my progress on the greenhouse. God dang also

should mention that I hit Lowe's for a few supplies - wood screws, glue and a clamp to the tune of about $90 - So I am up to $130 total for materials and fasteners.

Compulsions

Hi - Back after a long absence. Sorry about the silence. Naomi covers mucho on her work blog at Concentrates but now I had to get into the fray.

A while back we came into possession of 30 old windows. They sat on the side of the house on a pallet under a tarp until they pissed our landlord off and gave me the itch to finally turn them into a greenhouse. I am not a builder but lately I have been getting these compulsions to build. Recent projects I have zombied my way through include 2 sets of bookshelves, new doors and flourishes on chicken coop, retaining wall for mudslide in front yard - due to wacky grading during the renovation 3 years ago - that has now caused some craptastic erosion. (We are renters so don't ask me). I generally work with almost all found materials - either wood I find in the area or found nicer pallets that I decon. Some purchases of 1/2" hardware cloth and 2x2's morphed into some gossamer shelves for future greenhouse already. Looking for any and all alternatives to the big chain building stores as well. Trying to avoid Home Depot and Lowe's.

Last night I built a 1/16th scale model of the greenhouse (see photo). So we walked to the Rebuilding Center today and got some hinges and brackets for the greenhouse. And hope to get some advice from my friend Luis who is a real builder in North Carolina.

Portland Veggie Truck Chronicles: a very friendly delivery day + the emergency room + The End (long, but worth reading)

Written on August 25th, 2007  (one year and four months ago, by Naomi)

I had a really peaceful morning, did a bit of cleaning and preparing for six Everglades-connected friends who are coming from out of town to visit next week (yay!). Got a bit of pre-route stretching in and Neil made me delicious veggie burgers with our onions and tomatoes and a thermos of tea to take along.

They were finished with the harvest a bit early and I was on the road by 11:45am. The first house is our only North Plains delivery. The drive is winding and hilly, passing sheep, old barns, a traditional chemical blueberry farm and then up a steep gravel road (which Neil recently saw a navy blue Bentley coming down from a house even further up...). This couple has some sheep and I could see them in a different pasture today. On my way back down I picked a few blackberries from the truck, as the branches are so vigorous and hit the truck, pushing back the mirrors, even though I am going slowly in first gear. The berries are deep and plump and I imagine they will be very floral, save them for later. When I get back to the main road, there is a semi loaded with long, freshly cut trees-now-logs blocking the exit. When we are on the route, we're not paid hourly, so it's in our interest to get in done in a timely way and great for the customers, but when you are stuck randomly like this or in lots of traffic, you just have to let go and have patience. He was tightening down all the chains on his load. This is something I am more than happy to have patience for. I don't ever want to be behind a log truck coming loose, I'm sure you don't either. When he realized I was waiting there, he looked worried, I smiled and waved, he smiled back, all is good. Another even bigger rig starts approaching down the hill the first one came from, but stopped to give me clearance out. We all gave each other a lot of space.

I was listening to KBOO and there was a beautiful singer I'd never heard before, Eliza Gilkyson, that they were playing a whole set of, a bit 'alt' folk/country. The landscape of pines and hills is so pretty up here I found myself a bit teary listening to this woman's voice weave songs of family and older times. Nostalgic for my mom, realizing we've never had a normal life in the same town since I've grown up, where we could casually see each other for a hike, dinner or tea and talking.

We just did our second farmer's market at Columbia Sportswear yesterday, it went much better than we expected, the people were really great and afterwards we got to talking with Charlie who runs Sun Gold Farm with his wife and son. His wife had come by with her mother - who is 91! and looked awesome. He told us about the history of his family and their farmland and working it together. I thought about being lucky to have lived downstairs from my Grama when I was a kid and how neat the web and closeness of his family sounded.

I also had this odd sensation I've been getting about being out 'west,' where it's normal to see huge trees shorn of all branches rolling by on trucks and on the train coming in from the coast. To wrangle with ferocious blackberries so sharp, yet bearing delicious, insanely abundant fruit. The northwest is so different from the northeast and the midwest just in feeling.

My drive to the next house goes back south passing the turn off for the farm, over Hwy 26 (aka Sunset Highway as it goes west to the Pacific Ocean), and into big stretches of farmland and the city of Hillsboro. A place that feels like it must be (now anyway) a major suburb of Portland, but then sometimes it just feels like it's own contained town that could be anywhere.

So I'm driving and in front of this one neat old barn before the burbs start, there's a sheriff who's pulled over an early 90's turquoise Ford Escort with a big orange light on it and orange construction vests in the back, two bigger white guys inside. Odd, I think, I rarely see anyone pulled over...
The farms dissolve into houses, older ones first and then the new developments and I make the turns into my second delivery. I head back out and on to Glencoe Rd. and in between this house and my next soon turn off - there is DEJA VU! but in a new location.. the sheriff has that same turquoise car pulled over again not 3 miles and ten minutes down the road with the driver pulled out, legs splayed, hands on head, lots of tattoos, grey cut-off shirt, jean shorts and work boots. The sheriff looks classic, the man pulled over.. looks classic. Sheriff intensely patting him down and holding something to his head. It was a weird enough site the first time, much stranger to move down the road and progress like that.

The route continues through Beaverton and into SW Portland. One of the houses is on a dead end street. Last week I saw a woman standing in the middle of the road, I slowed way down, it was really loud. She held a video recorder and a deeply sad expression. Loggers were cutting down the huge Douglas fir trees in what must have been an amazingly dense and vast lot, vacant of humans. I think she must be the next door neighbor. This week it was very quiet, no one in the road. The lot was completely wiped clear, torn up like a huge dirt parking lot with big equipment tracks and no traces of even the beautiful trees stumps, not a single little bush, a clear view over to the next road. The neighboring house, once shrouded by forest, is very exposed. I continued to the house and carried the basket up to the door. The owner is a really sweet woman who was a long time entomologist studying parasitic wasps I believe. She came out in this really great watermelon apron she has and gave me a tinfoil package of freshly baked cookies she'd just made. They were hot in my hand. I was so surprised and touched.

My next stop is a gas station. The odometer doesn't work, so we always stop at the same gas station, Friday and the same one in NE Portland on Tues. There was a very funny man from India who worked at this one for a long time and would ask about farming, tell me about his kids, India and would high five me when I left. Lately there is a blond woman and inside there is a vibrantly red-headed cashier I see when I use the restroom. They were both really nice today. It would be fun to bring them fruit or some flowers soon.

I heard two good interviews with poet and activist Grace Paley, one on Democracy Now from 2003 with Amy Goodman and later an interview from 1985 and '92 on Fresh Air, as she passed this Wednesday at 84.

The Portland area generally seems pretty gender balanced. Construction workers still tend to be male - sometimes very respectful to a woman driving a box truck and sometimes are still guys in a pack. There's been a lot of roofing at one house, I ignore them. Today when I was pulling around the cul de sac though, I saw them all scurry to the front of the roof. Great. I walk the basket up the hill to the porch and one of them has to shout "Nice vegetables!" Thanks. Will they ogle Neil next week? One can only dream...

I had a brief visit in Lake Oswego with my favorite route dog, a husky named Mickey and his nice owner. Apparently he hears the truck far away and often both of them are already out waiting for me when I make it around to her house which is tucked back in a beautiful section of woods at another dead end road. It's pretty cute. We chat a bit and I get a lot of happy, furry affection and kisses. She swears he's not this way with everyone. It's a highlight every Friday. Today, since school had started up, she was back to tutoring, so it was just me and Mickey.

Then I head across the Willamette River to Sellwood and deliver to a few neat victorian houses. The second house had an antelope across the street with a little free sign. It was made of paper mache and asked if it could ride in the passenger seat. How can I resist? A while back, the architecture office I worked with in Brooklyn, wanted to do a coffee table project. I had an idea to make an antelope that would be a 'coffee table' with a hidden tea service in it's tummy. Neil helped me rough it out, but we didn't have time to finish it and couldn't bring it when we moved. I plan to hide it somewhere funny in the yard for Neil to come across... maybe we can then drink tea next to it.. while the chickens try to perch the antlers.

Driving up into SE Portland I suddenly get stuck in a lot of traffic. NPR is talking about Ultimate Fighting. It's interesting, but not the most pleasant story to be stuck in traffic with. Barely inching along, it's usually slow, because I think there's no other option, but today it was hardly moving. Going the other direction were all these fun, painted-on, adventure-looking cargo vans filled with excited people. When I finally got to cross the Springwater Corridor trail (rails to trails), I saw there were runners in a race. Maybe this is part of Hood to Coast?

Then I also saw crazy camp outs, loads of tents in rather fancy lawns near Reed College in the Woodstock neighborhood. When I rang the doorbell at the house I deliver to there, I saw a beautiful harp. It's a house I often hear piano coming from and don't ring the bell, because I don't want to disturb them.

Heading out of SE Portland later, I pass the Aladdin Theater on Milwaukie, while waiting to turn onto Powell. The woman I heard on the radio 6 hours earlier, is playing there tonight and that's how I get the correct spelling for her last name... Gilkyson.

Now I am en route back across the river to Forest Heights, a very expensive neighborhood that used to be a forest and a I drive up and down a lot of heights. The customers are all super nice and today the first house, brings out their empty basket for me and asks if we did the harvests while Polly and James were out of town. I was surprised. I said yes, did we do okay?? He said oh! yes! we didn't even realize a change or that they were away for two weeks back in July. I explain we assisted Carlos, who is an incredible farmer. He talks about how beautiful it is out there - he must have just been out for a farm party I think or to pick blackberries. A few other customers did know when we were doing the harvest, too and were also really nice about it. All these interactions really add up.

Then for the first time, I ventured up into the top of the heights. We drive up this steep road and usually turn left at this crazy man-made waterfall and curve back down. Today, I had to deliver to a customer's friend up in and beyond The Waterfall. It is so steep. The brakes are getting a bit jumpy again and I am thankful to be going up, but also sensing slight vertigo, not sure how all the big houses are stacked up here? Thankfully the house I deliver to is at a level spot and then I am slowly working my way down, thinking affirmative brake thoughts...

I think about how vehicles are shiny, houses are matte. It's very rare that they're the other way around. Cars look wet, you can see reflections of buildings, trees, sky. Houses are often flat, neutral non-colors, stiff.

Another house goes by and I'm on my way to Bauer Crest Estates, to a nice family who's house looks very similar to the neighboring ones. When we learned the route, we were told to look for the one with brick pavers in the driveway. I always think that and note the bricks even though the house has become familiar. It's a very quiet neighborhood where you see some couples or families riding bikes or out for a walk, but you don't see cars parked in the street and there is very little traffic. I pull over to the left, deliver the basket, ring the bell, no one is home today. Usually a son with a basketball or the mom is. That's one of the funny things about the route, you knock or ring and head back to the truck - a little bit like ding dong ditching with vegetables. If they are home, we want them to know the goods have arrived, yet there's no time to wait, just thank you! your welcome! have a good night! - as I'm leaving for the most part.. Is that how the milk man was? He just took the empties and left the full fresh bottles? Were the any milk delivery ladies? Did they get to know certain customers, befriend dogs and neighbors?

I head back and put the empty basket in the truck and head around to get back into the truck. It's just 20 minutes past 7pm, still light out and the houses will start curving my route back towards my own home. This time all on the north side of the highway, but back through Beaverton and Hillsboro to North Plains. As I grab the door and reach my left leg to the step on the truck, I realize my right is not with me. It's caught on the rounded curb, turning upside down behind me and there's a loud crack and I'm on the ground between the curb and the front tire. The pain is deep and all I can feebly whisper to myself is sh-t, sh-t, sh-t, while crying. How did this just happen? Can I drive? I still have baskets to deliver? Realizing I use this right foot a lot on the gas and the brake. I think if I can just make it through for a bit and settle myself down and can use my left leg to launch myself up into the truck on my stomach and reach my cell phone. A bicycle wheel passes by the open door, a man in a fluorescent yellow cycling vest bends to ask if I'm alright. He says he was just coming over to ask the name of the farm, because his family is interested in joining. I get myself together, tell him the farm name, the website. He says, oh, wait, that's all okay, but we need to help you up! He and his wife hoist me over to the customer's calm green lawn. Another couple driving by stops to help. They offer to go home for ibuprofen and ice and the other couple says they can bike back and take me to the emergency room, as part of the right edge of my foot is quickly beginning to bulge out on it's own... I don't tend to need my phone much on the route and today.. the battery today is low. I quickly call Neil, (still crying). The two couples decide it is easier for the couple already driving, to take me St. Vincent's. They are so incredibly nice. We talk about accidents their children have been in. They get me a wheelchair, help me sign in, wheel me around to a good spot, get me water - are so sweet. They leave me there number n case anything comes up. Vicki and Paul. Thank you, thank you.

I get a little red pager that reminds me of the mexican restaurant, La Fuente, in Milwaukee, but I joke that there is no margarita waiting for me on the other end. Everyone finds me each time it goes off and helps wheel me to the various people that are parts of the triage and registration process. Very nice people. The radiologist told me about growing up with cattle on a dairy farm and the path that led him to his current job. We talked about ways to make a living and about farming. One of the nurses told me how just last night, one of the doctor's was saying he wanted to sign up for Pumpkin Ridge Gardens deliveries. It felt very small world to both of us. The guy who made my splint was very funny and kind and we talked about the splint's design and he said they don't use casts anymore in the ER for most breaks, because you continue to expand and contract and that can lead to - and he said some innocuous sounding thing - and that... can lead to losing your leg. We both laughed at my surprise. Jokes with the other nurses were made that not so long ago, people were kind of on their own with this injury, maybe your foot heals and maybe not. And about me becoming a professional quilt maker (instead of a farmer with only one good foot...). Any and all friendliness and humor in the hospital helps.

Neil had to go pick up the box truck and finish the route, then drive back to drop that truck off where ours was parked and find the hospital. It was soooo nice to see him. He made it just as they were finishing up with me. They showed us an x-ray and the three fractures through the 5th metatarsal. One of the most common way to break your foot, but two of the breaks are in zones 1 and 2, which apparently don't get great circulation and are hard to heal. I remembered 'osteoblasts'
from breaking my collar bone years ago and they said yes! meditate on osteoblasts! They are the cells that form our bones...

On the way out this nice older nurse asked if the other had given me a toe warmer and went off to come back with a basket filled with different colored warmers that look like a rectangular mitten or potholder. Hand knitted by her and other volunteers. It was so sweet! I found a cute red and white one, we put it on and they wheeled me on out.

So here I am now today, having been so excited to have positive updates about the route and having decided to really go for it finishing out the season and researching more farm options this winter. The broken foot is a major set back at this time in the season, but I'm still wanting to stay positive.

Then the next day, yesterday, we found out that we've lost our job and house.

The hospital had said that since I was working when this happened, that they needed to file this as workman's comp. I explained I wasn't sure if this farm had it and they said they should and regardless they file it per what a person is doing when they are injured. If you're working, it's run as workman's comp. Today when Neil went to give a sheet we were told to give them, James looked at the form, told him we are not employees and gave it back.

Okay... that really brought some tears and long conversations with family and friends. Neil went to get my crutches, prescription and other errands we needed to do today. When he came back they wanted to talk to him and the bottom line is that we are a 'liability' and they don't have the proper insurances for us to drive, so they are going to drive the route and do the deliveries in the future. I am on my own with my broken foot, they have no workman's comp or other insurance for their business and we have apparently never been employed by them regardless. Neil was told he needs to do the route, though, for two more weeks and then we are to move out or start paying rent. The estimated monthly value of this house being a bit on the high side seemed fine when we were all rationalizing what the hourly wage works out to. Anyone who has come to visit, refers to it as a tiny cabin, cottage or a shack. I was adamantly referring to it as a house and do love this little place. It does not seem like they want us to stay, it seems like they want to get rid of us, while getting our money until we can find a home and possibly try to find another driver (?) - as they know we are settled in here and they know we work for them, ourselves and for the farmer who was their last driver. It's a busy time in the season. It's a tight picture. I have a broken foot. It's a very hard time to do this.

In the coming 2 weeks:
--- This week we have six wonderful friends coming from out of town for a mini reunion and to spend time together. They will be our buffer of loving friendship and a good final celebration of our home here.

--- Neil is scheduled to work double with the other farm we work with, since I am out of commission.

--- We have a lot of vegetables in the field that need weeding, irrigating, harvesting and that's going to be all Neil.

--- We have 2 more farmer's markets on Sept 6th for Nike and the 13th for Columbia. Tricky as to whether I could make all the bouquets, since it's been a pretty physical activity during the markets - but if we have to move by September 8th ?? - those last two don't seem possible. They are a lot of work, dead-heading all the flowers so we have the freshest ones and all the harvest and loading. Losing that income, the opportunity to use the displays we just painted and made, to see the customers and organizers again is really sad.

Somewhere during all this and while I am supposed to keep my foot elevated and peaceful, Neil needs to maintain the work and commitments we have, while also finding a full time job and a place for us to live. We just spent a lot of money to move here and now Neil has to find boxes and pack everything up again, rent a truck. Doesn't seem possible. And most sadly it means we will need to abandon most of our crops, just as many of the amazing 200+ tomato plants, our tomatillos, eggplant, peppers, melon and other veggies we've been caring for and waiting on all these months for, really come on. So let's see, does that make this a pickle?

We have taken this route very seriously and given it top priority. We were asked to commit to a year plus two months, through the end of May, 2008 when this route ends and the new one starts and longer if we'd like. We have 5 chickens we raised from baby chicks, as we planned to stay at least 1 to 2 years. We double dug a large garden and planted many herbs and flowers. Pulled and cut an insane amount of blackberries and other perennial weeds. We just worked for the Olsen's in exchange for firewood, brought home and stacked two large loads to heat us through winter, in addition to the wood we got from Carlos earlier in the season. All of our mail, bills and registrations are to this address. We got here March 29th, painted the house, fixed it all up as best we could, worked on the yard, started training on the route right away with Steve who had made us the most awesome directions and was so truly diligent and helpful. Then did the deliveries together for a long time to make sure we were doing it as quickly and efficiently as we could into June after the new route started and in mid month we switched to one of us alternating days.

There are other things that happened during the time leading up to the "wall," that weren't making us feel great about this living situation, but it's completely unexpected to be told only 5 months into this, that they aren't set up with insurance to actually employ drivers and good-bye.

I feel sad that I won't be able to say good bye to all the customers that have been so kind to me and who I've enjoyed seeing and catching up with every week. I am sad that no matter how hard we worked at this job and were self-reliant, easy tenants who made our own repairs, it's not good enough and it's beyond our control. What is said about us as an explanation, is beyond our control.

So, I wonder sheepishly... did I think I could control life by exuberantly deciding to be positive? Can we still? Can I call myself Miss Gimpy Doodles and will our cats pack the boxes? The cats and the chickens love it here. We have all really made this our home and settled in. It will be very, very sad to move.

Thank you to our local friends who have offered their help, our distant friends and family who listen and share ideas and We are also, again, open to any and all thoughts and ideas.

Hens in Portland !

Hi there and Happy New Year! We are back. It's been a wild adventure since our last post in August, but all for the best. More on that soon, but wanted to say hello again and share a few pictures of the ladies.

We got our first egg on Thanksgiving morning from either Mayhem or DIO, the two black Australorps and now PJ and Lima are laying, too. Banti our little bantam Mottled Cochin, nests with Lima during all the bcawing as her buddy, but hasn't laid her own first egg yet. We just saw the first little egg of our friends' bantam Cheeks (a cute, tufty bantam Araucana), at 9 months, Banti's 6 now so it maybe a few months. It's so fun to share with our neat upstairs neighbors

Cats with feathers who happen to treat us with their amazing eggs.

We're in Portland now, with the hens in the front yard and the most plant and ag related jobs we could find, veggies and flowers in the ground at home and plans for intensive 'yard farming' and a building a little greenhouse out of windows and wood we've collected. Life has thrown us a number of scary curves in a short matter of months, but we've been finding our way forward and are really happy. So thankful for our wonderful family and friends!

Naomi is managing Concentrates Inc, an organic agriculture supply shop (check out the new blog there), and Neil is working with West Coast Plant, an organic indoor plant company. Puff and Jeff, our furries, are holding down the home front, they supervise the hen's safety and keep an eye on our resident flock of crows. And then there is daredevil Sammy, our local squirrel and a dedicated troublemaker... (not to be confused with 'Happy Squirrel' who is with our friend's daughter Madeline, finding her first egg Christmas morning)

We hope you are staying warm and cozy this winter.

Much love,

Naomi + Neil

Prep for our first Farmer's Market

Through our friends Jessica + Michael (gracious hosts when we landed in Portland and our first visitors out here on Easter..) and their friend Jesse, we got to meet with the woman who runs a private Farmer's Market at Nike. We thought it was a simple, off the cuff market, but it is a full-on, really neat sounding event with 30 vendors. We met with the woman who runs it and she gave us a detailed introduction, tour and has invited us to be a part of their last two market days in August and September and one that is just starting at Columbia Sportswear, too.

Today after harvesting in the morning for Bon Appetit, we worked on our market signs and display. The ladies loved that we were home, since we let them roam when we are. They are constantly exploring, taking dust baths, finding new perches and hiding spots, herding each other around to new foraging areas. The Australorps (vultures...) are officially iridescent green sheen over their black feathers today and yesterday was the official pullet puberty voice change to early cluck speak versus bird singing. And their feathers are all so soft. Big personalities and only about 3 months old.

Much sign painting, fabric and wood activity occurring. Also we sold our first peppers of the season! And finally unleashed our Papalo herb out into the world. It was our best harvest yet. The only slow veggie is the eggplant, high demand, plants look great, but the fruits just maintained status quo this week. It's been cool and cloudy with some rain and they are not putting out until there is some more HEAT, but they are so pretty and the eggplant we've eaten so far is sooooo good, we've put it in everything from burritos to eggs. Dusky and Oriental Express. Excellent. Our earliest pepper is the Islander in it's meaty deep purple state. Jalapenos are hot and the Hungarian Hot Wax are pretty, yet mild.

Here's a new drawing Neil just finished for a show he's in with Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, MA.

We're also sending off a piece we made together - the horse and fish over there on the right of this blog - to a show at UWM, where we met back in the day... titling it 'Hollywood Hills' after the place we made it while doing a bizarre art residency, which we'll have to write about someday.

WALL + the economics of small-scale farming

On Sunday we officially hit a wall. It was a slow, soft thud. As impenetrable seeming as coming up on a pale grey concrete wall with no edges.

Mid to late July has been a hazy month for us. It felt like something foggy and difficult was ahead of us. We've been talking more and trying to look to the winter. Have we ever worked this hard and made this little money? Is that what's going on? We rationalized that it was just a time between our crops where the field looks great and filled with potential, but our eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, melons, beans and other veggies are still steadily growing but not ready. And maybe this is a big part - the time between seeding in early spring, potting up more than once for some things, transplanting out and then there's a point where you keep them weeded, but they are on their own and don't need you anymore for a while.

We thought well - if we just plan better next year, maybe we can work this out and we'll continue growing. Granted we're only on a quarter acre and as we joke "flying by the seat of our overalls." The restaurant we sell to also has 60 day terms, so we haven't seen any income from our harvests yet. We've been working really hard, only hoping to break even on very frugal expenses, but realized recently we may not. It took a lot out of our intensely earned savings to move all the way out here and and we finally invested in a truck, realizing we finally needed to decide on a newer, safer vehicle for the two of us. We know all these factors add up. A lot has happened in a short span of time.

During the past few weeks we've gone through some unforeseen experiences, we don't want to get into detail about. These bring us to a speedier need for change and major re-thinking, though. We were looking happily ahead to the winter when crops slow down as that time. Knowing we'll need to line up other jobs, but also hoping for some quiet indoor time to read, research and plot our next season's course. Right now we have savings left that we hope to use for a future down payment, some farm work and the CSA delivery work to cover our rent, food and bills. And the precious little checks should also start trickling through from the restaurant soon, but we have come to an evaluating point much quicker than we'd thought. Mainly, can we continue to balance financially, focus on the farming and for the beautiful crops we have coming on, selling them through the restaurant and the farmer's market we just got into Thursdays from Aug 16th through mid September and preserving them as best we can. Or do we need to adjust now and get outside non-farm work sooner than planned?

The WALL is 'can it be done' (by us) in the future. Can we farm?

We are trying not to be too hard on ourselves. At the same time we are trying to be very realistic about what we've already learned and the actual funds, labor, equipment and land needed. There are so many costs associated with farming, even on a micro-scale. We knew it would be a LOT of work. Physical, manual, labor, repeat, repeat, repeat. We knew it would psychologically be pretty daunting, but somehow I think we thought we could make the numbers work. Learn this year, aim to break even financially by being extremely frugal and strictly maintain savings earned through other work this winter. Then plan in the winter and take what we've learned into the next season and hopefully do it with a bit more financial cushion so that it wasn't quite as terrifying and at least seriously explore trying to purchase miniature land of our own... And this is all still possible. We know we need to talk to more farmers and other small businesses and round ourselves back out a bit. I think we just want to make sure we are sane in our coming choices.

We've come to realize we initially thought we were more realistic about this endeavor since my mom was going to move out here and we were going to try to find a place together and possibly she would be involved in whichever farming direction the place we could buy would be suitable for. This changed a while back and we realize now, we should have looked harder at the sanity of our plan to continue on without her as our teammate. We've found that the neat farmers in our age range often have some crucial degree of teaming up with their parents, through living on the farm together, funding or volunteer farm help and that may be a very essential part both in camaraderie and financial viability to start and sustainability for the long haul that we don't have. Granted, maybe we should have looked into the midwest more, to be near Neil's parents in Iowa or in Wisconsin where my mom has stayed. For traditional farmers who need hundreds of acres, land prices are soaring due to the ethanol push. It's likely that small acreage for what we are trying to do is still less, but the demand and community support is also less among other considerations. A main issue that I hope will be explored further in the media is the nuts and bolts - how does it work for any young farmer today who does not have family land, from the micro-scale organic farm/market garden to the hundreds of acres in corn or soybeans farmers? The way we value real estate today, how can this work?

Speaking of inspiring farmers our age, we met two great farmers earlier this year when we were venturing to meet farmers while they still had a bit of time to talk in February and March. Katie and Casey Kulla run Oakhill Organics, are very inspiring and keep an honest, candid blog about their life. During our own farm work this summer, they have been a great source of community for us, through their writing. Although they are far ahead of us in the journey to farm, every week they discuss things we are usually experiencing and wondering about in some way, too. From - cultivation a.k.a weeding to identifying all those weeds, the feeling of rushing, what their experience is after leasing and now being on their own land, making time to take care of physical and mental well-being, fatigue, unforeseen events both good and bad, visiting other farms in season, suburban development pressure, ideas of isolation vs community, maintenance - all the way to the importance of financial sustainability. A key issue!

We would like to be able to work together like they do, long term, live in a small hand-built home and farm in some way or have some small business together. We're just at a point of trying to re-evaluate if and how we can actually make that happen (and someday afford minimal health coverage).

We're in this amazing, beautiful area of mountains, farmland, proximity to a very hip city and metro area of wonderful people who care about supporting local farmers and businesses and who are very environmentally interested, smart and pro-active. You could not ask for a better place to do any of the things we're interested in.

Yet all this adds up to real estate being very expensive. There is an Urban Growth Boundary and there are protective land use laws, but that sometimes seems to just mean that if you've got the money you can buy up the large acreage agricultural land and just have a lot more space between you and the next McMansion estate. It doesn't mean okay those with money can build a big house on a small patch of land over here and this excellent agriculture land we'll preserve and sell or long-term lease at economically affordable prices, in tiny all the way to large acreages, per what small-scale farmers can actually make - to a variety of farmers.

So yes we could afford land in the boonies somewhere, but will you have the buyers and supportive community to make it financially viable? How do the economics work out for young people who want to farm, to enter the fray where land = 'Real Estate' = stock investment? And where as a society, we still often make food choices based on what is least expensive - out of need or habit, regardless of whether the food is healthy for you and grown in away that is healthy and sustainable for local communities and the greater, long-term picture.

We could rent a home and lease farm land indefinitely, but we know it's not realistic for us. For one we can't determine how long we can live or farm, even at our current locations. Where we live, we really adore our little house and have to rein ourselves in on all our ideas to continue sprucing it up (and it's almost too neat to look out the kitchen window and watch our chickens adventuring around). Then where we're farming, the couple who owns the land five miles away are amazingly kind and positive, it's very peaceful there. At any time, though, one of the owning couples can decide or need suddenly, to sell or change what they're doing. It's not up to us and we understand that. Also long term, we see there are so many advantages to living on the land where you are farming, but talking about life as a 'Roving Farmer' is another post. We do want to move towards owning something of our own and having a solid home base. It logically takes reliable income to get the loan to own even a very modest patch of ground or tiny fixer house. Right now we can't quite see the path between what we're doing farming this way and the ability to own any bit of land to grow and in return sell to and be supported by this amazing community around Portland or further outlying towns. All of the land is prohibitively expensive.

We want to be able to be invested in our home, surroundings and community for a long time.

Sometimes I realize I am homesick, but I don't know where for. It is partly the fact that our friends and family are in all different parts of the country, I miss them and there is no one magical place where all my favorite people can be. But this lack of place feeling is something we want to solve and to have a sweet place where friends and family can at least visit and stay and a place where we can grow long term friendships new and old. Maybe that sounds odd to say 'solve' like it is a mystery and we are detectives in our own life, but it feels like that.

I was reading this aloud to Neil and he said it's just this strange place to be in. There is so much support for what we're trying to do right now in terms of general awareness and the popularity of books like Omnivore's Dilemma; Animal Vegetable, Miracle; Plenty and others, but we don't actually make enough to purchase them and even if we could it would be hard to take time to read them right now...

How does one get to actually be a local, officially or un-officially organic, grower or producer?
How do the behind the scenes equations actually add up?

With art, we realized it is a high-end luxury product (is that a duh?) where there are an extremely small number of possible buyers. To make art long term, you need to be financially supported by your spouse/partner/parents or independently wealthy. Period.

With other hand crafted products, you may have a wider base of regular people who can want what you make and support you. We thought a lot about what we would enjoy making as our life's work. We wanted to work together, both like to be outside, enjoy plants, dirt, birds, critters, being physical... things that lead to farming. We thought with eyes and imaginations flung wide open - herbs to make tea! veggies! flowers! some day goats! cheese! wine! - just depending on what property you can find and somehow buy, who knows what we could do!!

Then we learned, oops... With animals we are told the money flows away from you very easily and back in.. not so much. With wine, you need money for a particular type of land, infrastructure and plants even if you are just growing grapes to wholesale and not bottling your own, which we do not have. With herbs or fruit, you want some permanence so that your perennials can thrive and you can continue to learn about and adapt to your micro-climate, among other things involved with making a living from them.

With veggies, we thought - ah ha! annuals! we can do this on leased land!

And I will pause with my funniness to say that it is really neat and amazing we've been able to move out here and so quickly be growing so many things. And really there are so many buyers from CSA subscribers, to restaurants, markets. Every person eats at least three times a day and will always need to. Growing food is a very important craft.

But a number of people since we moved here said "There's no money in farming." (As in - you guys know that right? Or "Ohhh..." when realizing we're trying to do it together full time - as in oh.... dear, you know at least one of you needs a full time job, and to farm in the off time and the other needs to do the work of at least two or three people, right? and you still really need some un-paid friend, family or apprentice help, you do know that right???)

Oh fine, for you we thought, but hey! maybe our equation will add up differently! we have no kids, we live simply, we've got desire, brute physical force, the ability to work unlimited hours on end, two brains, we can do this!!

Now we're just not so sure and feeling sad about our boundless enthusiasm, (naivety)... Maybe this is covered in a book we haven't read yet... Is it?? We're just getting spooked that the things people have said to us are the things we'd like to shout at all well intentioned art students at so many colleges around the country. Hey! You're going to be an art teacher, right? Oh hey - you! You're not? You're just going to be an "artist"? What are you getting your masters in? You know you'll need a career to make money in, right? Okay, just writing that here I feel like ah yes... I sound like a parent... or a kooky older person. And every one's experience is different. We're only talking about ourselves and what we kick ourselves for. We know that, umm.. we fear that we'll be letting people down by trying to talk about our own fears and the struggle with figuring things out.

We can at least say as we've been trying to perk each other up - that we wanted to have an interesting life and we do! Both good and bad with lots of odd times, we have succeeded in this goal so far, it's definitely interesting. And we know it's a luxury to be in what is technically still a time of war and be pondering what we'd like to do with ourselves, while fearing no imminent danger. And that is also something to think and write more about.

So, to wrap these ponderings up... There are all these variables in life: place, money, relationships to other people, labor. Lately we feel there is this puzzle to crack with our variables. It could be put together in who knows how many ways, but we need to put it together. We're trying to sort out the most essential pieces we'd like to be in the puzzle and see how we can realistically put it together with what we have and who we are. Making the money to survive in a meaningful way where we can work together and enjoy what we do, even while living very frugally, seems very challenging.
We are coming to realize our life might look very different from versions we'd like.

For now we are trying to strike a balance, acknowledge some serious realities and try to plan ahead (while staying calm..), but focus on caring for our crops and embracing this unique experience. We already get shivers of sad nostalgia, knowing as hard as certain parts are, there is so much we will miss if we are unable to continue in this path. Appreciate this time while we are living it.

Thank you to everyone who has shared details and feelings about the inner workings of their lives or is willing to in the future. It is so helpful to us as we try to draw a sane map forward.
We are open to any and all ideas and thank you so kindly for reading.

Courtney + Michael

Everglades guides, so wonderful to see them and meet her husband Michael, cook lots of yummy food and talk. Neil and Courtney were guides at the same time and Michael worked with Outward Bound, met Courtney and they continued guiding down there for a while. They also think about farming in the future. The where and how are definitely things they consider. It was great to show them the farm, Michael so happily sampled everything. They are off to climb Mt Rainier. They also are great with yarn - she crochets and he knits - beautiful hats he had just made one that he knitted and then felted for her and a super intricate Fair Isle pattern he was working on for another hat. It was really sad to see them off. Possible they will be back around Labor Day... we hope. Before they head back to California to teach at an outdoors school they've been working with for the past couple years. Very inspiring.

I love ladybugs + Biggie farm photos

More farm photos coming soon - took extensive plant details, maybe I can post them in an online photo album and link to that... Here are a couple views of the field to start:

Red table grapes still tiny green...

Here are the little grapes outside the bathroom window on the east, still tiny and growing every day.

Grapes engulf the north !

From the moment we landed and happily pushed our way through the blackberries and bamboo along the north side of our house while exploring, the old vine quietly sensed he had us.

Oh wow! I run into an old hard branch of, and quickly discover, the massive gnarly old grape vine right outside our bed room door. We are both mesmerized.

Right then, he knew he was right. He knew he had us. He knew it was time to slowly, but thoroughly, take over the north side of the house. From east to west and amassing over the roof towards the south.

I think his ally is this beautiful red rose that has steadily grown up out of the vast Saskatoon berry tree outside our bedroom window. The second rose has just come on. Reminding me of my Grama, who loved roses and died on Valentine's Day ten years ago. I've never lived anywhere with roses growing out my window.

Lemon Balm hanging to dry

The Puff and The Leg Lamp guard the Lemon Balm.

All the tea and culinary grade herbs have been going in the dehydrator or warm oven, but the massive lemon balm harvest from Biggie is hanging to dry with the lavender and hopefully will go into soap or some other concoction eventually. It has a much more floral, pleasantly perfumed smell dry, versus the more tactile lemon scent when it's fresh.

Bouquet I put together for today's route:

The harvest and delivery days continue. They are long days, but I do really like harvesting flowers and making bouquets, too and it is inspiring for us to work with and talk to Carlos in the early morning. The customers who order flowers are mainly regulars every week. It's pretty neat to see how the flowers that are ready change weekly through the seasons. Grown with years of good compost.

Pear tree in front of our house

Rainy day harvest for Pumpkin Ridge Gardens

This morning was our second harvest with Carlos for Pumpkin Ridge with some very welcome rain. The family is on vacation for a couple of weeks. Carlos rocks, he is great to work with, very pure energy, sharp with the numbers/baskets and best ways to harvest, wash and prep and he's funny.

It was nice after so much sun and dryness, to be out in the rain. In the stillness of the early morning, digging carrots and sorting them in piles of ten for a total of 580+ Many delicious yellow and green zucchinis and patty pans (the yellow color is so helpful for picking in those giant squash leaves). Beets, potatoes, scallions, onions, garlic. Enormous rainbow chard leaves and kale - both growing in the greenhouse to tropical proportions and basil.

I've been checking weather on weather underground, but I'm not sure they're the most accurate. It showed a very slight chance yesterday and did not show it was indeed actually raining from 3:30am on through the day, just cloudy and a 20% chance, while it was raining. We got a better tip last night from our friend Courtney's husband, Michael who was on Mt. Hood with good weather sources... and he was right. She's guiding a trip in Yosemite and hopefully they will visit us soon while they are up around here.

So I'm going to compare NOAA and see if there's a strong difference. Any other good sources?

(Pink Bee Balm, Goldilocks Rudbeckia, Red Crocosmia... flowers look especially vibrant on a rainy day to me. Harvesting and making bouquets for customers while Polly is away, too).

Lavender Anna

Went to the Lavender Festival with Anna yesterday. There are three lavender farms within 7 miles of us and a lot more in Yamhill County that we weren't able to make it to.

I found Anna at the one behind this pretty old church. It has a nice farmhouse with a breezeway, recently bought by a lawyer... I think the neighboring farm helps take care of the plants and the festival set up. A number of interesting old timers selling lavender lemonade (so delicious) and other treats, directing parking, saying hello. Anna is an awesome photographer and I know she took a lot of really great photos, but in the meantime I like this one of her getting ready to document the field.

The Ladies move into their Bamboo Pirate Chickie Raft

Lucky chicks set sail on 7/7/7 ! Very smooth transition, they were all thrilled to be outside and immediately foraging, so it seems that giving them patios and feeding them lots of greens (and some chick grit to digest it) worked well. It's great to watch them fly and run around with more space. And now we non-feathereds have our little office and sun room/workshop back and the furries have a newly appreciated full reign of the indoors.

Scythe from Shadybrook Rd.

There is this fascinating older woman named Dolores who lives on an old farm near us. She is sweet, intelligent and reminds me very much of my father in a comforting way. Her home is deeply eccentric and layered with special objects, great books, plants, a dog named Buddy. I really like talking with her. Chickens stroll around. Two of them are best friends and a bit on their own versus the rest of the ladies who are older. Their names are Butterscotch - a buff orpington I think and a little bantam named Brownie. She also has an amazing peacock and a couple of pea hens. We've seen the peacock way up high in the barn calling, his tail is insane, it's incredible and they can fly so high. She lends me a lot of great herb and farming books and old copies of ORGANIC Gardening and Farming magazines, including one with Ruth Stout on the cover from February 1957, when the words Gardening and Farming held equal weight on the title. I've also been itching to buy a scythe, but good ones are expensive. Maybe they are on my brain so much, I don't know if I brought it up or not?? but Dolores gave me this awesome old scythe. It needs a lot of work, I'll take a photo, I love it.