Jolico Farm . . .

Time to retire . . . again!

2011-11-29T14:38:00.001-05:00

The sky is definitely moving faster today. As I study the clouds of change, my thoughts race to keep pace. All of a sudden, though not at all unexpectedly, life has sped up and we are now on the far side of Thanksgiving. This year the clock has been ticking down to Art's third retirement and I wonder what this one holds in store for us?

He retired in 1973 from the menswear industry and we moved to the farm where he started his electrical parts rebuilding company. He retired from that business after 16 years in 1989 to become a judge in 1994. He might have remained on the bench for a fourth term but for the mandatory retirement age thing, for this was the job he really loved.

But really, you ask, what will he do? What will you both do? What will you EACH do? What will be different? What will remain the same? How will you spend your time? Will you tackle new projects, take up new interests, travel, move away? So many questions. It is hard to imagine the future. But life speeds along a linear timeline and forces us to watch the road ahead and try to straddle the potholes.

We have always lived our lives without plans. We mainly go with the Cosmic Flow. That way things feel right, and we have made our life choices based on feeling and intuition. So, I expect that nothing will change. I expect that everything will change. I expect, too, that we will embrace whatever does change as we have always done.

Retirement - he has no wonderment about this subject. He has done this twice before. He is excited! gleeful! playful, SURE, willing, and oh.so.ready! Speak to him about his plans and his face lights up. Ask him what he will do every day when he no longer has his career-burden to carry and he will reply, "everything... and nothing!" You just know that whatever it is, he will enjoy every minute.

But that's the way he has always lived - in the moment, in the present and in full, glorious gratitude for a God-granted wondrous life to live on Earth, in freedom, with humor, spirit and exuberance, with love and in friendship, with respect and in abundant good health. What more could anyone wish for? Not another blessed thing!

I doubt we will travel. I doubt we will alter our lifestyle. Maybe we will write a book... if so, it will be a funny one! And I know what his comment will be should you ask him for one. He will tell you, "Have no expectations and you will never be disappointed."

Soup Season.....

2011-10-19T22:56:00.000-04:00

The first fire of fall is always a noteworthy event for us. The warmth from the woodstove on a chilly, blustery day marks the change of seasons as surely as the colorful falling leaves, acorns under foot, skeins of migrating geese, and the dog finally ceasing to shed as he begins to grow his new winter coat. We fired up our new Avalon woodstove for the first time ever on October 1st. It was installed back in May and we were instructed to light several small fires initially to 'season' the new stove, after which we could use it unrestrainedly as we wished. The stove is a dream to light; it takes right off into a roaring fire... no smoking, no fanning to create a flame. The chimney was built correctly too. What a relief! I now have my Girl Scout fireplace - no electronic controls, no fans needed; just a basic heat source that will warm the house during emergencies or very cold weather without electricity or other extraneous technological contraptions.

Art is away at continuing education school this week and I've been home with just the animals for company. Mo and I took a long, exhilarating hike along the lake, stopping to feed the fish, then up through the harvested fields to the high spot on the farm from which you can see clear to Heaven! Most of the leaves have already fallen, helped by the strong winds and torrential rains over the past week. But some of the trees have yet to give up their bounty. All of the oaks lining the back field are still holding onto their leaves and their acorns; many maples along the way are still resplendent in their red and gold mantles. The air smells earthy and musty and crisp all at the same time. Gone are the swarms of gnats and other flying bugs though the occasional lazy bee can still be seen gathering the last of the season's pollen from some sheltered wildflowers.

I didn't light a fire in the woodstove today as it really wasn't cold enough for one, but the cooler weather and approaching cold front did give me the urge to make a stockpot of soup for the freezer. I have been craving my favorite, Chicken Chowder with Chipotle (Chupe de Pollo con Chipotle). I took some pictures of the preparation. I thought I'd share the recipe as there are some friends here who are sure to ask for it! I usually double this recipe as it's just as easy to make twice as much and I always regret not having made more...

You will need the following for a Dutch oven, but if you have a large stockpot, double this recipe to make 1-1/2 gallons:
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
Olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
6 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1-1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast
2 medium red potatoes (about 12 ounces) cut into half-inch pieces
1/2 pound fresh slender green beans or use a 15 ounce can, whichever is easier
1 (15.5-ounce) can white or golden hominy, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup whipping cream (or half and half to lighten the fat)
Salt to taste

1. Remove 1 chile and 1 teaspoon of the adobo sauce from the can; reserve the remaining chiles and sauce for another use. (I freeze them in little baggies so I always have them on hand.) Finely chop the chile and set the chile and the sauce aside separately. (Hint: wear rubber gloves when handling chiles and remove all the seeds and veins inside as that is where the heat is stored!)

2. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven (or stockpot if doubling the recipe) over medium heat. Add chopped chile, onion, carrots, celery, cumin, oregano, thyme and garlic; cook 7 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring frequently. Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Add chicken, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken and cool slightly. Shred the chicken with 2 forks, cover and keep warm.

Remove the pan from heat and let stand 5 minutes. If you are using a blender or food processor, puree the broth mixture, a third at a time, until all of the broth is pureed. (I use an immersion blender so I can puree the broth right in the pot.) Return the pureed broth mixture to the pot. Stir in the potatoes, green beans and hominy. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, uncovered, 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Stir in the chicken and the cream and simmer 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat and stir in the reserved adobo sauce and salt to taste. ENJOY!

Yield: 8 servings (about 1-1/3 cups).
Calories: 246. Fat: 6.2 grams. Protein: 24.5 grams. Carb: 21.8 grams. Fiber: 3.5 grams.

5773 ... a New Year

2011-10-11T14:38:00.001-04:00

My fervent prayer for the New Year - that these negative human traits and acts be abolished from our lives and our hearts, our minds and our planet ..... fear, pollution of any kind, religious dogmas, violence, capital punishment and prisons, male superiority, social caste systems, cruelty to any life form, poverty, mind control and closed minds, greed, jealousy, envy, cheating, prejudice, corruption, harmful chemicals and drugs, political haranguing and bureaucratic red tape, wanton destruction, health afflictions, anger, ruthlessness, divisiveness, self-centeredness and egotism, dishonesty, military mentality, weaponry, addictions, pornography, homelessness, slave trade, media control, corporate monopolies ... God bless us, every one!

Serendipitous September ...

2011-09-28T16:07:00.000-04:00

My emails this morning brought a delightful surprise from one of my most talented friends of the blogosphere. Patsye, to whose charming blog "Whimseytopia" http://whimseytopia.wordpress.com/ I subscribe, awarded me an honor (pictured at the right, and now ensconced on my blog with my other 'gadgets'), along with the following deeply moving words:

" ... Of all the blogs I follow - and there are not that many - you were one of the first. And if I recall, you taught me how to link to you. That was a big step for me. I was such a neophyte. I still am. But in these 9-10 months I've learned much about the world of blogging, life on Jolico Farm, fracking, and how to make the blogosphere a better place - I hope. You're the best Max. I think of you every day - especially when I see one of those horrifying commercials about gas deposits in western Pa. It must be driving you mad.

I made this award and hope you'll accept it and use it on your blog. And share it. There's nothing required. No lists. No secrets to divulge. Just a huge thank you for all your posts, and your friendship. I would be singing like this crow if I stumbled upon this image, given to someone I don't know by someone else I don't know - all because we're kindred spirits."

I am smiling, my heart is full of the warmth of Patsye's kindness; I am very touched. To learn one has made a difference in the life of another person is a great honor in itself. To unexpectedly receive an award and the beautifully heartfelt words that accompany it, well, that just totally made my September!!! Thanks Patsye, you are such a special soul; you shine!

Among other serendipitous things that have occurred this month - I took on a part-time job! Yes, I have returned to the ranks of the employed as an editorial assistant at the Somerset Daily American newspaper. http://www.dailyamerican.com/ I work from 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, with an occasional Saturday thrown in when I'm needed. My duties are varied but I feel like an integral part of the team that publishes Somerset's daily morning newspaper. Those who know me and my love of words (and newspapers) will understand why this type of work is so enjoyable to me. I have a large group of very kind, very capable co-workers who are eager to be helpful to a newspaper neophyte. New opportunities for learning await me every day I step into the newsroom. We use Macintosh computers and software programs with which I was totally unfamiliar but have come to like. While I've been typing and editing obituaries, announcements, school menus, letters to the editor and other items of interest, interspersed with lots of proofreading, I look forward to learning how to enhance photos in Photoshop and work with In-Design, both programs I've used before but never worked with in their Mac versions. I'm sure there will be other interesting responsibilities that will come my way in time.

Just about the time I started my new job, I received another serendipitous honor from my friends at Sipesville VFD. In 2009 I had written a FEMA grant for a new tanker. The estimated cost for the truck proved to be too expensive and the grant was not awarded. So in 2010, we sharpened our pencils and re-submitted that grant for a 3000 gallon tanker with a more economical price tag. We were notified at the beginning of 2011 that the grant had been awarded. The truck was ordered up, built in Missouri and was finally delivered at the end of August. I was invited to share in the delivery celebration at the fire hall on the evening the truck arrived. Imagine my surprise as Mandy Shroyer led me over to show me some of the details on the truck and she pointed out two small but very important emblems. On both sides of the truck, just behind the cab doors, emblazoned in gold for all the world to see was the prettiest, wholehearted 'Thank-you' a grant writer was ever rewarded with! I am blessed to continue to be a part of this wonderful group of volunteers since writing my first grant for them in 2003. In turn, they have honored me in the most rewarding way with their deepest gratitude.

Beyond all of the excitement of the world at the end of the lane, life at Jolico Farm follows its familiar patterns. Through a wetter than normal early and late summer with a very dry mid-summer, we have had an abundant harvest and squirreled away lots of tomato products, peppers, pesto, potatoes, pickles onions, garlic, carrots and pears. Our flowers were spectacular this year! Our woodstove and chimney installation earlier this spring and our gazebo rebuild were our two major projects of 2011. An early August trip to Washington D.C. to see our nephew Sgt. Michael Blank off to his new posting in Germany was another highlight for us. Now, as we put another summer behind us, we are left with these beautiful memories:

Art, Mike and Hank in D.C.

Wonderful veggies!

Early morning wonders...

Spectacular colors and scents.

Huge elephant ear plant!

Woof!

Our 15 Minutes of Fame ... this article about us appeared in The Somerset Daily American on our 42nd wedding anniversary!

2011-08-28T15:33:00.000-04:00

VICKI ROCK Daily American Staff Writer

SOMERSET PA, August 25, 2011 —

Arthur and Maxine Cook, Jolico Farm, Somerset, have been gardeners for 42 years. Like many gardeners, they are often faced with what to do with their excess produce after eating and preserving much of it.

A writer on a gardening blog that Maxine was reading mentioned the Ample Harvest.org website. She visited the website and clicked on the link for people who have excess produce to find a food pantry that would accept it. The nearest food pantries listed were in Ligonier, Acme and Latrobe.

“This is a great idea — gardeners with excess produce to give it to food pantries — that’s fabulous,” she said. “But none in Somerset County were listed.”

Jeffrey Masterson, executive director of the Community Action Partnership for Somerset County Tableland Services, said food pantries in Somerset County do accept fresh produce as long as people call the food pantries first.

“With the cutbacks in federal and state funding, we appreciate fresh produce people are offering,” he said.

Arthur Cook pointed out that some people may not be aware of how to prepare fresh produce. Masterson agreed and said the younger families especially may not know how to use everything. If people could provide written directions as to how to use various items, that would be helpful.

“The elderly do know how to prepare the vegetables, and how to preserve them,” Maxine Cook said. “Friends don’t like to see me coming in the summer because they know that I’m bringing them vegetables — I print out recipes and leave them with the bags of zucchini. Wasting food bothers me terribly. It breaks my heart to throw out produce, but I can only use, can and freeze so much. Most people who produce food work hard.”

Arthur Cook said their zucchini plants produce 30 pounds a day during the peak season and he ends up composting 98 percent of it.

If the food pantries aren’t willing to accept all the excess produce, the Cooks think it would be nice if a local church or other organization would offer space in a building. Gardeners could bring in their extra produce and anyone who wants it — not just people eligible to use food pantries — could go and pick it up.

“I just think with the cost of food — think of how much it has gone up in the past three months, six months, one year — people would be happy to get it,” Maxine Cook said. “If you don’t garden, take the food. There could be one in each community. A committee could get together to organize it. This could become a movement, or a new practice.”

Her husband agreed.

“You can’t stay healthy without fresh food,” he said.

A similar project is being planned. The Rev. Barry Ritenour, pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church, said a Produce to People group is being started in Somerset. A monthly distribution of fresh produce will be available for residents of Somerset County. This produce will be excess from local farms. Details of the first distribution will be announced soon.

“The farmers who are willing to donate will have a contact person and we will send in gleaners to pick the produce,” Ritenour said. Gleaners are people who go into a field and pick up produce left behind by machinery.

Produce to People in Somerset County is being sponsored by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Feeding America, Somerset County Farmers’ Market, Somerset County Community Action Partnership, Somerset Area Ministries and St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.

My Second Mother's First Wedding Ring ...

2011-07-29T17:43:00.001-04:00

She passed away in 2000. While cleaning out her dresser drawer I found a slim platinum band engraved with the initials "IMT to FK 3/10/46". The sight of it stopped me in my tracks and I sat on the edge of her bed marveling at its simple beauty. Engraved on all of it's surfaces with a delicate herringbone pattern, it sparkled as if it were studded with a million brilliant lights. It looked as if it had never been worn, and indeed it had not in more than 50 years. I knew about this ring but I had not seen it before. I didn't realize she might have kept it all these years. She divorced her first husband within a year of their marriage. She once told me he reneged on his promise to have children with her and she, an only child, could not imagine living a lifetime without children.

My second mother is how I refer to this woman who married my father two years after my birth mother's death. 'Stepmother' would never do justice to this mother who scooped me up at the age of 2-1/2 and called me her very own forever afterwards. She met my father on a blind date, fixed up by mutual friends. She said she fell in love with him after he introduced her to me. I guess we made a complete and compelling package, my dad and me, and we three became an instant family.

I slipped the ring onto my finger that day in her bedroom. It was as light as air and as lovely as my memories of her. I wore the ring for the next ten years, and each time I looked at it I was reminded of her.

Last week, after tossing a stick into the lake for my dog Moses to retrieve, I realized that the ring was gone. It had simply vanished. In that moment of loss I imagined that when I had flung the stick far out into the deep water for the dog, I had cast the ring from my finger as well. I felt an immediate and profound sense that I had lost a physical connection with my mother. My brain told me that it was futile to think I could find the ring under the water, and I sat by the shore thinking fanciful thoughts to comfort myself ... maybe a fish will swallow the ring and one day I will catch the fish and the ring will come back to me; if it is meant to be mine, the ring will return; maybe I am no longer needy of physical reminders of my mother....

My finger was naked for a week and many times each day I missed the physical presence of the ring. I still felt it's ethereal energy circling my finger and I mourned its absence. Many times I told myself that I was experiencing loss and that I must learn some constructive ways to deal with this. After all, it was just a ring. Yes, but also on some level, I was experiencing anew the loss of my mother. Ah, the old familiar feelings of loss and having to let go. I do not handle loss well, it having been a recurring theme throughout my life.

Then yesterday in the bedroom, something small and shiny caught my eye just before I swept it up into the vacuum cleaner. There, wedged in the thick carpet at the side of the bed was the ring!! It had indeed come back to me. I was flushed with relief, delight! I found myself again sitting on the edge of a bed marveling at the appearance of the ring. It must have slipped from my finger while I was tucking in the sheets but I didn't miss it until I whipped that stick into the lake. So strange... but I am comforted by the fact that sometimes what seems lost is merely misplaced. Sometimes loss is temporary, not permanent. Sometimes the sadness of loss turns into the joy of reunion. I think Eckhart Tolle is telling us that there is no loss... "When life takes away the forms that you thought were the foundation of your life, what's left? The life that needs no foundation; that is the foundation. The formless. The essence."

The First Ever Wedding Held At Jolico Farm...

2011-06-26T18:54:00.001-04:00

The wedding of Ellen Yun-ju Jeon and Nick Mazerov went off without a hitch on June 4th at Jolico Farm. It was a beautiful wedding, as beautiful as the couple who were married here that day. Much preparation and attention to detail went into this international event - the marriage of a Korean Beauty to an All-American Guy!

They met in Korea where Nick went to teach English to Korean students a couple of years ago. They fell in love.....what more is there to tell? They decided to marry and did so, first in Korea and then here in the USA. When Nick's parents, Mike and Connie called to ask Art to perform the ceremony, we were delighted to oblige and offered Jolico Farm as the setting for the wedding. We've known Nick since he was born (30+ years) and it was an honor and a pleasure to host his wedding at our home. It was indeed an honor for Art to preside over the ceremony, as he prides himself in performing marriages that "stick".

Enjoy some pictures of the event while reading excerpts from the Judge's words of wisdom to the couple.

We are gathered here today in the sight of God and in the presence of this company to join together Nick and Ellen in holy matrimony. Marriage involves more than the joining of two hearts. It is the joining of two families.

The key to true happiness and harmony in marriage involves patience, consideration, tolerance and giving. Learn to be each other’s best friend. Work together as a team. Find what each of you does best and make that your major responsibility. Never forget to express your love for one another, not just with words but with actions. Love is the language of the heart and it is often non-verbal. May your love for one another radiate out in all directions and touch all.

Life is not easy. There are many challenges ahead of you. Learn to find strength in each other. Respect each other’s space and permit each other room to grow. Remember, you are sharing your lives here on Earth but each of you is an individual. You are not the property of one another but free spirits, children of our Divine Father. Do not place your happiness in the acquisition of material wealth for this is an empty hole that will not ever be filled. Our Divine Father always gives us what we need. Rather, make kindness and sharing your goals in life. Help those who are less fortunate. Be of service to all.

Do you Nick, take Ellen to be your wife, to love her with all your heart and soul, to forsake all others, to love her in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, to put her needs before your own, to be kind and gentle to her for as long as you both shall live? If so, say "I do".

Do you Ellen take Nick to be your husband, to love him with all your heart and soul, to forsake all others, to love him in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, to put his needs before your own, to be kind and gentle to him for as long as you both shall live? If so, say "I do".

Then, so as Nick and Ellen have pledged these sacred vows of marriage, one to the other, in the presence of God and this company, by the powers granted me by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I declare you are, this day, husband and wife. What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.

LET'S PARTY!!!!

hors d'oeuvres

.... Champagne Punch & Cocktails for all!

A brief rain shower refreshed the crowd, which sheltered under the porches.

...until dinner was served on the patio!

The gorgeous flowers!!

....the lovely setting.

The Chef du Village - (the village headman!)

....the honored guests.

The happy couple!!

More honored guests!

Happy parents of the bride.

Cutting the cake ....... yum!!

...and they lived happily ever after!

Busy days of spring 2011...

2011-05-30T22:32:00.000-04:00


Old square nails, snail shells, white Macaw egg & Robin egg

I came in from weeding around the Daylily border on the shady side of the house on the first nice and sunny day we had here in a long time and started this blog post. It's taken me 2 weeks to finish and publish it before my self-imposed deadline of the last day of May. Friends have been calling and emailing asking for an update. Well, here it is!

Temperatures have really been heating up here these last weeks. I had my hair buzzed short last week as I just couldn't stand the humidity from the constant rainy weather, mist and fog that we've had all spring. We've not had any late frosts once the nights started to get above freezing and the fruit trees went through their blossoming without any problems. The pear and apple trees all have small fruits forming now and are leafing out nicely. Our garden is all planted. Honestly, I don't think there is room in there for even one more plant! Everything is up and growing already. We put in 18 tomato plants that Art started from heirloom seed in early March. They all survived the transition to the outdoors and are doing great; some even have blossoms on them! Our potatoes are up as well. We put in Yukon Gold, reds and some Russets for baking and french fries. We put in several types of small round squash like 8-Ball Zucchini, a yellow pool-ball sized summer squash called One-Ball, and one that is supposed to be square and blocky called Piccolo . I bought the seeds from Territorial Seed Co and we're anxious to taste them! I also got some seeds and planted some Moon and Stars Watermelon. This is a midnight blue watermelon that is supposed to have yellow stars on the skin with one large yellow moon! The flesh is red and sweet, but I can hardly wait to see the unusually colored fruits. Other goodies out there are the usual radishes, lettuce, spinach, arugula, basil, parsley, cilantro, peppers, eggplant, beets, carrots, kale, onions, garlic, cucumbers and Brussels sprouts. I've probably forgotten some things as it is a very full garden patch.

Our newly sown grass came in lush and thick this spring around the new patios after we replanted it 3 times! Art just mowed it for the first time this week and took down the temporary fencing we had up to keep the dogs off of the seeded areas. After so much mud, we finally have quite a nice lawn. We've been spending a lot of time moving plants around in the perennial garden. When the concrete guys built the patios, we moved a lot of the plants back away from the edges of the gardens so they wouldn't get bulldozed under. Well, we're moving some of them back to the bare edges again but also bought a lot of new plants to try out and also to fill in the bare spots. The good thing is that with all the rain we've had, including some incredibly hard and long downpours, we have had NO water in the basement! So the new drains are working just fine.

We had the new three story chimney built and just this week installed the new wood heating stove in a corner of the kitchen. The stove is an American made Avalon Arbor and a real beauty! Though it looks black in this picture, it is cast iron with a porcelain ceramic finish in an espresso brown color. The shiny ceramic makes it easy to wipe clean and prevents the cast iron from rusting. This is a highly energy efficient wood heating stove that re-burns the smoke before it is allowed to escape up the chimney. We plan to use it as an adjunct to our Tarm wood hot water furnace so we don't have to run the oil furnace to supplement the heat from the Tarm when temperatures are very cold. We burn over seven cords of wood in a heating season. With the cost of fuel oil at almost $4.00 a gallon, we don't want to use much of that if we can help it!

We are planning to throw a wedding here at Jolico Farm on June 4th and we are in countdown mode here with final preparations taking up much of every waking moment! The gardens are finally taking shape. We've planted many new perennials and filled out the borders with colorful geraniums. A new Eden Climbing Rose bush has replaced some old never-blooming Wisteria on one side of the arbor. Hopefully the Eden Rose will like that spot more than the Wisteria did! It should be a wonderful occasion and a beautiful happening. I hope to have pictures to share in a couple of weeks when all has been put back in order, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Moses, Art and I are SO happy that it's finally spring!

It's All About The Money... Thoughts On Earth Day 2011

2011-04-22T18:16:00.000-04:00

How much money would you sell out for? How much money would it take to induce you to sell the gas rights under your home, knowing that the process of extracting the shale gas will probably pollute your well water with poisons, render it undrinkable and contaminate it with toxins for 1000 years? The surface would smell of methane leaking through cracks in the ground. No bank would grant a mortgage for you to sell your land with a gas well on it. But my question is, how much money would it take for you to agree to allow a gas company to move onto your land, knowing that this will happen?

The Earth is a living entity, not just rocks and dirt. It is alive. It suffers just like we do when it is tortured by uncaring, greedy, rapists who seek to suck out the riches in exchange for killing life on the surface. Does that sound a little too over dramatic to you? Many people are eager to trade their piece of Mother Earth for money. They will readily agree to make a quick buck in exchange for the ultimate destruction of their property. That tells me that they care less about the Earth than they care about the almighty dollar.

How fickle are we humans...how greedy...how careless with our covenants? We do not own the Earth any more than we can own the air or the sky or the planets. We are trustees, stewards. We have the fiduciary responsibility to pass this Earth on to future generations in a condition that will allow them to live here, grow their food here, and draw clean water here. Anything less is a crime against nature and God.

On this Earth Day, 2011, I pray that we come to our senses before we have traded away the mostly precious gift with which we have been entrusted, for a handful of beads. God gave us a gift of 86,400 seconds this Earth Day. Have you used one to say 'thank you' for the beauty and sustenance of Mother Earth?

It's A Dog's Life. . .

2011-04-13T18:34:00.000-04:00

Readers will know that Mimi is a black Standard Poodle who is the BFF of our white German Shepherd Moses. They will also know that Mimi spends more than a little time at our place throughout the year. She has been here with us to share blizzards, heat waves, wild thunderstorms in the night, dog days in August, spring flowers blooming and harvest moons. She often spends several idyllic weeks in a row with us. Other times she may only stop by for an afternoon hike and some dinner.

Mimi and Mo share the same schedule. They eat the same food and divvy up the two dog beds that are a permanent fixture in our bedroom. They each have a couch in our living room and they know exactly which couch is theirs. They nap together, bark together at the mail-lady, run and play and chase the barn cats together, enjoy the lake together. And like a long-married couple, even their er.. um.. bathroom habits coincide…

In our house, we cannot casually utter the ‘Mimi’ word. If her name accidentally crosses our lips, Moses immediately takes up his station at the lookout window and will wait the entire day for Mimi’s expected visit. The same is true at Mimi’s house. Mo’s name cannot be casually spoken unless a visit is in the immediate offing.
Of course, the highlights of their days here on the farm are rambling hikes that take us across hills, woods, fields and streams. Oh, the wondrous smells and sights this land contains for two high-energy canines as they race ahead to explore the many mud puddles, stands of burr-filled brush and miles of rabbit and deer trails on our daily expeditions!

The terrain is ever changing. The crops grow tall and conceal wildlife for dogs whose natural born inclination it is to flush and chase. Toward the end of their nose-to-dirt, zigzagging runs, we arrive at the lake, its cool, pure water so refreshing to drink and stand in, belly deep… perhaps even a swim is in order today. Who says that being treated like a dog is a bad thing?

Mimi and Moses would like to remind all humans that it is unlawful in Pennsylvania for owners or keepers of any dog to house the dog for any period of time in a drum, barrel, refrigerator or freezer regardless of the material of which the drum, barrel, refrigerator or freezer is constructed. Also, it shall be unlawful for the owner or keeper of any dog to fail to keep the dog confined within the premises of the owner, firmly secured by means of a collar and chain or other device so that it cannot stray beyond the premises on which it is secured or under the reasonable control of some person, or when engaged in lawful hunting, exhibition, performance events or field training.

Will Spring Ever Come?

2011-03-31T22:59:00.000-04:00

Icicles cling to the pines on the last day of March, 2011. "Out Like A Lion" this year, winter still resides in the high country of Pennsylvania in the waning days of March. The nightly news warns of a Nor'easter for the east coast of the US, with up to two feet of snow expected in New England on April 1st. We will get a taste of that here, too. We are all April's Fools this year!

More disturbing is the radiation being discovered in milk, in the air and in the ground. Its unique signature, Iodine 131, reveals that it blew in from Japan, fell on the countryside and was consumed by cows. Humans are at the end of the food chain, so this poses a 'tip-of-the-iceberg' problem for America and ultimately for the rest of the world.

The fight for freedom escalates in the Middle East with the struggle in Libya keeping us riveted to the talking heads. That part of the world seems so far away, but we are inexorably tied to them by our insatiable thirst for oil. Do we really care about the terrorized people there, or is it the price per gallon of gasoline that gives this such worrisome prominence on our news?

Here in the high valleys, the snowmelt reveals bare, frozen ground. The sun gives the illusion of warmth and the promise of greening grass. We wait, our pale faces turned towards the bright, cold sunlight. The landscape resembles a desert, despite plentiful moisture. It is the grip of cold that will not allow the warmth to seep into the ground, into our winter-weary bones.

We busy ourselves with the ritual repairs of spring; nailing up the sagging gutters, rolling out the deep ruts made by the snowplow in the soft berm of the lane, replacing the lagging solar tracker motor loosened by the incessant buffeting of the winds, replanting the grass seed that didn't grow when we planted it too late last fall. We fuss over the tender eggplant and tomato seedlings that will bear the succulent veggie fruits of summer. It's too early yet to bring out the patio furniture, the chairs where we will sit and bask in the summer sun, the tables where we will dine alfresco on grilled delicacies and fresh produce.

We make plans for the next warm day. We should think about bringing out the planters; think about giving them a good scrub and filling them with soil in preparation for the flowers we will grow. We get out the push-broom and brush the muddy dog prints from the walkways, sweep up the falling pin oak leaves where the swirling wind has heaped them into piles in the sheltered corners of the house.The barn cats sit hunched on the picnic table, taking shelter from the biting west winds, alert for a brave chipmunk, vole or field mouse to venture close enough to provide them with fresh meat. We all wait patiently for spring.

The Ides of February .........The Dead of Winter

2011-02-17T21:42:00.001-05:00

"Fleetwood"

Twenty years ago, in a fierce blizzard on the day after Valentine's Day, we lost a very special 2-1/2 year old German Shepherd Dog to canine epilepsy. Fleetwood suffered his second seizure on February 15, 1991 and within minutes he lay dead on the kitchen floor. In the blinding snowstorm we drove his body to the veterinarian for a post-mortem. The vet told us that Fleet was as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside. He could find nothing wrong that would have caused the seizures. It was just a horribly unfortunate occurrence that caused Fleet's death. Epilepsy is supposed to be treatable, not fatal. After his first seizure, we had been advised not to start him on medications, that he may never have another seizure. We were advised to just wait and watch and see. Forty days later, just as we were beginning to relax into normalcy, just as we were daring to let out a cautious sigh of relief, Fleet succumbed during seizure number two.


Sol Ajax, or 'Red', a Tennessee Walker. Direct grandson of Midnight Sun.

Fast forward nine years to February 15, 2000. On this cold, snowy Tuesday morning, when I looked out the kitchen windows I did not see the familiar figure of my 34 year old Tennessee Walking Horse standing in the doorway to the barn. As I made our breakfast, I kept glancing out the window to look for him. Art also grew worried and decided to go out and see if Red was OK. A 34 year old horse is a very old horse. By now Red was our 'only horse', as his buddy of 25 years, Art's horse Prince, had died peacefully in the pasture the previous year at the age of 29 and Red had been going it alone ever since. Art was gone for a while and I grew more anxious. When he returned, I knew something was wrong. He told me that Red was lying down in the straw bedding and that he couldn't get up. At 34 most horses have arthritis and Red was no exception. He could still see and hear but he had very few teeth left with which to chew. We had previously switched him to pelleted food which doesn't require much chewing. I headed out to the barn with Art. We tried so hard to get him to rise to his feet, using bribery and strong coercion. Then we let him rest a bit while we called our neighbors to come and help. They came, four burly farmers, but with all our combined might, we couldn't get RD on his feet again. He had lost his oomph. We called the vet, who came early that evening. Red was near the end of his strength at that point, so we gave him that blessed relief that only we can do for our animal friends. My beloved horse became the second casualty of the Ides of February. We buried him next to his buddy Prince, in the horse pasture overlooking the valley they called home.

Our 14' x 24' Gazebo, reduced to toothpicks

Fast forward to last Tuesday, February 15, 2011. Art and Moses came in from their daily walk down to the lake. Something about Art's demeanor didn't seem right and I asked him if anything was wrong. "Good news and bad news, honey", was his reply. He knows that I absolutely hate to hear that! "OK, give me the bad news first", is my standard come-back. He told me that the gazebo roof had collapsed under the weight of heavy snow and the 60 mph winds we had the night before. He told me he thought the gazebo was ruined. I was stunned, as it seemed we had much heavier snow last winter! Down the hill through the deep snow I went to survey the damage and to take some pictures. I really wasn't prepared for the devastation I saw. As we stood surveying the wreckage, I asked him, "So, what's the GOOD news?" He replied, "At least I don't have to paint it anymore!"

So February has become to me, a month of death and dying. We seem more vulnerable in the month of February, more diminished with less strength of spirit. It takes a toll; makes us feel that if we can just hang on a bit longer, its grip will loosen and we can escape into the warmth of renewal for one more year, one more springtime.

"Tuffy" ~ Romark's Jolico Tuff Guy

Next week, February 22 will mark nine years since we lost another of our beloved dogs, who we had aptly named Tuff Guy. Tuffy had a genetic condition called 'mega esophagus', which meant that his esophagus resembled a megaphone, large at the throat and tapering down to normal size towards the stomach end. As the dog ages, this condition causes food to lay in the esophagus, which progressively forms a deep pouch that holds ever more food. We worked with Tuffy for over two years to keep him from having attacks of vomiting after eating that often led to aspiration pneumonia. He had several severe episodes that almost killed him. But he was true to his name, a real Tuff Guy. Also, we were not yet willing to let him go, so we continued to aggressively treat his episodes and made many trips to the vet. He pulled through every one of them. He was such a wonderful, loving boy, we really hated to lose him. I prayed to God, "Dear Heavenly Father, please give our good boy Tuffy a normal German Shepherd life", which I felt should properly be 12 years. "Divine Father, he is such a good boy, he deserves his 12 years. Please God, grant Tuffy his full 12 years of life." Well, Tuffy's 12th birthday came...and went... and he lived on for another 3 months! But eventually came the inevitable final episode. He had an aspiration pneumonia and lay in the veterinary hospital, sedated for a week. Every time they tried to lift the sedation, Tuffy would devolve into another attack of violent vomiting and he lost ground very fast. After all, he was 12 years and 3 months old, no longer a young, resilient dog. I had another conversation with God and thanked him for answering my prayers and letting Tuffy have his proper quotient of dog years. I told Him that we were ready to let Tuffy go. As with Red, we were there with Tuffy when his final moments came and he died in our arms.

Driving home from the vet's, as we tearfully recalled Tuffy's life with us, I came to a stunning realization. The date was February 22, 2002. It was exactly 12 years ago to the hour that we had picked up Tuffy as a puppy and brought him home to live with us. God had indeed answered my prayers in a very special way. He had given Tuffy exactly 12 years with us. Our Divine Father sent us a very powerful message, one that He wanted us to make no mistake about. Heartfelt prayers are often answered, though perhaps not in the way we prayed them. We may not be given exactly what we pray for. We may instead be given exactly what we need.

Messages From The Bees......

2011-02-11T16:09:00.000-05:00

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." Albert Einstein, (1879-1955) Theoretical Physicist


Original artwork by The Girl Who Paints

A young friend of mine sent me a painting she had made of a bee. I thought the bee had a thoughtful look on her face, and that made me want to tell the story of why the bees are concerned, and why we should be too.

The honey bee is one of the earth's most important creatures. Beside making honey, they pollinate over 80% of the world's crops. They live in complex societies. A single hive may contain as many as 80,000 bees, which together build the hive, gather food and feed the next generation. They find flowers to gather nectar by merging many sources of information including the position of the sun and the subtle nuance of a flower's scent. When they come back to their hive, they waggle out a dance to tell the other honeybees where to find the flowers.

Sadly it seems that the bees are disappearing. Over the past 30 years, various diseases and predators affecting bees have spread all over the world. Their environments are being manipulated by humans, resulting in the breakdown of their societal order. Stressed to their breaking point, the bees are leaving.

In many cases commercial bees are so domesticated, they can no longer live without human support. They are stored in air tight containers where diseases like viruses and funguses and pests like mites grow, destroying the hives from the inside out. They are artificially fed sugar-water and trucked about in big rigs, traveling thousands of miles in short periods of time, in order to pollinate crops for commercial farmers. Aside from the continual exposure to a hundreds of insecticides and pesticides, constant relocation creates enormous stress on the hive activity. And wild bees are disappearing too.

Bees are showing many symptoms that reveal a fragile state of health. Some bees cannot find their way back to their hive after leaving it. Others are rejected when they return because they are not recognized by the rest of the group.

Newer insecticides introduced in the 1980s are neurotoxins, which are applied when crops are sown (sunflower, soy, etc.) and serve to protect the crops against various predators. Studies are showing that these toxic chemicals remain on plants throughout the growing cycle, right through the flowering period. The nectar eaten by bees also contains chemical residues that are deeply harmful to them. Because of this, honey production has dropped by a third generally, and by up to 90% in some areas.

Bees have to fly farther and farther distances to gather pollen because their supportive environment is disappearing. Cities and suburban areas are growing. This has a disastrous effect on bees in particular because, while most pollinators pick up the fertilizing spores by accident while trolling flowers for nectar, bees collect pollen for their young.

But, the strangest part of the missing bee mystery is the most interesting. There are no dead bees to be found. There are a few dead soldiers scattered on the ground, but millions and millions of bees are gone. They are not in the hive, at the hive, or close by. Many abandoned hives are full of honey. So where did they go? Perhaps the honeybees had enough of our interference. Perhaps they know what man has done to them and they just prefer to fly away.

(Some information for this blog post was shared from "Organic Principal Web Magazine" http://www.organicprincipal.com )

My Mom The Foodie.....

2011-01-27T12:56:00.003-05:00

According to Wikipedia, the word "Foodie" was coined in 1981, but my Mom's single-minded pursuit of all things food certified her to be termed a Foodie way back in the 1940's. Yesterday would have been her 87th birthday but she passed away at the age of 76.

She was a force to be reckoned with, a larger than life presence at any gathering, a take-charge woman who could feed a crowd on a moment's notice from the in-stock contents of her refrigerator. She would read cookbooks like other women read novels! She believed in having plenty of everything on hand. You could find food stored in almost every closet in her house, even in the trunk of her car. She was generous to those who had nothing and also to those who had everything. Her greatest joy was to crowd as many people around her dining room table as could squeeze in there, serving them as many dishes as would fit down its bowling alley length. She would emerge from the kitchen, sweat glistening on her face flushed bright red from the heat and her efforts, her arms laden with delicacies. She reveled in the gush of compliments over her foods, smiling broadly, "Eat, don't wait for me! Enjoy it before it gets cold!"

Growing up her oldest child, it fell to me to help prepare for these frequent "company" dinners. "Maxine, you dust and sweep the living room and dining room and set the table! Come back as soon as you're through because I have another job for you!" Once when I was around 12 years old, I complained to her that I felt she was having all the fun doing the cooking and baking while I always got stuck with the dreaded housework! She thought that was hilarious and used to repeat that line to her friends when they marveled at the tastiness and complexity of her meals. "Can you imagine", she would say. "Maxine thinks I have all the fun and she has to do all the work, just because I asked her to dust and sweep and set the table!" She got mileage out of that story for the next 40 years.

Aside from dining out, her favorite activity was grocery shopping. Raising six children and three foster kids took strategy and budgetary finesse. She was always an astute coupon-clipper and a saver of Green Stamps. A shopping trip to her was not complete until she had walked the aisles of at least four grocery stores, lists in hand, eyes darting along the shelves. If an item was worth buying, it was worth buying a dozen. Not one to skimp on the important things, it was her firm belief that her family should have the best food, the best shoes and (for us girls) the best brassieres!

As she grew older, she would begin her preparations days ahead of time. She tired more easily and it became more difficult for her to whip up a large meal single-handedly all in one long orgy of cooking. So she marshaled her forces like a general on the battlefield, making lists of things to do in a final count-down to the feast. She salivated while creating her menus. She cooked dishes days ahead of time, filling her freezer with casseroles with notes attached admonishing us not to touch before Thursday or Saturday!

Of her children, I carry on her love of cooking for a crowd, but never as gallantly or with such complete enthusiasm, joy and delight. Those extremes of human emotion in the presence of food belong to a very few exceptional devotees like my Mom. Just writing about her makes me hungry...

Judge Arthur K. Cook - Somerset Daily American Newspaper......Sunday, January 2, 2011

2011-01-02T16:44:00.001-05:00

Sunday, January 2, 2011 7:45 PM EST

By JUDY D.J. ELLICH
judye@dailyamerican.com

Arthur K. Cook picked up the box of Kleenex and offered it to the testifying witness. She just began to tear, but the district judge was ready.

He is on the fifth box of tissues for this year.

“It is very emotional,” he said about what goes on in his courtroom on a daily basis.

Presiding over hearings at the magisterial level can be complex, challenging and critical to the community. Cook loves it. The more difficult and demanding the case, the more the former businessman enjoys it.

Cook will soon begin the last year of his third term in the Somerset magisterial district office. He will not run for a fourth term.

He still loves his work and would be happy to serve a couple more years. However, state law has a mandatory age limit of 70 for district judges. He would reach that age before the end of a fourth term if he ran and won.

He is announcing his retirement now because he wants to give those who want to run for the position more time to prepare.

“I have compassion and empathy for anyone running for election,” he said.

Cook doesn’t want to be “selfish.” He wants voters to have the ability to independently pick their next district judge, who realistically will probably serve them for at least two terms, or 12 years, he said. Cook explained that if he ran and won, after two years, he would have to step down and someone would be appointed in his place.

He believes retiring early is the fair and decent thing to do.

That is the way he has ruled from the bench for the last 17 years. It is how he chooses to live his life.

Fairness and treating people decent is paramount, Cook said.

“It is to the heart of my soul,” he said.

He defines fairness in his courtroom.

“It is not only allowing each person to express their view points, but to make sure I understand what their view point is and also understand each person involved in a situation sees their own truth and to them that is the real truth.”

He has learned much about human nature as a judge.

“I look from the bench at the victims and their families and I see their faces and how terrible they look. Then I look from the bench at the defendants and their families, and I see the same look,” he said.

He quotes an eastern philosophy that he has adopted.

“There are no bad people; there is only bad behavior.”

Cook spends time talking to the defendants, encouraging them and giving them life advice.

“I learned from my own experiences and I share that,” he said.

Cook often does that with the attorneys and courtroom visitors between hearings. He is known to converse about many wide ranging topics such as eastern philosophy, protecting the environment and how machines work.

He likes to laugh. But when he is working, he sits and listens, often with his chin in his hand, scribbling down notes or occasionally asking questions.

“I care and it takes its toll,” he said. “Every day a little bit more is chiseled out of me.”

When Cook first became a district judge he slept very little. He ran cases and his decisions repeatedly in his head. He sleeps well now.

He is proud of his staff and what his office has accomplished over the years. For example, after being a champion of credit card payments for defendants for nearly seven years, it came to be, and has proven to be a time and money saver, he said.

He will miss the election process.

The first time he ran for office, Cook’s campaign staff consisted of himself, his wife, Maxine, and a lifetime friend.

His win was one of the rare ones. He had everything going against him.

He was not a member of the state legal bar. He was not certified. He was going into battle against a well-entranced incumbent. Yet he managed to win both party primaries and went on to beat the incumbent. He credits his staff of two and divine intervention.

After he won, Cook had to be certified — and fast. He had to take a month-long intensive legal educational program and pass it.

“I had only one shot at it,” he said. About 40 percent of his class did not pass, but Cook was not one of them. He was officially a member of the state minor judiciary the day he took his first oath of office.

As far as what happened to his staff from that first election — he is still happily married after 42 years to his best friend, Maxine, who he said is everything to him and she is beyond brilliant. As for his life-long friend, Cook recently officiated at his wedding.

“I am truly blessed. I am the luckiest guy I know,” he said.

Over 17 years District Judge Arthur K. Cook’s office has:
* Processed nearly 200,000 cases
* Conducted nearly 38,000 hearings
* Collected nearly $22 million in fines and court costs
* Performed the county’s first video arraignment

Last Day of 2010........End of a Decade

2010-12-31T19:39:00.008-05:00

2010 was a year of shifting change; an active year, one of blessed and quiet solitude, of slow but steady growth, a year of loss and gain. Many things happened in 2010 but I can recall nothing bad. I take this as a sign that my heart and mind are open, happy and full of wonder at the glorious light-filled life with which I have been blessed. I am most grateful for Arthur, (my soul companion throughout the ages, my best friend and husband of 41 Earth-years), for my loving family, my caring friends, my faithful pets, all gifts from God, who I know loves me beyond measure because He gave me all of you.

My heart is full of love for all, and I want to wish you a Joyous, Healthy, Loving 2011!

Concrete..... Solid Stuff!!

2010-11-30T15:26:00.392-05:00

Concrete trucks..WOW! They are BIG and LOUD and HEAVY!! Laden with 10 cubic yards of concrete, each will weight between 35 and 40 tons. You don't want one of these on your driveway or sinking into your lawn, either! A construction wheelbarrow full of concrete can weigh nearly four hundred pounds. Trying to push that up a slight grade is grueling work. Our job required 3 delivery trucks, each holding a full 10 cubic yard load. After the initial grading, leveling, ditching and installation of drains and shale, our contractors poured the main patios on one day, and poured our new sidewalks and porch steps on day two. The cement that binds concrete is made primarily of limestone, the most abundant mineral on earth. We are fortunate to have a limestone quarry just a few miles from our farm, so our concrete is considered a 'local green' product, requiring minimal fossil fuel expenditure to both mine and deliver it. I especially like the fact that, unlike asphalt, it produces no toxic runoff. In the month since the concrete was poured, we've had two significant rain events, each one delivering over 2" of precipitation in a 24-hour period. We are gratified to see that all the underlying drains are working as they should, removing many gallons of runoff that would normally have ended up in our basement!

This project was two years in the making. With the downturn in the economy, there are fewer concrete contractors in our area, and those who are still in business are overwhelmed with the available jobs. So, although our excavating contractor had us scheduled, we had to wait until the concrete guys could give us a week of their time. Fortunately it all came together before the snow flew, but just barely. Just as the dry summer weather ended, the autumn became wet and soggy causing annoying rain delays and muddy, saturated ground. It was a fight to the finish, but Matt McMullen Concrete, LLC came through for us! The grass seed went in just before the weather turned foul in earnest, but the seed never had a chance to sprout as the nights have been too cold to support germination. This means we will have mud until the grass begins to grow next spring. So be it.... But, a huge thanks to the Matt McMullen Concrete Clan from Gallitzin PA!! Here's a link to their website. www.mattmcmullenconcrete.com

Patios and drains finished..now just hope the grass seed germinates before
winter sets in..........NOT!!

Voilà!! Complete with new gates for the dog pen.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY UNCLE OSCAR!!

November has been a busy month for us. Early in the month we attended a 100th Birthday Celebration for Art's Uncle Oscar Hoffman in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Uncle Oscar's children, Barbara and Howard and their families, hosted a wonderful luncheon in his honor. He won't turn 100 until January 1, 2011, but due to the unreliability of winter travel, we celebrated two months early. Oscar was alive for both World Wars and he served overseas in WWII. What is it like to be 100 years old? Always a man of few words, Oscar is quite underwhelmed by the significance of being alive for a century. He is the oldest and last surviving only brother of Art's mother's 3 siblings. We wish him continuing good health and recognition on the "Today Show" Smucker's Jelly Jar on his birthday!

AUTUMN PHOTOS, 2010

Geese feeding in the cornfields before continuing on their fall migration.

Mimi, Art and Mo....

Sheeder's sheep in the distance enjoying the

last blades of fresh grass.

A glorious pre-sunset sky and silhouette of our farm buildings

at the end of our walk.

THANKSGIVING, 2010

We are thankful the bad weather held off as long as it did for us, as other parts of the country have already had their fill of winter. The snow began, as predicted, on Thanksgiving Day this year, not an unusual occurrence for our neck of the woods. Brother Hank and his wild Pitt Bull/Lab Maximus arrived on Friday after Thanksgiving. Mimi The Poodle has been staying with us while her people have been in Florida for the holiday, but Moses was in his element shepherding his favorite cousin and girlfriend during their 2-night sleepover. We had our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday this year. This too has become a tradition with my brothers over the years since our mom passed away in 2001. Of course, the weather always plays her role. This year the snow made an appearance and the ground looks to stay covered for the foreseeable future.

Harold and Janet, my brother and sister-in-law.

Reunion for brother Hank and high school friend, Jim McNaul. They hadn't seen each other for 30 years!

As the snow continues to pile up, the dogs are dressed in their Anti-Hunter regalia, as their daily 'Walk-ies' (pronounced with GREAT enthusiasm) are as regular as the postman here at Jolico Farm.

Pressing Our Luck, But Not the Panic Button....YET!!

2010-10-31T19:05:00.002-04:00

This is a "BEFORE" snapshot of our current undertaking. We are into our 4th week now of our patio replacement project. The impetus for this project, planned over two years ago, is the need to install new drains on the UP-hill side of our farmhouse, as the house has had a perpetual water-in-the basement-when-it-rains problem, probably since it was built in 1870. Our contractor is Stoy Excavating, the same excellent company that built our beautiful lake over 10 years ago. Jim Stoy is also our neighbor and our friend. We had a long, dry summer this year, and actually that would have been the perfect time to have had this work done. However, masonry contractors (the guys who pour and work the wet concrete) were too busy with other projects to get to us.....until now. YIKES!! We are pushing the limits of good weather in which to pour concrete, that mysterious alkaline substance that starts out heavy and wet and very quickly ends up permanently cast in place. You've gotta respect the guys who mold this stuff. They are strong and have endurance, much like the medium with which they work. Tomorrow morning, good Lord willing, they will pour and work 20 yards of concrete which, by evening, will be our new patio. The next day, by the good Lord's grace, we will have two new sidewalks and new front porch steps. The day after that comes the predicted snowstorm. So, our backs are to the wall; we are on a tight schedule here; we are pushing our luck. It's SO EXCITING though!!

A familiar sight these days are the formations of Canadian Geese. I love to see them fly over each day and listen for their calls at dawn and dusk. I miss them when they leave and welcome them joyously when they return in the spring. I find them fascinating and beautiful creatures. I think they are my favorite wild bird species.

Their life expectancy is about 20 years. They weigh around 20-25 pounds. Migration is a learned process and migratory geese have a flight range of 2 – 3 thousand miles. Resident geese fly 100 –200 miles to find food, water, and safety. Resident geese can fly long distances as their migratory cousins, but generally have learned that it is not necessary.

Migratory geese do not become resident geese unless they are injured. Their mating season is February to March. Geese mate for life and will stay together during all seasons. However, they will find a new mate if their mate dies or is killed. Migratory geese nest in Canada. Geese nesting in the U.S. are "resident" geese who were born here. Resident geese were imported to the area for rebuilding dwindling numbers for conservation or hunting. The urban nuisance was not anticipated.

Their nesting season is generally mid March to mid May. The age of geese when they begin to nest is 3 years. Geese return to the general area of their birth each year to mate and nest, sometimes to the exact site, sometimes a nearby pond or other body of water. The instinct to return to their general area of birth is very strong. Migratory geese fly 2,000–3,000 miles to return to these sites, but resident geese do not know how to migrate. When geese are chased from their traditional nesting area, or the nesting area has too many nesting pairs, they find alternative sites to nest … sometimes farther from water, sometimes in nearby ponds, sometimes on rooftops or balconies. They will hide their nests. However, geese prefer isolated sites near water to nest, and islands are their favorite location. Nests are usually on the ground, in the open.
• Sometimes geese nest in brushy or swampy areas not subject to flooding.
• When egg laying begins the "Father" goose will stand sentinel watch nearby, but not so close as to give away the location of nest to a predator. When a solitary goose is seen during nesting season a nest is somewhere in the vicinity.
• The eggs in a nest are called a "clutch".
• Average number of eggs in a nest is five.
• Mother goose lays each egg approximately 1 day apart until a full clutch is obtained.
• Eggs not being incubated are cool to the touch.
• Mother goose waits until all eggs are laid before she begins to sit on the nest to incubate eggs.
• Incubation time is 28 – 30 days.
• Undeveloped eggs (still fluid) will sink or float vertically, with the wider portion of the egg pointing down.
• Developed eggs will float horizontally or at a slight angle and break the surface of the water. At that point they are one to two weeks away from hatching.
• All geese eggs in a single clutch hatch on approximately the same day.
• Baby geese are called "goslings".
• Natural predators of geese are foxes, raccoons, owls and snapping turtles, and in our area, coyotes.
• Goslings can fly approximately 2-3 months after hatching.
• During June adult geese lose wing feathers and are unable to fly. This is called molting.
• Molting season runs from early June to late July.
• Geese can fly again approximately 6 weeks after molting.
• Generally by early August all geese (except injured geese) are able to fly.
• During the molt, geese need to be near water (any water) for easy escape from predators. The molting area needs an easily accessible food supply.
Geese facts taken from: http://www.geesepeace.org/geesefactsmore.html

The perfect end to a perfect summer is the much anticipated glorious blaze of autumn leaf color. Because we were so deficient in rainfall this summer, predictions for spectacularly colorful trees were not good. Our mountain foliage changes colors about 3 weeks before the surrounding lower elevations and, being a destination for tourists, sight-seers, and fall festival goers, many businesses depend on this season of the year for a good portion of their annual incomes. Autumn arrived a bit ahead of schedule but we were blessed with vibrantly hued hills. I love to share the beauty of this magical and special season, and photos are the perfect medium. Each autumn is different - no two are alike...just like all of God's creations. Photos document the uniqueness of nature and leave us with lasting memories.

And finally.........RIP

Tonto Crail Cox

A brave-hearted, beautiful, loyal, loving boy who passed on October 20, 2010.

IF IT SHOULD BE

If it should be that I grow weak

And pain should keep me from my sleep,

Then you must do what must be done,

For this last battle cannot be won.

You will be sad, I understand.

Don't let your grief then stay your hand.

For this day, more than all the rest,

Your love for me must stand the test.

We've had so many happy years.

What is to come can hold no fears.

You'd not want me to suffer so;

The time has come -- please let me go.

Take me to where my need they'll tend,

And please stay with me till the end.

Hold me firm and speak to me,

Until my eyes no longer see.

I know in time that you will see

The kindness that you did for me.

Although my tail its last has waved,

From pain and suffering I've been saved.

Please do not grieve -- it must be you

Who had this painful thing to do.

We've been so close, we two, these years;

Don't let your heart hold back its tears.

Anonymous

Seasons change.....time to flip the mattress over!

2010-09-27T20:24:00.001-04:00

"In the days before electric lights, farmers depended on bright moonlight to extend the workday beyond sunset. It was the only way they could gather their ripening crops in time for market. Not since Sept. 23, 1991 has a full moon occurred on the same night as the fall equinox, and it won't happen again until 2029", wrote astronomer Tony Phillips in a NASA announcement. That's 38 years from now and I wonder how many of us will be alive to see this again?

The end of September signals the beginning of Autumn. The days grow shorter, the nights lengthen and the weather cools perceptively. We start the day wearing warmer clothing, perhaps even socks! Kitty curls up against us in the night seeking warmth from our sleeping bodies. We must take care not to squish her.....and we are grateful for the warmth that she imparts as well.

We change over our wardrobes. Sweaters and long pants are moved to the front of the closets while shorts, T's and sandals are pushed to the rear. Even the foods we crave are warmer, more filling and sustaining. The oven is more often in use now, filling the kitchen with warmth and wonderful aromas once again. We also flip the mattresses on our beds, wash all the mattress pads, covers, blankets and spreads, vacuum underneath and replace everything all freshly laundered and sun-dried. This is my favorite Autumn ritual and such a gratifying feeling!!

The summer of 2010 had a long run, being perhaps the longest summer I can remember since I was a kid, when every summer was long and languid. Hot and dry as dust too, the earth cracked and the water in the lake evaporated a good 6 inches, exposing bare shoreline from which the snails retreated into deeper coolness, where the migrating herons had farther to reach to pluck them. Our county is in a drought emergency. The weather people tell us we are 12% below average in precipitation levels. It is up here in the mountains that water is born from rain and snowfall. Springs, creeks and streams from thousands of small watersheds fill ponds and lakes and eventually form rivers that flow, providing hydration, recreation, moisture.....without which survival of everything on Earth would be impossible. Today it is raining softly and steadily and we are grateful.

Autumn marks the beginning of our six-month heating season. We heat our 3000 square foot 1870's farmhouse with an HS-Tarm wood-fired boiler that we installed in 1995, in conjunction with a backup Burnham oil-fired boiler. The Tarm, with its downdraft gasification technology, burns dry hardwood at 92% efficiency. This translates into the smoke equivalent of 1 cigarette (1 gram) per hour. Our Tarm also provides all of our domestic hot water produced during the heating season via a thermal loop to our hot water tank. We usually burn 5-6 cords of firewood each heating season. We are gratified to see that our 40-foot tall chimney, when cleaned in the spring, yields only about 1 gallon of ash.

These potatoes weigh about a pound.....each!!

Our garlic crop was amazing this year.....onions were small but tasty.

The tomatoes were fabulous and yielded gallons of frozen juice and lots of sauce, too.

.....plenty of roasted sweet peppers made it into jars, as well as frozen peppers for the freezer.

Visitors in September included Connie, Martha and Mike;

Casey.....

Maggie......

Brother Hank.........

Niece Rachel........

The blog wouldn't be complete without Moses hamming it up for the camera!

Panoramic shot of Jolico Farm taken by our nephew Ben with his iPhone. I think he pieced together 8 shots to make this one photo.

Happy 41st Anniversary. Max speaks to Art........

2010-08-26T10:14:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from Paradise Lost

By John Milton

(Eve speaks to Adam)

With thee conversing I forget all time,
All seasons and their change, all please alike.
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild, then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heav'n, her starry train:
But neither breath of morn when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistring with dew, nor fragrance after showers,
Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night
With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
Or glittering starlight without thee is sweet.

Excerpt from "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. (Public domain)

Family, Friends, French Fries, Feeding Fish and Food for Thought. . . .

2010-08-24T19:55:00.003-04:00

Groucho's kittens were one year old on August 1st. True Leo's, they are very Leonine, even Little Girl, the only surviving female. She isn't around much, as she seems to be constantly in heat, though seemingly never pregnant. The boys, however, are visible like lightning bugs, every evening and all night long, making sure there isn't a chipmunk, or "Grinny" as my neighbor Floy calls them, darting around the gardens of Jolico Farm. This picture is of Tommy Tip (on the right) and Tom Boy (on the left) enjoying some catnip. (Unavailable for this photo is Brother #3, named Little Tom, the runt when he was born, but the 2nd largest now, just in case you were wondering!) Tom Boy is my favorite, as he is friendly and allows me to pet him through the open kitchen window. He reminds me the most of his mother Groucho. If you have been following this blog, you will remember that my beloved Groucho found a wonderful Forever Home last fall. She lives with Lonnie, who renamed her "Peppermint Patty".

Sadly, on July 23rd we lost a good and faithful friend, Freddie Oakes, who passed away in Pittsburgh at the too-young age of 65. Fred and Art were friends since the days of their misspent youth and we will sorely miss him always.

Weeping willow trees are gracefully beautiful. We had two towering willows on our property. The older one was planted by a young girl named Joni, the granddaughter of Alfred Barron, the farmer from whom we bought Jolico Farm. The willow tree that Joni planted in her youth grew very big, its trunk measuring 200 inches in circumference after 40+ years of growth. Art planted the second willow tree in 1975 above the bank barn, far enough away (he thought) so that the branches and leaves would never overhang the barn roof. Wrong! This tree grew over 40 feet tall and clogged the gutters and downspouts so thickly with fallen leaves each autumn that the gutters were literally rendered useless. Joni's tree was badly damaged a few years ago in an ice storm, so we had the tree-trimmers out to cut it back and clean up the fallen limbs. This was a job too big for Max and Art and our little toy tractors! The willow continued to grow and thrive, but this spring a terrifying thunderstorm twisted a huge limb off the upper half of the tree, leaving the tree split and badly injured. Sadly, we decided that euthanasia was the best decision, as Joni's tree had become too big and unwieldy and was beginning to rot as well. We called Phil Read, Tree Surgeon Extraordinaire, who not only removed both willows, but a 100+ year old rotten apple tree, as well as trimming the tops of our dwarf pear trees in the orchard.

The willow tree above the barn is about to come down!

The stump of Joni's willow tree measures 200" around the base and 66" in diameter!

Phil Read, our hero!

Our newly trimmed pear trees. Now the fruit is reachable!

This is the tree Art thought he and I could handle by ourselves.....NOT!

Willow and apple wood is not suitable for burning in the Tarm to heat our home, so Phil hauled it all away.

On August 1st we had the honor of a visit from our Atlanta GA cousins, Linda, Julie, Terry, Sam and Jake. Art's sisters Sheila and Arlene, brother-in-law Robert and dog Charlie came up from Pittsburgh to enjoy the day with us. As a picture is worth a thousand words, and I have so many pictures.... please enjoy!

From left: Terry, Sheila, Sam, Julie, Robert, Arlene, Linda and Art.

Sam holding his brother Jacob!

Lunch! As usual, there was plenty to eat!!


Sam fed the fish while Mo cleaned up the pellets that didn't make it into the water!

The garden, planted so early this year due to the warm early spring, seems to be ripening early as well. Art harvested potatoes one day recently, digging them out of the ground with a small camping shovel while kneeling in the soft dirt. He finds this the easiest and most back-saving method to tackle an age-old job.

As usual, we planted red, white and blue potatoes, an all-American tradition!

Digging potatoes is hungry work so.......

.....let's go make some homemade fries! Pomme frites!!

These peppers are the size of Bocce Balls, each of the red ones yielding 3 cups of diced peppers! The white eggplant is 8" long and gives some perspective as to the size of the red bell peppers.

We are ecstatic over this years' tomato crop! After a devastating year in 2009 fighting the late blight, we could not be happier with the yields, the taste, the size, the GLORY of our 2010 crop!!!

In memory of Fred..........

With you a part of me hath passed away;
For in the peopled forest of my mind
A tree made leafless by this wintry wind
Shall never don again its green array.
Chapel and fireside, country road and bay,
Have something of their friendliness resigned;
Another, if I would, I could not find,
And I am grown much older in a day.
But yet I treasure in my memory
Your gift of charity, and young hearts ease,
And the dear honour of your amity;
For these once mine, my life is rich with these.
And I scarce know which part may greater be,–
What I keep of you, or you rob from me.
(By George Santayana)

What I Really Know About Long Walks

2010-07-29T14:14:00.001-04:00

I spent my 13^th birthday in July of 1960 hiking portions of the Ditmar Trail high up in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. It was the longest walk of my young life. A city girl from Pittsburgh, I was 100 miles from home at a two-week Girl Scout camp. I had been to an overnight camp before and I had survived, so I was not completely out of my element. A stranger when I arrived, I quickly made friends with campers and counselors alike. I had never experienced camping outdoors, nor had I gone on an overnight hike, but I was very I was eager to try.

Outfitted with a pack frame, I carried 3 normal-sized packs, as I was strong and tall for my age. Each hiker carried her essentials for the 14 mile first leg of the hike, and the camp truck delivered our sleeping bags, food and cooking gear to our evening campsite, in a farmer’s cow pasture along the banks of a running stream.

The walk was grueling, hot and dusty and straight up and straight down, sometimes over gravel switchback roads, but mostly on paths through the rugged wildness of the Eastern Front of the Alleghenies. Fourteen miles each way with an overnight camp, this was a great challenge for young women.

When we made camp that evening, we built a campfire and cooked our evening meal. I can’t remember what we ate but the birthday cake we baked over the campfire in a reflector oven, and the birthday song sung to me by fellow campers and counselors, were the sounds and the taste of victory. We slept that night under the stars, and I awoke in the foggy dark dampness to see a cow staring straight into my eyes, her head just above mine. I had no fear.

On that walk I developed courage, determination, self discipline and self-sufficiency, and my lifelong love of the outdoors was born. That walk instilled in me the concepts of teamwork and community, of setting and reaching goals. The strengths I developed that July when I turned 13 have remained with me throughout the years. That walk that took me over 28 miles in two days started me on the pathway of my life.

Midsummer Wisdom

2010-07-18T14:43:00.029-04:00

Busy, busy, busy, busy hands.....making pesto, pickles, zucchini breads for the freezer, cooking for friends and family, hanging sheets on the line. Solitary work only occupies my body. It allows my mind to float free. If I am calm and happy, I am in the astral world, a state of simplicity, harmony, order and serenity. When my mind resides in the astral world, I become a different kind of human being.

It has taken me the better part of the two years since retirement to reconnect with my home, my garden and with nature, relaxing into the silence and enveloping calm of my farm, my daily habits and chores.

An easy recipe for happiness:

Be grateful.
Be optimistic.
Count your blessings.
Use Your strengths.
Commit acts of kindness.

Even the most reliable of life's gifts can be taken away unexpectedly. So seize the moment and live in joy. Search for kindred spirits along the way. Take the time to smell the air, and in doing so, imprint memories related to those smells upon your brain, your heart and soul. Later, when you are old(er), those same smells will trigger the wonderful memories you have attached to them......of a rich and redolent life.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life." (Melodie Beattie)

"Knowledge comes, wisdom lingers." (Daisy Hickman)

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." (Marcel Proust)

The spectacular view of the garden through my kitchen window;
I am grateful and blessed to have such beauty and abundance surround me.

The garden begins to deliver its organic bounty. We are grateful to receive it into our bodies, for nothing tastes as good as organic, home-grown veggies! We are optimistic that we will have a healthy tomato harvest, after the disaster of late blight in 2009.

Scott, Art and Harry are exercising their Second Amendment rights on the 4th of July. We all celebrate and count our blessings!

The Second Amendment guarantees us the right to own and bear arms. This right has recently been closely studied by our US Supreme Court. The Court has ruled by a majority that each citizen may own firearms (within certain State restrictions; only mentally stable adults, not having been convicted of a serious crime). Under the Constitution we have the right to protect our families, homes and property. History has shown that we are a nation prepared to defend global freedom. We owe the deepest debt of gratitude to all those who have defended us and freedom worldwide, and who have paid the ultimate price for our Constitutional rights.
God Bless America! God bless us all on Earth!

Jon and Peggie, as they prepare to move to a new home and practice opportunity. They are using their strengths in new ways and we wish them happiness!

Pure Prairie League in concert in our little town
Somerset PA, Saturday night, July 10, 2010.

I think that acts of kindness work in many ways; not just when we bestow kindness on others, but also when we receive kindness, which, like love, can flow in ALL directions.

I have been happier - consistently happier than I've ever been in my entire life.

My beloved spouse, (...of 41 years!...alias "Mister Wonderful", alias "Mister All-Or-Nothing-At-All", alias "Slim Cookie", alias "Judge Slim Lebowitz"), has even commented on it! He is my 'Mirror of Truth', my 'Best Friend of the Heart', my 'Other Half', my 'Soulmate', my "Everything".... so it has to be be the truth.

I am grateful for so many things....all of them "biggies" in my mind. Some wouldn't think they are worth mentioning, but they are THE most important things to me, and more highly prized than jewels; my family and my friends (especially those who remembered and celebrated me on my birthday:)). I am so grateful for the rain and the sun;

grateful for my amazing friend (canine) Moses who is my constant companion; grateful for my strength of body, always so willing to take the abuse my WILL heaps upon it; SO grateful for my eyesight, my excellent mind; my heart that bursts and overflows with love; my senses (of compassion, altruism, fairness, of loyalty, of direction, of hearing, of balance, taste, intuition, time....and even my hot flashes).

I hope I have not sounded self-important or vain, as I am not any of those; especially in these times of suffering for so many, of economic stress, of terrorism, of discontent, of anger, of violence, of Earth Changes. This is NOT the time for 'self'.

I am simply filled with gratitude to God and filled with love......and I just wanted you ALL to know how very much I love you.........Max

Springing Forward........

2010-06-15T13:42:00.022-04:00

I have more nice pictures this Spring than nice words it seems. My words this Spring would probably fall unwelcome on some ears. Narrow, ungenerous behavior exacts a price on psyches and relationships, and those who wound with words and actions cannot, or do not care to see the long term damaging effects on once-loving relationships until they are lost.

In our lives, we come across many circumstances in which we have wronged someone or someone has wronged us. As we grow, there comes a time in our lives when the opportunity arises, giving us the chance to forgive them. We have all heard the saying to 'Forgive and Forget'. Well, human nature does not allow for the mind to forget easily, so really it is 'Forgive and Accept'.

When we decide to forgive someone, this is a selfless act of kindness to that person and to ourselves. We are forgiving the person and not necessarily the act that was committed. This is self healing. When we are releasing negative energy and breathing in positive energy, we are looking away from the past and toward the future. In forgiving, we accept what happened and move forward; and really, moving forward is what it is all about. The same energy comes when someone forgives us. Even if we have to approach that person and ask for forgiveness, it is OK because we are moving forward. If they forgive us, we also must forgive ourselves and recognize that we have grown and moved forward on our path.

There is so much emotion tied to this. We may feel that something is unforgivable.....and that is OK, too. That is our choice, and once again, if it is truly unforgivable we can accept it and move on. We must not let the negative hold onto us, but release it and move forward into the positive power that is out there. Many things happen throughout our lives. Some are done accidentally and some on purpose, and those we will sort out and do what is needed in order to move forward. This is all part of loving ourselves enough to move forward and release the negative and receive the positive. Forgiveness of yourself and others is a cleansing of sorts, like detoxifying your soul. Again, love yourself enough to move forward. Forgiveness is not a weakness. It is one of the most courageous things a person can do for themselves.......

Life has been full and satisfying. We are joyful and filled with gratitude that Mother Earth has greened up once again and her abundance springs forth! Green and growing grass prompted Art to adapt his oldest piece of equipment to run on his newest tractor. "Arthur The Inventor" is forever seeking to reinvent. He is supremely adaptable, and from his fertile mind optimism springs eternal. We have owned a #1 John Deere sickle bar mower since we bought our farm nearly 40 years ago. This was the first tractor-mounted model of mower that John Deere ever produced! Other mowers have come and gone here, but the sickle bar mower has a prominent, specialized place in our arsenal of grass-tamers. We use it to cut grass that is unable to be harvested along the very edges of our fields, to neaten up the road berms and ditch banks after haymaking and, more recently, to cut the high grass that grows along the shoreline of our lake. Without this mower, with its cantilevered cutter bar that juts out from the right side of the tractor (forcing one to always make clockwise revolutions), we would have to perform this exhausting task using a gas-powered Stihl string trimmer, or risk upsetting a valuable tractor into the lake! Art re-engineered the #1 using 2 nuts, 1 piece of custom-bent black iron pipe and an extension PTO bar, enabling the mower to snap onto the quick-hitch and run on the modern JD4720.....super slick!!

The business end of the JD4720
with the JD#1 mower...... on the move!

Innovation......The American Way!!

600' of ditch bank mowed along the main road
saves PennDot the trouble!
_______________________________________________

Another year, another garden. Hope springs eternal and this year we've planted many veggies that we hope will all make it to the table! I'm sure I'm missing something here, but I believe we have planted Vidalia, white, yellow & red onions, red and white garlic, curly parsley, basil, dill, arugula, romaine, mesclun lettuce mix, spinach, a dozen plants of 4 types of disease-resistant tomatoes, red bell peppers, Ichiban and white eggplant, red beets, carrots, 8-Ball zucchini, yellow straight-neck squash, cucumbers, tomatillos, sweet potatoes, Russian blue, red and Yukon Gold potatoes. Yes, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but here are some photos of the early vegetable garden and also some spring flowers.

The early spring garden from the west side.

Tomato plants in wire cages, with potatoes behind them.

Garlics, with potatoes behind them.

Basil plants.

Chives among the Hostas.

Spring Daisies!

A lot of chirping going on in this Sparrow nest!

Clematis reaching up to the Sparrows.

Mo and Art heading down to the lake to trim the banks.

A&M Cook, Jolico Farm, Somerset PA
100% Solar Powered since 1978!!
____________________________________________________________

.....And finally, I could not publish this post without attempting to express my personal, gut-wrenching anguish and fist-clenching anger over the worst and most horrible environmental catastrophe to befall our country, and possibly the most widespread and worst toxic despoilment ever to occur upon our planet. Like everyone else, I feel utterly helpless in the face of this disaster. I pray a lot and watch the news for signs of hope that there will be a turning point, that the storm of oil gushing forth from the belly of Mother Earth will begin to slow. I Tweet about all the news, the good and the bad, trying to spread awareness of what man has wrought in his insatiable quest for OIL. It saddens me that most people who are not living in the reality of the holocaust occurring in and on the Gulf Coast, are going about their everyday lives with barely any notice taken or expressed of this tragedy that is affecting so many millions of creatures..... man among them.

I ask myself, how does one go about forgiving an accident, an incident, acts of omission or commission, a corporation, a drilling rig, a fire, a mechanical failure, a "situation"? Should I go through the same process of forgiveness as I would towards a living person? Who or what deserves a punch in the nose here? After weeks of listening to my higher self I come full circle and repeat the last step in the forgiveness recipe above:

There is so much emotion tied to this. We may feel that someTHING is UNforgivable.....and that is OK, too. That is our choice, and once again, if it is truly unforgivable we CAN accept it and move on. We must NOT let the negative hold onto us, but RELEASE it and MOVE forward into the POSITIVE power that is out there. Many things happen throughout our lives. Some are done accidentally and some on purpose, and those we will sort out and do what is needed in order to move forward. This is all part of loving ourselves enough to move forward and release the negative and receive the positive. Forgiveness of yourself and others is a cleansing of sorts, like detoxifying your soul. Again, love yourself enough to move forward. Forgiveness is not a weakness. It is one of the most courageous things a person can do for themselves....... Does this also go for oil companies? I hope so.

Family Garden ~ by Hank Hudepohl

2010-05-06T22:50:00.001-04:00

Tell me again about your garden
Tell me how you planted, in the small
flat of mountain land, corn seed

and bean seed, how your finger poked the soil
then you dropped in three dark bean seeds
for every yellow seed of corn.

Trees and mountains collared your land,
but the fenced garden opened freely
to sun and warm summer rains.

Your potato rows bulged in July. You ached
from digging them up, your hands down in dirt,
the cool lump of a tuber, brown-spotted,

just recovered, a greeting, like shaking hands.
Baskets full of bumpy brown potatoes filled
your basement until fall, until you gave

away what you could, throwing out the rest.
You gave away honey from the white hive too,
that box of bees beside the garden,

honey stored in Mason jars, a clearest honey
nectar from lin tree blossoms and wild flowers.
The bright taste of honey on the tongue

spoke of the place, if a place can be known
by the activity of bees and a flavor in the mouth,
if a person can be known by small acts

such as these, such as the way you rocked
summer evenings from a chair on the porch
tending your inner garden, eyes closed.

"Family Garden" by Hank Hudepohl from The Journey of Hands. © Word Press, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

May Day........the 1st day of May

2010-05-01T11:51:00.005-04:00

On this glorious, warm, breezy May Day, I offer for your reading pleasure the words of Garrison Keillor. I especially love the poem he chose for his post, "Blackbirds" by Julie Cadwallader Staub. I hope you read it with the feeling with which it was written. It struck a deep chord within me. Blackbirds

Earth Day 2010, Mending Fences, Muskrats, Dogs and Daffodils....

2010-04-24T15:19:00.019-04:00

I remember very well the very first Earth Day in 1970. We attended the events held at Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh on a beautiful, sunny Spring day. We were newly married just six months previously and we had not yet given serious thought to the "Back To The Land Movement" that was to be the impetus for the search for, and ultimate purchase, of our farm. All of that was still off in the future for us. But, in retrospect, those first Earth Day events held 40 years ago, were really the catalyst for the shape our lives would ultimately take. I like to think that many others' lives were changed by the new awareness of Earth and our environment that was birthed that year.

There was much clean-up to do this spring on the farm. One of the first big chores was to remove the 30-year-old post and rail fence that the heavy snows this winter had literally turned to toothpicks. Art asked me how badly I wanted him to repair that old stretch of fence that had no purpose other than aesthetics. I caved in and told him that we didn't need to continue to maintain things that had outlived their purpose just for the sake of rustic charm. So, with the welcome help of our brother Hank and our trusty Stihl chainsaw, we removed about 100 feet of fencing. We saved the salvageable posts and rails for 'parts' and cut the rest into firewood, and the job was completed in short order. We realize we are not getting younger so we now think in terms that human energy spent on maintaining everything could be conserved and expended on maintaining the more necessary things. It required a lot of mowing and trimming around those fence posts. After every hay crop was removed that lovely-looking fenceline required weed-whacking, a tiring, dirty, sneezy job. You know, I thought I would miss the view of that silvery-grey fence that for over 30 years marked the edge of the hayfield above our barn. But the eye gets used to what is in 'the now' and the brain forgets how things used to be.......and this is progress!

Our newest tractor, the John Deere 4720, is a 4-wheel drive workhorse that enables us to maintain our farm, which is really a mini-municipality! We have our own water system, sewage system and road system of paved, gravel and dirt roads that lead to all the fields on the property. All of the roads require regular maintenance as they are subject to washing from heavy rains and snow melt. They all have ditches for water runoff that regularly get clogged with leaves, sticks and gravel debris. Our 4720's high-lift bucket is put into service to keep the ditches clear, and we use the wide blade that fits on the rear of the tractor to taper and level the roadways before spreading fresh stone and gravel. We also use the tractor to pull a heavy water-filled roller that presses down the rock and gravel, compacting and hardening the roadbeds. We had a good many downed tree limbs to clean up this spring and the high lift was perfect for carrying the tree sections up to the woodshed, where we cut them up and stacked them to age the firewood, which we will later use to heat our home.

Another big job this spring, which seems to be ongoing at this point, is Art's war on the Muskrats that have invaded our lake. We hate to kill anything and only resort to trapping when nothing else works. Even so, trapping Muskrats is tricky and cruel. Muskrats ruin dams and destroy valuable water empoundments. Our newest plan for Muskrat control is to fill the holes they dig into the sides of our lakeshore with large stones. This is a huge undertaking, as the lake is 1/4 mile in diameter; over 1500 feet of shoreline! Every day we find new holes. We gather large rocks and dump them over the holes. The Muskrats then dig more holes in new places. We then gather more rocks and repeat the process. I anticipate that by summers' end, we will have hauled enough rock to completely cover the shoreline of the lake. Eventually I know that Arthur will win this war because he always accomplishes what he sets out to do, one way or another. He is a Taurus. He has that kind of patience.

So far we've planted Vidalia onion plants and 3 types of garlic. Soil testing revealed that our organic garden needed a 40 pound dose of bone meal to raise the phosphorous level this spring. It is a messy, dusty job to apply the bone meal to the soil using a very scientific method of application........broadcasting it by the handful and then rototilling it in with the help of the BSA 720, a workhorse of another color!

So, here at Jolico Farm, every day is Earth Day. That's what farmers do.....take care of the earth. Millions of Americans who didn’t know what “the environment” was in 1969 discovered in 1970 that they were environmentalists. Millions of people make choices about lifestyles, diet, housing, automobiles, and even the number of children they have because of thinking that began at an Earth Day program. The Earth Day philosophy must welcome those who are just beginning to recycle as well as those involved in the pursuit of ambitious environmental goals. I believe that it is up to every single human being living on Mother Earth to love her and tread softly upon her, keep her clean, and know that we each have an impact and we each leave a footprint. We can't all be involved in writing legislation involving the environment, but we can use our votes by electing officials who have a green conscience. When I see trash on the roadsides, illegal dumping, polluted streams, belching smokestacks, wastefulness, unnecessary packaging of products, people who don't recycle and reuse.....it makes me sad. I try every day to set an example for others, to spread the word, to educate, to spread enlightenment. Won't you help me? Together we could do so very much more.........Thanks!

Spring!……proof there is life after death.

2010-03-21T15:36:00.006-04:00

I sit high on the hill above the farm, my dog at my feet, the windmill at my back pumping away in the warm breeze. I commune with my late father, whose ashes I scattered on this spot almost 25 years ago. I was his ‘oldest buddy’ and we adored each other. He was the smartest man I have ever known. He never once let me down. He didn't call me his ‘best’ buddy, as he had 5 other children and he loved us all. However, I was his oldest child and, therefore, his ‘oldest buddy’. We relied on each other. My mother died when I was an infant, leaving just the two of us. He took me to work with him, and by the age of four I knew the name and purpose of every tool in his workshop and would hand him what he asked with the precision of a surgical technician. He taught me to drive a car when I was nine, though we never told anybody about that…..it was our secret. We both loved dogs and it was to him I brought the strays I rescued over the years, knowing my (step)mother would never let me keep them...but he would overrule her.

So it was I, his oldest buddy, who tended to him in his last years when nobody else came around because of his short temper and cutting words...brought on by the constant pain he suffered. Even so, he was ever loving, appreciative and kind to me. He always commented on how good I smelled to him whenever I hugged him tightly. We would go out for lunch and I would drive; he would direct our procession as we stopped here and there to do his small errands. Toward the end of his days, he would sit in the car and leisurely watch the people while I would pick up his groceries or medications, or the beer he enjoyed icy cold.

I think about my father as I sit on the high hill, where I will have his essence for company, his wisdom to support me and his spirit to protect me for the rest of my days. It is in this way he returns to life for me, like the miracle of Spring, which always returns after the dead of Winter.

February, the dead of winter.........

2010-02-28T15:56:00.024-05:00

Asleep, anesthetized, barren, buried, cold, cut off, deadened, dormant, frigid, inactive, inanimate, inert, inoperable, lifeless, lost, numbed, paralyzed, senseless, spent, spiritless, sterile, still, tired, unresponsive, unanimated, vanished, wasted, wearied, worn out, winter......

This has been an especially hard winter here in northeastern America. The burning, numbing, eye-watering cold has combined with virtually unremitting snowfall to suppress spirits, break machinery and kill the weak, the old and the ill. We have lost several cherished pets over the years during this heartless month, when graves cannot even be dug in the frozen earth.

"If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character....Would you slow down? Or speed up?" ~ Chuck Palahniuk.

Ask me this question in February and I am apt to choose the speedy costume change; but do not suppose that I am depressed. In so many ways I enjoy the solitude of being housebound. In early winter I anticipate the quietude of day after week of enforced rest. In Spring, Summer and Fall, I plan many diversionary wintertime projects to keep myself happily occupied. I like to cook and bake and make big cauldrons of nourishing soups for us, for friends, and for the freezer. I choose good-weather days to restock my pantry, darting from house, to car, to stores, and scurry back home again. I take my vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin!). I wait for spring. I nest. I hole up. I look out of the windows a lot. I dress warmly for my daily trek to the barn to feed the cats, and every few hours I go out to shovel away the snow from my doors. If I can keep some semblance of order in my life, the cold death of winter cannot come for me in February.

However, FOUR blizzards in one month are mentally and physically HARD to deal with. I cannot even find words to describe the last few weeks, as they have run together endlessly. So I will just share some of my favorite recent photos.....

Art doing some X-Country skiing. Winter always starts out fun!!

Mo enjoys an invigorating run. It's so beautiful outdoors and it's fun to play in the fresh snow!!

Whoa! Nor'easter dumps 31" of heavy, wet snow on 2/5 and 2/6/10. Gotta get down to the shed, fire up the big John Deere and blower and clear this mess up!

It took all day and proved too much for our old snowblower, but between shoveling, plowing, blowing and pushing, we finally got the driveway and lanes opened up to the barn.

We are cleaned up and ready for the next one!
Take a picture of us, Mom!!

New snowblower, an MK Martin Meteor made in Canada, delivered on 2/12/10. We're ready for the next blizzard...............
Bring it on, Mother Nature!!

Wow, we were just kidding around, Mother Nature!!! Can you make it stop now? It's 2/16/10 and our fences are now almost buried under 50" of snow that fell over the past 12 days.

By 2/19/10 our back roof is holding over 5' of heavy snow and another Nor'easter is predicted. We don't want to stress this roof any further, so the two of us climb out there and proceed to shovel the roof clear of approximately 22,000 pounds of snow.

The snow continues, unabated. Icicles obstruct our views. The wind howls and deep drifts form, making travel barely possible. This is our new paradigm. Nothing melts. The snow just grows deeper. We are becoming entombed. We haven't seen the sun in over 3 weeks. We discuss climate change and El Nino. We decide that, though we're much better equipped mechanically to handle severe storms than we were years ago, we are older now. And we lament that we are not as physically strong as we were when we were young. We are amazed at our resiliency. We pat ourselves on the back and keep on shoveling. We discover that by some perverse miracle, shoveling snow actually makes our aching backs feel better.

Another week of snowfall. Every day it seems we get another 4-6" of fresh powder. We have lost track of the measurements and are simply awed by the sheer dimensions of so much snow.

Meteorologists called it a Snowicane - is that even a word? On 2/25/10 we have high winds, blowing and drifting snow, and finally our roads are narrowed to one lane and are drifting shut. Winds gust over 60 miles per hour. Now we are truly isolated. We are officially 'snowed in'. The county's snowplowing protocol goes into blizzard mode. The plows only clear the main arteries and snow emergency routes now. The secondary and back roads are cast adrift until the storm abates. Nothing moves on the road except for an occasional snowmobile and it is very quiet when the wind finally stops howling.

We heat our home with wood, and we've made some big withdrawals this month from our wood stockpile. We have burned 6-7 cords so far, but there's plenty left to finish out the winter.

Mo continues to enjoy all the snow, proving it's great to live a dog's life at Jolico Farm! He doesn't miss an opportunity to accompany us outdoors and he has added a new word to his vocabulary. The command, "DIG IT, MO", sends him digging into a snowbank to loosen the packed snow so I can shovel it away.

So, when all is said and done, there is always the beauty of last summer's geraniums, blooming anew in the back mud room, getting a jump on Spring. They are proof positive that there is life after the dead of winter.......... if we can just survive the month of February.

The Winter of 2010.....

2010-02-05T12:49:00.020-05:00

Scientists knew last summer that this was going to be an El Nino year. But it wasn't until winter set in that its effects really hit the United States. Turns out it's not just a run of bad luck. What's behind a lot of this winter's weather is El Nino, the tropical weather pattern that starts in the Pacific. Major snowstorms are set to bury the mid-Atlantic states this weekend after record snowfalls in December. Last month California was awash in rain. The Gulf states have seen heavy weather lately as well.

So, why didn't somebody tell me?? Why didn't I know about this?? I am a weather watcher (as well as an animal tracker and nature being). I read and listen to all things weather-related. Why didn't I hear about this until now?? I can only assume it was a well kept secret or a subject so low down on the news radar that it failed to make us sit up and take notice until the winter was well upon us. Of course, my higher self knew we were in for a beating this winter, based on the cool, damp, blight-ridden Summer-That-Wasn't of 2009 - but my analog human mind just didn't want to believe all the signs that were, in hindsight, so patently clear.

But life goes on despite the season, or maybe even because of the season. The 2010 Swearing-In ceremony of the Sipesville Volunteer Fire Dept was held on schedule on January 9th. Art was honored, as always, to administer the oath of office to the company's officers. These are all-volunteer responders to structure and vehicle fires, forest and brush fires, Haz-Mat calls, vehicle accidents, storm damage calls. They provide traffic control during emergencies, staging for medical helicopter evacuations, they pump out basements during flooding......you name the disaster and these men and women are the very first responders on the scene with their presence and equipment, training, knowledge and bravery. I have been writing grants for this department for the last 6-7 years under the US Assistance to Firefighters program and have been lucky to have been able to obtain new firefighting and crash and rescue equipment for them, including in 2008, a new 4 wheel drive brush/attack truck which they put into service in early 2009. They are currently awaiting word on the 2009/2010 grant request for a new tanker truck to replace their 1978 tanker which must be retired this year, as it is no longer safe to use on calls. A second grant was also submitted for a CAF foam system for use on two of their vehicles. Both of these grants were written last May and there has been no word yet on whether they will be awarded, so we remain hopeful. I was thrilled when they honored me at last year's banquet by naming me an honorary member of the department!

On January 23rd we attended a wonderful dinner with Art's co-workers at Helen's Restaurant at 7-Springs Resort. This is their traditional holiday dinner that is always held about a month after the holidays! Actually, it is a much better time to get together as everybody is always too busy during the holidays to go to another holiday party! The food was wonderfully decadent and Helen's, situated in a balconied ski lodge provided an elegant ambiance for a festive and fun dinner party for ten of us.

Cat grass salad that Kitty, Mo and Mimi like to eat this time of year!

Kitty Cook - around 10 years old now.

When it's so cold, even Mo doesn't want to go out!

Snow sure is getting deep!
Here we go again....what number blizzard is this?

I love this Will Barnet print! It so depicts our menagerie and was a gift from Mimi's mom, Muff, many years ago. Muff just had rotator cuff surgery yesterday after a bad fall on the ice a couple of weeks ago. She's hurting and she's nauseous from the pain medicine right now. Mimi is staying here with us and she and Moses are having a blast together! Right now both dogs are stretched out and sleeping on separate couches in the living room, no doubt due to having expended lots of energy playing all day long, and maybe due in some part to this huge low pressure system that is burying us in snow again. Art is on call this weekend and I pray it stays quiet for his sake. I also pray the internet remains functional as it enables him to do video arraignments from home rather than having to drive to his office as had once been the norm.

A quick update on Groucho the Cat! We found her a wonderful home with Loni, a first-time cat owner, who promptly changed Groucho's name to Peppermint Patty! Good luck and lots of love to Loni and "Patty" in their new, long and loving life together.

Healing prayers go out to Muff, Floy McClintock, Don Brougher, and of course, all the people of Haiti who are daily in our thoughts and prayers, as well as to all people and creatures who are sick, hurting and downtrodden.

A touching poem to share...

2010-01-17T22:52:00.003-05:00

At the Vet's
by Maura Stanton

The German shepherd can't lift his hindquarters
off the tiled floor. His middle-aged owner
heaves his dog over his shoulder, and soon
two sad voices drift from the exam room
discussing heart failure, kidneys, and old age
while a rushing woman pants into the office
grasping a terrier with trembling legs
she found abandoned in a drainage ditch.
It's been abused, she says, and sits down,
The terrier curled in her lap, quaking
as the memory of something bad returns and returns.
She strokes its ears, whispering endearments
while my two cats, here for routine checkups,
peer through the mesh of their old green carrier,
the smell of fear so strong on their damp fur
I taste it as I breathe. Soon the woman,
Like the receptionist with her pen in mid-air,
Is listening, too, hushed by the duet
swelling in volume now, the vet's soprano
counterpointed by the owner's baritone
as he pleads with her to give him hope, the vet
trying to be kind, rephrasing the truth
over and over until it becomes a lie
they both pretend to accept. The act's over.
His dog's to stay behind for ultrasound
and kidney tests, and the man, his face
whipped by grief as if he were caught in a wind,
hurries past us and out the front door,
leaving the audience—cats, terrier, people—
sunk in their places, too stunned to applaud.

"At the Vet's" by Maura Stanton, from Immortal Sofa. © University of Illinois Press, 2008. Reprinted with permission by The Writer's Almanac, January 16, 2010.

Snow......a New Year, a New Decade, a Winter Wedding.....and more snow.

2010-01-07T13:39:00.038-05:00

Well, it's winter so I guess we should expect some snow. However, it has been snowing here nonstop since New Year's Eve, 7 days straight now with no end in sight. Another 8" is predicted for tonight with blizzard-like conditions to follow bringing gale-force winds and downright dangerously cold temperatures.

This poor young redtail hawk has been hunting small songbirds at our feeders from a perch in the locust tree in our front yard. The wind and cold are so severe and the snow so deep that there is no small game to be seen, and the hawk is hungry. It's easy to see why people and animals become distressed and depressed in winter.Our back fences are almost buried under 3' drifts! The poor birds puff up for warmth awaiting their turn at the bird feeders, which we keep constantly filled for them.

We always look forward to winter as a time to pursue pleasurable, mostly indoor activities like reading seed catalogs, novels, that stack of magazines piling up since last summer, watching movies and cooking great meals. Outdoor activities include shoveling snow, blowing snow, hauling in firewood, hauling out the furnace ashes, sweeping the snow off the solar panels, walks in the snow, bundling up just to go out to the mailbox, and occasionally, if the snow is just right and the wind isn't blowing too hard, some cross country skiing just to get the blood moving! Simple trips to the grocery store are combined with quick errands and always dinner at a restaurant, because one never knows when the next weather window of opportunity to escape the confines of the farm will present itself - smile!
The lake lies encased in thick ice and the gazebo slumbers under a blanket of white. I took this picture before New Year's when we could still walk down the hill to the lake. Now the snow is too deep for walking.Art clears snow from the driveway - a daily chore. Mimi and Mo have a blast as they romp in snow that is over their heads! However, this does not affect their exuberance as they blow off steam and enjoy each others' company!

Art was honored to preside over the marriage of our friends Jon Kates and Peggie Page on the first Saturday of the New Year and New Decade of 2010. The ceremony was held in Pittsburgh at the William Penn Hotel on January 2nd.

Peggie's daughter Sarah attended her mother as matron of honor and Jon's son Sam performed admirably as best man! It was such a joyous occasion, a celebration in toasts, song and well-wishes to the love and married life of a beautiful couple.

Well, another foot of snow has fallen since the night of the Kates wedding. We loaded another half-cord of wood into the basement yesterday and made a grocery run last evening......even grabbed a bite at the Italian Oven before scurrying back to the warmth and safety of home. I thought I'd do some blog posting today just to let the world know we're still here and thinking about you all. Here's a visual gift to enjoy.......what could better signify the promise and beauty of Spring?

Groucho The Cat

2009-12-24T15:21:00.003-05:00

Groucho The Cat showed up at the cat feeder at Jolico Farm in the cold early winter of 2009. She was a fearless young, 'in-your-face' feline who promptly became pregnant, probably during her first heat in early February. She gave birth to a litter of kittens around April 1st. Unfortunately, only one of those kittens survived to become weaned. She became pregnant again when that kitten was about 2 months old and she delivered her second litter of 6 kittens on August 1, 2009. All of these kittens survived due to human intervention – twice-daily food and water carried up to the barn for them.

I took a real liking to this gutsy cat and I named her because of her resemblance to Groucho Marx. However, her name fit her 'grouchy' personality as well, as she is a vocal scolder to her kittens and even growls at me when I pick her up if she does not want to be held. She has never tried to bite or scratch me. She puts up with my handling, brushing, kissing and stroking, but rarely asks for affection. However, she will follow me around like a dog, and she tends to gravitate to the room in which I am working or sitting, making herself comfortable on the floor or on a nearby couch so as not to miss any of the household action.

I figure that Groucho was born in the spring of 2008. I also figure she was a drop-off, or she had been born at one of the nearby farms as a wild, or feral, cat. The fact that she has such moxie and has such a brave and fearless nature has endeared her to me. I resisted allowing her plight to affect my better judgment but, because she was such a demanding cat, crying at me through the windows when she wanted food for herself and for her kittens, I became like putty in her paws………and, I fell in love with her…………

When she weaned her last litter in mid-October 2009, I took her to the vet and had her spayed, vaccinated and de-wormed. I brought her home from her surgery and kept her in the house for 3 days to recover and then I let her back out to the barn. Two weeks later I returned her to the vet to have her sutures removed. She tolerated these procedures and intimate handling with vocal outrage but without any attempt to harm anyone.

While she was in the house she got a taste of the “good life” of a housecat, and she quickly adjusted to the litter pan and the rhythms of the household. When the weather turned bitterly cold this winter, she began to cry at the windows to be let into the warmth. When we ignored her insistent crying, she persisted and would cry all night long to be let in. We finally caved and allowed her indoors to become our pet.

She has no desire to go outdoors. She adjusted immediately to life in our home. She is quiet, clean and independent, but alert to our movements. She interacts with us and with our big dog Moses, who used to be her arch-enemy when she lived outside.

Our only problem lies with our older housecat “Kitty” who has never gotten along with Groucho. This dislike has escalated since Groucho moved indoors into Kitty’s domain. There has been fighting between the two cats, prompting us to banish Groucho back to the barn. However, this is breaking our hearts and we have decided we need to find Groucho a proper, loving home, even if it means losing our bond with her.

I hope and pray that whomever takes responsibility for her will love her as we do; and if they do not or cannot love and care for her, that they will return her to us. I hope and pray that we will find a very lucky person who needs the love of a very fine cat.

Parties, Family and Some Loving Thoughts........

2009-12-03T12:35:00.017-05:00

It's been a while since my last post but we've not been idle! A wonderfully joyous occasion we attended was the wedding celebration dinner of Samantha Ginsburg and Steven Streibig on 11/14/09 in Pittsburgh. I swiped this picture taken at their wedding ceremony in Maui on 10/3/09 from their friend MJ's album because it shows their happiness and their beauty on their wedding day.

Dinner at the Fischer's is always an epicurian delight! Bruce cooks and Elaine bakes and we all eat too much. We moved from a table laden with appetizers, to the dining room where we consumed mass quantities of salmon and leg of lamb this year and to top it all off, Elaine's famous chocolate cheesecake and a homemade pumpkin pie! With Heidi and Joe growing older now, they have built an addition off the farmhouse kitchen with eventual retirement in mind, or a cozy apartment for an elderly family member. It includes many handicap accessibility features and even a ramp! I guess we could all use a ramp entrance, no matter how old or young we are......a ramp entrance and a grocery cart would do me just fine, I'm thinking!

The week around the Thanksgiving holiday was savored in a haze of company and food and lots of laughter and love. Mike, Connie and their dog Maggie came up from Pittsburgh on the afternoon of the 22nd for a pizza party. Brother Hank and his dog Maximus came up on Wednesday the 25th and stayed through Thanksgiving until Friday the 27th when he departed with bags of leftovers for his freezer. We decided we had much to be thankful for in our lives this year, not the least of which are our close family ties.

On Sunday the 28th our table was graced for brunch by our sister and brother-in-law Arlene and Robert Alfred and dog Charlie, and nephew Bruce and his wife Rachel, and their boys Joe and Michael Sheinbart who were visiting Pittsburgh from Florida for the long holiday weekend. We had a loving and heartfelt time introducing the youngest generation to "the farm" where Bruce spent much time during his 'growing-up' years. We laughed as we reminiscently told the old stories about the time when Kim fell through the barn floor into the cattle pen, and the time when somebody splattered a drop of red barn paint into Princess the Poodle's eye! The solution to that problem was Aunt Max running for the Visine......it gets the red out!!

Last evening Harold, Hank, Ros and Steve, Art and I met for dinner in Pittsburgh at Hokkaido Seafood Buffet and ate like there was no tomorrow! This was Hank's recommendation for dining as it is an all-you-can-consume Japanese seafood restaurant and we were not disappointed. I know they lost money on us as I watched the males of my family make repeated trips for heaping platters of Alaskan King Crab legs, shrimp, sushi, frog legs, oysters.....you name it! We ate for two solid hours; ate and laughed and enjoyed just being together. Steve left to drive their car back to Florida very early this morning, and Ros is due to depart next week. Their trip to Pittsburgh kept them occupied with a whirlwind of events shared with family and friends. We were glad the weather cooperated so we could sneak in to see them too!

All this togetherness lately has given my fertile mind some food for thought. I have been pondering my priorities and trying to pinpoint what is truly important in life. Imagine, as I have, that time is growing shorter. What could potentially give us cause for regret? Would it be trips not taken, or money not made, jewelry not acquired, fine wines and food not consumed, recognition not awarded? Or, would it be the friendships we didn't nurture, the time we spent in anger and not communicating with loved ones; the opportunities we passed up to say, "I love you", causing us not to hear those most precious words repeated back to us?

Do you find there is something your heart and soul craves, something that is missing from your life, leaving you feeling incomplete and empty inside? Could it be love? Could it be a reconnection to family ties? Could it be that you've lost your pathway to The Divine?

Do we appreciate or curse each new day? Do we speak or maintain silence? Can we live in peace and love, or must there be dissention? Can we find forgiveness in our hearts, then take the next step and express it?

Attachments, rigid boundaries, inflexibility, anger and frustration prevent transformation.

Change is an aspect of love moving from the present vibration to a higher vibration in an upward spiraling pattern.

Love is energy; it sustains all form and formlessness; it is our true identity. Love lives in the heart. It is the Glue of the Universe. It is a soul quality. We need more of it in our lives. Love is all there is.

Migrating geese, long walks through fallen leaves and comforting soup.........

2009-11-10T19:49:00.011-05:00

Since I was a small child, I have delighted in playing in the freshly fallen leaves, kicking them out in front of me, burying my feet in their weightless, fragrant depths and drifts. When I was younger, before the advent of the tractor and leaf-bagger attachment, I would rake leaves in the late fall just for the pure joy of rolling in the giant piles I would create. Now I content myself with swishing through them on my daily walks down to the lake, where they cover the farm roads and woods trails as they morph from canopy to coverlet on their purposeful transformation from photosynthesis back into soil.

We have been putting the farm to bed, as we do each year at this time. We slowly gather up all the trappings of summer, clean them and put them away. Gone now are the patio tables and chairs, the hose reels, the flower pots, the porch furniture, the screens, the hanging baskets. We've brought in the geraniums for wintering in the dog room where they like the cool temperatures and the sunshine that warms them in the east window alcove there.

Now we fill the bird feeders, sweep up the leaves that blow in eddies around the storm doors, wash the windows for perhaps the last time before spring, add a bit of caulking here and there, bring in the rain gauges, close down the barn doors, take off the mowers, grease up the tractors and put on the snow blower and blade.

The fields are now harvested and bare. The crop yields were bountiful this year. We had plenty of rain and a longer growing season than usual here in the mountains, as spring was early and fall lingered warm and long. This past week our 25 acres of soybeans were harvested by the giant red combine and a 4th crop of alfalfa came off the hayfields. I can't remember the last time we got a 4th crop of hay and I am amazed. Is this a result of global warming? It is quite unusual.

Thousands of geese have passed through on their way to the south to warmer states where they will winter over. I've learned that more than 90 percent of all birds are monogamous, meaning they maintain an essentially exclusive relationship, or pair bond, with just one member of the opposite sex. Geese are especially fastidious when it comes to their loyalty. They're well known for the long-term pair bonds they form. I marvel at them each year. I like to image that the same pairs return to Jolico Farm to raise their young year after year because we provide such a pure and hospitable environment, but that is probably just my over-dramatizing imagination.
However, we enjoy watching for their arrival in the late winter and early spring, for geese, along with the robins, are some of the first signs of life to arrive as the grip of winter loosens and the days lengthen and the warmth returns in the spring. But for now the dogs love to race along the lake shore and shoo the geese back into the water from their resting and sunning spots on the lake banks. A few turns around the lake and Mo and Mimi are ready to race through the woods to see what other wildlife they can scare up.

The last of the garden produce has been harvested. This year we had a huge carrot crop and, even though we've been eating carrots throughout the summer as I routinely thinned the crop, I was astonished at how many I was able to dig out of the ground at the tail end of fall. What to do with such a bounty? Carrots store well in the root cellar, but they are the sweetest and most nutritious when they are freshly pulled from the earth. I like to make Carrot-Ginger Soup and I've made about 4 gallons in the last couple of weeks to freeze in small pint- or quart-sized containers so I have it on hand for a quick hot lunch, for Thanksgiving dinner or to give away to a sick friend. This I have done recently as we have a friend who is taking chemotherapy and suffers from the resulting nausea and loss of appetite. Ginger is very good for calming the stomach, so I sent him several containers of my frozen organic carrot-ginger immunotherapy, laced with lots of love and prayers for a return to good health in each and every spoonful...

Pickled Peppers, Visitors, Autumn and Winter............all in the same week!

2009-10-18T20:29:00.025-04:00

The house siding project is finished, and just in the nick of time apparently, as Winter is riding hard on the heels of Fall in these parts! Many busy days have passed here in the recent weeks since we visited the beach in Cape May, NJ, now almost a month ago. We returned to find our contractors had finished our outdoor siding project. The added insulation is already paying off in a MUCH warmer and cozier home.

The weather has turned sharply colder and the leaves have quickly changed into their brilliant autumn colors here in our mountains this year, the Pennsylvania range of the Appalachians, which are locally called 'The Laurel Highlands'. The highest point in Pennsylvania, Mt. Davis, is located here in Somerset County and is over 3,500 feet above sea level. The weather fronts moved through very rapidly over the last couple of weeks. We went from temperatures in the 60's with sunny skies one day to over 3 inches of rain the next. The day after that we had plunging temps into the 30's at night with 60mph winds that prematurely blew a good many of the gorgeous leaves off the trees. However, warnings to the contrary, we were quite unprepared for the weather changes that blew in this past weekend. Two Nor'easters rolled up the east coast and some areas in our region got over a foot of snow that felled still heavily leafed tree limbs, causing power outages and some very messy driving conditions.

Around here when it's nasty outside, there is always something to do indoors. With the cold weather catching us off guard, we hurriedly snatched up the remaining peppers from the garden, roasted them on the grill, peeled them and turned them into pickled peppers, a favorite family recipe from my grandmother and my mother. We had a bumper crop of peppers this year and we quickly harvested more than I expected, but they won't last very long. Here's the recipe for the best roasted pickled peppers you've ever eaten!

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Freda's Pickled Peppers:

1) Roast whole, ripe bell peppers over a charcoal or gas grill fire until their skins are blackened and the peppers are soft.

2) Place the roasted peppers into a heavy brown paper bag and close the top of the bag tightly so that the peppers will steam in the bag.

3) When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the charred skins, remove the stems and seeds and discard.

4) Cut the flesh of the peppers into strips and place into clean pint or quart canning jars.

5) Over a medium high flame, mix together equal parts of sugar, white vinegar and water. Then add more water (double or triple what you have already added) to taste until you have a mildly sweet and not too sour brine. Bring this mixture to a rapid boil, then fill the waiting jars of peppers almost to the brim, leaving a small space to top off each jar with a small amount (1/4") of olive oil.

6) Wipe the rims of each jar clean, then add the lids and bands, leaving them turned upside down until they are cool. The lids should be sealed down at this point. However, store them in the refrigerator as you would with refrigerator pickles. They may be enjoyed immediately, but be sure to use any unsealed jars first and plan to eat them all by Christmas, as they do not have a long shelf life.

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We heat our home with wood, a sustainable resource with a very low carbon footprint, and our woodshed is filled to the brim at this time of year. We heat with an HS Tarm wood-fired boiler made in Denmark. It burns wood so efficiently that Tarm advertises that their furnaces create the amount of ash per hour equivalent to that of a burned cigarette.

Each of us can choose to live more sustainably when we understand how our choices impact the environment, other people and other species. In its broadest sense, ‘sustainable’ refers to the capacity of something to be maintained or kept in existence indefinitely. It therefore also refers to balance. A carbon footprint also has to take into consideration how a fuel source was produced. Firewood is usually prepared with the use of log cutting machines and chain saws, and in that, firewood has a tiny footprint compared to natural gas, electric, or heating oil. We also have an oil fueled boiler, which we use to supplement our wood heat, so our alternative fuel is heating oil. There is no natural gas available in our rural area, and propane gas is usually more expensive than heating oil. We gather wood on our property when we are able, but we mainly buy our cordwood from our neighbors, the Beckners, who own a lumbering company. The hardwood we burn comes from the smaller discarded limbs of felled trees that are harvested locally.

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In early October we were pleased to again host what has become an annual gathering of Art's colleagues and their families. This year because of many schedule conflicts, we could not find a commonly acceptable date until well after summer had passed and autumn was already upon us. However, we managed to get the event in under the wire and a great time was had by all. Here are some pictures of a most enjoyable food fest!

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This past weekend we had the pleasure of a visit from our dear friends Sally from Florida and her sister Merrily from Chicago, Ginny from 7-Springs, Laurie from right here in Somerset, and my brother Hank and his dog (my 4-legged nephew!) Maximus from Pittsburgh. The occasion was Sally and Merrily's yearly fall family visit, which we celebrated with a small happy hour here at Jolico and then a nice dinner at the Pine Grill in town. Hank and Maximus spent the night with us and left the next afternoon laden with quarts of chicken stew and ginger carrot soup from our freezer, having really enjoyed resting, eating and playing at the farm.

Life is good. Family and friends are precious. "If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it's not enough......Ann Landers"

Home Improvements, Cape May Vacation and Uncle Oscar...........

2009-09-27T15:00:00.031-04:00

The one constant about living in a circa 1870 farmhouse, is the need to endlessly repair, renew, remodel and refresh. Earlier this summer we replaced the downstairs floors with porcelain tile. We are now in the process of replacing the 38 year old siding on the east and north sides of the house and extending the ground level wrap-around porch to cover an open air patio on the garden side of the house. It is hard to believe we are redoing work we had originally done when we first moved to the farm back in the early 1970's. I guess that means we've been here a long time, though of course it seems like only yesterday.

We bought Jolico Farm in November of 1971 after a lot of searching for the perfect place. This farm, in far-from-perfect condition, was just what we envisioned. We wanted a working farm with 50 to 100 acres all on one side of a rural road, with a year-round running spring-fed stream, a livable house and a usable barn and outbuildings. After farm-hunting for 3 years we saw this farm and bought it within 4 days. That was 38 years ago and we have been fixing it up ever since.

Our contractors, Rick Lloyd and Marty Swintosky, have done all of our work for the past 20 years. A later than anticipated start on our siding project this year caused them to be working here during our planned 4-day vacation to Cape May, NJ. We decided to go anyway and trust that the job would progress just fine without our constant hovering.

So, off we went to Cape May on Sunday morning, 9/20 - Max, Art and Moses! We had a grand time, walking for miles on the beach, riding bikes around this beautiful Victorian town, eating great seafood and soaking up the abundant sunshine. We had perfect weather with blue skies and cool breezes and very few vacationers this late in September over the autumnal equinox of 2009. In fact, the Boardwalk at Wildwood NJ was downright deserted, with most shops only opening on the weekends during the fall. One evening we took Mo out to dinner with us at The Ugly Mugg, a dog-friendly establishment, where we dined alfresco on huge steamed shrimp, fresh shucked oysters fried to perfection, and grilled chicken for Mo, whose discerning palate doesn't trust fishy things unless they are from his own lake at home. We stayed at The Blue Fish Inn, a great little motel in a quiet section of town, where they made us very comfortable (evidenced by the picture of Art and Mo relaxing in front of the bedroom TV!) Here are some highlights of our trip:

We took our leave of Cape May early on Thursday morning, 9/24, via the Cape May/Lewes Ferry. We rode on the ferry, Twin Capes, with lots of other cars, trucks, campers and motor homes. To Mo's delight there were also quite a few dogs making the 17 mile trip over to Lewes Delaware, and he was kept so distracted by all the people and pets on board that he forgot to get seasick - a miracle! When we disembarked we headed to Rockville, MD, a 3-hour drive, where we stopped to visit with our favorite uncle, Oscar Hoffman
and Oscar's daughter and our cousin, Barbara Kelsky. Uncle Oscar is 98 years old and is Art's mother's brother. He is the oldest and the only surviving member of his immediate family which included Art's mom Lillian, Aunt Syd and Aunt Mame. Oscar and Art worked together in the clothing business at Standard Sportswear in Pittsburgh many years ago. We had not seen him since his 95th birthday party three years ago, so this visit was a very heartfelt one for us all.

Another 3-hour drive and we arrived home, road-weary but safe and sound! Home is such a fantastic place to be, we always wonder why we want to leave. Mostly we have to force ourselves, thinking that we haven't been away in a while and that we should have a change of scenery and experience the wonders of travel.........only to find that there's no place like home.

Labor Day, Summer's unofficial demise? and other 'stuff'..........

2009-09-07T14:14:00.017-04:00

Labor Day 2009. The day dawned but never turned into a sunrise, such as those to which we've become accustomed for the past 2 weeks or so........the extent of our summer for this year. The long-running warm weather system moved eastward during the night and the day has remained gray and cool, reverting back to the seasonal pattern of the past 4 months. Too bad for us, the summer-seekers, we who wait all year to revel in the heat of this short season here in the mountains. Summer means donning shorts, tank top, sandals and nothing else! when we can pop early out of bed and wear these skimpy clothes all day and into the warm night! Aaahhhh! So we are sad to bid farewell to this summer that wasn't and, hope springing eternal as it does, we decide that it was just a global warming fluke and set our sights on 2010, knowing that next year will definitely be better, if we can just wait for it.

Good sized pears have grown this year with all the moisture we've had and so I picked some early to ripen more fully on the kitchen porch table. They have begun to ripen over this period of sun and warmth, and we will soon be poaching pears and freezing pears and eating as many as we are able, as nothing is better than a sun-warmed pear picked ripe from the tree, its luscious juices running down your arm as you bite into its sweetness and savor its fragrant flesh.

Nothing is BETTER than a sun-warmed pear, but vine-ripened tomatoes are right up there at the top of the food chain! Surprise! we were able to save some of our plants from the viral blight by cutting off all the green leafy parts, encouraging the denuded plants to pump their lifeblood into the remaining uninfected fruits. We were rewarded by being able to harvest about 100 perfectly healthy and divinely delicious tomatoes. Those we can't manage to eat fresh, we're making into juice and sauce. Though not enough to see us through until next summer, we are grateful for what we could salvage.

New friends, old friends, those just passing through and some returning to stay, August was a month of movement for loved ones into and through our lives. It was so wonderful to see Alyx Mazerov Yuasa again after so many decades. We last saw her as an 8 or 9 year old girl and were so pleased to be able to spend a special evening together on the eve of her return to Japan and her new husband Eiwa. After so many years, we finally had the pleasure of meeting Martha Mazerov, Mike's step-mom and Alyx's grandma, a most delightfully happy and beautiful lady who we look forward to spending more quality time with!

Mike and Connie Mazerov are home now, living and working in Pittsburgh again after decades spent in Houston Texas. I think the heat and the hurricanes and the Texans finally won out! We will have many opportunities to enjoy the love and company of these old and dear friends, residing only 50 miles from us now instead of 1100!

It was indeed a pleasure to meet a new friend, Jonathan Bronitsky, the nephew of David Ginsburg. He and David stopped at the farm for dinner and a break from the road on their way from DC to Pittsburgh this week. Jonathan is relocating to Cambridge UK to study for 3 years and earn his PhD. His Uncle David, induced by the promise of a free 42" LCD TV, drove to DC to help Jonathan move his earthly belongings back home to Michigan. How's the TV working David, and how's your back?

MIMI IS BACK!! and Mo is sooooo happy! Mimi's pretty happy too, and everybody is sleeping very soundly at night with all the hard-charging exercise they are getting. The cooler weather is giving them even more of an energy boost and they run and play until they drop! Art and I only have to watch......no adults are needed in this game of "chase me, catch me, steal my toy, eat some poop, sniff a frog, chase a cat". I wish I had their stamina, endless energy and pure joy of the moment. At my age I know I will never have the stamina and energy, but I can certainly work on attaining the pure joy of living in the moment......and I shall.

Family, Friends, Food, Flowers and Fun!

2009-08-27T14:20:00.023-04:00

Boy, talk about a busy time of year! The Cook Family gatherings are "sometimes" events. Our last summer picnic was held two years ago in 2007 and was on the small side, with few able to attend. Low attendance is usually due to the fact the family is often scattered across the globe, not because we don't want to be there! We come together when we can, when we must, or at a moments' notice. This years' party, held on 8/22/09, was a larger gathering of 2 generations of siblings, cousins, and the family dogs. It's a toss-up as to who had the better time, the peeps or the dogs!

The Cook family's older generation are sisters and brother, Arlene (eldest), Arthur (the baby) and Sheila (the middle child), captured in the photo above left.
Many more in attendance were: Arlene's husband Robert, Sheila's two daughters, Pam and Jan, Pam's husband Michael and oldest son Josh, Jan's two daughters Adi and Alex, cousins Susan and husband Steve, Howard, wife Caroline and son Brett, Max's brother Harold and wife Janet, baby brother Hank, and family friend Jim. Am I forgetting anyone? Oh yes, the dogs, Moses, Charlie and Madison!

We are a beautiful family, not just on the outside, but beautiful in our hearts and in our love for one another. And love is what family is all about. Really, love is all there is........

PIZZA EVERYONE?
The Wigle's are a wonderful family who live over the mountain in Ligonier, PA. On Sunday, 8/23, the day after our family picnic, we attended the Wigle's inaugural pizza party. Arne and Theresa built this AWESOME pizza oven, (big enough to double as a guest house!) on their patio. A crowd of friends was treated to an extraordinary pizza festival! We all got to make our own pizzas, and it was the most amazingly mouth-watering pizza I've ever over-eaten!!

Arne Wigle, the pizza chef at his outdoor wood-fired pizza oven in Ligonier, PA. Bravo!! Delicioso!! Pizza Amore!!! Arne, you've REALLY outdone yourself!

Week ending 8/16/09. Making Lemonade out of Tomatoes, Bonne Courage Neighbors, Congratulations Molly/Farfalla..............

2009-08-18T13:37:00.041-04:00

Making lemonade out of lemons is an expression, a sort of catch-all phrase folks use when they're trying to make the best of a sub-optimal situation. In our case, it was trying to salvage as many tomatoes as possible and eventually get them to ripen before they succumb to the blight rot! We spent last Monday working in the 90 degree 'dog day' heat to cull the blighted tomato plants and harvest as many viable green tomatoes as we could find. We then began digging the potatoes we hadn't planned to dig until the cooler days of fall. However, the tomato blight is highly contagious to potatoes, both sisters in the nightshade family. We couldn't bear the thought of losing our Yukon Golds, Michigan Reds, Russian Blues and Fingerlings, so we figured we'd better start digging them early. After taking frequent but very necessary breaks for water and brow-wiping, we got the job done and filled the large garden cart with a couple hundred pounds of beautiful and thankfully healthy spuds of all shapes, colors and sizes. There are more yet to dig, all Russian Blues, but their leaves haven't died back yet and the potatoes are still so small that we decided to give them some more time to mature in the ground. In any event, we've harvested enough potatoes to see us through the coming winter and we are feeling that we have indeed made lemonade this week out of some very sour lemons.

The highlight of our week came on Sunday when we hosted a picnic for our neighbors Anne, Mike and Marie who are relocating to Duluth Minnesota for Anne's work. They have been in training here in the snowy mountains of Western Pennsylvania during the past 7 years, for their next step in northern living on the frigid shores of Lake Superior! Yikes! I wonder if tomatoes even grow that far north? But, just in case they don't like it in Minnesota, they are keeping their house across the road from our farm, so they can come back 'home' to Somerset County.......and we are very glad of that, because it means that they will return for visits and we will see them again.

My best laugh of the day came from Art, (Somerset's Woody Allen!) who I call, "Mr. All Or Nothing At All", meaning he never does anything half-way.

While I was preparing food for the picnic, he asked if he could help me do anything. I had forgotten to chop and slice the onions before applying my makeup. Not wanting mascara to run down my face, I asked him to chop the onions for me. As I busied myself with other chores, I heard the weirdest sounds! Turning to look, I saw that he had donned his old snorkel and facemask and was calmly, and without shedding a single tear, slicing and chopping onions. The sounds I heard were him breathing through the snorkel!

Eventually, about 20 friends and neighbors arrived to bid the Grassi's a fond farewell on a hot and very muggy evening. At first nobody would go outside except to grab a beer from the ice chest and come back indoors into the air conditioned comfort! But gradually a breeze began to stir, the front porch became a cool and pleasant oasis, and we were able to dine alfresco in the garden. Amazingly there were few flies or bugs, rarely the case for mid-August, and we lingered outdoors over dessert and watched the children play and the fireflies dance.

"She's a pinball wizard, there's got to be a twist. A pinball wizard - she's got such a supple wrist. How do you think she does it? (I don't know) What makes her so good?"......Lyrics by The Who (with gender liberties taken by Max)............... Molly Atkinson, daughter of LT and sister of Paige, is hilariously funny and literally lives life on the edge of the stage! She works in LA in the movie business, as a Production Coordinator or Asst. Coordinator, or Art Coordinator or Asst., or Costumer, or Seamstress, or Stylist, or some combination thereof. She's a go-getter extraordinaire, sometimes at the Emmys, Oscars, Grammys and BET Awards, sometimes on a series......one never knows where she will turn up, especially Molly. Now add to her list of accomplishments, the highest ranking non-professional woman pinball player in the world, since competing in the World Pinball Championships held this past weekend at Pittsburgh PA! WOW! Congratulations Moll!

It's been an action-packed week, and these are just some of the highlights. Art was also on call, arraigning over a dozen 'alleged' criminals, so we didn't get much sleep during the course of the above events but, as I always tell him, "Heck honey, we can sleep when we're dead, right?" I'm not sure if there is a moral or a lesson this week. Sometimes school is just "out" and we can take a vacation from learning lessons. Sometimes there is a lull and a period of quiet before the storm, too! So, maybe this week's lesson can be found in the words of David A. Schmaltz, "Life is a rollercoaster. Try to eat a light lunch."

Week ending 8/9/09 - Weather Extremes, Antiques, Pesto! and Blight....

2009-08-09T19:59:00.005-04:00

This week began where the last one left off - the weather was cool and damp and sullen with threatening skies that failed to deliver. We had rare glimpses of the full moon, its brightness backlighting the scudding clouds. Lunacy was rampant with coyotes howling in the night, three ATV accidents and two suicides in our small town. The rains held off on Tuesday evening as we attended Somerset's Community Night Out, but Wednesday's newspaper reported that police had been kept busy all night with drunks and domestic disturbances. By Wednesday the weather was still cool and damp and the nighttime temperatures were in the low 50's with dense fog, just downright cold for early August even by our mountain standards. By Thursday the weather had begun to normalize a bit and we had a great dinner at the Somerset Lion's Club's annual picnic.

On Friday morning we decided that the basil just had to be picked as the plants were beginning to blossom. More worrisome however, was that they were suddenly being devoured by Japanese beetles. So we picked our six basil bushes almost completely clean of fragrant leaves. It's quite amazing that four purchased basil plants and two home-grown-from-seed plants could produce a half bushel basket of leaves! It is even more amazing that the same half bushel of leaves would only yield 2-1/2 quarts of basil pesto for the freezer. I always blanch the fresh basil leaves so that the pesto retains that beautiful deep green color after it's been frozen and defrosted. A delicious bonus is the 'basil tea' that is a by-product of the blanching process. I like to freeze pesto in 1-cup containers and use it throughout the year to make spreadable pesto goat cheese, a mixture of equal parts of pesto and soft goat cheese that we love on crackers or pita chips. We also often make a simple basil alfredo cream sauce for pasta and usually have that topped with sauteed scallops. Our favorite use for pesto is to smear it on the pizza dough before adding the sauce and other toppings, giving the pizza that wonderful fresh garlicky flavor.

So, with the pesto safely tucked away in the freezer for the year, I headed back out to the garden to see what else was ripe. I found perfect baby carrots, some beautiful beets that had been hiding under the potato plants, some late season cucumbers, more zucchini and Asian eggplants. I picked a veritable rainbow of veggies, as many as my basket could hold, and unloaded them all onto the table on the porch just outside the kitchen door that serves as my outdoor cooler in the summer. They looked so gorgeous that I just had to go inside for my camera to memorialize the bounty of this years' garden.

While I had been busy with the pesto and the veggie harvesting, Art had been down at the lake mowing the shoreline with our antique sickle bar mower. This mower is an old John Deere #1 sidebar mower, the first model John Deere ever made, and ours must be at least 70 years old. We bought it when we bought the farm in 1971 and had always run it with our 1948 International 'M' tractor, which has really seen better days. However, since we had recently purchased a newer 4WD John Deere 4720 diesel tractor, Art decided to try to run the mower with it instead of with old "Emmy Lou". After a few mounting bracket amendments fashioned with the use of our welder and the addition of a lengthened driveshaft, his mission was accomplished. The 4720 and the #1 sickle bar were off and mowing! Art did a brilliant job on the conversion and is so tickled to be using the old antique sidebar mower with the new tractor.

This brings me to the sad news of the past week......the late tomato blight has finally struck our garden. We had been watching for it and discovered it yesterday on a couple of our dozen plants. By this afternoon it was rapidly appearing on almost every plant. The weather finally turned to summer with a humid heat wave that rolled in last night, and today we had our first day over 80 degrees since summer began, but it was too late to save our tomatoes from the late blight. We've decided to dig our potatoes tomorrow so they don't fall victim to the blight as well. We will also begin to harvest our unaffected green tomatoes, wash them well and store them to ripen indoors away from airborne spores. We will have to dig out all the plants by the roots, bag them in black plastic bags and send them off the property to the landfill. After this is accomplished, we will need to rototill the soil and then sterilize all of our digging tools. I am encouraged by the news that the late blight does not survive the cold winter weather, and as long as we rotate our tomatoes to a different part of the garden next summer, we should be rid of this disease. I think I might also look for blight resistant tomato plants for next year's garden.

I'm not sure what I learned this week as far as my late, lamented tomatoes go. Maybe I have had reinforced the excellent and oft repeated advice of my husband, "Have no expectations and you will suffer no disappointments." I experienced sadness over the loss of the tomatoes, which epitomize summer to me. But I also shared in Art's exultation in giving new life to an old mower, reminding me that even old things, (people, too) can have renewed usefulness and purpose.......and that gives me hope for the future.

Week ending 8/2/09 - The Great Northeast Tomato Blight

2009-08-02T12:30:00.000-04:00

My heart is heavy for my dear friend, Paige Atkinson, who runs a CSA near Lake Placid, NY, as I just learned that she had to destroy her 325 tomato plants due to late blight. The entire Northeastern US tomato crop it seems, has fallen prey to late blight, most notably tomato plants purchased from big box stores. Those that were home-raised from seed seem to be faring better, but they too are susceptible to this airborne blight that releases spores which travel distances on the breezes to affect tomatoes and potatoes, both members the nightshade family. Apparently this is the same blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine that began in 1845 and lasted for six long and deadly years.

So far our dozen tomato plants are unaffected, but the wet and cool weather we've been plagued with, (the 5th coolest July on record with an average temperature of 67.3 degrees), may yet take its toll.The skies have looked like this for the past several weeks, overcast with low, dark clouds moving by, seemingly just above the reach of my upstretched arm. The air tastes wet and earthy, and smells cling to the humidity and are carried along by the constant breeze that turns up the leaves and makes the windchimes clamor. Rainfall this week was 1-1/2 inches, not a great amount for the week but it fell almost constantly, with no respite for the ground to dry out a bit between the tropical downpours.

Every day (several times a day?!) I go out to the garden to inspect the tomatoes and am relieved to find the plants healthy, though the tomatoes themselves seem, to my impatient mind, to be very slow to ripen this year without the heat and sunshine. I suppose we are fortunate that our nearest neighbor's tomato patch is more than 1/4 mile away. The fields that buffer our tomatoes from his have probably kept our tomatoes blightless so far. I cannot imagine a summer without our own home-grown tomatoes, the plants so carefully chosen, planted, protected from frost, nurtured, staked, pruned, pollinated with q-tips (in case the bees aren't doing their jobs correctly!), harvested, juiced and sauced.....it goes on and on, the enjoyment we reap from our own tomatoes. They are the superstars of summer!

This week we ate our Asian eggplants for the first time. Peppers are growing on the pepper plants. We harvested some beets this week and started to dig Yukon Gold potatoes. We planted new crops of spinach, cilantro and a fall beet crop. In the upcoming week I will harvest the basil and make pesto for the freezer. The cucumbers are slowing down now but we still have lots of 8-Ball zucchini, which are so outstanding when they are fried!

Lessons learned (or reinforced) this week: Don't count your tomatoes while they are still on the vine. Impatience is not a virtue; it just makes one anxious. Trust that all is in perfect and Divine order.

Weekend of 7/26/09 - The Great Allegheny Passage

2009-07-26T22:22:00.000-04:00

The weeks of summer are flying by and the days go by in a blur and seem to overlap each other. This must have been "dog week" at Jolico, as we had 3 wonderful dogs visiting with us, as well as a few humans. We started the week off with the end of Mike and Connie Mazerov's visit and a trip with them, Dick Diamondstone and Mike and Barb DeMarco to District Court 16-3-03 on Tuesday 7/21. For that period and for most of the previous week, Mimi McClintock was our houseguest.
Mimi is a black Standard French Poodle. Mo thinks she's quite a looker and Art calls her "Frenchy"! We love her dearly and Jolico Farm has become her second home. Here she is free to lounge on the couches, play with Mo's toys, wade in the lake and run like the wind. She and Mo compete for sticks and frisbee's and they spend all their time together, side by side, even when they are sleeping. Mimi spent a week with us from 7/16 to 7/22 and came back for a playdate on 7/23 because she missed us so much! She came for the afternoon and stayed for supper as she eats much better after lots of exercise and when she's eating beside Mo.

On Saturday we picked up Luke Robinson and his 2 Great Pyrenees dogs, Hudson and Murphy from the trailhead at Ohiopyle, PA on the Great Allegheny Passage. Luke and the boys are walking 2,400 miles over 2 years from Austin to Boston, to raise funds that will finance the first ever nationwide epidemiological canine cancer study. Their website, http://2dogs2000miles.org explains their mission, is where they post their blog and Twitter feed, and where donations can be made and items can be purchased in support of their walk. I have been following them on Twitter for some time now, and when they came through Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago and then literally into our backyard here in the Laurel Highlands, I knew I just had to offer them a night's rest in a real bed and a couple of good, home-cooked meals along with a shower for Luke and an opportunity to get his gear and clothes cleaned up. The weather over the last few weeks has been rainy and stormy and they all appreciated a roof over their heads, a soft bed and, for Murphy and Hudson, some time off-leash with the opportunity to run free here on the farm. We enjoyed having them with us and making a fuss over them. We returned them to the trailhead at Confluence PA this afternoon and saw them off on their way east.

They are hoping to make it to Meyersdale PA by Wednesday, at which time they will meet their ride back to Pittsburgh for some more events where they are scheduled to appear, before heading back to the trail and on to Leesburg, VA around September 1. They plan to be in Washington DC on September 18th. Future stops include Baltimore, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Allentown, NYC for Christmas, Hartford, Providence and Boston by May, 2010. We wish them Godspeed, and our prayers for a safe and gratifying mission. They are very special guys.

Week ending 7/18/09

2009-07-19T18:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday evening and another week of summer is gone. Gone too is an old and dear friend, Patty McCurdy Pearce, who passed away on 7/15/09 with friends and family by her side. Patty became my friend when we were both 14 and found ourselves in the same homeroom at Peabody High School in Pittsburgh, PA. The date was September, 1960. We spent 4 years of high school sitting side by side, and have served on our high school reunion committee together in past years. Patty was a vibrant, witty, energetic, funny, flirty, beautiful woman who loved people and music and laughter and good food. At age 62, Patty died too young and too quickly from a raging cancer that had taken her life before she could even be diagnosed. Rest in peace, Patty. You were, and always will be loved.

On a happier note is the visit this weekend of dear friends Mike and Connie Mazerov from Houston Texas, formerly from Pittsburgh, PA. We attended a wonderful reunion yesterday at the home of David and Mickie Chatkin, that included friends of Mike who grew up together during the 50's and 60's on Lilac Street in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill section. Mike and Connie, along with Gerri Lockhart, will visit with us tomorrow and stay overnight until Tuesday when, with Dick Diamondstone and Barb and Mike DeMarco joining us, we will visit District Court 16-3-03 to watch Art in action dispensing justice.

Lessons learned or reinforced this past week: Live each day to the fullest and be all that you can be. Have no regrets in life. Never pass up a chance to tell someone that you love them. Good friends are precious. Good health is the most precious gift of all of the blessings that God bestows upon us, for without good health, life is not as sweet. In the end, love is all there is........

News for week ending 7/11/09

2009-07-11T22:05:00.002-04:00

We have come to the end of another busy week at Jolico Farm. Much progress was made this past week, though not without a lot of blood, sweat and tears! The floors are finally finished and all the baseboard trim has been installed.

I had called a local cleaning company to get an estimate on washing down the walls, woodwork and ceilings in 3 rooms and 2 hallways, as the grouting process had deposited a lot of dark dust on every surface. Two young men came to measure the areas to be cleaned in order to prepare a cost estimate for the job. They came on Thursday 7/2, and promised to call with the estimate 4 days later on the following Monday. Well, I never heard from them on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, so on Thursday (one week after they came to look over the job) I decided I needed to wash down the walls and woodwork myself or I was never going to be able to live in my house again!

So, I spent the day Thursday washing down the dining room walls, downstairs hallway and the walls going upstairs, as well as polishing the furniture, washing the windows and vacuuming and mopping the floors. It felt good to finally be moving in a forward direction, and the newly cleaned areas were so fresh and shining clean. On Friday I spent the day washing all the china and crystal and replacing the pieces in the china cupboards and unpacking and putting away the rest of the dining room housewares.

Today, Saturday, I cleaned the rest of the house, moving the furniture out from the walls and wiping down each piece with polish to rid everything of the fine dark dust that had settled throughout the house. I am down to the wire here as I have company coming for a visit tomorrow and I wanted to have everything back in place by then. The picture above of the new floors shows how great the job turned out!

Oh, yes.............on Friday the wall washing company finally called to give me their price for the wall-washing job. $1,200 to wash down 3 rooms and 2 hallways! I thanked them very kindly for their trouble and told them that, like the Little Red Hen, I'd done the job myself!

Lovely New Floors

2009-07-01T20:11:00.000-04:00

This has been such a busy week at Jolico Farm. We are in the middle of a huge flooring project in the farmhouse. We are replacing 1100 sq. ft. of carpeting with porcelain tile on the main floor of our home. Our entry hall, mud room/dog room, downstairs bathroom, kitchen and dining room are now all covered with beautiful chocolate colored tile but it's been a trying two weeks with 2 crews of tile artisans working in all of our rooms at once.

Poor Mo and Kitty. I think they have suffered the most with all the disruption. Kitty's litter box was moved upstairs and she has adjusted well to that. Mo heads outside as soon as the workmen arrive early in the morning, and he doesn't venture back indoors until he's sure all the activity has stopped for the day. He really dislikes the sound of shop-vacs and tile saws! I've pretty much stayed indoors, keeping an eye on the men as they do require a project coordinator, as well as the fact that it's been a rainy period here. I've also been researching in preparation for writing a grant for Bakersville Fire Department. They gave me exactly 10 days' notice on this one!

Art has been having a great vacation week. He planned to take this week off from work, as he does every year. He just didn't know that the flooring guys would pick last week and this one to lay our new floors. Art had ambitious plans to fix the water pumping windmill as it had a broken shaft at the top of the tower and he did accomplish this big job yesterday. He made many climbs to the top of the tower as Aermotor had sent him the wrong parts the first go-round. The new ones finally arrived yesterday and he was able to complete the job, so we are back on wind power for our water system.

Art also swept our main chimney, the one attached to our Tarm wood-burning furnace and he swept out all the clean-out doors and connecting pipes. He is always happy when he gets less than a bucket-full of ash and carbon because that means that our furnace has been burning efficiently. Yesterday he also spread 22 tons of gravel on the road down to our lake, after having cleaned the ditches out of last fall's leaf mold with the hi-lift bucket. It was the first stone we've put on the road in 8 years so this was a timely project, too.

Today we had problems when the men pulled the toilet out of the downstairs bathroom and the water supply line kept leaking water. After two trips to the plumbing supply store, Art got the correct parts and was able to fix the faulty valve, and the bathroom tile was finally installed. After grouting is completed tomorrow and the toilet is reseated, we can again use the bathroom. The kitchen should also be finished tomorrow and the fridge and range will both be placed back into their respective slots from the center of the kitchen floor where they are sitting right now. Needless to say, we picked up some pizza for supper tonight as we were not able to use our appliances to cook a meal.

Tomorrow should be a wrap-up day for the project with only a few small details to be completed into next week. The oak moldings and trim strips will be installed and the grout will be sealed. I can't wait to wash the grit off the new floors and everywhere else in the house that it seems to have coated! I will probably be cleaning all weekend but in the end, as with all major upheavals, this one will be worth it!

2009-06-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

This is the first post of the Jolico Farm Blog. Today is Saturday, June 27, 2009.

Jolico Farm is located in Somerset, PA, high atop the Laurel Ridge off of Exit 110 of the PA Turnpike. Founded in 1971 by Maxine and Arthur Cook, Jolico Farm was named for Joseph and Lillian Cook, Art's parents. The name was used several times in the past, first as the name of the Cook family's beach house on Long Beach Island, NJ back in the 40's and 50's. The name of Jolico was also given to the Cook family's winter home in Miami Beach, Florida in the '60's. As a tribute to Joe and Lil Cook, Art and Maxine named their farm, Jolico Farm when they purchased the property in 1971.

After so many years of living at Jolico Farm, there are many stories to tell and I will get to some of them in the course of my ramblings. But I started this blog this evening on a whim and it is late so I will keep this entry short and end it here.