Supporting Locally

I've been doing a lot of consideration about supporting not only local agriculture, but local businesses. We don't go out to eat much (though we love to!), mostly because it feels expensive. It also feels like a luxury. However there are some really fantastic businesses open in Eastport supplying our community with services that we have been saying for so long that we desperately need. So we've made a family decision that we need to put our pocketbooks there. I feel like we can't afford for these businesses to go out of business. So once a week I'm going to get a latte downtown. And once a week our family will go out to dinner. We're also going to buy a modest amount a of fancy cheese every week when Raf is in Machias. This is important, this is quality of life. We make have made sacrifices away from our urban roots to live where we do and if we can have the option of lattes and lamb and mexican and gourmet cheese in Washington County then we better use those businesses or otherwise they might not always exist. Your vote matters, shop local!


(Everything is just fine here in HopkinsLand, we just had an early, long day away from the house and poor little Hearts in Cobscook Bay was neglected.)

The House With The Yellow Back Door.

It's a little thing really, on the scale of everything we've accomplished on the exterior of our home this year. It's just 2 coats of paint. It took less time than a sunny afternoon gives you to work with. You can do it with an 18 month old at your feet (or on your back, or given snacks at the table in sight of a working Momma). You can even chat while you do it. You can sing a song, or whistle or think while you do it. All it takes is a steady hand and a few inexpensive materials.

The color is yellow. It's a feels like an old Yankee color to me. Bright in the sunlight, but gentle in the shade. Friendly, warm and safe. It feels like home. It feels like our home. There is personality in the color... cheerful, historic and somehow modern. There's a bit of orange in the bright yellow, but also a subtle tone of grey. It's a mark of character on a white home. It's an individualized touch against cedar shingles.

It's actually quite a monumental thing to paint the entry to our home. It creates a sense of completion, of care and of detail on our house which often feels like a work in progress. This is where we enter our family, where others are welcomed into our sanctuary. This is the safe place in which we raise our child and ourselves. It is where our cats come home to, and where our friends knock when they are looking for us. It is a place which is sacred. So really this small bit of time, of energy and care is really quite large. The two coats of paint feel like a baptism.

We are home.

Surprises

Waking up earlier because the clocks changed back and having an extra hour each morning to loll about is welcome.

Walking outside and discovering you don't need the gloves that you have in your hands and shoving them in your pockets.

Seeing your shadow against the fresh, brand-new cedar shingles that you put on part of your house this weekend.

Knowing that you learned so much about being a carpenter in the last 2 weekends.

Walking to the chicken coop to let the girls out and finding not only an egg in the nesting box, but some of our new younger girls were hanging out in there; which is a great reminder that you may receive more than 2 eggs every 3 days from your 13 chickens some day.

The number of lattes you start drinking when you get a new espresso machine.

The fact that recipes in cookbooks are for a commercial 4-5# duck and not the heritage breed 3# duck that you're cooking for dinner tonight.

How flexible you can be when wanting to accomplish a dream.

That your daughter is capable of throwing real honest to goodness tantrums now.

Other people have excellent ideas if you're not too closed to accept something different than your idea.

Life in Image

Hello White House; Hello not falling in on itself porch.
Feverish Teething Girl in Sweater by Great Grammy.
Too Sweet!
Anne does Construction (and loves it!)
Top of Shackford with friends.

Catering part 5

I just completed my fifth catering gig of the season. This is starting to feel like a regular thing. It was another lovely event for The Tide Institute, a lunchtime, finger foods meal highlighting our local farms! Dream Job!

The Menu:

Pumpkin, Caramelized Onion and Colby Tarts
Lamb Cove Farm, Kilby Ridge Farm, Sonnetal Dairy

Roast Beef with Horseradish Fromage Blanc on Baguette
Tide Mill Farm, Tide Mill Creamery, Homemade in Dennysville

Dill Pickles, Bread & Butter Pickles, Brine Pickles, Pickled Fiddleheads, Dilly Beans & Pickled Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers, Homemade in Eastport

Chevre Platter, Greek Yogurt Dip, Sliced Carrots & Baguette
Gardenside Dairy, Tide Mill Creamery, Tide Mill Farm

Apple Crumble Bars
Maine Grown Liberty Apples, Maine Grown & Milled Flour, Kate's Butter

I absolutely love making local food for people to enjoy. I love it. It is my passion. However I am outgrowing my home kitchen, majorly. So what's the next step? I don't know yet, but something is hatching in this brain of mine. Between my growing buying club, my informal catering and the Starting A Small Business Class that I'm taking the gears are in motion. I feel empowered to make a plan, we'll start with the family plan and move on to the business plan. Wheels are turning...

This Piece and That Piece

Have you noticed how sometimes the universe manages to put all of the pieces together for you and you hardly have to lift a finger? I remember moving a lot of boulders at one point, and I can see a forest of trees down the line, however today I feel like I'm walking down a neat and tidy garden path. The questions of why and how seem to be being answered for me today, like the universe is giving me a green light over and over again. I welcome this. I am thankful for this. I love my family.

I Suppose I Should Tell You About Halloween

Cutie bug of the century? Well she was a strawberry. A simple piece of fleece with seeds painted on and leaves sewn around her collar, placed over a black turtleneck and tights. She tasted her first Kit-Kat, ate plenty of chicken soup and stood on her tiptoes to reach the plate of grapes on the table. She was extremely comfortable at the party, a delightful mix of independent and dependent. Wandering around, hanging with aunties and uncles and just generally enjoying herself completely. So satisfying as a mother to see her so self assured and comfortable in groups while checking in regularly with us.

And us Parents? Geriatric Nova Scotia Tourists. Matching sweatshirts, baby powder hair, glasses and blue blocker solar shields; cardigan, herringbone pants, a camera case and old man shoes for the mister; windbreaker suit, scarf, earrings & necklace, loafers, a visor cap, some carefully placed padding and water balloon breasts for the lady. We really enjoyed ourselves acting up the parts, hollering and bickering with one another. And I got really into shaking my padded butt. Our crowning achievement? We came in 2nd in the Costume Contest! I'm quite proud of this Old Couple this morning!

Halloween is so much fun with our friends and family!