Celebration, Cards, Cameron

After applying with four others for the job of Garden Manager for the now-being-created Lord's Acre, I was chosen as of Thursday night and we celebrate here with a WHOLE PAN of tiramisu (my favorite Italian dessert) that Walker was thoughtful enough to order for me from one of the resturaunts he delivers meat to. Cameron picked it up and surprised me with it last night. It was awesome to say the least. If you haven't tried this killer dessert, run to your nearest good Italian resturaunt and try some. I'm thrilled to have the job but a thousand times more thrilled to have had my son remember his mama this way. Thanks Walker and Cameron.  
Don't say men can't multi-task. Here Walker is cutting and sewing a leather sheath for one of his knives and Jake is knitting a fingerless glove WHILE whooping up on Franklin in a card game.
 
While the men were multi-tasking, Cameron was supremely focused on her entrance essay for graduate school at Appalachian. She was a dual major in Cultural Anthropology and Human Geography at UNC and is looking to pursue a graduate degree in Sustainable Development in the Appalachian Studies Department at App. If that's Greek to you, she hopes to work and teach her combined loves of sustainable agriculture, food, community, and cultural studies.
 

Firewood

We start off with two family members who didn't cut wood last weekend but who set the mood with their (they swear they didn't plan this) almost matching lunberjack outfits. Awwww. In all fairness, Cameron helped unload wood here at the house.  
Franklin and John Wander (our long-time family doctor friend) midway into a long day of wood cutting. Friend and neighbor, David Fletcher, whose family has owned land here for ages, offered us these huge trees then helped us cut as well. Both families got enough wood for next year and there's still another day's worth of wood in the main trunks.
 
Luke Wander and I were the grunts. We hauled and stacked, drove it home and unloaded. He outworked me, of course and Franklin coveted John's helper (Luke) over his own helper (me) but no hurt feelings here. We helped each other and are now set for next year and can concentrate on 2011 wood.
 

A Few More Second Skating Photos

 
 
 
 

Second Ice Skaing

Technicians note: We're sorry for the technical difficulties on the last two posts. They came from a camera phone. We are dilligently working to make the images appear) I thought I posted the following 2nd Skating photos but perhaps I just emailed them. We hadn't had ice skating in Fairview for at least five years and this year we got TWO different sessions. This one is on the pond belonging to Steve Norris and Kendall Hale of Fairview. It was a quick, early morning skate because the day was warming up. By the time this one was taken, the school-age kids and their parents had left since school had a delayed start due to some snow still on the ground. Here you have one under twelve player, a teens player (Jake), and twenty and thirty-somethings, all hard-core skaters. Jake is in the green shirt(he borrowed his roomate's car and zoomed over from campus)and Walker is in the purple shirt and is sport a top-knot hairdo. His boss is in the yellow so no worries about being late to work.  
 
 
 

Young Photographer

Here Gabe and another guest at Martha's party take photos of each other with camera phones. Kari caught him trying to figure out the technology in this pose. Earlier he'd crashed the women's tea by running in screaming and shreaking from playing outside with friends. His mom took him aside and talked to him a LONG time. When they emerged everyone asked him if he was okay, if he'd gotten hurt. "NO," he said with a pitiful wail. "I'm grounded... Forever... I'll never be not grounded...." and he broke into an even longer wail. One of the women piped up, "At least you're grounded when there are lots of goodies on the table." He perked up after that.  

My Friend Turns 82

Yesterday we had a tea for our friend Martha. Everyone brought goodies and the tea and coffee was flowing freely. This photo is from a camera phone and so, is a bit fuzzy.  

Goodies & Grandmother House

Valentines Day called for something special so I went for this artery-clogging chocolate-mocha roll cake. The filling and topping is pure, homemade whipping cream flavored with coffee and coffee liqueur. Jake lucked out by coming home for the weekend while Walker and Cameron were gone to a conference in Chapel Hill.
 
Another weekend baking endeavor was my first time making this awesome bread my friend Rebecca's been making. It's NO KNEAD! It comes out like the expensive artisan bread you see in health food stores. With a little flour, salt, water and a quarter teaspoon of yeast who can believe you can create this? The site to go to for this is Breadtopia - there's a lot on there but scroll down and look for "no-knead bread". There are two videos to show you what to do. I don't have a clay cloche so I used my cast iron dutch oven but my friend has tried it in a regular bread pan and it seemed to come out just fine.
 
Here's what Franklin worked on today - the grout between the tiles in the rental/grandma house where the woodstove is going to go. Soon he'll clear out the tools, cardboard, and scraps and such and we'll send some pictures of what it really looks like.
 
A shot of the bathroom sink.
 

Remodeling - Kitchen Shots

Franklin (and friend Jeff) have been working hard on the remodeling job turning our old barn into a small apartment. Here are some recent photos of the kitchen. Cabinets are in. Wall microwave needs a vent hood over top. Large window is over kitchen sink, back door has lots of glass panels for a great eastern view. We're almost there!!!!!!!!! 
 
 
 

Danger: Men Cooking

Cameron used her new moon and stars cookie cutters to whip us up a batch of Mexican Wedding Cookies - pecans and butter - how can you go wrong. They were out of this world.  
Two weekends ago, Jake came home one evening and immediately set about making two blackberry pies. Guess he was craving homemade desserts. Here, friend Austin gets in on the act and rolls out come pie dough.
 
Our friend Erin who used to work with Walker but who is now visiting her boyfriend in New Zealand, showed us how to grate the hard, cold butter into the flour to make great pie crust. This is the first time we tried it.
 
Jake's got the touch. His pies turned out scrumptious. Sorry, there are no photos - the pies were gone in a heartbeat.
 

It's All Sarah's Fault

A friend of ours, Sarah - who used to work on the farm - cuts hair for fun. She's never taken classes but she does a good job and does it for free or for trade. Several weeks ago I got up the nerve to let her have a go at my grown-out hair. Last week, Cameron decided to go even shorter. If you're needing to know what's "hot" in hairstyles this spring, take a tip from the Sides' house and get a sassy bob.  
 

Too Good To Be True

Unbelievably a different pond froze several weeks later. This one is on Steve Norris and Kendal Hale's property in Fairview. It's smaller but any skating is good skating. All four of these photos show a bit of the action. Jake is in a green shirt and Walker in a purple-looking shirt (and he has a topknot). See if you can spot them.  
 
 
 

Ice Skating - Finally

It's been maybe five years since there's been ice skating in Fairview but this year, the call finally came. When the weather looks right, people start checking the ponds and usually, Doug Clarke makes the final call when he thinks the ice is thick enough. After several COLD nights (twice we had 5 degrees), the phones started ringing. Everyone was called, the boxes of skates were rounded up from the basements and attics, Doug loaded the hockey sticks and pucks, snacks and thermoses were stuffed on top of extra hats and scarves and within a half hour, a peaceful pond in Gerton became the center the community. Here Walker shows his true love by lacing up Cameron's skates - a labor of love if there ever was one.  
A good view of most of the pond with full-blown action.
 
Cameron and Jake do dance around the hockey puck.
 
Walker hangs out in the wings where he can receive the puck, un-challenged -- at least for a few seconds.