Ben's In Town Thursday! I'll Be There!

When Ben Hewitt met Erik Gillard, he was amazed. Here was a real-life rebel living happily and comfortably in small-town Vermont on less than $10,000 per year. Gillard’s no bum. He has a job, a girlfriend, good friends, and strong ties to the community. But how he lives his life–and why–launches Hewitt on a quest to understand the true role of money and mindless consumerism in our lives. By meeting and befriending people like Erik Gillard, Hewitt realized that their happiness was real. What was he–and the rest of a deeply unhappy population–missing?

Saved is the humorous, surprising, and ultimately life-changing result of Hewitt’s quest, a narrative that challenges everything we know about the meaning of money. Hewitt uses his sharp eye for story, exhaustive reporting, and his own experience living below his means to bring what he learned into an even larger context. How does money really work? How can a bankrupt society move forward? The answers are not what you think, and Hewitt has written an important book for our times.

Thursday, June 20th
7:00 pm
Battenkill Books
FREE!

Monday Nights Mean Possible Owlbears

Planning 100hr PiC Flight

Most people quote their total time (TT), however my first aviation goal was to get to 100hrs Pilot-in-Command (PiC) time whilst living here in the US. Progress has been slow over the last few weeks, but right now I sit at 95 hours PiC. It's time to start planning that 100 hour flight.

KBFI and KSEA

Where better place to go than Boeing Field (KBFI) in Washington State. To be honest it was a coin toss between KPAE and KBFI. I have already visited the Boeing Factory at KPAE (by car!) plus I wanted a more challenging arrival. KBFI is located on the approach path to KSEA. Yesterday SEA was landing on 16L and 16C. Aircraft on the approach were switched to SEA TWR right over the top of BFI at about 2000' MSL. I will enjoy the challenge flying into BFI below the traffic.

Transient parking is available at BFI. I plan to visit the Museum of Flight before heading south back to Oregon.

Hoping this flight will take place a week or two before Oshkosh 2013. Failing that, I will take the flight in early August. 

My home airport in Oregon is 7S3. There is a VOR (Newberg) a few miles south. My flight north will take be outbound on the VOR through the class delta of KHIO. I will then pick up flight following with PDX DEP.

7S3 -> SEA (initial routing)

Father's Day at the Boeing Factory

Went back to the Boeing factory today. This time I took my wife and kids for the first time. They loved it. Last month I saw the first three BA 787's. This time I saw the fourth one (BJD) outside the paint shop.

Unloading 787 Parts KPAE

Tried to get a look a the new 787-900 but it was out of sight. However I did enjoy viewing the 747-8, 767, 777 and 787 production lines. At the front of the 787 line was the fourth Aero Mexico order and the first Jetstar (Qantas) order.

Out on the ramp area I saw several finished 787's including two of the other BA's and one Thomson jet. 

Will probably head back again in another month or two to see what progress there has been. I would love to get up there for BA's first delivery flight but I doubt that will happen.

My Part Time Job

I spent today at the British School of Falconry in Manchester Vermont. It's about a thirty minute drive from Cold Antler. It's also the location of my summer part-time job teaching archery to beginners. Today I was there to instruct a family from New Hampshire in a two-hour course in traditional archery. We started with a safety lesson and instruction on stance, arms, draw, and aim and then spent 45 minutes learning to shoot targets in a beautiful open field. As we shot the occasional Harris Hawk swooped by to visit us and I couldn't hide my smile as I told the archers on the line to hold. I thought to myself, This is my JOB now. I work at a place where falconry and forest hikes are something I am paid to do. This never stops amazing me, even a few weeks into the gig.

We shot under cloudy skies but it didn't rain. The weather held off. When everyone felt confident with their mad skills we went for a walk through the forest. There's a trail that leads around curves and bends to 3D animal targets hidden in the foliage. My students got to really use what they learned out there on the target stretch, aiming at large bear and deer targets from platforms and behind posts. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I felt like I was on vacation, too!

I found this video online of the British School of Falconry. If you watch it you'll see my new place of work, meet Rob my boss (the English Gent) and get a feel for what my office life is like now! And if you are ever up in this area and want to learn what its like to hike with hawks on your arms, stop by for a lesson. This is the last season the School will be at this beautiful location connected with the Equinox Resort. So come and book a lesson and hawk walk, and you may see my truck parked there too. If you do I'll be out in the archery fields! Make sure you wave!

Announcing Bed, Book, and Bok Bok!

Two days of raised bed gardening, writing, and chickens! In this workshop we'll spend a weekend together making something out of nothing. We'll go through the entire process of turning a patch of lawn into a vegetable garden with nothing but a hoe, some boards, nails, a hammer, and the natural compost from this farm. We'll plant it too, and talk about what is being planted and why. We'll also cover basic ways to turn that hard-working patch of lawn into a three-season salad bar by adding a simple poly-tunnel cover to it. It'll be an outdoor workshop, rain or shine, and together we'll work a little piece of land into something fantastic; a backyard grocery. You can go home and do the same thing on your own turf and have a little backyard salad bar with a plastic cover that can extend the kale, spinach, and lettuce we'll plant right through frost! It's never too late to start a garden, even in late July!

That will be with the bulk of Saturday. The afternoon will involve a rest under the Maple tree to talk about writing, books, and I'll do some reading from stuff I am working on for the future. A little literary performance plus a long Q&A about blogging, publishing, and the genre of farm memoir. That night there will be a campfire (weather permitting) at the farm. No plans but to enjoy each other's company at that. It isn't part of the workshop as much as a private party to enjoy campfire light and fireflies and some fiddle tunes.

Sunday will be a day entirely about things that go Bok. A full day dedicated to backyard chickens! We'll cover everything you need to know from bringing home your first chicks or adult layers to nutrition, health, predators, and butchering. There won't be a live demo of an animal being butchered but there will be a discussion about it and explanation of how it is done and options for those not interested in gutting poultry. Growing your own food doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can pick apples and take them to a mill to be turned into cider. You can buy started six-packs of veggies from a greenhouse. You can pay for a professional to slaughter your fowl. More mindful and agricultural living isn't about doing it all yourself as much as it is knowing where your food comes from. Consider this a beginner's weekend on all fronts!

This is a great workshop for people in towns, urban, and suburban areas. It shows you how to take those very first steps towards a more self-sufficient life. The skills to create a raised bed garden transcend many levels of growing food, and the basics of solid chicken care are the foundation for any future dreams of dairy goats or draft horses. Make this the first step in getting your hands dirty and face smiling. And absolute country living newbies are welcome! You don't have to know a single thing about gardens or poultry to attend, and you may even get the most out of it! So come visit the farm, spend two days working and laughing with amazing people from all over the Northeast (and sometimes farther!) and stay for a hard cider and fiddle tune by the campfire.

Date: July 27-28th 2013 in Jackson
10AM-4PM both days
Cost: $200
Class Limit: 15

photo by jon katz

Falconry Update! Welcome to the New Age!

For those of you following along in my Falconry Journey, here is an update on all things hawk in my life. Back in April I took the state's written exam for prospective Falconer's. I needed to score an 80 or higher to be allowed to move forward with the process. I studied and studied, and studied some more and I ended up scoring a solid 91 on the test! A few weeks later I got a packet of "next steps" which includes all the requirements I need to prepare to trap, train, and own a bird of prey. I have the summer to build a MEWS (hawk house), weathering area, gather supplies, and get a state game official to come and inspect my property, supplies, and the hawk house. If I have this all collected, built, and signed off on by the state I am allowed to get some paperwork signed by my mentor Ed Hepp and mail in my official license application. Whew. I'm getting winded just writing about it!

It's overwhelming to me, too. But I am just setting it into little steps. My next step is to have Ed come to the farm and exam my property and find the best place to build the MEWS. Once I have his advice in my head, I will save money up and gather the help of friends to build the little 8x8 house for the redtail (or kestrel). That is where my head is at right now. Get Ed to the farm, listen to him very, very, very hard and write down everything he says. He knows more about this sport than any book or exam paper ever could teach me. Once I have his opinion/blessing I will plan the building of the structure.

Once I have the house made I will need to build the weathering area next, which is an outdoor chain link area that sun, wind, and rain can get on the hawk. It needs a special bath tub and perches, but it should be easy enough to create thanks to a dog run at Tractor Supply. When both the MEWS and weathering area are up I need to order some hawk gear like hoods, jesses, a travel box, and a digital perch scale from some outfitters and I'll gather them by and by. I already have some of the gear I need like my left hand gauntlet and a creance. If you have no idea what I'm talking about don't worry. All I'm saying is I need hawk tackle and so far I have a glove and a leash. I already have all the state's hunter's safety requirements and a small game license so that huge part of the process is already done.

I hope to have everything here and ready for State Inspection by early August. Then I can gather my approved paperwork and have Ed fill out the stuff that lets the state know he is taking responsibility for me as his apprentice and will be joining me on our first hunting trips. When all this is done, all of it, I am allpowed to send it all to the capital with a check for $40 and they will return to me a bone fide Falconer's Apprentice State License. It legally allows me to trap and train a wild juvenile red tail hawk and be its keeper while we learn to hunt together.

After a few hunting trips I am free to take my hawk on my arm, saddle up my horse, and ride into the autumn mountains with my black highland pony while a hawk flies overhead! Can you imagine it? I can. And when I do imagine it the Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling are covering radioactive as the soundtrack. (Thank you, Grace Helbig for the link.) That is one badass version of that song, created with only two stringed instruments, a human beat box, and a few voices. Every time I hear it I want to be cantering Merlin up a hillside in October with my own hawk alongside us, swooping ahead on the trail as as hunt pheasants, rabbits, quail, and squirrels. I shake just thinking about it. I mean, if you're going to be excited about one life, might as well be your own...

And That, boys and girls, is Living Like Fiction!