Keep Going

Whenever things get overwhelming I just tell myself to keep going. I have always figured it out, and I will do my best to continue that practice. When things get scary and I doubt my choice to live the way I do I just keep going. I can either be scared of what's ahead or excited for the challenges I have yet to overcome. I'd rather live in anticipation than fear.

Falconry Update

Yesterday morning Ed Hepp, my mentor, came to the farm to help me plan a location for the Mews. What's a Mews? It's a small aviary for a trained bird of prey, also called a Hawk House. The federal regulations for falconers says that every bird must have an 8x8' space to perch, spread it's wings, bath, and have proper airflow through ventilated windows . It also needs a door for its handler to come and go, clean and feed. Ed and I walked all around my property but decided at last to build the Mews right next to the farmhouse. I have a month to buy the materials and put it together with the help of some friends and neighbors. I also need to put together a "weathering area" which is kind of like a chicken run for a hawk, and gather the rest of the supplies the state demands I have on hand before I apply to trap a bird this fall. It seems like I should have more time, but I don't. By August first I will need to have a Mews, weathering area, gear, and then a New York Game Warden come and inspect it so all is legal. Whew. I'm a little overwhelmed just thinking about it!

After the site was designated Ed and I just talked. We talked about training, hooding, trapping and the modern history of the sport. You can tell how much Ed loves Falconry, something he has been doing for over sixty years. He caught his first bird when he was thirteen, learning from books written in the 1400's a librarian found for him. I feel so lucky to have him as my mentor, honored really. Ed has so much to teach me and his descriptions of the first few weeks of training my Red Tail felt a little daunting, but I know I can do this. I have this image in my head of Me, Merlin, and the hawk heading out along a mountain trail to hunt together. It feels like something that is supposed to happen. Ed told me yesterday that "Falconers are born, not made" a quote from long ago by a famous falconer in the 1800s. Sixty years into the sport he has seen a lot of people come and go, some more reputable than others, but the people who are truly skilled at this and honestly love these amazing raptors are the ones who are the most successful.

I feel very fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time with local Falconers and different species of trained birds. Ed has a goshawk, pictured above. It's a hybrid Siberian, part African (I think?). At the British School of Falconry, where I work as an archery instructor, there are Harris Hawks and eagles and while I'm not qualified to handle them, I do get to learn about them through the instructors there. It's a dream job for me, to be around all these archers and falconers and get paid to do it. And even if I only get to ask the occasional question about feeding, housing, or training with Rob and Dawn I still get to ask it. That never happened in my other office.

August First or Bust!

Emma Dibben's Artowrk for One Woman Farm!

The Start to 50% Of My Summer Meals!

Oh Kale, how I adore you. To take a big pile of your curly, clever leaves and chop them up with a clever is a happy act, indeed. I set you in a big wok with warm oil and mix you all up in it with a wooden spoon. For a little kick I sprinkle chicken rub seasoning on you and a pinch of garlic salt until you are a cooked down, glorious, warm slaw. With that same spoon I can push you aside like wet spinach and lay a nice piece of wheat bread in there. It seeps up the oils, too. I take out my savory toast and top it with as much kale as I can and bite into it with eyes closed and a giant smile. Come midsummer this is better than any meat, any ice cream, or any fruit. It is so filling without making you feel hot and heavy. It is delicious, keen to all the human senses. All you need is a bunch of Kale, seasoning, olive oil and a slice of bread for this little bite of summer heaven in about five minutes with only one pan to wash. Divine, folks. Just divine!

Celebrating 1 Year

One year ago this week a dream of over 12 years came true. I had tried several times to get my license in Ireland but life got in the way. My dream became reality in early 2011 when I started my FAA PPL training in Arizona. On June 27^th 2012, I passed my checkride and became a Private Pilot.

One year on, I realize that I will be a student for the rest of my flying career. My last flight three weeks ago didn't go so well. Lack of a sterile cockpit led to me departing my home base in Oregon without completing finishing all items on the pre take-off checklist. Flight was uneventful, but it was my first real miss in terms of checklist execution. This knocked me back for a few days, but I am now ready to get back into the air again. Lesson learnt, I can't strive for perfection, but I might never fly that perfect flight.

I've been on so many small adventures since getting my ticket. Some of the highlights are as follows;

1. Two weeks after passing, I found myself transitioning SFO's class bravo airspace. Amazing flight with Marc.

2. Flew an overnight trip to Luke Air Force base in a C172 and spent two days with F-16 pilots and other Arizona GA pilots.

3. Flew a C172 into Sky Harbor International (PDX).

4. Landed parallel to a F-16 at KTUS.

5. Seen the joy on my kids face when they are up flying with me.

6. Flew with Marty in San Diego.

7. Expored the airspace around Phoenix enjoying every second talking with ATC.

8. Met some amazing people who I can now call friends thanks to social media and flying out of CHD.

GA is amazing in the US. I hope everyone can fight to keep it affordable. I will leave the US in 2014 back to Ireland knowing that I made the most of my time here in the US.

Over the next month I will be passing through the 100hr PiC mark. I'm planning a trip from Oregon to Boeing/King Field in Washington State.

Who knows what will happen in the next 12 months!

Short Final Half Moon Bay, CA

KPHX Cutter Aviation N54288

Overnight Flight KLUF Air Base

Andrew's Common Sense

That adorable face belongs to the newest member of Common Sense Farm, in many way's Cold Antler's bigger brother. I say that because from the month I moved to Jackson and started meeting locals it was the community at Common Sense

Andrew is the first lamb ever born to the farm, the fruit of their tiny flock of three blackface sheep (two ewes, Annabel and Rain and a ram named Cloud). Andrew came as a surprise since they weren't sure the fall breeding would even take! But here he is, a gorgeous ram lamb and named after a homeschool story about a sheep that was so loved and special, and then fed to the community. That is Andrew's fate as well, this being a working farm with Cloud already holding the only open male position on staff. But until that day comes Andrew will live a life many sheep can only dream of among the stone walls, hundreds of acres, friendly people, and constant care. When a flock of four has an 80+ person community on a mansion's property to watch it, it grows up pretty good.

I met Andrew because I offered to do any lambing work they needed with their two girls. This is Anabel's boy and she was nervous when I showed up with my Doctor's bag. I have an old lunchbox that carries things like tools for tail docking and castrating, needles and shots, vitamin paste and other odds and ends. We lifted Andrew out of his lambing jug and mama yelled but between Yeshiva, the farm intern, and myself we got the lamb work done quick. In a few minutes his tail was banded and he had a little anti-toxin to stop any possible infection from the band or ear tag. I was honored to help, and so proud of the job they did with my farm's sheep. I have to share a shot of Cloud, because compared to my ram, Atlas, he is a TANK! If Atlas was Joel McHale Cloud would be the late Michael Clarke Duncan. Both rams brought some new Sottish Blackfaces into our little hamlet, and that isn't to be scoffed at. Atlas managed a pair of twins, too. Not that I'm keeping score or anything!



P.S. Common Sense Farm accepts Organic Farming interns for weekend, week-long, or even longer stays here in Veryork. Work with livestock and vegetables, get fee room and board, and learn what it's like to be a serious food producer. It is a religious commune but the working farm interns are not expected to convert! If you are interested, go look at their workaway profile and read the reviews and get the information to work on their farm.

Munchkin!

Game Night at Cold Antler is an institution now. What started as the occasional game of BYOB Catan is now a league of dedicated friends. The core group is Tara and Tyler (of goingslowly.com fame) and Tom (of magnificent beard fame) have gotten into our groove. Last night we played Munchkin which is a card game spoof of Role Playing Games like Dungeons and Dragons. Instead of making a dramatic character and sitting through elaborate stories you just fight monsters, trade cards, yell, threaten each other, bribe, slam your hand on the table, stab your friends in the back, make promises, steal treasures, and try to ask forgiveness instead of permission. It is a riot, and a modern classic for us game nerds. Below I posted the TableTop episode with Wil Wheaton, the game's creator Steve Jackson, Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh. If you just watch the first few minutes it explains the rules and how ridiculous last night's Game Night was.



I don't know if any of you other farmers, homesteaders, parents, or fancy single people out there have Game Nights, but I can't encourage you to start one up enough. Avoid the games people are used to, set aside Scrabble and Monopoly and try something brand new. Not because there is anything wrong with Scrabble but if you are trying to get new non-gaming friends excited about coming over for a night around one table, things might need to get a little sexier. Fight Zombies in your very own action movie with Last Night On Earth. Bone up on your creative skills killing your horrible family in Gloom. Become a Settler of Catan, trading sheep for wood (Hey, my real life does this?!). Build a rail empire in the early 1900's with Ticket to Ride. These are award winning, super clever, inexpensive games. As someone who HATED board games until I discovered these gems I can assure you it is a whole different ball game. And If none of these games I mentioned mean anything to you right now, you can preview them all on Wil's show on Youtube (free show, of course) and get a feel for them. A good game may cost up to fifty dollars (Munchkin costs 18 bucks, which is less than delivered pizza with toppings) but once you buy it you have so much more ahead of you than cold pizza in tomorrow's fridge. You have endless fun hours with friends, laughing face-to-face, interacting the way movies and dinner parties rarely let us interact.

Games bring out a different and sadly lacking kind of social interaction for us modern folks. We're so used to getting together to have dinner or watch something on a screen, sometimes engaging in playful argument or debate but it's nothing like saving the world from a Pandemic. Hanging out on the porch with a drink is fun, but trying to airluft a Medic to London because Germany is about to infect all Eastern Europe has a lot fore flair. Pandemic is a Co-op game, meaning you play against the game as a team and not against each other. If that isn't your style you can try to steal someone's Laughing and Dancing Sword in Munchkin. Regardless, when you play games you are a group of problem solvers, competitors, and comedians. You are working the brain hard, but doing so between swigs of microbrew and long laugh attacks. Us kids at Cold Antler adored Munchkin, and we'll play it again. It'll become a GN favorite like Catan, Pandemic, Gloom, Ticket to Ride and Zombie Dice have become. Maybe someday we'll even actually beat Pandemic. But probably not. We are all convinced that the only way people beat that game is by accident or because they missed a rule. But SOMEDAY! SOMEDAY, we will save the world. And that's a lot to look forward to on a Wednesday night.

Now go play games. It will be better than you think it'll be. Promise all over.