PATY'S DEBUT

Wednesday we all had a full day to play so I jumped in my car and went off to discover Viroqua.  I heard it was a nice little town full of what I like to call earthy crunchy people.  I knew I would find more artistic inspiration there.  I had a lovely time wandering the artist galleries and shops and chatting with the owners.  I will be going back with a Couchsurfing guide that lives there next week to see more.

Before leaving town I stumbled upon a two story old junk consignment flea market.  I could have been in there for hours but it wasn't air conditioned and the top floor was getting pretty darn hot by the time I left.  I honed in on two things; a couple of board games for $3 for our crazy vineyard crew to play while gathered around the kitchen table and a magnified lighted make-up mirror that has to be 40 years old.  I picked that up in perfect condition for $2.  YES, I thought, Paty Patriotica can now see her image being born.

Remember Paty Patriotica the Balloon Twister character that I began creating in July?  Well I have not had the time to sit down in calm with my items of make-up wizardry that I have been collecting at various DOLLLARTREE stores (my favorite chain) and create her face.  I have been on the move and without a proper magnifying mirror.  I wear corrective eye wear and need my face enlarged to paint it.  Now I have one.  YEY!

The look on people's faces as they came into the kitchen to raid the frig was hilarious.  I mean...how many people do you know that play dress up in in the middle of the afternoon with full professional clown white?  If the answer to that question is ZERO go out and get some paint (easy to find this time of year as Halloween stuff is just hitting the displays) and have a go at it yourself.  Then have fun as people see you.  They all smiled. :0)

After the face was done I put on the costume.  I still haven't taken the time to alter it but I shall.  The skirt lies precariously on my hips supported by a safety pin.  Rachel whined for balloon puppies so I made her a full liter in red, white and blue and then a big balloon bouquet for Marie.  I was then whisked out the door for some photos for fun, my high heels sinking in the dirt of the slope.  Mike was due to arrive home from work so I kept the character on to greet him at the door with balloons.  He laughed so hard.  You never know what you are going to find when you get home to a bunch of HELPXers with buena onda (good vibe).


DA DA!  Paty's make-up is all set although she can also work without the clown white base which is exactly what happened last evening.  Mike came home as I was peeling cucumbers to make some Japanese Salad.  "Where's Patt?  Hey how would you like to make some cash?"  He asked me to get in my costume and take two bottles of wine over to the local bar where he and his friends were celebrating a co-workers retirement.  I had a message for the guest of honor.  "Happy Retirement from Riverview (Vineyard) to You."  Sure thing, no problem.  How fun.  I was a hit!  Who doesn't love an extra special bit of whimsy?  I will say though that trying to drive with the hat is a bit difficult.  It keeps hitting the interior roof of the car and getting knocked around as I look to the left for oncoming traffic.  I will have to take note of that for future off-site engagements.  HAAAAA

HAVE FUN FUN FUN!  Go and DO SOMETHING NEW.
Send me photos of your painted faces!

THE RIVERVIEW HARVEST

Pardon me for not posting lately but it has been an incredibly busy time at the vineyard.  It was harvest time and we sure did harvest!  In two separate runs we delivered 8000lbs of marquette grapes.  It took 1.5 days to pick them with about 18 people working beginning at sun up on Saturday.

It has been a wonderful experience.  The crew was fantastic.  There are three other HELPXers staying here besides myself and several old friends and family members joined in to help.  We had so much fun clipping bunches of grapes and QCing (trimming) them up at the vine.  Only the top grapes are delivered to the winery to be processed.  Mike believes in quality and this is a top-notch start-up operation.

Marie was so busy and supportive taking care of all our needs from inside the house.  The food was incredible and abundant and the vibe was superb.  This was a HAPPY HARVEST.  Really, I can't give more than my two thumbs up but it if I had an extra that would be pointing to the heavens too.

These last two days were for washing out 300 buckets and removing, cleaning, rolling and storing the netting for next year.  It was great to have five of us working together as a strong social unit.  It made the chore seem like it went fast.

So once again pardon me if I don't babble on with a more in depth account.  I am still tired.  It has been five days of hard work and now it's time to rest.

May your harvest be bountiful!  Happy DO NEWS to YOUS.  CHEERS!

THE CALM DURING THE STORM

It is POURING out so we are on partial hold.  There are plenty of things to do inside.  Cooking for the crowd that will be coming, setting up for at least 10 people that will be staying the night.  Why?  Is it a party? No, not really.  It is GRAPE PICKING weekend.  The marquette (red) is ready to pick.

I am on a vineyard in southwest Wisconsin.  This is a fantastic place to be.  The house is fabulous and the people are fantastic.  We are relaxed here, chill,  but will be working intensely and hard for the next few days.  To prepare we took the two old collies out on the boat and gave them a bath, BBQed some rib-eye and chicken and stocked the house with goodies. I am so happy to be away from livestock and working 50 hour a week.  This is more like it.

The terrain is very different here.  We are on the corner of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River.  In fact the vines are on a slope.  They will have to give me the north side of the trellises to pick because I am short.

I need to get back to helping so more to come later.  The rain is lightening to the west.  We can almost see Iowa and Minnesota again.  Adelante - Onward!  This is NEW and FUN!

WHIMSY IN WISCONSIN

I have moved on and UP away from the sheep farm and into a most beautiful energy flow.  Sunday evening I arrived to Kathy's house.  Kathy is a Couchsurfer with 10 grandchildren many of whom were visiting for the afternoon when I arrived.  What a gorgeous whimsical place filed with love and art from throw-aways.  Kathy is an artist though I might have been the first person to tell her that. I could have filled pages and pages of blogs with the vignettes and creations that she has made here.  Intuitively I knew that we would connect.  All I needed to do was see her favorite books listed on her profile.  I have read almost all of them.  She also is an energy worker.  In fact,  the bedroom for my one night visit was her Reiki healing room and it has a confessional.  The house is a former church constructed in 1910, moved to the property in the 60's and converted into a house.  She has added her very special magical energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
We talked and talked for hours and hours finally deciding to go to bed at midnight.  The apple sleepy wine (a hard apple cider with valerian root and other relaxing herbs) probably helped in the decision of  "We better get to sleep."  We thought what a pity it was that I had only scheduled one night at her house.  I had to leave by noon to drive to another Couchsurfer family closer to my next rural adventure at a vineyard.  The CSer that I picked for Monday night also felt intuitively right so when in the morning I received a phone call from him I just had to laugh.  Kathy was outside when I returned his call.  He had a meeting that he needed to attend Monday night when I was to arrive.  I could hang at his house and chill out or go to the meeting with him.  I had another option, stay another night with Kathy.  She heard that part of the conversation while bouncing in the kitchen YIPPEE.  We jointly had manifested my change of plans.  I was also laughing because Drew spoke of his area of Wisconsin and the electro-magnetic fields, energetic opportunities and his interest in EXPAT life.  His profile said nothing of this. Yes - I am back in the flow.  We will meet for dinner and a tour around while I am at the vineyard.  I will have much more off time there than I did at the sheep farm and we will be less than a half hour away from one another.

JOY JOY, Kathy and I had another entire day together and still it seemed to zip by.  Out of the box thinking flowed through our minds.  Her property sang to me, "WOMEN'S RETREATS."  It would be a perfect place.  Add one of the most wonderful labyrinths that I have ever visited located nearby and you have the end of the rainbow.  Peace, healing, creativity, whimsy, I think the fairies are at play here. We both will have to incubate this idea.  Perhaps, just maybe these new connections are why I came to Wisconsin.  I wish I could get all my wild women friends together in one place but it is also really great to have them scattered around the country so that there's always some good energy nearby.

Well there you go.  I have to prepare for another drive.  Onward to NEW magic.

And... what are you DOing NEW?  What magic are you creating and attracting into your life?  Come out of the darkness (if you are in it) and into the magic.  It's there.  Sometimes you just need to break set, be a forever seeker and be guided by your inner voice to go somewhere and/or DO something NEW.

Namaste.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE WINE

I told her I was volunteering on a nearby farm as I tasted her wine.  She looked me in the eye, raised a finger and began to sing "Mairzy Doats" (Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.)  I laughed, "Oh I had no idea those were the words.  All these years I thought it was just gibberish.  Now it makes sense."

I am speaking of Jeanette Larson, Proprietress of Autumn Winery in Milltown, WI.  She is a charming woman most likely in her 90's now.  I didn't ask but she probably would have proudly exposed her real age.  She is a former Vegas Showgirl and gladly sings show tunes of a bygone era as you taste her and her husband's fruit wine.  They have a little shop/house on their farm and it is open on Fridays from 4-6pm and 9-6 Saturdays and Sundays during season.  The sign on the door reads HONK FOR SERVICE.  Pappy has been making wine for over 60 years so as Jeanette says, "He should know what he is doing by now."

I arrived at the little shop at 4:30 in the afternoon while three friends were tasting, chatting, laughing and creating a mixed case of 12.  They come by the Autumn Winery often.  Whenever friends come to visit they always bring them to the Larson's because... it's not just about the wine, it's about the "Character(s)" of the wine, the ever delightful Pappy and Jeanette.

Jeanette told me how when she was in Vegas using the penny slots and singing to herself Ernest Borgnine came up to her and asked her to accompany him.  She didn't know who he was nor was she (savvy wild woman that she was) about to go anywhere with a stranger.  He left her and sent his female assistant to fetch her.  Up on stage she went to sing.  History was made.

 

I wish I could have met Pappy in person while I was there but he wasn't feeling very well.  You can read a bit of his wine making history at this link  He too was a pretty savvy character.

I was out the door and down the step.  I had to get back to the farm.  Jeanette was singing me one last song, a farewell and then she stopped and looked at me and said, "I have something for you."  She went back inside and brought out one of her special Angel cards.  She told me that she is psychic or psycho, what's the difference, but anyway one day as she was inside praying over her prayer book a white feather fell from above and landed on it  She was indoors, had no pet birds or down pillows.  She took it as a sign that her guardian angel was with her.  She had these cards made up with a white feather laminated to the back.  Listening to her and her stories of how she had given the cards away when she "felt" something and how they had helped people had my eyes tearing up. "You have no idea Jeanette.  I so needed this today.  I haven't had the best week.  Thank you!"

What a lovely lady.  I sang all the way back to the farm and all through my chores even though we didn't finish up for hours and hours as we had a few missing cows.  What's not to sing about?  I have my guardian angel on my shoulder reminding me that I AM A BLESSING.  And source concurs.

Well that is all that I have time for.  I probably won't post again until I am on a small start-up vineyard about five hours south of here. I am due to arrive there on Tuesday evening but I am taking 2 days to get there.  I will be staying with different older Couchsurfers and their families on the way.  I need to transition from sheep to vine. So see ya on the flip (still in Wisconsin but by the bluffs of the Mississippi River).

And remember - DO something NEW! And YOU ARE A BLESSING!  Thanks Angels and Cheers Jeanette!

OMENS & SIGNS AND A CHILD'S ONCE BELOVED TOY

Perhaps at times we are given omens and signs of impending happenings.  Perhaps they are just coincidences.  Perhaps not.

Saturday morning as we were herding the sheep and cows from a distant pasture I ran across something odd.   I was standing by myself by the opening to a wooded area awaiting the others to herd the sheep over the ridge.  I was there to prevent the sheep from getting off track and into the woods to forage.  I had my staff (a piece of PVC pipe) that aids me in directing livestock.  I was patiently awaiting the flock and kicking the grass when I came upon an object.  Kicking it over I found it to be the head of a child's stuffed animal.  It was the head of a little LAMBCHOP.  There was no trash in the field, no other non-organic objects, just the head of a child's once beloved toy.  "How odd," I thought.  "I hope this is not an omen of what is to come.  I hope that we don't find a dead lamb today."

Many hours later in the evening after herding the sheep both to and from the pasture fencing again we went up to the higher ridge where there are non-milking sheep and two of the Spanish Ranch Mastiff guard dogs.  We go up there to feed and water the sheep and dogs.  There we found a sick lamb hiding near some brush.  We took it back to the barn in the truck.  After I finished up with the chores inside the barn I climbed onto the bed of the truck and tried to get her drink.  I first spent ten minutes brushing her mouth with water trying to get her to lick her lips but without success.  I then pried her little mouth open and poured water in her.  I used my cupped hand over and over again until she began to swallow.  I spent over an hour at dusk with mosquitoes stinging me through my shirt working with her.  I didn't want to leave her.  I didn't want to give up.

She stirred a little and began to struggle against me so I knew there was some life in her. "Come on girl. fight me. Go ahead and fight me, and swallow sweet one, swallow."  The farm's owner heard me.  He thought I had gone into the house long before.  He helped me get her out of the truck and onto the ground where we used a syringe to get more water in her.  Afterward he sent me into the house for the night. In the morning after chores I found the lamb nearby standing up and taking some grass.  "Good." I thought.  "She is going to make it."

Sunday was a busy day but I took some time to check on her in the afternoon.  She was alive and hiding behind some thistle but she was once again failing.  I told her I would be back. I went back in the evening with a half little bottle of water and poured it bit by bit down her throat.  The intestinal parasites were stealing all her energy to drink.  Without water in her she would not have the strength to fight for her life.  I was glad that I got her to take all the water.  The young intern here came with an injection of medicine and then unable to do more we left her for the night.

I went to her this morning and she had passed.  Her little head was cold and she was going stiff.  Her time had come.  It was a very sad thing for me.  Very sad indeed.  The farm owner said he should have shot her yesterday.  "Yes, " I said, "You should have.  There was no need to make her suffer so long."

We finished with the morning milking and chores, returned the sheep and cows to their fenced pasture area and I walked back alone to the barn stopping in the field where I had found the stuffed head of a child's once beloved toy.  Omens and signs and a sad morning indeed.

There are some NEW things that are a bit hard to DO.