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.

THE BOVINE MUTINY

Yesterday I saw three double rainbows.  We had scattered thunder showers and they left us with arcs of beautiful color.  However the rainbows did not end at the dairy farm.  We don't have gold here.  We have cow and sheep poop.

Perhaps the pot of gold is just about 3 miles away from Love Tree Farm on another farm. Today I took an escape to nature and on my way back from hiking I took a route past cornfields and sunflowers.  Although my camera's LCD is grayed out the camera still functions.  I need to point, pray and press the button and hope I capture the image well.

I really needed a break.  Today was what we would call in Argentina UN QUILOMBO, a mess.  We had some BAD COWS.  Prior to bringing the big girls in from pasture to be milked I had a stray calf that needed to get back into her fenced area in the barn.  The tie off twine knot on the temp enclosure inside the barn was practically impossible to undo so I could open the side wide enough to slide her back in.  She is little for a cow but way too big for me to be tossing over a fence.  I found a screwdriver to help loosen the knot but it still took some time to loosen it up.  The two other calves in the neighboring enclosure started forcefully sucking my pant leg, sleeve and arm while I worked.  Meanwhile the un-penned calf was butting my tush with her head.  It was MUTINY in the barn.  They see me and think bottle feeding time.  Those little calves learned a few Spanish swear words today.  The big girls learned the rest of them.

We had such a time trying to get the milking cows herded back to their temporary fencing way off in another pasture.  They ignored us and made their way to the woods.  We were short handed today and headed in.  Eventually the cows ended up crossing the road and we nabbed them there but on unfriendly neighbor grounds.  All this before my second cup of coffee.  BAD COWS!  Geez.  I found myself craving STEAK for breakfast.  I decided a good hike would be less vindictive.  I drove to the river.

After about an hour and a half I needed to pee.  I thought about where this act might take place.  As you will see from the photos there isn't only goldenrod in these parts of the country there is also poison ivy.  Once again ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN.  No more than a minute after saying out loud "I need to pee," did I stumble upon a bathroom sign.  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  IN THE WOODS?  But of course.  I followed the path and found the toilet. Perfect.  I had to look to the sky and laugh out loud.

And on my way back I ignored my GPS and went straight, straight to what I think might have been the end of the rainbows yesterday.  What a beautiful sunflower field in full bloom.  It made me think, "I am getting close to being done with livestock adventures.  Maybe a vineyard would be a nice change."

Well I have to change back into my stinky farm clothes (and I mean stinky) and help out with chores.  Mary bought me some malbec and maybe tonight is the night to open and share it.  Just maybe......

So what is your DO NEWS?  I would love to hear about it as long as it has nothing to do with cows and sheep. :0)

BATS IN MY BEDROOM

Pardon me while I mourn.  My favorite little camera, the Canon PowerShot SD 780 IS it turning rapidly to toast.  The LCD screen image is disintegrating.  I don't know if this was going to happen anyway or if it is due to a calf bamming its head into my pant leg while getting bottle fed.  At any rate I can't see what I am shooting and I need to find an affordable replacement. Well this Canon has had a short but well lived life in the USA, IBERIA and SOUTH AMERICA.  It has photographed castles and volcanoes, critters and humans and several loads of fish. Once again I should have listened to my intuition and bought a new one before embarking on this summer adventure.  Life goes on.  SNIFF.  And now the rest of the story...

I woke up to use the bathroom at 1:00am and I saw "something" fly into my room.  I wasn't wearing my contact lenses or my glasses.  After returning to my dark room I could hear the fluttering of wings and some light bumps in the night.  A bird perhaps?  SQUEAK. Nope, it was a bat.  I had a bat in my room and I was too tired to do anything about it.  Actually even if I wasn't too tired I really don't know what I would have done to get the bat out so I just opened my bedroom door figuring he/it would find someplace else to go while I went back to sleep.

I confirmed this morning at breakfast that it was a bat.  In fact there are several bats that come to visit in the night.  The farm's owners were going to be on the TV show TRADING SPOUSES.  They made three interviews.  At the last one Andy the now 19 year old son filled the interviewer in about the bats.  That was the last callback the family had for the show. This makes them expensive family bats.  The network compensates well but bats most likely meant too much of a liability.  There's a pet ferret here so whats a few flying rodents too?

TRAINS.  After chores and breakfast I broke away to explore along the Minnesota border about 30 minutes south of the farm.  I drove down to Osceola to check out some trains.  On Saturdays and Sundays there are special rides (some with dinner served) to experience how things once were in the good old days.  I figured that on a Tuesday no one would be there and I could just wander around alone and take some photos.  I was correct.

On my way back north I stopped at the waterfalls in the area.  I needed to do a little hiking.  It was such a lovely place and cute little town.

So I am cutting it short as I just got called down to dinner.  Until next time!  DO SOMETHING NEW TODAY!

EXHAUSTED IN WISCONSIN

I haven't posted in days.  This is just to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the planet.  I have fallen into a new farm in Wisconsin.  I haven't had time to get online more than a small moment to get anything written.  I have had a ton of DO NEWS.

I left the farm in West Virginia very early on Thursday morning and arrived late afternoon to Indianapolis where I had a wonderful Couchsurfing host named Chris.  The following morning we had breakfast at his Argentine friend, Alex's place before I got back on the road for a grueling drive to Madison.   Passing through Gary, Indiana and then around Chicago I vowed never to visit those places in depth.  Had I not had the radio on and heard the air quality warning I would have thought that Chicago had inner city fires smouldering.  The smog was so bad I could not see the skyline.  It was terribly hot to hold all the bad air down, I was stuck in traffic going around the city for 1.5 hours and the gas prices were over $4.00 a gallon.  I was very happy when I crossed into Wisconsin.  Like magic the terrain changed, the land was green and the air was fresh.

I stayed in Madison, WI, a college town that has what I believe more bicycles than cars.  It was a yuppified academic refreshment.  I stayed with another Couchsurfing host and two other surfers, one from Germany and one from Australia.  They went out in the evening but I was way too tired from driving and just went to bed.  I was up before everyone and out the door to drive once again to Grantsburg having to pull of the road for a big weather front of rain that crossed my path.

Arriving to the farm I was instantly put to work and until today I haven't had any time to myself.  Sundays are special days.  This sheep farm has a CAVE for making cheese.  In fact it is the second one in the country to be built with multiple 50 foot chambers.  They also built a grotto outside with a stone oven for organic loaded pizzas.  The event is open to the public each Sunday during season and it takes everyone on the farm to pitch in and become pizza prep chefs along with the regular chore work.  This is a 200 acre sheep and cow dairy farm.  We start early and end late.  Needless to say today I was exhausted and escaped mid-day by car to a Walmart 25 miles away to get some serious hand cream.

I have about ten minutes before I am off to the barn again.  Herding and milking happens twice a day, feeding, watering the animals and more and God only knows about dinner tonight.  I was in charge after this morning's chores of making breakfast for everyone while the others moved some temporary fencing. So as I am in a rush I am only going to post some introductory photos.  It is a pity that I haven't shot any of me bottle feeding the calves but it takes both my hands and it gets slimy.  They suck HARD.

I have more photos in my camera but I don't have time to go through them.  This will have to do for now.  ENJOY!

OK I had time after publishing... here ya go - PIZZA BY THE POND #1
Pung is from China volunteering too.

 

THE HANDS OF A FARMING WIFE

Beets, more beets but this time red beets and pickling. This afternoon I pulled a bunch up and fed the greens to the pig and then after my CHECK ENGINE car stuff (read below) I spent two hours peeling and slicing. When Gwen got in this afternoon it was up to her to make the pickling brine, jar the red beauties and get them into the pressure cooker. I just loved how the photos came out so I am starting today's DO NEWS with those photos first. I have a thing about doors and about sleek metal motorbikes in front of old “organic” buidings (you will know this if you followed my photo journey through Spain in the summer of 2011) and also working hands (if you followed me through the fish markets of Chile earlier this year.). Today I shot THE HANDS OF A FARMING WIFE. This is nothing feminsit or non-feminist. I call it that because I was shooting Gwen's working hands mostly from the left and many shots captured her wedding ring.

And now onto... The Rest of the Story (Ha - I'm sounding like Paul Harvey. He wasn't from West Virginia though, he was from Tulsa.)

Where is my camera crew? Why are they not following me? I have so many priceless moments.

I went into town to check my email and confirm my way point hosts and my date for arrival to the sheep dairy farm in Wisconsin then I headed off to fuel up my car. I am not all that pleased with gas prices around these parts but what do I know. Perhaps the prices are just as bad ($3.50 per gallon) back in Massachusetts. Over my adult life I have seen a pattern. When the driving population has the free time to travel gas prices mysteriously rise in the USA. I don't think it is supply and demand. There's plenty of gas and oil. It's the oil companies taking advantage of the consumer. That is just a theory but I think it is a pretty good one. Watch once September rolls around and school starts. The price of gas will hold steady or reduce. Anyway, my car needed fuel and it now has been fed. Early Thursday morning I will be ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

I have enjoyed driving the sharp curves and abrupt inclines of this part of West Virginia but it will be nice to reacquaint myself with fifth gear. I love my MAZDA PROTEGE though my old NISSAN SENTRA SER would have had more power on the hills. Both had/have five on the floor but the NISSAN had a heavier engine. NOTE TO SELF: Come back and visit this area again but not in the snow. I would break a back tooth from the stress of maneuvering these byways in winter conditions.

So why the need for a film crew? Because of my chats with the locals. I loe meeting locals wherever I go. My CHECK ENGINE light lit up on my way to the farm ten days ago and as I hadn't dealt with it yet. I am pretty sureIt is a small vapor thing but as I need to drive for three days to get to Grantsburg, Wisconsin I would feel much more comfortable without the idiot light shining.

The auto shop was empty when I arrived except for a man behind a desk. I asked for Jim and that is who it was. Jim is 65 years old. He wore a greasy well worn baseball cap, had white hair and a full yellow/white beard and was missing his front teeth. I explained that I had been referred to him by the owners of the farm whre I was working, that I had a stuck CHECK ENGINE light, that I was sure there wasn't any real problem (just a vapor thing), and that I needed him to reset it. He directed me to pull my car into the bay. After I pulled it in I slid the driver's seat back and left the keys in the ignition. He got his CHECK ENGINE light reset device and hooked it to something under the dashboard. It took a little time register a reading.

Another fellow came into the garage and we started to chat. I told him that my daddy had taught me how to do a tune up on my old car (daddy? Yup - I was twanging away) but that was before all this computerized stuff. It was back when a car had a carburetor, dual points and things anyone could understand. Then I began talking about the price of gas. He was interested in just who the heck I was.

Meet the Richie County Sheriff. He introduced himself as Sheriff Bacchas then asked what I was doing around these parts being I had a Massachusetts license plate and all. I explained that I was volunteering on a farm down on Pullman Road. He didn't know Gwen and Bruce. That might be a good thing. No trouble there. We had a lovely chat as Jim waited for the meter device to finish reading things. “I am waiting for my meter to communicate with her car.”

All re-set. Nothing terribly wrong at all. I was good to go. “How much do I owe you?” I asked.

He replied with a head shake, “No matter.”

“Well thank you for your southern kindness. That is if you consider West Virginia to be the south, I am not sure.”

Jim laughed showing me a big smile through his missing teeth. “I'm from Virginia so I AM a southerner. It's fine.”

In my closing remarks to the Sheriff I noted that I felt better having that light off as I was going on a three day drive to work on another farm in Wisconsin. I thought his response was perfect (see the post of a few days ago regarding preconceptions and stereotypes.)

“Well take care. Those people up there are a bit different.”

“Sheriff, they're a bit different around these parts too. Actually, in reality we are all more or less about the same no matter where we are from.”

In closing the non-beet photos are not of Jim's garage but of a museum that I passed on the main drag The place was closed. I didn't call for an appointment. Check out the photo with the sign in the window. It suggests that I call up front so as to not be disappointed. I love the old gas pumps outside.

 

I DO believe my next post will be from a NEW STATE.  I have never been to Indiana before. I have to drive through Ohio to get to Indiana so it will be a DO NEW DRIVE.  My host emailed me about going to a outside jazz event plus his best friend is a porteno (Argentine from the port city of Buenos Aires).  It will be FUN!