Though we missed being with family for Thanksgiving, we were lucky enough this year to share delicious meals with some new friends. Our afternoon began with a visit to “community supper” in our neighboring town of Hardwick. We have volunteered at community suppers two times now, and we try to make it out for the meal whenever possible. Local farms and businesses donate much of the food, and many of the smiling faces helping to cook and clean up are people from a wonderful community called Heartbeet Farm. The meal was fantastic. We were thankful for the abundance of many tasty meatless dishes and happy to feel at home in such a positive environment filled with love and goodwill.

Next, we drove out to Sky Meadow Retreat Center to have a Thanksgiving meal with our friend Miles and his family and friends. It was a vegetarian potluck style dinner, and people brought such yummy dishes, many made with vegetables that they had grown this year! The land is so beautiful there, and we arrived early to take some walks with the others.

We even went into the woods and saw a porcupine up in a tree! He was so cute looking down at us, a little face amid a ball of spikes. Later, we all gathered together to share words of thankfulness, and we ate! And we ate! Then, we learned about circle dancing from a gentleman named Gene, and that was a fun activity to participate in after dinner. Jon and I ended up staying hours into the night, playing music, dancing, and playing games with the three girls that live there. We went back to the cabin feeling happy to have been invited share in the festivities.

COLLAPSE!

The following days we wend out and enjoyed a hike with our friend Iza and our roomie Brook. We trekked thru the field and into the woods, squeezing between trees and under branches. We made it back to some familiar paths just before dark and then back home.

Just today we gathered some sleds and hit some slopes here on the farm. We are hoping to get more sledding in as well as other numerous outdoor activities this winter. The moon is just about full now and will be reflecting off the snow, lighting up the night helping us find our little trail back to the cabin. Until next time!

View more photos of our snow adventures on our Flickr page!

The temperatures are cooling, and we have tried to imagine what it will be like when these great outdoors become less friendly and less like an addition to our cabin. See, we have no bathroom or plumbing (our running water has frozen) and we are used to going “#1” amongst the trees and “#2” up the path in the outhouse or at the house. So far, we have still been able to find comfort in the chilled air, but we are anticipating the changes.

It has also been a question, what happens if one of us gets sick? Well, no more needing to wonder, because one evening both of us awoke with dramatically upset stomachs. It was a sleepless night, and luckily we got through it with grace and enough energy to commute to work the next day! But, that wasn’t the end of the ick of sick. I, Amy, then fell ill with a high fever and continued upset stomach. Let’s say that it was a nice change to spend the entire day in the cabin doing very little besides laying down, and it was also an excuse to fast before the winter!! And Jon was such a hero- he worked all morning constructing a toilet for me to have at my convenience right next door at the wood shed! (see photo). Who would have thought something like that could be so luxurious?!

Luckily, the fever subsided with the help of some rest, ginger tea, and Echinacea tincture, and by the beginning of the week we were ready to go visit our friend who was in town to play a show in Burlington, VT. We have known Aaron Dugan for some time now, and, in addition to being incredibly talented, he is really awesome all around. So, we did not want to miss seeing him perform with Matisyahu right here in VT!

Aaron Dugan (left)

Here is a video we took from the show of Aaron ripping a solo with the band. Sorry about the poor quality, but check out that solo!…

Here’s another vid from youtube from Guitar World of Aaron demonstarting some reggae guitar techniques…
]]> http://veggieroadtrip.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/fever-fever-fun/feed/ 1 Jon & Amy IMG_5965 toilet dugan dobra http://veggieroadtrip.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-grease-beast-and-other-beasts%e2%80%a6/ http://veggieroadtrip.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-grease-beast-and-other-beasts%e2%80%a6/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:45:33 +0000 Jon & Amy http://veggieroadtrip.wordpress.com/?p=981 ]]>

So, yea, we’ve had some “car trouble.” Nothing we couldn’t handle, though. Well, let me (Amy) start from my first day of work in early October, when the truck wouldn’t start. I awoke early to prepare for my 45 minute commute to a babysitting position I had accepted, and found snow covering the ground everywhere. It was a beautiful sight, but when the truck didn’t start and we discovered there would be too little energy from the solar panel system to support us plugging in the giant diesel, I knew I had to act fast. I quickly called a neighbor, who told me our other neighbors hadn’t left for work yet and were heading our way. Since they had no phone, I proceeded to put on a jacket and I ran. I ran up our driveway, I ran underneath the maple canopy along the road, and then down the long path to their cabin. The dog barked wildly to signal my approach, and in a swift request, we had a ride! I “booked” back to our place and, without letting the half-mile run slow me down, I felt relief that I would be making it to work. Jon joined me, and we arrived in town only 45 minutes late!

We eventually discovered that the glow plug relay was not in good shape, and planned on replacing it, which we finally did earlier this month. But that wasn’t the end of our adventures. Later, on the drive home to Philadelphia, during some freezing rain, our windshield wipers started freezing up! Only it wasn’t the cold temperature, they were ceasing to work for good. Gradually, my hand felt like a brick of ice as I would push the wipers time and time again to encourage momentum. Finally, we pulled over at the next exit, and got to work planning a system. Nothing would stop us from getting home!

If you remember the name MacGyver, you know he would have been just as crafty. We rigged thin ropes to the wipers, through the front seat of the car, and took turns pulling the wipers, and it worked! It was a non stop adventure the entire 8 plus hour ride, and it ended up feeling kind of like we were riding horses with all of our physical pulling of the ropes. And hallelujah, we made it home!

Along with replacing the windshield wiper motor, we also went ahead and got some all terrain tires. Not a cheap purchase!! Oh my, all this getting ready for winter in Northern Vermont is no joke. But we will be grateful come snow time for sure…

And when it snows, you know it’s pretty cold, and when it’s pretty cold, we need to start thinking about the grease car system. When is it so cold that running grease will be not so wise? When will it freeze up so much that it won’t turn to liquid even when heated? The mechanic here in Vermont told us we will save ourselves lots of headache by waiting til the warmer seasons to use grease again. He said he has seen many grease cars have challenges, and was adamant about his advice. We heed his warnings, but are still determined to run on the deliciously deep-fried veggie oil until it is just too crazy! Wish us luck.

Another thing that we need some luck with is our mouse situation. There have been very rare nights since August 1st that we haven’t heard the sounds of mice in the cozy four walls of the cabin. Now that it is freezing up here, they have come full force. We have caught a total of seven over the past many months, and have later released them into (another) woodsy location. Oh, but there are more! They are scratching, biting, nibbling, and, perhaps I’ve gone mad, but I think they are having dance parties with their friends on occasion. I swear a wine bottle is missing even! So much of our time has been spent “mouse proofing” the cabin, and below are some photos capturing our efforts. May our winter nights end up being quiet and peaceful, and may these stinking cute little creatures find some barn or something to lease for the season!!!

As I sit here typing this, we are in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in our little cabin. With our newest computer battery, we have the ability to bring some modern life into the woods. Though we are enjoying the “simple life” very much, we really love to be able to cozy up in front of the fire and watch a film! Jon also has worked some magic, and ran a long cord down here so that we can also have phone access! Keeping our fingers crossed that the line stays unharmed through the winter, we are hoping to enjoy some chats with loved ones living elsewhere.

We have gotten to know our “housemates” better since we have sharing the continued house up the path (where we go for running water and to cook and to just hang out). They are all great, and we are looking forward to spending more winter days with them. We have already established that games, hikes in the woods, sharing meals, playing music, and laughing are all pretty great things, so that’s a good start. The four year old also brings lots of energy and smiles to the environment- he is always up for a walk or some kind of playing!

COLLAPSE!

Enjoying the SUN when it is out, we are learning more how to use and conserve the power we receive from the bright fireball. We have also continued preparing WOOD for the winter months, and have gathered lots and lots of kindling! Another thing we have managed to stock up on is GREASE! There was enough gathered in the past couple of months for us to maintain a full tank, and now that the cold air is coming, we are getting all the use we can out of the veggie oil system before it just gets too darn cold to run. Speaking of the Grease Beast brings us to our next post…

It’s not just a place where the Liberty Bell resides, where Rocky ran up a whole lot of stairs, or where you can get soft pretzels fresh from the oven at 1 in the morning. It is also a place where gray concrete meets colorful community gardens and car fumes meet parades of many themes. Philadelphia is a place where we come home to see some of the most beautiful familiar faces and places in our world!

We were instantly in a world of comforts and familiarities, and it was actually an adjustment to have bright lights inside at night since we have become so accustomed to oil lamps and candlelight! Despite the changes, it didn’t take long to make our-selves at home at Beck and Gar’s, and it was such a treat to spend time with them, Addy, the Cooks and the Hannigans!

In addition to the ball game, Halloween was also approaching, and it was so fun to see our young niece and nephew in their costumes!! Later in the evening, we had the great pleasure of seeing our friend Ali perform with Philly Bloco at the World Cafe Live – drums, Brazilian beats, dance grooves, and great covers from Stevie Wonder and the “King of Pop” (RIP)… Good times were had by all!

We also came home to attend our old friends wedding that took place at their homestead / farm in the heart of Germantown. The ceremony was beautiful to say the least, and, despite downpour during the reception, people had a fun filled time of socializing, eating, and dancing! There were also pictures taken and can be seen HERE. It is amazing and inspiring to see that city living can include so much backyard harvest, acres of vegetables, and harmonious communal living!

While in town, The Phillies beat the Dodgers and back to the World Series they went. Philadelphia was stirring just as it had been just months before we left in April. We spent a lot of nights with friends excitedly rooting and rallying around a TV. It was something special to partake in the celebrating of our home team’s successes, and to see so many people coming together and uniting with a common interest. Such enthusiasm kept our visit exciting, and it is good to see that people are capable of making time and sharing such energy together.

Other awesomely notable moments during our visit included eating at some of our favorite restaurants, seeing awesome kids I babysat for years and visiting with those families, Michael Dur’s birthday, a sleepover in South Philly at Kristin’s, visits with our families; Pepe’s, Spivacks and Sunds (what a pleasure!), a fall hike thru Philadelphia’s beautiful and scenic Fairmount Park’s Wissahickon with Jay and Dot, and lots more…

Always representing the “City that Loves you Back.” Thank you Philadelphia!

View more photos of Philly, Phamily, and Phun on our Flickr page!!!

See you in Philly this week! It will be exactly 6 months since we left. Give us some “brotherly love.”

Just like the leaves and the seasons here in the Northeast Kingdom are transforming, the farm itself is undergoing a few changes of its own. Our new friends are preparing to leave on a cross-country expedition of their own. Just like us, they have decided to travel powered by grease, and their moving craft is a great big yellow, now also blue and purple, school bus. The bus has just been recently converted and is still undergoing some renovations to make it a comfortable home for all 4 of them (plus a dog). We are excited for them to have many great adventures as we did on our trip.

Hickory and Ben Working on the Bus

We had the pleasure to meet Ben and Lea when they came to visit the farm to do the vegetable grease conversion for the bus. Ben and Lea also live and travel in an awesome converted bus of their own. They are also in a fantastic and energetic band called The Prodigal String Band who we saw play at Langdon Street Café a few weeks back. It was really nice having them around and getting to know them. We even had the treat of all playing music together one evening in the cabin- how often can we play alongside stellar fiddle and upright bass players? They were so fun, and we hope to see some more of them while here in Vermont and catch another performance by their band!

The leaves have turned bright yellow, orange, and red, and are covering the ground to create splashes of color all over. One morning, we even awoke to see the rain had turned to fluffy, thick snowflakes pouring from the sky! And so we will remain in the cabin for the winter and watch over the farm, chickens, and Wavy Gravy (the cat). The farmhouse will be filled with some new people for us to get to know and spend time with. There are three rooms already claimed of the four (that includes the finished attic known as the “up up”). A young mom with her four-year old and boyfriend and two other ladies have all committed to moving in by mid November. We are still in search of another person or couple to fill in an empty room… interested???

The two of us are truly looking forward to our visit back to Philadelphia from mid to late October. It will be so good to see friends and family and also attend friends Matt and Amanda’s wedding! By the time we return, Earthdancer and family are planning on being moved into the bus and our new communal neighbors will have arrived. Lots of transition ahead!

Feel free to browse some of our recent photos from our time in VT on our Flickr page.

The great thing about where we are living is that, as rural as it seems, there are many fun and interesting events and activities to keep us entertained. Forget TV when you can take a trip over to Glover to catch a Bread and Puppet performance. Glover, VT also hosts an annual type of carnival that includes a handful of hand-built and human powered amusement rides. We decided to check out the carnival this year, so we headed out with a few farm visitors to Glover for the evening. We arrived when the carnival had turned into a wild festival.

Burning the stage props in the bonfire!

(Here is another person’s youtube video from the carnival)

Our final stop at the fair was a fantastic performance in the midst of a doughnut style roller rink that was filled with silly drama, fancy lighting from a tower above, and a row of bare buns. At this point, feeling very satisfied with our adventure, we were ready to head back to the farm.

A couple weeks ago, I (Amy) ventured out on my own and visited Wheelock Farm for the community farm day. Wheelock hosted a day of workshops and they were incredible. There were many topics to choose from, and I attended Aromatherapy, Holistic Sexuality, Feng Shui, and Homeopathy for illness. Each was so informative and I met a lot of interesting people and took home a lot of good information and inspiration. After a potluck, at sunset, I was invited to the closing ceremony where there were some really beautiful words spoken. One older woman even picked up a guitar to share her song with us to see how it would sound with a chorus of voices- it was about the political prisoner in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi. It sounded beautiful, and since then I have learned more about the leader’s story. All in all, I left feeling pretty grateful to have gone, and did I mention it was all held on a donation basis?

Recently, (as we mentioned in the previous entry) we volunteered and took part in Montpelier’s first annual Yoga Festival. Besides helping out, we took some classes including Qi Gong, Belly Dancing (Jon opted out), and Yin Yoga. The festival also hosted other events including a couple of high energy kirtans in the evenings. We had the great pleasure to see our new friends, American Raga, perform and lead everyone in some very moving kirtans and songs. It was nice to get to know Jen, who organized the whole event, and such a pleasure to be part of such a positive thing.

Though we have not been around busy city life for some time, there is rarely a dull moment so far in our time up here! Lots to participate in, help out with, and people to meet. We’ll see how things change as the seasons get cooler, and cooler, and, as I’ve heard, just plain down right doggone cold.

We have been pretty busy while living the “simple life.” Farm work never ends, there is always something to do. Besides the obvious planting and harvesting of yummy veggies, we have had the pleasures of learning some new skills such as preserving and storing what we harvested (cabbage, carrots, turnips, potatoes, beets, beans) for the winter in the root cellar. Whether it be freezing, pickling, canning, we are doing it. We have also started fermenting as a way of preserving and creating some new ways to enjoy the vegetable we harvest (ie. making sauerkraut from cabbages). We have also been making kombucha and hopefully will ferment some other yummy beverages in the future.

Just up the trail from our cabin sits our wonderful outhouse (humanure) where we do our business, cover it with sawdust, which eliminates odors, and then add it to a compost bin for future use in gardens. Composting poo makes for great soil, very rich in nutrients! It’s a beautiful cycle, from the earth, to our bodies, back to the earth!

Other than the farm work, we have both been searching for some paid jobs to generate income. I (Jon) have picked up a couple of odd jobs here and there. These jobs included helping fill a barn with hay and helping another local gentleman with his tree business by digging up some evergreens and rapping the roots in burlap to be later sold to a nursery. Amy is very looking for body-work clients as well as offering up her child care and nanny skills to the local communities.

We are still trying to volunteer and lend a hand where we can. Vermont seems to have a great sense of community and it feels great to help out while meeting many great people while we work. We joined the co-op in Hardwick and have volunteered to help out at the Hardwick community dinner that takes place every week. We are currently (as I type this) volunteering at Montpelier’s first yoga festival in exchange for some inspiring classes including Qi Gong and Yin Yoga.

So it seems we are pretty busy these days. Hopefully we will get some paying work to help us along this fall and winter. Until then we have countless number of projects to keep us busy, including writing this blog.

Thanks again for reading! View more photos of our time on the farm and in Vermont on our Flickr page!