Saturday Eve July 25th... Today We Flew By the Seat of Our Pants... Did Ok Too...

This morning, we got up early to go to the Farmer’s Market in Greenville, next to the library. We had exactly six dozen eggs in the porch cooler where we sell them on the “honor system”, which amounted to exactly fifteen dollars worth of eggs. Now it costs us $15.00 weekly for a spot on the lawn to sell our goods and we couldn’t justify spending $15.00, to sell $15.00 worth of eggs, so we left them for our regular visiting customers here at the farm and went to the Farmer’s Market with no eggs. We still wanted to support the cause and let everyone know that we hadn’t quit or went elsewhere to sell our eggs and that we would return next Saturday as usual if our chickens cooperate this coming week. We stayed until well after 1:00 before leaving to feed and water all the birds and leave them out. While we were doing the chores in the big barn, our neighbor Charlie pulled in and gave us a bunch of egg cartons and dog feed bags. We talked and went to the rear deck to escape the sun and heat. We sat there and talked for about a half hour, enjoying the birds, the breeze and our conversation with Charlie. Joan was in the city visiting family, so Charlie was “bachelor’in it” for a few days at their house alone. We told him we wouldn’t mind him joining us for dinner out, somewhere and he accepted. We decided to pick him up at his house by 4:30 which was approximately and hour after he left the farm. We got ready and picked him up and headed for a Chinese Restaurant in Bethlehem, where we enjoyed a pretty good dinner, conversation and laughter, after which, we headed for home.




We enjoy spending time with Charlie and Joan who have been together for over seventeen years. They are much like Vicki and I and we never tire of visiting or the light hearted conversation we have with them. We have enjoyed every time we ever went to dinner with the two of them and want to include them in every BBQ grill party we have. Once the steel roofing is installed on the new rear deck roof Vick and I built, we’re going to get a bunch of clams and other goodies and have a clam roast. We will invite Charlie and Joan... Kenny and his new girlfriend, our friend Judy, Jeff and anyone else we can think of that loves to have a deck party.
We are finally starting to enjoy the summer, by just going where we want when we want or just lounging in the shade or in the art room, or in our bedroom just watching TV Land. We still have things needing done around here, but it isn’t such a pressure when it doesn’t need done right now. Life is good despite all our aches and pains!

Friday July 24th... After Making That Long Trip to Sucess, the Cars Worn Out...

Getting to where I am today has been a long, drawn out and tiring journey, that I wouldn’t have missed for the world and wouldn’t give a plug nickel to repeat! Bearing that type of abuse all over again, after knowing what’s involved, would parallel removing a hornet’s nest from your front door in a bag, with a hole in the bottom. It’s done...gone and you only got stung three times in the process, but now you can use the door.
Obviously, had I not gone the many routes I chose, I would have ended up in a different place than I have and I would have missed the love of my life and her companionship, which is like sharing myself with me. She has become a part of me. She is my joy, accomplishment, contentment, drive, laughter, strength and my greatest source for inner peace. With her, I need not prove a thing. With her I need not hide a tender side. With her I need not ever awaken the bitter monster inside myself, nor ever again suffer afflictions caused by it. The very thread of it's existence... my terrible anger...was the only lifeline that monster had from within. It was the only remaining portal of escape and through Vicki’s love and tenderness, I constantly whittle away at that thread, to sometime sever it and encase that monster inside forever.
Each day now, is a new beginning to an ended day before... a day of substance, a day I can build upon. Daily, we build a life, consisting of each other, together...never considering that either of us would even consider breaking this togetherness for anything in the world. We have been together every minute, of every day, since we met, several years ago and want nothing more than that in years to come. I never tire of her smiling face and her little giggle. As you become used to moving your arm to pick up a cup and your fingers automatically curl around it and seek the looped handle to pick it up, So too, does my hand find hers, to hold as we walk side by side and slipping my arm around her waist to pull her closer to me as we stand, is as effortless to me as breathing. Yes, she is a part of me, just as my own body is.
It has been a long journey to get to this place and find a soul mate such as Vicki... The drive has been an arduous effort and hasn’t occurred without anguish and laborious corporeal consequences. I have arrived at my oasis of life with an ailing vessel and although I have arrived at the door of my contentment and soul mate, those miles of abuse in arrival, have robbed me off my agility in function. Those long years of abusive travel, have given me arthritic joints and other afflictions we now seek estimates and schedules to repair. Perhaps the repairs are impossible, due to the year of the vessel and if such is true...I will learn how to enjoy my life on a daily basis without such great agility or strength....but damn it; I got here and I won’t give up on Vick or me.

Thurs July 23rd... Writing is hard...writing is fun...writing is giving...AND, Elusive too.

Many times I sit before the computer, staring blankly at the screen or perhaps off into space and possibly, remain as such for as long as an hour. Sometimes people can’t understand that material doesn’t just come, as the sun appears every morning. Although the sun can be expected to rise on time every morning and you can bet that it will never miss that rendezvous with dawn, a writer can not expect any guaranteed that he will receive material to place on paper regularly or with any consistency. Some days I complain to Vick that I cannot come up with anything of interest to write about and she replies with her usual optimism and tells me to be patient and a subject will emerge to write about. Usually, she is correct and all’s well. Sometimes, she is elsewhere, doing other things and I suffer alone without my material subject appearing for awhile.
My blog writing has been especially sparse lately, I guess, because I have returned to my biography entitled, “Life In the Barren World”. It is a compilation of childhood stories and memories of growing up in the Scotia Barrens, of Central Pennsylvania, in the late fifties and early sixties. That was back when gas was 22¢ a gallon and soda was a nickel a bottle. Cigarettes were 23¢ a pack and had two pennies taped to the pack, as change for your quarter, dimes or nickels you inserted in the old vending machines. There were no convenience stores back then, so you went into neighborhood grocery stores or service stations, which were almost always family owned. The age of franchises had just been born, with the likes of A&P markets and Jewell Tea Co., but as yet were still rather sparse in our rural area, so we as youngsters enjoyed riding our bicycles to Guyer’s Service Station. It was a five mile excursion by bicycle in one direction. Many times I would leave home with a quarter and by remaining alert along the way, I would retrieve enough Pop bottles from the berm of the road, to more than double my money. In those days, everyone knew everyone and youngsters treated their elders with respect, because if you didn’t, you would have a shellacking awaiting you when you returned home. I remember getting a shellacking from a neighbor, along with their child for doing something wrong, and then receiving it again when I got home. We did have phones you know, and word like that traveled fast, so you could never beat the bad news home. This is just a small sample of the memories I am writing about in my book, but you can see now that I spend a little time with my eyes closed, relaxing and remembering those events. I then jump to attention and type the information I’ve just recovered from my memory. It’s pleasant and one of the more enjoyable ways to write a book... but it sure steals your time from a blog.

Wed July 22nd... Remember Your Past Journeys, Mold the Direction of Tomorrow...

Many times we get so engrossed in life and where we are going that we forget the footsteps left behind as we progressed to our position in life today. Many times we have stubbed our toes or pinched our fingers in learning, if not only, for simply realization of being stung by reality on the way to the present, yet we resist using this knowledge to protect ourselves from the future. Lest we forget the pain endured by these lessons, they can be essential knowledge for plotting the future. I remember being so trustful in my younger life..... yes, feeling that closeness of friends and family would be all that was necessary to ensure camaraderie to the heart. Little did I know that some of my darkest moments would be inflicted upon me by the closest of family and was resulted in heartache, struck through.... as a dagger’s plunge.
And the time was, that I was very careful to not utter discontentment of actions by others, for alas, they too retain the right to say and do as they please. And Quiet I remained..... though their actions infringed upon my life and happiness. I refrained from statement, for I belonged at the same table... living in commune with those same souls that begrudged me my rightful happiness through their tongue of lies. Given years and miles of trodden byways, I’ve deposited these elements of past occurrences’ to my memory and withdraw conclusions as required. No longer could I withstand thoughtless attacks made upon me because they were of ramifications in innocence. The results for me were the same.... kindred closeness or the savage result from an evil adversary..... alike was the inflicted agony. Yet none acknowledged..... yes, nary a soul could see the infliction bestowed unjustly upon my heart. So I became hardened. I became encrusted by a thick armor that could not be penetrated.... by word or deed, by fist or club... by threat nor promise. I became invincible by proxy of another being from within. This being was fair yet ruthless.... caring yet callous.... mindful of feelings yet insensitive to intransitive brutality if called for. It was a nasty being.... one I despised and one which caused me to analyze in retrospect of those actions. I finally concluded that I must distance myself from such actions, both by me... and of those around me, so I changed my thought process to eradicate those beings existence from my conscious world. (They ceased to exist any longer in my knowledge) It was after this, that I found true peace.... peace found by traveling a new path... a path of my choosing, seeking my life’s desire. Oh..... there were more mistakes, more hurt and more paths taken. Many paths were deemed by me as going in the wrong direction, as the years rolled by... but I always remained true to my heart, changing those paths to follow my heart, until I arrived at today..... many years later. Now I look around me and know I had made the correct decision those many years ago.

Tuesday July 21st... A Full Day of Rain Allows the Mind to Drift to Memory......

This morning since it was raining, we took off for Albany where we got a few items we were waiting to get to town to pick up. Vick needed more of the pocket pages for her art portfolio and since they are thirty dollars for a ten pack, we wait until they give a 50% off coupon at Michael's and we both buy a package, using the coupon. These are a necessary item in her portfolio so her original paintings stay safe, even when someone is thumbing through the portfolio, nothing can mark or stain the original paintings. We got two packs of those protective sheet packages and then went to Arlene’s for professional sable brushes. She picked a twenty four dollar, sable round tip, that measures about a half inch by an eight inch around. Expensive, yes....but it will serve her forever. Michaels didn’t have any good quality brushes, but Arlene’s carries a line of expensive, good, sable brushes, in various sizes and shapes. Vick has learned that good professional brushes, pan paints and the best paper make the difference in quality paintings. Vick is now creating gallery quality paintings, in my opinion, and will one day be ready to exhibit them in the library or the bank for all to see.
The steel roofing came in to GNH this afternoon. We were in Albany when they called to say we could pick it up anytime we want. Vick told them we would possibly get it tomorrow sometime. She then called Adam, the roofer, to inform him that we were going to pick it up and that it was then up to him to install it when he is ready. Adam mentioned Friday as a possibility for installing it and that it would hinge on the weather. We were ecstatic that it would be so soon, because we can’t wait!

It certainly looks like we will not be attending the Farmer’s Market this Saturday unless something changes drastically. We gather our eggs; clean them, weigh them and packaged them by size, then place them in the cooler on the porch with the price marked on each dozen. They stay there for.......possibly an hour and we’re out of eggs again until the next gathering. This entire process happens again all over. The hens have slowed from five or more dozen a day, all the way down to a dozen or two. Sometimes they lay a heaping three dozen! We have tried everything from music, to extra feed, make sure they have plenty of clean water and lots of light, but the slump is unbroken right now, so we may not make it to the market!

Monday July 20th... Time Marches On... Summer is half over... Fall coming quickly...

Wow, look how quickly time is passing us by! We are heading into August and in another eleven days, which will definitely occur as if it were only eleven minutes, we will be there. We haven’t had a cook out with friends yet and have only had one BBQ with close family, early in the spring. We wanted to finish the buildings we have under construction so we could spend a day on the Hudson River fishing or just boating, trying some bank fishing along some of the local streams and take a few minutes to run a spinner or two in the local trout streams. What I wouldn’t give for a limit of filleted trout and a bowl full of fresh cut French fries..... Awwwwww baby, a meal fit for a king!
I would love to visit some of the more scenic areas that I haven’t been to yet and See the attractions, so I could snap a few more pictures for my picture disc, entitled, “The Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley in Pictures”, which I have marketed on my site skipwattbooks.com, where my other books are available and Vick’s artwork and stained glass are listed. I would like to visit local towns which we have not been fortunate enough to visit yet, like Latham, Chatham and other quaint little towns with attractions. We can take a lengthy day trip to places like Watkins Glen, above Corning.... toward the center of the state, or of course, there is always good ol’ Vermont and Massachusetts which are really close to us too. In fact, we’ve been known to drive to Bennington, Vermont for coffee and cake. We’ve been as far north as Granville, New York, in Vermont, we’ve gone north as far as North Rupert and in Massachusetts, we’ve been to Newington. There are still a million things to see in all three of these states and nothing stopping us from making day trips anywhere within them.

I often think of the days spent sitting around the house, doing absolutely nothing, wasting a great day that, given an expenditure of gas, could turn into a great adventure we would never forget. In fact...... guess what I am doing at this very moment! Wasting the day... burning daylight sitting in front of this stupid computer with the sun shining and the birds are singing. I’m leaving now...going to experience life a little bit today. You should do the same if possible.

Sun. Eve, July 19th... Time Marches On and Wait’s for No One...Get in The Way and Get Run Over!

We changed our pricing to coincide with changes we have had to make to our packaging with the strict requirements of the New York Department of Agriculture’s recommended guidelines for egg quality management. We are required to, and have been cleaning, candling, grading and sizing each egg by weight to determine how each eggs is to be packaged. All eggs are placed in new boxes stating the grade, size and our farm name and address. Now with this packaging we can sell from the farm, at the farmers market or place the eggs into retail outlet stores for sale to the public. We used to sell unclassified eggs in used boxes here on the farm, giving credit for returned boxes.
With this new change in packaging and marketing, we can no longer market eggs in boxes other than our own. We can, in the interest of re-cycling, reuse returned boxes if they are ours, are clean and not damaged. We can no longer give cash credit for returns though. Those days are gone forever, it seems and some people are upset with that. It actually means less hassle for us, and a better bargain for the customer, because now they can choose Jumbo, X-Large, Large or Medium. The Duck, Guinea Fowl, Bantam and Turkey eggs remain unchanged.

Time marches on......waits for nobody and it has been said that, “Time is money.” Why then do so many people in this world choose to waste it? Why do they spend it creating such hate and discontentment? Is it necessary to make sure that your actions cause others grief? It seems to me that in my fifty eight years of life, I have seen many people go completely out of their way to cause a family member heartache or pain. It wouldn’t be any different than taking a baseball bat and hitting them repeatedly all over their bodies, causing pain and discomfort. First there is the physical discomfort that is present with the shellacking from the bat, then, there is the mental anguish suffered at the thought of a loved one inflicting such abuse.........and for what? Why? Family is the one gift given that you cannot replace if lost. You cannot buy family with any amount of money......... family is a feeling of love, security, closeness. Being with family is like embracing yourself...they are you and you are them. You can help them, love them, spend time with them and laugh with them. Family makes life worth living.... if family understands this. If they feel the same, you can have some pretty hefty encounters of the heart, mind and soul. Family loving family and being together, is something you will never encounter in a group of friends or can achieve without the family ingredients..........One Another. Never destroy something so precious. Guard it with your life and pray for those who don’t understand it!

Sun. July 19th... A Study In Human Nature Isn’t Without Risk... You find......

People are funny.... As was stated every week, by Art Link letter in the forties, on a popular radio station that carried the program bearing that same name. It certainly is a true and broad description, not of a person’s humorous side, but of their oddities. Most people want what they think would be nice for everyone, as long as everyone else is prepared to provide it for everyone else in the end.... the originators included. You know what I mean. "Boy it sure would be nice if we all got together and made a pavilion here for everyone to use for picnics when it is raining outside. That way, none of us would ever have to cancel our plans if it is raining a little when we wanted to go." Sounds good right? It sounds logical that if everyone pitched in and worked together, a pavilion would certainly be an easy thing for a community to share in building..... But... rest assured that usually the person who came up with this brain storm, will be not be around when the work is to commence. Perhaps once the project is completed, they will mention that it was their idea and that it was the greatest community project ever undertaken and that they use it frequently and it’s the greatest! Yes... now you can say, “You know, people are funny.” It happens all the time. I’ve even watched, to see if there was some hidden prerequisite to making a suggestion for something, in case the one suggesting the idea is not allowed to participate in the fruition of the work. You know, kind of like the disclaimer saying that employees of our business are exempt from playing or entering into this raffle. I have found that it is not a requirement and you can in fact participate in the back busting work of creating a community project! But.... the work is never entered into, but at fruition of the worked on project, you can rest assured that the originator will be among the first to enjoy the fruits of everyone else’s labor. It is best not looked at because you find occasionally that your best friends are sometimes the culprits, so don’t look!!!!!

We worked on the rear deck project yesterday and almost finished all the purlin’s, which would make it ready for Adam and the metal roofing, allowing us to go back to the gift shop. The deck roofing is going to be a great thing that we will enjoy on a daily basis. It will allow us to use the deck and BBQ grill any time we want and we can eat out there in the mornings without sitting on wet chairs anymore.

We went to the drive-in last evening to see Harry Potter..... Perhaps if we had waited until it came out on home video, we could have watched it enough times to keep up, and know what the story line is. That is not the case at the drive-in where the picture is always too dark to see everything and the sound is so bad, even on your radio, that you miss bits of the story. Anyway, we were disappointed.

We have found again, that you can’t please everyone all the time, half the time or Really... Anytime!!! We find ourselves doing things one way and having an over abundance of eggs to market, then we change and end up running out of eggs...without our loyal customers getting theirs which makes us feel bad, then we end up with some of this and some of that and some happy people and some mad people, so we’ve taken the advice of both our best customers. “Do what you have to do to make everything easy and right.... if it means increasing the price, so be it.” That has been sound advice. In light of the fact that we don’t make anything on the sale of eggs anyway, why were we going crazy catering to the masses? Instead we changed our egg pricing.
We now sell 100% certified, graded, sized eggs which are from guaranteed “free Range chickens” turned loose every morning to roam the 9 acre farm, eating all natural foods, without additives. They are as close to “organic” as you can actually get, but we will never claim that “fantasy classification”. We would have a better chance of being completely organic than a commercial egg farm, because how do you maintain thousands of chickens, without medicines and chemicals to control filth, rodents, smell, fungus and germs which would devastate a flock in short order. How can you insure your feed is free of these items either? You are at the mercy of the producers who sell products to mills to grind and blend into feed. How can you be positive there were no insecticides sprayed on the crops of some underhanded seller/grower seeking the highest price for his product? It’s hard to believe an egg producer is certified organic. Just check into the meaning of the word as it relates to eggs, farms, meat producers, slaughter houses or anywhere.
We’ll never believe it.... never claim it... nor will we ever pay for it!

The Organic Food Festivals of the Ninny's!!