Madeleine Peyroux show

I'm in a Madeleine state of mind today. I know her detractors dis her, saying she's just imitating the great Billie and the sublime Bessie, but if I could imitate as well as she does, I'd be out there workin' it, too. I love her for keeping the sweet crooning songstress vibe alive and well in the age of hip hop and techno. Plug in the 'phones and let Homegirl take you where she will...

Recipe for a Perfect Weekend:

One beautiful, remote location, such as Hidden Lake, along the South Fork of the McKenzie River, near where Willamette Nat’l Forest meets Three Sisters Wilderness Area

Spectacular old growth forest to hike through before reaching the lake each morning

Three old, decrepit plywood-and-log rafts to commandeer and paddle to the far side of the lake

My Honey, two supercool friends-Ted and Marina, and believe it or not, seven teenagers: Everett, Clayton, Eli, Nicole, Mimi, Ari, and Emyli

One excellent dog, Jake

Combine above ingredients, then add:

Copious amounts of hearty, delicious food

Plenty of wine in the evenings

Bottomless portions of sunbathing, napping, and swimming in the perfectly mild but cool, deep green lake (clothing optional and, in fact, superfluous)

Be sure to include at least one campfire sing-along

Always, Always volunteer to cook, because then the teenagers will have to do the dishes!

Campfire Songs:

Yellow Submarine

Let the Sunshine In

Free Fallin (Tom Petty)

I’ll Follow You (Death Cab for Cutie)

Nicole performing The Viagra Song, complete with choreography

Emyli performing her amazing original songs

Delta Dawn

A little Rocky Horror, a little Dylan, a little Simon & Garfunkel

A couple of Pagan-y chants (this is Oregon and we are all hippies, after all)

Visual Update on the House

We took delivery of the rest of our house package--check out Mark using the forklift to hold up the back end of the roofing as Dave tows it on the trailer. Our menfolk have the magic touch. And then there's Eli, official House Monkey in Charge of Verifying Structural Integrity.

Who's the Fairest of Them All?

Columbia County Fair took place July 18-22, though here at the farm the build-up began many months ago and built to a fever pitch in the weeks immediately preceding it. Like most families with a lot of animal entries, we camp for the entire week of Fair in the fairgrounds' campground. We had all 9 of our goats at the fair, which simplified their care, rather than someone having to be home for feeding and milking. All the 4-H kids get up by 6:30 to clean animal pens and do their morning chores--in our case, milking is the major one--before assembling at the flagpole at 8:00 for morning announcements. The fair is always a mad rush, with Roni and I having to sit down the week before and create an elaborate flow chart outlining how to get all kids, animals, tack, and camping gear to where it needs to be at the right time. This year was no exception: Before fair itself, we had to schedule blocks of time for the kids to bathe all of their animals, label everything we were taking with us that would be in the communal barns, help with set-up of animal pens in the barns at the fairgrounds, decorate our clubs' areas, make sure everyone's static entries were submitted, paperwork was done, show clothes were clean and ironed, and the list went on. Then at the fair itself it was all about making sure the kids knew when they had barn duty and in what barn. We have our own 4-H club for goats under the Aardvark Farm name, but our kids belong to another club for their rabbit and poultry projects, so they were almost constantly on duty in one barn or the other, keeping the animals fed and watered and chatting with fair visitors. At least, that's what barn duty is supposed to entail, but the reality is there's a whole helluva lot of card playing that goes on. It's part of the tradition of Fair, and it seems that Speed was the game of choice for the second year in a row. We had multiple kids showing dairy goats, pygmy goats, and rabbits, plus Keegan showing her chicken and Jaeger getting her first experience in horse showmanship. In the static exhibits the kids had entries in photography, art, baked goods, sewing, and knitting. Keegan and her friend Monroe did a duet in the talent show tryouts but weren't selected for the main event (robbed!), Clayton and Hannah did Fashion Revue so they got to model their sewing projects, and in between all of this everyone had to squeeze in plenty of time for eating greasy and sugary foods. The week had a gazillion great moments, including our beautiful goats getting some serious love from the goat judge. Jaeger's yearling doe, Magic, and Eli's two year-old doe, Elinor, both did great, but it was their mother, Grace, who stole the show. After winning Grand Champion of all the French Alpines (not hard, since ours were almost the only ones there), she was judged against all the dairy goats of other breeds and again won Grand Champion. Then later she was judged against ALL the goats--meat goats, pygmies, and fiber goats--and won again, crowning her Supreme Champion and Best in Barn. SWEET! Then Keegan, in her firt year showing at fair, and being younger and smaller than the other competitors, rocked Junior Dairy Goat Showmanship. She was showing Indigo, our most calm and docile doe, but the judges like to have the kids switch goats in the show ring, prove that they can work with a goat besides their own. So Keegan had to deal with this psycho Nubian doe who had nothing on her mind except getting back to her two young kids bawling at her from the barn. The goat made a break for it, but those of us who know and love Keeg could only shake our heads in sympathy for the goat, because Homegirl wasn't about to let go. Attempting to dig in her heels against the powerful doe, Keegan held on fiercely to the collar even as she was dragged around the ring. The judge attempted to help out and the judge almost knocked her on her arse. When it came time to announce her placings, the judge heaped praise on Keegan for refusing to let go, when a lot of other showmen might not have been able to keep hold. For her tenacity, as well as being correctly answering some pretty tough questions from the judge, Keegan won Reserve Champion! A synopsis of fair would be incomplete without giving a shout-out to The Girls--our network of extra daughters composed of the boys' girlfriends and miscellaneous friends of all the kids. Hannah camped with us all week, and though we would have let her sleep in, she was up at 6:30 every morning cleaning goat pens, milking, and doing whatever was needed. Keila, who visits her mom in St. Helens for summers, also camped with us, did goat barn chores, and worked at the fair as a volunteer for Kiwanis. Overachiever. We also got help from Corissa, Jaeger's horse-riding buddy, and Jackie, Keila's younger sister, both of whom were invaluable in helping us keep ourselves together. The week was a smash, but it's incredibly exhausting and we're always so delighted when it's over, it's as if that's when our summer leisure can begin. But wait! The kids did so well that Eli and Jaeger qualified for State Fair. Oh, yay...so we get to do this whole circus again at the end of August in Salem. At least we're only taking three goats and two rabbits, plus Eli's photos that qualified, and the cloak Clayton sewed. And I console myself that there's likely to be a far superior selection of greasy, sugary food at the state level.

Still More Damn Canoe Photos...

Below are pics of the canoe carving in St. Helens last March, and Clayton and Eli the day they paddled Mato Chante from Fort Clatsop with First Squad. Then Clayton and your truly on the banks of the Missouri at Williston, North Dakota, a year ago this week, right before I hugged him good-bye and he embarked on his first real adventure away from home. The next shot is of him and Idaho Jim on the trip back from St. Louis. Here are a couple more, including the homecoming into St.Helens.

Boy and Eagle Return

Flying Eagle, variously known as Wambli River Dancing Eagle, or just Wambli to Eli, began life here in St. Helens in March, 2006, and the beginning of the canoe's life was also the beginning of a life-changing journey for Clayton, and Eli too. Much has already been written about the canoes and the journey of First Squad, and I wouldn't presume to speak for Clayton about his own voyage of adventure and self-discovery. I will say that when I look at him, knowing the sweet, earnest, adorable little boy that grew up loving to dress up in elaborate costumes (cowboy, Batman, pirate, James Bond), was growing his own salad and herbal teas at age 8, and would painstakingly set up his little easel on the front porch so he could while away summer afternoons painting, and now I see this tall, strapping, confident, capable, brash young man who maneuvers around town on his skateboard as comfortably as he bucks hay, does construction, and paddles a canoe, I'm totally in awe. And his growth into himself in the past year and a half, since Lewis & Clark arrived in his life, has been exponential. I don't take credit for his accomplishments, but I was one proud mom on July 3rd when Clayton stern-paddled the Eagle into St. Helens.

Summer Highlights

Hoping this images are worth a few thousand words...here's some of what we've been up to. Demonstrating in opposition to a proposed "rubber reclamation" (read: tire burning) plant in St. Helens, hanging out in Mississippi on the river with the dugouts, doing the 7-mile hike to Sauvie Island's Warrior Rock Lighthouse with a bunch of teens for Everett's 18th birthday (dig the goth hiking garb!), and taking delivery of a super-size erector set that we've been trying to make into a house.

A Work in Progress...

To begin blogging at this point in the evolution of our farm/community venture feels like starting a book right in the middle, but this is how it is. Where we are is right in the thick of the construction process, the child-rearing process, relationship processes, and figuring out what our community will eventually look like. Realizing that this story begins mid-stream, I hope it'll still make for decent reading, and at least some mild amusement. My first quest as a blogger is to attempt to upload photos...you should be able to determine if I was successful...