The gorilla is off my back...

Hello everyone! I'd apologize for the 10 days between this and the last post, but why? You're over it.

I watched Marley and Me last night, but I left when things started to get bad. I know what happens and would rather not see the end. That's all.
I also watched Gosford Park when I was kicked out of work on Monday. Great movie. Helen Mirren is a genius.

I took a sick day on Friday, and was kicked out of the office on Monday (my boss didn't want to get sick). I came back to work on Tuesday to find my boss had come down with a head cold already. We're a hilarious pair this week.

The farm is coming along nicely. We've laid a clover crop on the land for the winter months to help restore the nitrogen levels in the ground, and to get things started for the spring. Basically, it is a lot easier to get crews out there for leveling, discing, tilling, and the like in September when the weather is nice than in January/February. Now that the clover is down, we just have to get our trellis system ready to be installed (February), order rhizomes (January, for March/April delivery), and put together our pulley system. That's not so bad, especially since we're starting on an acre or so. :)
We'll spend the early spring and summer months designing and building our drying system. Hops grow on bines (like vines, but with one root ball) and look like little green pine cones. Once they're picked, they need to be dried quickly and at a constant temperature... think of a kiln room. The drying and pelleting processes are going to be the hardest part of this endeavor (assuming we can keep downey mildew and crazy pests off the plants) so we're devoting the actual growing season to researching and building a phenomenal and scalable system. By the time harvest season comes around (Late August-October) we'll be ready to go. I'm sure we'll have some inefficiencies the first year or two - it'll take time to work the kinks out - but I'm okay with that. So, if you are thinking about being in the Charlotte area in the coming years during August-October... plan on coming out to the farm to help with the harvest! I'll even make apple cider and some nomzy foods to keep us going!!

We're also looking for a graphic designer to help us with logos and the like. I know a few of you out there are OMG talented, so let me know if you've got some free time and would like to do some discounted work. :) We know a few people in town who also do incredible stuff, but I'm always a fan of utilizing people in my "network." I consider it to be the same as buying local. Other than that, we're actually ahead of the game. Woohoo! Oh, and we do have a name and everything picked out. I'm waiting until we have a website up to release all that: I want to have something to show everyone!

I have to admit: I felt a huge relief when J and I decided that we're moving out to the farm area in 2011. Now, I do LOVE living in the city and being able to hop on public transit, or go to one of a million restaurants, or be a part of a place that buzzes with excitement. But I can't wait to get out of it. This town was significantly smaller when I was a kid, and I miss it. Besides, we won't be that far from CLT. And I'm only going to be 15 minutes away from a major mall and retail area. So yes: we are moving out to a cute neighborhood surrounded by pick-your-own-berries farms and cow pastures... and I can't wait. I'm tired of always being on the go and having some place that I have to be. I want to just be HOME. I want to have a real veggie garden that is actually IN the ground and that produces enough for a summer of fresh foods and canning for the winter. I realize that living out there is not going to be all peaches and daisies. And I realize that I am going to have a bit of an adjustment period. But I've been here for as long as I can remember. I'm 2 freakin' miles from my parents - just 1 zip code away. I need to spread my wings and explore and do something different. Heck, I even went to college in the same city. So, not only is this farm something I want - this move is something I can't wait for. I love my friends, but I know that we'll only be 60 minutes away. I mean, really.... 1 hour is NOT that far. So, yeah.

Sorry for the rant. I just decided that I needed to get it all out there.

I hope you all are well. I'll be back soon with some fun updates - hopefully :)

Whargarble

There are a million +1 things going through my head today.
Well, make that 1,000,002. I forgot to count that other thing.

I love 3 day weekends, but I loathe 4 day weeks. Everything is crammed in there and 50 hours of work needs to get done in 32. But, we make it happen, right?

I'm working on a plan to finish the house. We're looking to move in the next year or so, so I want to have everything nice. Well, I want it to be pretty nice so I can feel good about selling it... but I also want the house to just be finished so I can enjoy the last year or so that we're here. You know? So - I'm repainting the upstairs bathrooms, probably changing the mirrors and etc up there too... refinishing some furniture so we can use non-broken (but currently VERY ugly) items instead of the very broken ones we are using. I'm also hoping to organize all the little messes we have around the place. The goal is to throw or give away all the random crap we don't need/want. I'm hoping this major project does a few things: a) gets the house done and ready... obviously; b) helps prepare me mentally for the move; c) cleans some crap out physically; d) gives me a physical outlet without going and sitting on a treadmill or a bike

In other news: I'm walking in the Making Strides Breast Cancer Research Walk at the end of the month. Link for my page:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=12684995&pg=personal&fr_id=19946&s_src=PPCviewpage