This Little Pig, or, That's How we Pull Pork.

(picture below taken by Alexis)

I knew it would be great, and it was. Pork. Smoked hog to be exact. To wrap up the Super Supreme French Week here at the farm my dad put into motion what I can best describe as a massive meat medley. How does one go about sponsoring one of these carnivorous reveries you may be wondering? Well, with any luck, you have a big-hearted, energetic man named Walt in your friend arsenal. Walt's the kind of man who's willing to drive from Baton Rouge, through the night, to pull into your driveway at 4 in the morning with his truck loaded down with meat products, a herculean smoker, a tent, multiple homemade sauces, several shirts to sweat through, and enough energy to wake up in three hours to begin an all day cooking affair. Hell of a guy. And a hell of a meal. Just so you get the full picture, the plate you see above, chock full of pulled pork, corn, coleslaw, and black eyed peas, was just day 1. Day 2 was beef brisket, sausage, and another bouquet of sides. Something to be thankful for, for a good long while.

Also, you might want to check out this article the NY Times did on pig roasting a few weeks ago. A different method than what we went with, but maybe next time?

Welcome to America

Les Francais sont arrivés! In the span of 4 days the farm has begun to resemble a French Refugee Camp. With a "merci" here, and a "de rien" there, we've managed to peacefully coexist, two cultures, two languages, in a house bursting at the seams, and everyone breathing in air that more closely resembles hot mud. We've been passing the time doughnut eating, afternoon swimming, laughing at ourselves, and watching old home movies with a projector and a canvas on the front porch. Everyone is being well fed and well watered (or wined) and that doesn't hurt in the morale department. Here are some pictures from the vacation so far.....

Brad and Dad's hard work has paid off. The finished outdoor shower.

Antoine "clothesline" de Givenchy.

A still of my Aunt 20 years ago smoking her pipe in neon green overalls.
That's hard to beat.

Charlie our friendliest goat. Nuff said.

CSI: Hancock County

It's not intentional that mum has been my word this week. Sometimes life just sweeps you up in a whirlwind of doings and goings on and you can't seem to extract yourself long enough to discern the common thread that runs through the whirlwind. On the 4th, I "un"surprised my mom by running the Peachtree with her. Long story short, I have been stealth training since January to run with her, but the cat got out of the bag a little early. Surprise or no surprise, it was still one of the best experiences of my life. To finish the day off Brad and I got to visit with his family and enjoy a little turkey BBQ all the way from Whitt's in Decatur, Alabama. Perfect Taste Sensation.

This week we're in the home stretch of readying the house for the arrival of 20 French People; Bretons, to be exact. Mom's bought all of the air mattresses in the greater Atlanta area, and we're scraping walls and windows, weed whacking, outdoor shower building, painting, fixing air conditioning units, hanging curtains, etc. Basically, we've voluntarily entered the realm of a TLC home improvement show, without the freebie budget or glam cam crew. It's a lot of old fashioned sweating.

Found beneath one of the walls after scraping.

Maybe this picture is morbid, but I have never seen a mole in my life, and
I walked up to Little Bud right after he killed this mole. I thought
the proportions of it's digging claws in relation to the rest of it's
body rather unbelievable, even though, the whole event was sad. He's
in hot water right now for killing a few of our pullets this morning.
Needless to say, this afternoon was devoted to finishing the dog pen.

The two photos above were taken of an old receipt ledger that goes back to
the days when the general store was buying many of their goods from the Macon
Grocery Co. The ledger, although I guess it's really more of an
organizational holder, is in really good condition and maybe one of the best
things we've found on the property. If she looks pretty in picture, just imagine
the patina on this gal in person.

Growth Spurt

I'm the kind of lady who is fond of a name. Names for animate objects, names for inanimate objects. Already got a name? No problem, i'll give you another. Knowing this, i'd like to formally introduce you to my recently named vegetable garden, Growth Spurt. She's a lamb of a garden, (as my friend Catherine would say), but she's one hell of a grower. I've spent the last two afternoons in the garden trying to get her to pull herself together. The cucumber vines were trying to manifest destiny themselves across both sides of the garden, and the tomato stems were buckling with all of their new fruit. You might not be able to tell it in the picture, but I inverted one tomato cage on top of another and tied them together, as well as to the stake, so that they would have more structure to reach their full potential. It's just what good parents try to do...

As I entered the garden this evening, to photograph Growth Spurt's
progress I decided to let Bud, our littlest canine, take in the sights
and smells with me. Normally, the dogs aren't allowed in, but he's
just so damn cute sometimes. Needless to say, Bud selected the
lima beans as worthy of his leg lift. And below, you see him
processing my response. Rule with an iron fist, they say.

Little Bud is the animal with the most names here on the farm
they include, but are not limited to, the following; Napo, King Richard,
Little Richard, Little Shit, Rambo, Taco Mac, Ricky, and Get Down.
(most of these names have been ascribed to him by others...)

On the subject of adolescence, here is one of our Rhode Island Reds,
out for her afternoon walk. All of our pullets are growing at an
almost alarming rate, and they have nearly surpassed the B Team
in size. It's hard not to spend all day watching them scratch around now
that they're big enough to free range.

Here's what Brad's been up to today. He's in the middle of building
a dog pen for our three little monkeys for when we're out with the animals,
and we don't want to worry about them upsetting whoever we're trying
to focus on. I'll show you a finished product in the next few days.

Mayonnaise

In anticipation of BLT season, as well as the tomato sandwich I was going to be having for dinner, Brad and I made mayonnaise this afternoon.... the old school way. Armed with our trusty Wesson Oil Mayonnaise Maker and a mayonnaise recipe from Martha Hall Foose, from her cookbook Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, we churned our way to condiment heaven. Honestly, there was a time in the middle of the whole damn thing that I thought that my arm might give out, but Brad tagged in so I could tag out; and, as the recipe suggests, it's a good project to attempt with two people. The recipe really is quite simple, and i'll be making it periodically throughout the summer, but i'll play around some with adding some spices and herbs-- cumin and basil? fresh cayenne pepper and a little cinnamon?





The animated gif below is hard evidence that I got overly excited about making this mayonnaise. We also made a few videos, but I think we'll just break those out if our ego's start to get out of hand---- you know, bring us down a notch.

**If anyone should want the recipe, let me know and i'll either email it to you or add it to the post.

The Five P's

Peanuts and Pop.
On view, the great art of peanut shell stacking.
Make a note, this is a good Father's Day Weekend Activity.

Phaseolus Lunatus.
Also known as the Lima Bean. This is one of the crops I replanted
last week, and she sure is taking off. Just look at how the Fordhook
seed stays a part of the plant stalk after germination. Not pictured:
the chicken manure stuck to my elbows and knees from getting
on all fours to take this picture.

Future Pickle?
This is the Armenian Slicing Cucumber. I took
all sorts of pictures trying to give a frame of reference
for just how large this lady is, but nothing really
captured it. Not even my dirty converse. I'll
break out the ruler once she's ready to harvest.

Pink.
Probably the biggest disappointment of my garden so far has been
my zinnias and cosmos. I planted them along the border to the
entrance in an attempt to make any garden visitors feel welcome,
but i'm afraid this flower is a wolf pack of one.

Discussion topic this evening: Are pickles better at hydrating you then Gatorade? No conclusive evidence either way, but here's what we did find out.... Pickles are high in Potassium. Surprisingly high.

Blonde on Blonde and Gratuitous Corn Proofs

On Friday i'll be saying goodbye to the Vandercook 4. It's the first press we used at Brown Parcel, and it's the only way I could have started the business while I was still in school. Why is this? My former partner and I were able to start the press because it's owner kindly agreed to let us lease it for $50 a year. Insane, I know. The owner will be driving down to the general store to load her up on Friday, and i'd be lying if I said it didn't sting a little, but she's served us well, and fortunately, i've already located her replacement. To assuage mounting separation anxiety I decided she and I should do a little color study today.

One thing that always surprises me in printmaking is the interaction of color on paper as well as with itself. Even though color mixing is one of my favorite parts of printmaking, it's always challenging to predict exactly how that color will be worn on the paper. You have to consider the thickness of the paper as well as any undertones. That is to say, it may be white, but how white? Bright white, soft white, pearl white? All of those slight differences will greatly affect how the viewer ends up reading the color.

Above is what happened in the studio today. This ear of corn and I experimented with layering. What happens when you take the same color and layer it on top of each other one, two, three times? I wanted everything to look subtle and effortlessly intriguing. Whether it was a success or not who knows, but it felt good to print on the 4 one last time.



Finally, I couldn't resist using this creepy real life tone on tone study to reiterate my color points. This photo is a total accident. It seems to be becoming the norm these days, but, there was an otherworldly moth on our screen door Monday morning. Because of the time of day, and the fact that the moth was clinging to the screen door on the back porch, there wasn't adequate light to make a successful document of it's intricate coloring. So, I ran into the house and grabbed the first flat object I could find, junk mail. The idea was to coax the moth onto this paper ferry and get it out in better light without scaring it off. It worked, but the photos became more about the color coincidence than the moth itself. Here's to a day devoted to color.