Hot Off The Haywire

Semper Fi...

They say you're not supposed to. But everyone probably does it - have favorites that is, especially regarding family members, whether it's children, parents, etc. In my case, it's an Uncle, an Uncle that just passed away on December 5th at the grand old age of 87. Uncle Fred Lee.

Born Robert Fred Lee in College Park, Georgia, he could trace his roots back to good stock as in the Robert E. Lee line of Civil War fame. When World War II broke out he, like millions of other young American boys, volunteered to do his part. He joined the Marine Corps and shipped out to Camp Pendleton in California, no doubt the farthest he had ever been from his farm home in Georgia.

His first stop was the Guadalcanal, a bitter battle with unspeakable horrors. He then went through all the other killing fields like Pelelieu and Okinawa. He was bayoneted through the leg, and also lost his brother who served in the Navy. Upon returning home he married my mom's oldest sister Dorothy, and then started a family and a grading business.

My first memories of Uncle Fred are how gentle a spirit he had, and his grand sense of humor. Like all little boys who play war and think it's nothing more than getting up and dusting yourself off after getting "shot", I was fascinated by him having served in combat and pestered him with questions about the war. He took the constant barrage of questions with grace, but now that I think about it, it had to dredge up memories he'd have best left buried. Memories of friends lost, of death and destruction, of hardship and loss.

I'm so proud to have had the honor of being his nephew, and to see how he lived his life and loved his family despite all the pain and suffering he had to endure at such a young age. His memory will be with me always, and my thoughts and prayers are with my Aunt Dorothy and cousins Ann, Stanley, and Bobby in their time of grief. I'm sure that:

When he arrived at the pearly gates

to Saint Peter he did tell,

one more Marine reporting sir,

I've served my time in hell.

 

Rest in peace Uncle Fred. I love you and miss you.

Stephen

Greater Love...

...hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Beautiful words, but lacking heft unless you stared them in the face, and we've had over 4000 young men and women in the last decade take those words and give them a heft that you or I will never know, an ultimate testament to friendship, and also the saddest testament of all.

And that doesn't even begin to account for the hundreds of thousands before them. Sometime in our busy lives we need to set a moment aside, take the enormity of the sacrifice in, like sampling a fine wine, swirl it, absorb the flavor of it, appreciate the beauty of it, but ultimately have to swallow it. And it's a hard concept to swallow that you must die that others can live, absolutely the most difficult concept of all.

Tomorrow on Veteran's Day, take a moment to think about what it really means to lay your life down for your friends. To all my fellow paratroopers that served with me I consider it an honor to call you brothers. To all those that have shown us what greater love truly means, we're forever indebted.

Pork & Greens

Farm Tour

A big thanks to all of you that were able to make it out to tour the farm today and see where and how your pork is raised, and eat a few dawgs and banger burgers too. Here's a select few photos from the day. Kids sizing up kids:

 

and here's Amber Kimball and family feeding some cookies:

 

and here's Merry Schepers with her own cookie action:

 

and here's getting ready to chow on some dawgs and banger burgers:

 

and here's Krista Waldron and family:

 

Again, we appreciate all of you who attended and for those that couldn't make, or didn't know about it, we'll definitely have more in the near future. Thanks for reading!

Pork & Greens

Update

Yesterday we said that we'd be bringing the dawg cart tomorrow, but after the harvest today there's no room for all the watermelons, melons, and cart in the trailer. We apologize to all of our breakfast brat friends, but this is the last big harvest, so we guarantee we'll have the cart back out next weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Pork & Greens

Lost City Knits

There's a really cool blog out there called Lost City Knits that comes from two folks that I really admire and respect for their passion about what they do, Denise Bell and Chris Dykes. I just had the opportunity to check their blog out, and it's really cool. The different colors of yarn that they produce are amazing. You can see the passion I'm talking about in those colors. Bravo!

They also produce lavender products under the Clear Creek Lavender moniker, so check that out as well. You can find them at the Cherry Street Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, so if you love to knit, I don't know where you could find more beautiful yarn. (I wish my grandmoma was still alive to see those colors)  

Thanks for reading, and look their blog over. You won't be disappointed!

Pork & Greens

Moma

One day you wake up and realize how precious were the days you had on this earth with the woman who bore you in labor, and then loved and nutured you into adulthood. On this Mother's day we remember the love and affection freely given and hold you in our thoughts always. Rest in peace, moma.

Stephen

Digging In

Forebodings. You can feel it in the changing wind, the hint of moisture in the air, the stiffness in the bones. Bad anticipations are in those winds. Like Londoners waiting on the blitz, all you can do is hunker down and dig in. The coming assault dredges up memories of the previous assault, an assault that left us without power for 10 days. The Iceman cometh.

We're more prepared this time, or so we think. A new rick of firewood, generator filled and tested, candles, matches, flashlights, batteries, and, most important of all, a trip into the attic to the stash of books bought but never read. Good news is we have gas for cooking and the fireplace. Bad news is we're on the outer edge of the grid, meaning first to lose power, last to get it restored. More bad news is how this throws the monkey wrench in the garden timetable. It's hard to plan the work and then work the plan with a layer of ice covering the ground. Oh well, though the course may change sometimes, rivers always reach the sea. (Ten Years Gone by Led Zeppelin)

Livestock are double fed, and their huts are strawed up. The last ice storm caused the electric fence to sag to the ground from the weight, so that's to be expected again.

I'm just waiting to exchange this:

 

for this:

Hopefully the Iceman has lost his way, but if he shows up here, stay safe and stay warm!

Pork & Greens