Permsteading.com

What an accomplishment, Matt. It must be reassuring to have your winter feeding taken care of already. And what an opportunity you have with the future haying trade. That's fantastic. I always struggle to get out and meet people but always glad when I push myself to do it.

Kind of a long story, but along the same lines. I made the 2 hour drive one way today to pick up some fire clay. I have a lot of potters in my town and in the fall there is a tour where 10 of these studios are kinda showcased. I saw a promotional poster of this event at the clay company and asked the owner if he knows these people. He's like yeah, they all get clay from me. So I'm all, "oh yeah, so and so's studio is right across the street from where I work, and this other potter I've known for 30 years." Then the owner of the clay company is all, "Oh, I've known him for like 30 years too. I deliver clay down there all the time, if you ever need some just let me know and I'll drop it off." Wow, I've spent a total of 8 hours driving now to get fireclay from somebody that is in my town every week. I should have chatted this guy up a long time ago. Silly me, I never asked my local potters where they get their clay. I drink my drinks from clay mugs that came from the same purveyor of my fireclay. Duh.

Today is a great day. One of my spring chickens laid her first egg today. I've been without eggs for 6 or 7 months now.

Do you think she started to lay because she was so excited to be in their new home???? Just a thought, you never know.

Personally, I think she started to lay because I told her I was going to eat her if she didn't start pulling her weight around this place. As much as she's in there robbing the garden you'd think I'd get something in return. Sheesh!

Yeah, you are a kind a patient sea cow, Manny. Lucky chicken!

I'm gonna try to get one more summer day here before I head inland for the next couple weeks. Here's the webcam, I'll wave at you guys in a couple hours once the tide comes up a bit....

http://forkswa.com/first-beach-webcam/

What a beautiful day for the beach today!

Green with envy, fella. Green with envy.

It's a blustery 51 here. I'm toasting some peanuts on the rocket for some spring rolls. Greens from the cold frame, pickled turnips and carrots, and some of the last basil and cilantro from the garden. A little rabbit pate for protein.

Someday I will return to the pacific, until then I will eat well.

Well, I know how you cook, so the envy goes both ways. It sounds fantastic, and it's one of my favorite dishes. Hey, ever tried making your own rice wrap stuff? I just realized reading your post I haven't had any spring rolls in ages since I try not to shop at the grocery store at all, but surely those can be made at home. Hmmmm...

Surf was fantastic, I'm tired. I've had an excellent couple of days. I had my friend and his excavator up here yesterday and this morning, and holy cow did we do a number around here. It's the driest I've ever seen it here, yet we found water in a spot I have never had it. One new long swale, and a couple, uh, erosion mitigation/wetland restoration features that are 17' deep and really, really large and at the very tippy top of my hill. So, uh, yeah. So freakin' excited.

We started doing a bit more this morning then called it off when we made the mistake of checking the webcam, and he called it a day on the excavator and forced me to go surfing. It was amazing. I'm behind on packing, and have a million things to do before I leave, but man, it was worth it.

So, I'm outta here tomorrow evening, and I'll be gone for 10 days or so out at Wheaton's place. I'll probably have internet and try to keep up with things here, but I apologize in advance if the spammers get in and try to sell you all real designer handbags.

In case any of you are near NH, Ray is holding a workshop up there in early October and I'll be heading out there for a day as well. Here's the info for that:

http://www.meetup.com/Central-New-Hamps ... 184187642/

Ooooooh! Some traveling in the future! Samuel Clemens is quoted as saying, "Travel is fatal to hatred, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." I can't say that I disagree.

Can't wait to see the excavations. It probably looks like a big mess right now! I'll bet it will be awesome though after it's finished. And what's the plan for a 17' hole on top of the hill?

Those are erosion mitigation/wetland restoration features my friend, not "holes." There's two of 'em. The plan is to go swimming I hope, and mitigate and restore of course. I might need to mitigate and restore by gravity feeding down to dry pastures in the summer, or new plantings, or maybe a slip and slide and a fountain.