P3

We're pleased to announce a new web feature, the Pregnancy Photo Project (P3).  If you didn't know that we're pregnant, well I'm sorry that you're learning about it here, but it IS true!

We're working on a photo each week of the pregnancy so that our long distance family and friends can keep track of us.  And understanding that this sort of thing is always more interesting to us first-time parents, we'll use the magic of computers and the high speed internet to compress the latter 22 weeks of pregnancy down to only 18, just so you don't get too bored.  (And who knows, we might have the baby a week or two early, so enjoy these pictures while we have them!)

So check back often, we need the web traffic.  And that attention stealing band Portishead has gone and copied us, nicknaming their 3rd album P3.  The nerve!  Never mind that it's been critically and publicly acclaimed (http://www.avclub.com/content/music/portishead, http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/50072-portishead-third).  WE have the original P3 here!  (coming soon that is)

Cozy

Best to stay inside where it's warm and cozy, right? Sam and Mia have the right idea, but their attitude is contagious. Who wants to go outside where it's cold, rainy, icy, snowy, and gray, all at once? Things are so depressing outside, you either have to sleep or laugh. (obvious what the cats chose) But really, today I saw a guy trying to dig his Miata out of a snowbank with the handle end of a broom. It was a nearly 2 foot snowbank, frozen over, and he had a broom. Is that comical or pathetic, you decide. But it speaks to how unprepared people were for this weather. I fear that no amount of NW extra strong, extra large, extra shot coffee can save us now!

You Decide

Picture #1: Colorado or Oregon?
Picture #2 : Outside Fargo, or outside Portland?

Confused Kitties

We're not sure if Sam ever saw snow (being from Buffalo as he was) but Mia was born and raised in Oregon and today's snow was news to her. Entertained as she was by falling snow flakes, she had no interest in getting her feet cold.

But Sam frolicked in the snow; and why shouldn't he, with his perfect camo coat?

Garden

Here's how the farm has been looking, or rather had been looking until the snows arrived. Most of the food crops are out, and cover crops are in. All we have left is swiss chard (should be able to keep going through the winter), and the sunchokes, which I have to dig up for the root cellar.

More on Poultry in Cones

Sarah Palin is copying us!! Step-by-step, here is what happened...

1-Our footage of my chicken processing day hit the internet.
2-One of my photos was submitted for the Pulitzer in Journalism.
3-Overnight this blog became a web sensation.
4-Next, the term "kill cone" was nominated for Merriam Websters word(s) of the year.
5-Now everyone in the world wants a piece of the action, even Governor Palin. Watch this video, where she pardons one turkey, then banishes all his friends to the kill cone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-kjM1asH-8

Happy Halloween!

Its a spooky time of year, with the days getting shorter, crazy kids dressed as wedges of cheese, and these scary pumpkins greeting the neighbors!

Pumpkins

The weather in Oregon has been beautiful, with blue skies and sunshine all this week. But a week before this it was miserably cold and rainy, giving us a taste of the coming fall season.

But in autumnal Oregon you can't let the rain get you down or stop you from having fun. So a little while back we put on some warm clothes and boots and headed out to the pumpkin patch with the Koulibali family. The theme of the day was supposed to be pumpkins, but it was really more about mud. A muddy maize maze, a muddy parking lot, muddy pumpkins, and muddy kids. A muddy good time all around really.

This crew seemed to have a good time though, so we'll have to invite them back to help out with the next big mud event of the season--Christmas tree shopping!

Duck

A picture tells a story more than many words could, but falls far short of being able to express smells and tastes.  I cooked up the duck breasts medium rare (as per instructions online and in the Joy of Cooking)  The leg and back meet was browned with some bacon, the pan then deglazed with stock to prepare the beans, and then some greens from the farm were steamed on top.  This was so good, so tender, so tasty!

Tomatoes

Unfortunately tomato season is just about run out, as the cold and rain has moved into the region for who knows how long. This is our last glorious batch, featuring a mix from our and Gus's garden.

A few of the most choice were eaten fresh with a touch of salt and pepper; the rest that were a little too young or a few days too old were mixed with vinegar, garlic, and apples before being reduced to a flavorful tomato relish.

Potatoes

It's spud collection season. We planted red, purple, and gold potato, with solid results. 9+ pounds from the 2 foot by 2 foot raised bed! The original drops were planted down at soil level, then enclosed with the raised box, 6 inches high. Through the season we added layers of straw, compost, and dirt, eventually raising the soil about 10" above were the original spuds went in. Everything we harvested was in this loose new soil that we had built.

In comparison, the leftovers that we just buried in the dirt and left unattended for the season had really miminal production.

Fresh Chickens!!!

After much anticipation, Chicken Day finally arrived recently. Gina had raised 30 Buff Orpingtons, with the "little ones" going into her egg flock, and the "big birds" scheduled for the freezer. They had hatched back on Memorial Day, so at this point they were all grown up, had had a wonderful summer, and were looking to checkout before the rainy season came to town.

So one sunny day we met up with them, 4 hens, a rooster, and 2 male ducks (she had wanted to buy 2 pairs of ducks, but instead got 3 boys and just 1 girl, which wasn't a healthy ratio). Tim, Adrienne, Seth, and one traffic cone turned out to help.

For those that expected this to be a dramatic/traumatic/vegetarian experience, it wasn't. None of us minded doing the dirty work, because the chickens didn't even seem to mind. Upside down in the cone, they started out calm and progressed to sleepy. With a quick snip of kitchen shears across the vessels of the neck, they passed out and away without any flapping or complaining. And with their heads still on (and spine intact) there were no attempts to run around without a head. The only tough part was the plucking; our fault for not having boiling water to loosen the feathers.

Some of the pictures are here.

San Francisco

We Miller City Farmers have been spending a bit of time away from the farm lately, with the Hood to Coast Relay, and then an early September trip to California.

Rather last minute, we found a cheap flight to Oakland (did you know that Horizon serves free local microbrews on their flights?!?!) and spent a day and night in SF, a few days in Yosemite, then a last night in Sausalito. Beautiful weather the whole time, and being after Labor Day, the crowds had abated from Yosemite. Here are the pictures.

Hood To Coast

Another year later, and we're still not smart enough to stay home for the last weekend of August. Why do we keep signing up for a 197 mile relay that takes us 28 hours or so? At least we took the camera, and fortunately the camera couldn't capture the smell in our van, We also didn't remember to take pictures of our most miserable moments, which makes it look like it was fun. Here are the pix.

Cheap Beer Taste Off!

It had to be done, and we're the people low-class enough to do it.

The 2008 Cheap Beer Blind Taste Test went down a few days ago. We featured hipster fave PBR, east coast refresher National Bohemian, and with local Yakima Valley hops: Rainier. There was even a brownbag surprise beer, which turned out to be MGD in a bottle.

So which suds was the refreshingest? Which amber nectar the smoothest?

If you know that Natty Bo, PBR, and Rainier are all produced by the same company, you won't be surprised to know that they all tasted pretty similar. MGD was "fizzier," not exactly a compliment, but was deemed best for after sports and this new knowledge was used to make it the official beer of our Hood-to-Coast team. PBR had the most votes, and Rainier the least. But really they were all pretty similar, and price should be the deciding factor!

What's for Dessert?

Pie!!! (It says so, right there on the homemade crust!) Annie and Adam flew all the way out to Portland from the Big Apple just to help us pick Big Blackberries. That was so nice of them, so we made sure to bake 2 pies while they were here.

Of course we didn't grow the blackberries (see below). But we did pick them from around the garden; buckets and buckets of them in the rain.

Nerdy footnote: its considered poor form to grow some strains of blackberries, as Rubus armeniacus is a naturalized weed. If you use your google, you'll see that there are even companies that rent out goats to eat the invasive brambles.

Second footnote: Oregon is the largest commercial producer of blackberries in the whole wide world, producing about 42,000,000 pounds per year!

Final footnote: Marionberries are actually a cultivar of blackberries, named for Marion County, OR. It was crossed from the Chehalem and Olallie strains. And the Olallie is half youngberry and half loganberry. The loganberry in turn is the illegitimate offspring of a red raspberry and a blackberry, after those two were introduced by James Logan, and started dating down in a California garden around 1880. (Seriously, you can look all this stuff up online!)

Much Suspense

If you're still coming to this website for news about the Millers and their farm, you've noticed its been a while since we had an update. Don't worry though, that's not because we've been boring and un-newsworthy... really the opposite is true.

So stayed tuned as I catch us all up. Coming soon-- Where have Andy and Gretel been? What news of the chickens? (and why is there a duck with them?) Which "cheap" beer represents the best "value"? These questions and many more will soon be answered!

Oneonta Falls/Gorge

It was raining the other day, so why not play in the water when you're going to get wet anyway? Adam and Anne joined us for a hike up to one of the Columbia Gorge's lesser known falls. All the pictures of shivering people are here!

Onions

I think I made a mistake with the onions. Probably I should have planted them deeper? Most of the growing globes are right at the surface of the soil, some even setting on top of the soil. Some of these more shallow shallots tip over and their tops die back, so I harvested some of them. Red, yellow, and white, all still a bit too small but plenty tasty after they went into the frying pan with a piece of steak (beef not from our farm unfortunately). As a nice side dish were the two squashes in the picture, thick sliced and sauteed in butter.

"Yummm-Meeee" reported Gretel after chowing down on seconds.

Gretel Gets her Greens

We're starting to get overrun with fresh greens. Our one little row of lettuce is keeping us all set with fresh salads daily. (Good thing those other 6 rows I planted never grew!) In this picture is also the last of the spinach for the summer. It grew some huge leaves (on the left in the picture) before it started to bolt. With the weather being warm like it is, even my little 2" high spinach seedlings are bolting, so we'll wait until later in August to try to replant for a cool weather fall harvest.

Flugtag!

I took time off from weeding between the tomato plants to stop by downtown for the Red Bull Flugtag. It's a cool enough event, but did 80,000 people really have to show up? Seriously, they were NOT even giving out free Redbull!!! You can click here to see the official event pictures, which are better than mine.

Smith Rock

We took a short overnight trip to Smith Rock this week to do some climbing. What a beautiful place hidden away in the desert, and what great climbing too! Fingers and knees got a bit scraped up, but otherwise everyone was safe and happy. And since it was too hot to climb in the sun, we all avoided sunburns by climbing in the shade. Here's like 35 more pictures or so.....

Big Cow

Here she is, one of the world's biggest cows, hanging out at the Tillamook County Fair. Apparently a growth hormone disorder allowed her to grow this big. Ironically, because of her hormone disorder she doesn't produce milk, and being a Brown Swiss dairy cow, she doesn't produce meat either. But she does eat a lot, and she's 74 inches high at the shoulder!

This week's fashion roundup

These chickens' otherwise lovely day in the sun was spoiled by poor choices at the hat rack. Blond chickens have more fun, but come on ladies, that headgear is so 1980s....

I could start a whole essay about whether chickens are pets or livestock. And whether being livestock precludes an animal from simultaneously being a pet. Regardless, these chickens look ridiculous and serve no practical purpose, other than looking silly, which is of course impractical. For comparison, check out my chickens. They're nice looking birds that are working hard. Working hard getting meaty and tasty that is!

French's Dome

Why are these guys staring up through the trees? Click here to see the web album documenting the 2 pitch climb of French's Dome we did, featuring exciting pictures of the climb, the exciting lunch on top, and the exciting rappel. As you can tell, we thought it was a pretty exciting endeavor.

Get out the vote

I know everyone is supposed to vote, and every vote should get counted. But hasn't Obama won Oregon already? Even without an election, we already know which way the 33rd state is voting. Even the chickens have Obama Fever!

(editor: this post was drafted before Obama said he'd be willing to open up more offshore oil drilling. Even a chicken knows that we should emphasize development of alternate energy technologies rather than resort to more oil drilling!)

City Farms

By now everyone knows that Portland leads the nation in two things: number of breweries per capita and (nearly as important) number of chickens per capita. After all, each household is allowed 3 hens, and lots of people utilize this allowance. But the city also allows one "small" farm animal per yard as well. I hadn't yet seen any small farm animals around, until we finally did find this pig living in NE with a handful of chickens, some squash plants, and a bunch of rows of sweet corn. Mmmmm, pork and chicken and squash and corn....

Artichoke

What happens to artichokes if you don't pick them? They flower like big thistles, as this bumblebee was happy to find out.

Spot, Gretel, and Amy: 3 girls on patrol through the apple groves in Hood River, OR.