Hank appeared on the farm sometime in July. He skulked around for a few months, living off our trash and probably some small animals, but never getting close enough for any of us to catch him. Mark started feeding him in November and in December, when it got really cold, we finally lured him inside. Turns out, he's a super affectionate, super friendly cat. I'm not much of a cat person, but I am a Hank person. Maggie is still getting used to not being an only pet. Most of her time is now spent staring at Hank, either from across the room or an inch from his face. Hank doesn't seem to mind. We're currently dog sitting for our friends Therin and Ellick's dog Ruby. Ruby has jumped right on board with the cat staring and she and Maggie spend quite a bit of time trying to herd Hank around the house or staring at him from the couch.
On the 11th, Mark and I brewed our first ever batch of beer. It's a Chinook IPA and should be ready sometime in February. On the 25th, we siphoned the beer into a carboy to begin the secondary fermentation. In 2-3 weeks we'll bottle and then about 2 weeks after that, it'll be ready for the tasting. Here's Mark siphoning the beer.
Another exciting late December event was a visit from our dear friend Katie. She was here for about 5 days and we did our best to convince her to move to Vermont. Though I don't think we succeeded, we did have a good time trying. Key persuasion techniques involved long walks in the snow, a visit to the Fairbanks Museum, watching 'Love, Actually', a trip to her cousin's bakery 'Elmore Mountain Bread', a giant Solstice bonfire, a trip to 'The Alchemist' a great brewery/restaurant in Waterbury where we ended up running into her cousin just hours after we left the bakery, a Christmas tree lighting (with real candles) and carol singing event at a co-worker's house and lots of reminiscing. The night before Katie left, our buddy Jake flew into Burlington and made the hour and a half drive to come see us here in Walden. It was great to have some of the old crew back together.
Though Mark and I don't really celebrate Christmas, I have still hung onto the idea of homemade raviolis with red sauce and pesto on Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember, that's been my family's tradition and I have no intention of giving it up just because I'm not big on Christmas. The past few years I've made do with homemade pasta, but as a Solstice present this year, Mark gave me a ravioli press. The filling I made was from a little cookbook that my Great-Aunt Ada gave my Mom year's ago. It involves a number of different animals, lots of garlic, egg and cheese and it's delicious. I also made red sauce and we broke out some of the pesto that I made back in August. Here's a photo of Mark with some of the finished product. I made both spinach and regular dough. The dough was a little sticky at first and it turns out that a wine bottle, though it does work, is not quite as efficient as a rolling pin, but everything turned out tasty in the end.
One of my favorite presents this year was a lovely, felted bag, made by my very own mother. It was her first felting project and as far as I'm concerned, she did a fantastic job! Thanks Ma.
In closing, I'd like to share some of my favorite things I experienced in 2010. In no particular order:
1. Purple viking potatoes.
2. Music. More specifically: Gorillaz-Plastic Beach, The soundtrack to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Pete Bernhard-The Things I Left Behind, Langhorne Slim, The Devil Makes Three, Grateful Dead-American Beauty, Broken Bells, Of Montreal, Old School Freight Train.....and so many more, but those are definitely some of the top faves.
3. Visiting Nic and Sarah in Bozeman, MT.
4. Both writing and receiving letters. Having pen pals is one of the best excuses to buy fun stationary and note cards.
5. Farming.
6. Road trip! Montana to Oregon to California to Colorado to North Carolina to Virginia to Vermont. Why not? Even better than the freedom of the road were the lovely friends and family we got to visit along the way.
7. Spending a few months in my hometown. This involved being in Annie (that's right, the musical), working at Chapter One Bookstore again, spending time with friends, having Katie, Audrey, Nic and Sarah come visit, walks by the river, darts and drinks with Ryan and Britany, some winter hikes and lots of crafting.
8. The Pacific Ocean.
9. Hiking. East Coast, West Coast, No Coast, it was all pretty.
10. Finding a new/another place to call home, full of friendly, like-minded people, a gorgeous land base and opportunity. Vermont, I see some good times in our future.
I hope all of you have as good a 2011 as I did a 2010.
Happy New Year.
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