Catherine et les fées

Saturday, May 11, 2013

New York City, Day 1: Times Square and Harlem

After some pondering and researching, we had decided to skip NY this time and save it for another trip simply because it's complicated and expensive to find a campground for our travel trailer close enough (like less than an hour drive) and we thought the girls would enjoy it more later. The only sensible way to visit New York is to stay in town to avoid transiting morning and night (which quickly get costly for the five of us). But on Wednesday afternoon, a suspension leaf broke on our trailer and we had to get it fixed before going any further. We could not go anywhere or we would be causing more damage. As luck had it, we found a garage nearby (in Hackensack) that could order the parts snd do the job for the next day. We could park our truck and trailer in front of the garage where it would be safe to sleep. For free. It was 3 pm on Thursday and we were a mere 20 minute bus ride from the closest NY metro station!

:: The girls had ridden the subway only once in Montreal when they were little so that was quite exciting. There was lots of discussion about who might live behind the doors in between the stations under the cities and where all those doors might lead... ::

:: For the full New York effect we got off right at Times Square. The girls were stunned. Aïsha said she never saw such a "decorated" city before. ::

After seeing a French speaking Chinese Spiderman, Sonic, Minnie and Mickey, Bart Simpson and Puss in boots from Shrek, Mathilde spotted a big cookie monster head in a phone booth and we tought it was a pretty funny sight... Then the rest of the monster arrived from Starbucks, coffee in hand, and tried to hide as much as one can in a blue hairy suit, in Times Square, for a bit of a break...

:: Feeling very little in Times Square... ::

:: Then, we wanted to go to Harlem for dinner to try a restaurant a friend had recommended to us, the Red Rooster, and we were not disappointed. The cornbread with honey butter and tomato jam, the parmesan fries, the maple syrup and Bourbon sauteed collard greens and my smoked trout was to die for!::

::And we walked and walked some more and took more subways and inevitably got in the wrong train and ended up in a *very* empty station and found our way back thanks to our amazing navigator. Aïsha was pretty fascinated to watch a woman read an hebrew book beside her in the wagon and recite verses with her eyes closed. And there was the very sexy mama with a baby in a car seat that was quite probably a "him". We finally caught the bus pretty late and when it crossed the brigde back to NJ, we could see the whole city illuminated over the Hudson River and all I could think is how we are some lucky bastards!! Seriously! Things often work so amazingly well for us, it's just incredible! ::

Thursday, May 9, 2013

The life of the Amish

The Pennsylvania Amish of Lancaster County are America's oldest Amish settlement, where thousands still live a centuries-old "Plain" lifestyle. - See more at: http://www.padutchcountry.com/activities/amish-activities.asp#sthash.p505jtdL.dpuf

The Pennsylvania Amish of Lancaster County are America's Oldest Amish settlement, where thousands still live a centuries-old "Plain" lifestyle. About 30 minutes before we reached the town of Intercourse (yes, you heard that right), which is in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, we started seeing horsed pulled buggies and Amish people working the fields with antique equipment and horses. Children dressed in "plain clothes" (long dresses and head covers for girls, dark pants with suspenders, a white shirt and a straw hat for boys) on straw bales or in gardens, we really felt like we had entered another era...

Since One of the Ten Commandments states that "Thou shalt not make any graven image unto thyself....", most Amish folks are not supposed to POSE for pictures, but most people are not too sensitive about pictures from behind or at a distance, so I was able to take some photos...

They use of horse-and-buggy transportation and speak a Pennsylvania German dialect in church services and daily conversation. The vast majority of Old Order Amish communities meet in homes for religious services, wear distinctive plain clothing, and reject television, online access, and public utility electricity.

We visited an Amish farm. I must say it bursted my Amish bubble quite a bit. The milking cows were tied up all day and did not go outside and fed grain that was not produce on the farm. The calves were separated from the mother in little white cells to which they are tied outside. They also used pesticides on the fields. Also, many of the houses are now built with vinyl siding and other "new" material instead of wood.

Just before we left the farm, the mother was trying to sell us some cookies and at the same time her 13 yo young girl was coming back from school on her antique scooter bike (they seem to use mainly that type of bike instead of pedal bike, which is probably more convenient with their clothing) in her plain dress and head cover... with skate shoes!

Most Amish homes in Lancaster today have beautiful kitchens with gas stoves, refrigerators (LP gas), hot water heaters, showers, indoor toilets, and sometimes, public sewer. Most would not include electricity. Fans, sewing machines and other items that may require a motor are usually run with compressed air motors. A diesel engine is normally used to run a compressor, which pushes air into a large storage tank for use as necessary. Pumps in wells are also run by air motors. Windmills are less and less common. Electric fences are used on the farm run by a small solar panel and battery. The principle generally set forth is that no wire should come into the home connecting it with the outside world. A phone in the shed, barn, cell phone or pager with no wires of course makes all that possible.

:: The girls really enjoyed the buggy ride. One of the funniest things to see were the flashers on the buggies! ::

Children go to school up to 8th grade but cannot pursue higher studies. You can get a very good idea of what Amish school is like if you read the series of "Little House on the Prairie" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These schools very much follow the pattern of what early 20th century schools were like in America. One room, one teacher, reading, writing, arithmetic and other basics are still the main stay.

I had in mind that the Amish were quite self-sufficient, but soon realized that they rely heavily on the outside market to buy their products and that they are really money-oriented...

::It's a good thing that they have a great natural food store with great prices and an amazing selection of things. They had tons of herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs at a really good price, local bee pollen, lots of local raw dairies and much more... ::

:: Homemade sourdough Amish pretzel: Yum! ::

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Shenandoah Mountains: working in partnership

After over two months of coastal lands, the mountains were calling him. We drove inland to the George Washington National Forest and reached the Shenandoah National Park’s scenic roadway, the Skyline Drive. When we arrived at Big Meadows campground, I was pretty excited to find out it was the Wildflower Weekend and that there were wildflower identification hikes, spring birds identification hikes and even garlic mustard picking hikes! But for our girls, guided hikes, in English (a language they don’t master yet) did not rhyme with fun, especially after the few experiences they had in Southern Utah, namely the memorable one with Ranger Jon.

I could have gone by myself, but what I was really after was to spend time in nature with my family, so we decided to hike from the campground to Lewis falls. While we hiked a couple of miles alongside the Appalachian Trail, our girls happily climbed every boulder and fallen big tree we came across, build dams on flowing spring rivers and smiled from ear to ear. My little free wildflowers! Mathilde exclaimed: It smells like fall, winter, spring and summer at the same time! And we had to agree. The mix of last fall fallen leaves, the young leaves opening, the crisp cold air and the warm sun made for a delicious smell that carried memories of all the seasons. So very different from the coast air we got accustomed to for the last couple of months!

As I watched my girls run and play in the forest, my heart filled with joy. That was so much better than dragging unwilling children to a interpretation hike in the name of education, making them feel powerless (and bored for 2 hours, and probably grumpy... and totally closed to learning anything anyways...).

Making decisions together as a family makes everybody feel heard and in control of what is going on. This is something that is really important to us. Children so often feel powerless and controlled by adults, and that leads to all sorts of stress and unexpressed tensions. We believe in working in partnership with our girls and we are all the better for it.

The hike back up from the falls was hard and up the whole time. It was longer than we all expected and Mathilde was tired and done with the hiking. She complained quite a bit. It is convenient when kids suck it up and play it strong. The twins are old enough (and strong enough) that they are fine doing harder hikes, so they were fine, but this was hard for Mathilde (and for me!!). JF was so patient with her. He towed her and gently talked to her. We played charades and kept trying to lift her spirit. When we saw the end, Aïsha came and grabbed her hand and they ran to the end of the trail. This is how partners do it!

:: Those two. They are always laughing! ::

Friday, May 3, 2013

A visit to Joel Salatin's Farm: a visit in our past...

Most days, feeling like we are always on holidays is great. On the odd day, like yesterday, it's not so great. We were pretty excited to go visit the farm of a man that was a great mentor for us when we had our little homestead in the Eastern Townships in Quebec. We packed a quick lunch and left, eager to reach the farm before the store closed at noon. We had to leave the trailer behind because of the narrow and bumpy roads that led to the farm. Virginia has a very particular climate, perferct for farming, especially the Shenandoah Valley. There are fruit trees and lilacs in bloom everywhere. We were lucky to have an ongoing fall when we came down (from August in the Yukon to December in Arizona), we might just have a continuous spring as we are coming back up!

Then, in the middle of all that beauty, my phone beeps announcing a rush contract for 2 pm... and another one for 5 pm. It's 11:30 am. And we didn't even think about bringing a computer with us. We have to go back to the campground and pick one up... (why we don't take both computers at this point, I still don't know...). We have our farmers hat on, I guess! So, balancing a laptop on my lap, I try to start the contract while navigating the bumps and curves and realize that I will get sick before I finish the first paragraph... but I don't get that chance, because we lose our Internet signal... JF is now holding our hotspot device in the air in one hand while driving in the hope of seeing a couple of signal bars showing up, while we are looking at all the cute spring calves in the fields... Finally, at the top of a hill, there is a faint signal. I put a sweater in the window so I can see something in my screen, they go out to eat the strawberry spinach salad we had prepared on the truck tailgate (and soon realize we had forgotten the forks... ) and before I could finished my document, my computer battery dies...

I have 45 minutes left to hand it in. We are about 30 min from the campground. We decide to do a beeline for the next town (15 min) and we find a cute little café. Pfew! The girls play games with JF (and pick a smoothie and a bagel with butter: I am more and more amazed at the choices they make. We told them they could pick whatever they wanted. We suggested hot chocolate, chocolate cookies, brownies, etc.). All was good again! Staunton is a beautiful little town. I could have spent the afternoon taking pictures there, but we wanted to visit the farm, so off we went! I finished the two contracts and by 2:45 we were on our way.

Some people heard the name Joel Salatin for the first time when the book The Omnivore's Dilemma was published and grass-fed beef became popular for conscious meat-eatear. Many nights at the farm, I had fallen asleep reading Salad-bar Beef, You Can Farm, Family-Friendly Farming or Pasture Poultry Profit before or after trying to memorize a Waldorf story to tell the girls the day after...

Polyface Farm has been advocating the local movement and non-industrial food system long before it became the buzz. Since they have an open door policy and a transparent farm operation, they allow anybody to do a self-guided tour for free. I was very surprised to see that, mostly for the safety of the animals. We could have fed them whatever we wanted, opened fences, walked into their pens (I don't think people would do mean things intentionally but simply out of ignorance). We felt incredibly welcomed and never felt out of place. The employees talked to us and smiled at us the whole time. There is a very simple vibe there. It was a great experience.

It was fascinating to see what the girls remembered from our farm life, especially Mathilde since she was so little. When we approached the pig pen, she exclaimed: I remember that pig smell!!

The girls fed the pigs fresh green grass for 30 minutes. We could not help but wonder how our dream would have been different if the girls were older at the time...

We found a black snake skin that is great shape! What a find! We can even see the eyes on the head!

In the end, it was great that we were there late in the day, because we got to see the afternoon chores. Daniel (Joel's son and the inventor of the forage-based rabbit system) arrived with his son to move the cows in a different pasture (just like in the book!) He called them and moved forward on the ATV, while his son stayed behind and did a different call to rally the stranders.

Of course, there is a part of us that misses the farm life. We will always partly be farmers, but I would not be farming for meat anymore. I would be farming to be with the animals. I miss them! However, I don't miss all the work and the (very!) sedentary lifestyle that comes with farming. This is not the season of our life right now. I really think we have found joy. And it feels great. We might just try to housesit or help on farms more. Everybody knows that most farmers always welcome a helping hand!