Sometimes, everything happens at once. Invariably, that once, is a time when you didn't really want anything extra to be happening. Such is the case with October 2009, so far. The big deal for us at this time of year is the Barter Fair (aka Okanogan Family Fair)
http://www.okanoganfamilyfaire.net/Default.htm.
So we set aside some time to attend every year so we can barter for a good part of our annual supply of "vittles". We had the van ready and were starting to pack two days ahead of time. I proofed and printed copies of the Northeast Washington Grape Catalog, a venture I am starting along with Confidence Israel to sell grape plants. The book includes new pages on planning and planting that are not on the website. I dug up some sample plants and practiced getting them in the van inside the cart that fit in front of the kitchen counter with it's handle over the back seat. Then the complications began.
Did we mention the cat? Cheryl and I have been adopted by a young male cat. He came out of the vineyard while my neighbor Clarence and I were talking in front of the office. He rubbed up against us and made purring sounds. He followed me everywhere constantly getting under foot and he didn't leave. Cheryl dubbed him "Tag Along" - now abbreviated to "Tagger".
(We lost our really sweet cat, Abby, earlier this year.) We didn't want him in the house while we were at the fair, but set up some food in the shop. We also took advantage of a spay and neuter clinic in Northport the Sunday before the fair to get him neutered. Friends, John and Michelle volunteered to feed him and our dog, Scruffy. Two days before the fair they came down to check out the feeding scene.
That's when they told us that the latest weather reports were saying there would be lows of 15 degrees over the weekend. Those are middle-of-the-winter temperatures around here, not early fall temperatures. They were planning to pick all the apples in Cliffside Orchard so they would not be frozen.
http://www.cliffsideorchard.com/. It takes a lot to freeze an apple, but 15 degrees will do it. My first though was "Yikes - I have hundreds of pounds of grapes in the vineyard that I did not intend to deal with until after the fair." So the rest of that day and early the next morning I was picking all of my grapes and storing them in the office until after the fair. Cheryl was bringing in her squash, leeks, onions etc.
A day or two earlier Cheryl found this visitor on my back
We got off to the fair a little late, but found a spot in the vendors circle after putting up $100 for the pair of us. (You had better be ready for business if you want to vend at this fair.) We were surrounded by young people - (we are getting used to that.) Having the van was great. By evening, we were ready to wander around and find some music. After dark, with the shop closed up, I took my trashcan bass and went
looking for more music, which I found in Scott and Diane's Ferry County
tent. A wood stove kept it warm and the cloth door blew open every few
minutes as the wind picked up again, bitter cold this time. Edison and
Diane Swain, Steve and Barbara, a group that used to play music
together, kept things going at the tent. It was fun, but there was a
lot of tobacco smoke and I checked out around midnight to catch some
z's for the day ahead. The wind began to howl.
Some canopies blew around in the wind and a few things came loose at our camp, but in the morning we patched it all together and set up shop. It was a slow day. I soaked up some sunshine, met the neighbors and sold some grape plants and grape products while Cheryl scouted out things we had on our shopping list. April and Tony came Friday night and met up with Rachel there on
Saturday. Tony brought us a great finished plywood top for an old card
table we have. Now it is holding some of the curing squash. As soon
as the sun went down it got cold in a hurry.
Cheryl had her little propane heater going and it kept the van warm while it was burning. But it didn't seem like a good idea to leave it on, so after we were tucked in our overstuffed sleeping bag with blankets etc. on top, we turned it off. Man did it get cold! Even curled up, I had to rub my feet to keep them warm. Finally I got up and put two pair of socks on and then got some sleep. Water froze in my stainless steal water bottle. There was frost inside the windows. We heard it was down to 9 degrees.
I figured that the cold might limit the crowd on Saturday. I was wrong. They poured in. Someone announced that the 300 cars parked down on the highway, about a mile away, had to be moved. Something like 13,000 people attend this fair every year. There was a whole lot of trading going on. Cheryl found these people who had a booth selling Lamb Kabobs, Walking Water Ranch,
http://walkingwaterranch.com/. They would trade wine for meals, and as it turned out, frozen lamb. We love lamb. Joe was the cook and Elizabeth the baker. They ran the food booth all day and then went home to take care of the sheep at night. As if that was not enough, Elizabeth has asthma and needed an inhaler by the end of the first day. She ended up in the hospital at the end of the second day, but still came back to work at the fair. (This was also Bina and Jeff's birthday, but there is no cell coverage at the fair and I didn't send greetings till later.)
The good guitar players wrapped it up early before their fingers froze. It was even a little colder than the night before, 8 degrees. I had drained the fresh water out of the van, but the faucet still froze and now has a leak. We were generally a little more ready for the cold and the all-night drumming was much subdued, so we slept well.
Early, well maybe not that early, Sunday, we started packing up and did some last minute deals. I was tasting wine with the folks next door from Missoula when Skeeter showed up and Grant Gibbs. We had all been involved in the first Barter Fair and traded stories. Cheryl and I made a side-trip to Bonaparte Lake for lunch. Nightime found us home warm, unpacked and clean!
With the Barter Fair over, there was a lot of catching up to do. At noon, Monday, I gave a presentation on the River Routes Tour to the Chewelah Chamber of Commerce. Jerry, our wood guy, delivered another cord. Martha Kraus dropped off a 50 gallon stainless steel tank
for me to make wine in. (It's great.) We let Tagger inside and he has proved to be a somewhat trainable and certainly entertaining and loveable pet. I made chicken soup for dinner. My throat was sore and I worried about getting a cold, or worse. (A half gallong of cranberry juice ans some vitamins got me through.)
Tuesday I crushed the Baco Noir and Pinot Noir grapes and got them going in my old faithful, Olympic Hotel coffee urn. Wednesday I had a windshield crack fixed on the Westy Van, parked it for the winter, canceled the insurance till spring, fixed the new wine tank with a PVC valve and crushed the late Lucie grapes. The TV and newspaper were running articles on how the big freeze forced an early harvest of grapes.
Wednesday I crushed the white grapes into my last two stainless steel kettles, interviewed Florence Cooper, 95, who spent most of her life on Pingston Creek and surrounding area and got going on the Rock Club Newsletter. By this time I figure many of you were wondering if I was still alive, but there was no time to blog. Through the weekend I was dealing with firewood, wine and the newsletter, although I did play music with the Gifford Folk Society on Saturday night and go to a Slow Food pot luck on Sunday the 18th.
Monday was an almost all-day meeting of the Heritage Network in Clayton. It wasn't till Tuesday night, just before the Rock Club meeting that I had the newsletter printed, most of the wine safely in carboys, the firewood stacked and the office somewhat organized. Then there was an emergency mapping job on historic houses in Kettle Falls Wednesday and a big order of Bonner County books to mail along with most of the newsletters.
Thursday, October 22nd was rough. I wanted to fix the leaky faucet on the kitchen sink while Cheryl was at work. Seven and a half hours and two trips to the hardware store later it was working again. I made dinner and colapsed. So now it's Friday. It's been raining for two days. The wireless Internet connection doesn't work well in the rain and I am typing up this blog text offline, hoping I can get it posted. Tomorrow I hope to get two tons of goat manure from Quillisascut Farm School (I got way more than that) and take in the bird netting from the vineyard - if it drys out some. If only we hadn't had that big freeze...