Gig Posters

On the kiosk at Memorial Union:

Jedi Mind Tricks
Black Lips
'Pert Near Sandstone
The Clientele
Need to Breathe
The Catalog Babies
Trampled by Turtles
Field Music
Leslie and the Ly's
Umphreys McGee
Heatbox
The Kissers

CSA Decision

The people of Madison LOVE community supported agriculture (CSA) farms--all the booths at Monona Terrace yesterday were mobbed. True to my talent for getting involved in a trend at its peak, I was there as well, along with my husband and 79 year old dad, who farmed for a good many years.

We stood like rocks in a whitewater stream, trying to decide where to strike out for first. Luckily a volunteer came by with delicious samples of an asian-style coleslaw from the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition cookbook. One taste and we shoved off to find the best farm to join so we could start picking up produce each week to make things just like that.

What a different type of farming the people there were doing compared to what my dad had done! The farmers we talked to were mostly people in their thirties or even twenties, thoroughly at ease discussing the nutritional value of the food they were growing, sustainable farming methods, and lifestyle choices. Besides farmers, they were sales people, promoters, educators, merchandisers, employers, distributors, and graphic designers.

Having struggled mightily to grow an array of vegetables in our garden, which is composed of dense clay soil, creeping charlie, and a favorite spot of deer, rabbits, groundhogs and Japanese beetles, I wanted to know about things like tractors and other mechanical help. I thought Dad would, too, especially since he spent a good bit of his retirement restoring John Deere tractors, but no. I followed him to hear the answers to his favorite question "Do you have working shares?"

We didn't make a decision on which CSA to join...I'm still sorting out pick-up locations and times, prices, and just what's in the weekly box. How lucky to have so many great places to choose from.

Deer Pasture

There's a deer herd living in our neighborhood. Last year there were four that ate the prettiest flowers in our yard, chomped on hostas in the middle of the night under our bedroom window, mowed down the raspberry canes, and jumped over the fence into our garden to annihilate the Swiss chard and lettuce.

They bedded down under our pine trees for the night and lounged around there in the dawn. Neighbors who are home during the day reported seeing them lying in front yards, and using the sidewalks and steps to travel from front to back of various houses.

This year we discovered the herd had grown to five, with a new little fawn. Scrooges that we are, we grumbled to see it. Last Saturday we came home and found two deer busily eating the safflower seeds out of a bird feeder, looking exactly like cattle. Grrrr! Terry stepped out the door, yelled, and they trotted a few yards away. Then we stood, stunned, as seven more deer emerged from the pine trees and surrounded them.

No wonder our back yard looks like a cow pasture, with trails and manure everywhere.

Byline Surprise

Last year my husband and I set a goal of skiing the American Birkebeiner race from Cable to Hayward in northern Wisconsin. That was pretty ambitious for a couple of novices: the race is 54 kilometers (that's nearly 32 miles!) for the classic course. But it was a really great way to stay motivated to get outside during the freezing, dark days of the winter months when we just didn't feel like it.

We managed to do it, and the experience was so powerful I wanted to capture in writing. I submitted my story this year to the American Birkebeiner Foundation web site to be included on its page of people's Birkie experiences. The editor said thanks, but we can't use it right now. I was a little disappointed but at least I'd written it.

Our plans were to ski again this year, which would have been this past weekend, but a family medical emergency came up and we couldn't do it. I clicked through the web site a couple of times this week to look up results and news stories, and consoled myself that next year I'd be there.

Yesterday my mother called and said "Did you write a story about the Birkebeiner?" A family friend who lives in the area had sent my parents a clipping from a newspaper which contained my story! Apparently the Birkebeiner people invite the local media to use stories they've received, and the Sawyer County Record took them up on it and published my story.

Not only am I thrilled to have it published, but in a way, I got to participate in the excitement of Birkie weekend even though I couldn't be there.