Ron and I headed out on Friday, Sept 23rd and that was one long day.  Up at 2:30 am so we could make the  7 hour drive to Seven Springs PA, arriving in time to get a good parking spot.  The later you arrive, the higher up the the hill you park.  The first round of workshops were scheduled to start at 1 pm and the vendors opening for business at noon and Ron wanted us to get there at 11:30 am.

We lucked out with the weather, it was a beautiful day with little traffic and just a few construction spots.  Annoyed at myself though.  I forgot to bring the printed out driving directions.  I always feel better having that on hand, just in case.   After all, you never know when your GPS will crap out on you.

While we did arrive at the Fair right on schedule, the lower parking lot was already full.  Up the hill we went.   We had brought lunch meats to make sandwiches for ourselves over the next few days.  The food offered on site is just a bit pricey.  Quick lunch for each of us and we headed out to the fair.   We had an hour to check out the vendors before the first workshop started.

Ron immediately spotted one selling shiitake mushroom logs and had to check them out.  They were being offered at 30-35 dollar a pop.  I could see the light bulb flickering over his head.  Another idea.  We headed to the same workshop, all about garlic.  After that we split up, each of us going to the ones that interested us the most.  Medicine making, herbs for digestive health, and herb gardens were my subjects.

By the time the last session ended at 6:30 we were wiped.  But we had to make one stop before heading to the hotel in Somerset.   I wanted to get some seat cushions.  The chairs we had been sitting in were not the most comfortable.  We decided to make it easy on ourselves and just eat sandwiches for dinner.  Off to sleep and our first day was over.

Saturday morning it was foggy out and about 10 degrees colder.  After breakfast at 6:30, we packed our bags with water, lunch and snacks and drove the 30 minutes to Seven Springs in order to get there by 9 am.  Again we parked in the upper lot and then headed out to the vendors again.   Ron headed off to listen to the elderberry talk while my focus was again on herbs.  I had decided to wear long pants but Ron was in shorts and a T shirt.  By the time I ran into him a few hours later, the man was bone chilled.  Being the good wife that I am, I dragged him off to buy a hammock for Jo and then took that out to the wagon and grabbed his jacket to take back.  Ron was now a happy camper and could enjoy the rest of the day.  I did have to yell at him though.  He lost his seat cushion.  Let it behind when he headed out after a workshop.  Thank goodness there was a lost and found and good people who turned things in.  Once again we met up at 6:30 pm and headed back to Somerset for dinner.  We stopped at our favorite place – Rey Azteca Mexican Restaurant.   We had planned to get take out and head back to the hotel, but Ron wanted to eat there.  A good idea as we stuck up a conversation with another couple who was also attending the Fair.  You can tell who we are by the wristbands.  Lots of us at the hotel too.   That is one of the best things about these events.  You can talk with people about the oddest things, and they don’t find them odd.  Mushroom growing, making and using tinctures, raising chickens, growing and preserving food; all are shared interests.   And you always learn something new or have an idea sparked.

Sunday was the last day and once again the weather was great.  We had already decided to spring for an extra night at the hotel.  The Fair ended at 5 pm but there was no way we could handle the 7 hour drive home starting that late.  Maybe 20 years ago, but not at our current  age.  Besides IKEA is only an hour away in Pittsburgh.  That will be a fun addition to our trip.

Ron’s last workshop was a talk by Joel Salatin and of course it was in the farthest away venue.  We had planned to meet by the bookstore, but the sun was too hot there.   I wandered across the site, watching the vendors start the breakdown process and some kids enjoying the alpine slide. Then I headed toward the tent where Ron was sitting, figuring we would spot each other as Ron walked back to the bookstore.  Didn’t happen, though.  I had to go back into the main area to find him and then we headed out.

Once we got into the first building I stopped to dig out my regular glasses.  That is when the fabulous day went south.  No glasses.  Checked both of my bags and then left Ron to walk back to where I had used them last.  The chairs were already stacked up ready for storage and the staff member suggested I check the lost and found.  I walked back over the route I had taken, asking about my glasses as I went.  No luck.  Back to find Ron and we headed to the lost and found.  Not there.  We went over my route again, but most attendees were already heading out, vendors busy packing up and security was directing traffic.  Back to lost and found, still nothing.  They took my name and cell phone number ( I remembered to include my area code) and sent me off the check the hotel’s own lost and found.  That did not go as well.  Apparently only security had the keys for that closet and they, of course were busy with event breakdown.  Again left my name and number and we headed back to search again.

One more walk through and we had to give up for the night.  The Fair lost and found would be handed over to the hotel after everyone left.  I would have to survive with my sunglasses.  Thank goodness they were prescription, but for driving only.  We decided to try the new Italian restaurant for dinner, but their kitchen was closed already.  So we went to the diner across the street.  I felt like one of those silly celebs who wear their sunglasses all the time.  Done with dinner and we headed back to the hotel.  Watching TV and working on the computer did not go well.  I was getting a headache and gave up pretty quickly.

The next morning, we got up and started the going home process.  By this time I was convinced that my glasses had been found.  If they had been crunched by one of the many vehicles the day before, we would have spotted them.  My fear was that whoever found them, did not get a chance to drop them off and absentmindedly took them home.  By 8 am we were ready to go and headed back to Seven Springs.  It was like a ghost time with an empty parking lot and no people milling around.  I found a staff member who directed me to the sales department office.  They called security for me and I settled in to wait.  Actually Ron settled and I paced.  After 10 minutes, no one had shown up and they called again.  Finally a woman came and checked their box for me.  Lots of glasses but not mine.   So not sure what to do next.  I did not want to leave without my glasses.

While we talked with the hotel staff a woman who worked in sales office walked by and Ron’s karma theory kicked in once again.  I don’t know if she heard the calls on the radio or was just headed back to to her desk.  That did not matter as she turned out to be the keeper of the Fair lost and found box.  She asked me what my glasses looked like and 2 minutes later I had them again. O frabjous day.    We could now go home and I would actually enjoy the trip.  Our stop at IKEA was back on and all was right with the world.

And everything did go right.  A bit of traffic in Pittsburgh, but to be expected.  Great fun at the store and then we headed home.  We hit rain here and there along the drive, and an increase in traffic. Especially those scary car carriers.  Those, neither one of us like driving behind.  A little after 7 pm we were home.  Ron having again done his fabulous job of getting us there and back safely.

We are already planning our Mother Earth News Fair 2017 trip.  But next time, I will not lose my glasses and will definitely not come home with a stinking cold.

Ron had plans again for our 3 day weekend.  You know he did.  Lots of work with our lots of rocks.  While we have the one row ready for garlic planting this year, he thinks it a great idea to start working on future rows.  The more we get ready now, the better for us.

On Friday we headed out to THF after work to water the trees.  Ron told me he had an idea.  Worrisome words.  But this was actually good.  He is forever on the internet searching for any upcoming events and he found one.  The Southern Vermont Garlic & Herb Festival in Bennington Vt.  Just over 2.5 hours away so an easy drive.

At first the plan was to work on Saturday and then take our trip on Sunday.  Ron decided to rearrange that.  We were going to get up on Saturday, head over to our favorite local place for breakfast, The Corner Diner Too.  Ron and Jo discovered this quite a few months ago and we go there on a regular basis.  Huge portions of fabulous food make a great start to the rest of the day.  We normally head there after our 3-4 hour working stint at the farm.  Arriving tired, hungry and dirty.  They never bat an eye at our condition, just welcome us and bring the coffee pot for Jo and Ron.  I can only testify about the breakfast, but have been told them make some great burgers too.

We were the first customers at 6 am and Jon was delighted to see us again.  Ron handed him a few heads of our garlic to try.  He is already a fan of our Shiitakes.  We know the menu so well that we are able to order without it.

Nicely full we head toward Vermont.  A beautiful day with little traffic on the NYS thruway.  Not our favorite way to travel but when we are on a time schedule, that is generally the best way.  The festival starts at 10 am and being Ron, he wants us there about 9:30.    Best thing about that road is the number of rest stops they have.  Just enough.

We arrived on schedule and already there were people waiting in line.  We were parked in row 7 already.  Well organized system they had too.  Smart people, they had Port-a-potties along the sectioned off walk ways from parking lot to entrance.  We chatted with the folks in line while we waited for the opening.

After a few years of hit or miss results, we now don’t grow peppers but Ron loves them. He is all about the hot sauce.  Vendors had so many samples to offer.   Have learned my lesson last year, I stayed away from the hot garlic samples.  They are too much for my palate.

By noon the place was full of people and enjoying themselves.   Lots of food vendors to choose from and music playing in the background.  Ron and I split a huge serving of garlic french fires.  Nice and crispy and just enough garlic flavor.

Ron stopped to talk with any NY garlic vendor he spotted.  The man likes to talk and most people are happy to share advice and information.

After a final walk through to make sure we did not miss anything, we were ready to head out.  Being me, our trip had to include at least one more stop.  And luckily The Vermont Country Store was only 36 miles away.  One of my favorite places to visit.   Huge variety of products, many that cannot be found anywhere else.  Come hungry if you like cheese.  They offer a huge selection of samples.  I never leave there without a bag or two of their crackers.

Unfortunately we could not find another place to stop that was at least sort of on our way home.   Ron had already decided he was going to try and nap on the way home so I was driver.  We did not want to be directed back to the thruway, so I had Jo changed GPS settings to avoid toll roads.  Not sure that was a good idea.  We started out fine, but after about 30 miles we were suddenly doing a lot of turning.  I lost track of the number of different roads we were on.  Beautiful scenery in both VT and NY so it was not hardship.  Brought back strong memories of my Mom and her constant desire to “take the scenic route”.   As a family we had some great adventures while traveling.   I actually married a men who likes to do the same.  Finding another way to get there makes him happy.

Safely home at 6 pm.  Ready for a beer and some relaxing.  We didn’t actually “work” on Saturday but driving does take it out of you.  Sitting for hours in the same spot gets to be uncomfortable pretty quickly.

Ron promises that we will not “waste” the next two days.  After all it is Labor Day weekend.  That means more work, right?

In Ron’s own words –

I’ve been monitoring the Cornell Small Farms Programs website for months now. I’ve taken some of their courses before and I have been quite pleased. Training? I am not a farmer, I know little or next to nothing about it. I just wanted a life challenge and some direction to get into after retirement. To date the best two Cornell opportunities were Camp Mushroom and the Juneberry workshop. Both winners!

When Cornell announced the ‘Armed to Farm’ program, I was beside myself. Finally, something geared to vets’ and spoken in Vet language. In cooperation with the USDA, Cornell, and with the educational programming being delivered by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) at Houghton College in Western NY, I was in. Once accepted, some little planning and logistics, it was a go. Crap! They sent a homework assignment even before I headed out the door. Armed-to-Farm wanted to know a bit more about us and more importantly, an understanding that farming was, a business after all. Ginny and I sat down and discussed the questions and fully realized, we were both in, and in agreement, setting up a farm was a great idea. Of course, finances excluded (frugal, that word is not treated lightly around here).

The main thrust of the program was to provide an intensive, week-long residential business and entrepreneurship training for veterans interested in farming. That they did, and even more. My favorite, the farm visits that were over the top and offered different opportunities I had never even considered before. The garlic farm, Honeyhill Farm located in Livonia NY, turned out to be my favorite. Honeyhill Farm is a diversified small family farm in Livonia, a hamlet in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. Honeyhill produces organic chickens, grass fed beef, garlic and a select set of mixed vegetables including heirloom tomatoes. More said, garlic, garlic, even more garlic. We were very lucky as the garlic was out of the ground and in the drying racks. Owned and operated by Fred and Sue Forsburg since 1978, they were very generous hosts that freely opened their doors to us. Fred was aglow with his time and more important, his techniques. He spared nothing. Funny thing is, I ordered garlics seed from them in the past. Good stuff.
Classroom training, there was plenty of that. Things I never considered before. And of course, the most dreaded one by me, “the business plan.” Ok, ok, I promise, I’ll get to it.

Networking. Met some very good Vets from throughout New York, and current service members. Needless to say, the ol’ war stories were ever so present. Comfort zone for me.

Cornell was well represented by Anu Rangarajan, Director, Cornell Small Farms Program and Matt Weiss Northeast Beginning Farmer Project Coordinator, and CNY Veteran regional leader. I was equally pleased to see Jamie Critelli, Farmer Veteran Coalition of NY
Through them and others. I hope to gain the knowledge necessary to have a successful farming operation.

Special thanks to Norm Conrad, NCAT, for keeping us boarded, well fed, and in focus. Yea Norm!

This is not exactly how I would have described his adventure. He told me about the bats flying around the dorm hallways at night and how great the food was. About the hundreds of kids of all ages who were also staying at the college, for all sorts of sport camps. How the adults had to get to through the chow line quick before the kids scarfed it all down. I would have told you about the two women who had service dogs and how the security guard came onto their floor without announcing himself. The dogs were not happy to see him. He didn’t mention how he went out to load up the car before heading home and got locked out of the building, for an hour. He also didn’t tell you that he brought a beer with him, even though this was an alcohol free school. And that just as he arrived on Friday, the Corolla started making a loud noise. Guess we know who the story teller is in this family?

The 2009 Solar Fest in Tinmouth VT was the first trip we took as a family specifically to learn about “green living”. Ron had stumbled across their site while doing research on solar energy for home use. He was immediately interested in going, but he had to work a little to get me on board. This was a camping event, after all. Something that I had not done since my parents took us out as teenagers. With a pop up camper that Dad rented from Rec Services on base. The five of us and our dog, Susie crammed into the car and headed out for a KOA campground. Good times. Though I remember lots of rain.
But I looked over the workshop program and with subjects like green funerals catching my attention, I was in. Now we just had to get ready. We already had 3 sleeping bags and Jo had her own tent. Ron was able to borrow a larger tent from a friend at work. A leaky one, but it was free so no complaints. Then we bought air mattresses, a pump that we could use from car, a metal coffee pot, a solar shower bag, lots of tarps (Ron’s go to item), and assorted other fun things to take with us. Oh, my poor budget.
Being me, I decided that we could not waste this drive to VT by just going to the Solar Fest. We were going to stop at the Vermont Country Store too. That is only 25 minutes away from our final destination and in the wrong direction, but that was so not the point. One of my favorite places to visit. If you haven’t already been there, you need to make plans to do so. You will love it.
The first workshops started at noon on Friday and Tinmouth is just over 3 hours from Sherrill. Would need to get there a few hours early so we could get set up. We always plan for bathroom breaks and other stops so wake up time was 5 am. Not a hardship for any of us. We are morning people. The only hardship was felt by our cats, Misty and Murphy. We had to drive them to Ron’s brother John’s house the night before. They both hate riding in the car and by the time we got to Rome, they hated Ron and me too.

The Forget Me Not Farm was beautiful, but they had not gotten the pasture mowed. That made for a wet start to each morning. Ron chose a spot on the top of the hill, not too close to the long line of porta potties and with a great view.

This was Ron’s idea for some privacy. We could sit on the chair and take a shower using our solar shower bags. Our clothes line was inside too. Later we would discover that this setup was not much protection against the rain and even less from the wind.

All set up and we headed out for the first day’s workshops.   We would meet back at the tents for dinner.   Mom’s cast iron frying pan was used to finish cooking the burgers we had precooked at home.   After we ate, we sat and listened to the ongoing concert and the conversations around us.   All that noise made it harder for me to get to sleep, but Ron and Jo had no trouble.   Such a good thing that I flipped my mattress around so the built in pillow was at my feet.  Otherwise, I think I would have slid right off it and down the hill.

Again early morning wake up. Ron got the stove going to heat water for my tea and their coffee.  Folgers coffee bags apparently don’t make the best cup of joe but are easy enough to brew.   We all hit the porta potty and the Jo and I headed out to morning yoga.  Another good laugh as this was our first attempt.  Sorry, no photos available.   Back to the camp site where Ron has taken his morning chair shower.  Jo and I went to try the official solar shower set up.  Not too shabby.

Another day of workshops.  Ron’s favorites were Scott Kellogg who wrote “Toolbox for Sustainable City Living”, the guys talking about biochar and seed starting.   I did enjoy the one about green funerals.  Went to others about green decorating, recycling, raising chickens and weeds.   Not sure what Jo did, but she was delighted to find her favorite food for sale there – pizza.  And it was special wood fired pizza.

Late that afternoon the weather made itself known.  A massive rain and wind storm. The umbrella I had was no match so we ran for the vendor tent.  We spent the next hour or so watching the rain pour down and the kids play in the puddles.  Once it eased off, we made a dash for our campsite.  Everything was drenched.   We put our clothes line to use and hoped for the best. Cooked dinner and got settled for bed. Again the music but this night it ended quickly. When the thunder and lightening started up. So loud and the sky just lit up. Went on for hours with Ron laughing the whole time. It must have stopped sometime as we finally fell asleep.

Waterlogged morning. Ron’s friend was right, the tent did leak. We had about 2 inches at the downhill side of the tent. Did the morning yoga again but skipped the shower. We pulled everything out of the tents and laid it out in lame hope that they would dry a bit before we had to pack everything up. The day ended about 3 pm with a final ceremony. And we all started tossing stuff into our vehicles. We had to leave enough room for the two cat carriers as we would be stopping to get them on our way home. But it would be days before everything dried out enough to put away.
We had a great time at Solar Fest, with Ron labeling it “hippy dippy”. Lots of tie dyed clothes and bare feet brought back memories of the 60’s. I am one of those “been there, done that” people so I had no real interest in going back. Ron and Jo went back twice over the years but enjoyed the music more than the workshops. Still, it was sad to read that Solar Fest 2015 has been cancelled. Money issues, lower attendance and losing the farm site all played a part. It will be nice if they manage to get themselves together next year and get it started again.