Tall Tree Farm, Inc.

Fam on the Farm

We cooked and planned and shopped and fretted about how we could cram 20 relations into a (less than) 1000 square foot space.  We brought folding tables and lawn chairs, blankets and serving dishes.  And of course, we brought the dogs.  Well as you can plainly see, a mostly good time was had by all.  Love to all of you and thanks for coming.

Is it weird out there, or is it just me?

The economy and politics have put the country in a collective bad mood.  Their bad mood is causing them not to want to spend money.  This makes my job more stressful.  Does thinking make it so?  If it does, all I need do is focus on the tranquility on the farm.  Bring my queen-sized bed out into the front yard.  Wear bedroom slippers on the plane. It's probably a wee bit more complicated than that.

All jokes aside, I really appreciate the moments when my family is all together.  The farm is a place where everything is very simple (read primitive).  It's grounding.  Even if the world comes crashing down around us we can execute the Post-Revolutionary-Emergency-Plan, grow our own food, shoot bambi and drink well water.  It's comforting, in a Worse Case Scenario Handbook kind of way.

A Welcome Spring

There seems to be nothing I can say about spring's arrival that doesn't sound like corny drivel.  Really sorry about that.  Fabulous unknowns lay beneath the ground, put there by previous owners dating back to who knows when. We got the requisite daffodils, but also a small ocean of Japanese irises, apples and pears on the trees and grape vines with perfect little grape clusters.  Many things bloomed that none of us could name.  I have to admit it was completely amazing.

I continued to do what I do best, which is not very much of anything.  My goal on farm days has been to find all the places where I can lie about.  I don't feel the slightest bit guilty as I watch the other Shoreys hard at work trimming trees and clearing weeds.  Soon it will be a year since we bought the place. The long lazy days of summer look so inviting.

Fred is cutting trails through the woods that are wide enough for horses, though he takes the paths in the utility vehicle at full speed with a drink in hand.  It's lots of fun finding out what it is we actually bought.  I have visions of drunken dinner parties with guests sleeping in tents and in hammocks.  Time will tell....

Free Range Bambi

My daughter Melissa is a vegetarian.  She thinks the condition in which most "farm-raised" livestock live and die is awful.  She's not opposed to killing animals - just opposed to raising and killing them like that.  She further explained to me that the deer and other animals that live on Tall Tree Farm have it pretty good.  They have 60 acres of woods, streams and pastures where they roam freely.  My husband put up a gigantic corn feeder in the middle of the woods that shoots out corn twice a day (which he takes down when hunting season starts).  Tall Tree deer have a wonderful existence.

In the final moments, poor bambi meets his/her maker with a single shot from a high-powered rifle.  Not bad on the humane scale.  I should be so lucky.

Then someone will say "Oh how could you kill that poor innocent creature?"  Okay, when was the last time you ate a hamburger?  You've already proven you're okay with killing animals on some level.

So, bottom line - my otherwise vegetarian daughter eats Tall Tree venison because she feels its animal rights have in no way been violated.  I think that's cool.

Last Thanksgiving Day and the day following, the 2 Shorey men reached a right of passage.  Each shot his first deer.  They got up at 4am and tip-toed out into the woods with big guns and blew Bambi away.  Well, actually it was Bambi's dad & some other male relation.   

The rest of the Shoreys were safely snug in our beds, wrapped in quilts and down.  After the sonic boom we had only to wait until the stomping boots came running into the house screaming, beckoning us to come view the freshly dead, and bring the camera please.  So off we marched, in pajamas and down jackets to take pictures and commend our brave providers.

In the Shorey house, if you kill it, you clean it and we eat it.  No gratuitous violence.  All winter, continuing into this spring we've enjoyed fabulously low-fat venison burgers, meatloaf, stew, steaks and well yes, tenderloin....this spring we're going for turkey.

Fall at Tall Tree

Fall has come to Tall Tree Farm.  Long, low
shadows rake through the trees and across the pond.  Mary Lloyd and the horses are finally in residence.  We're ready to see if the wood- burning stove works like the sellers said it would and we're thinking about the holidays.

Everyone seems to be finding a rhythm.  The dogs hang close, the deer have been poking their noses out from around the tree line.  Fred has stopped worrying about keeping all the grass cut and has turned to concerns over....well....manure.  It's the little things you don't think of, right?

Welcome to Tall Tree Farm

Take a walk into the middle of nowhere.  A place where the noise of the outside world takes a back seat to the sound of water and birds. Where hustle-bustle is replaced with a cool breeze.   

The Shoreys have been city folk up to this point, full of city concerns and the trappings of suburban life.  We've decided to see if we can liberate ourselves just a little, on weekends and off times and most definitely in our hearts and heads.

Do we need a TV?  Does anybody really need a television?  Why would you watch TV when there's so much to do and experience in the world?  When the world comes to you through a TV, that makes sense.  But this isn't the way at the farm.

Stay tuned to hear what happens - who gets bit by a snake, if Ziggy learns to swim, if Morgan can really chop the head off a chicken.  I promise to take pictures.