Monday, July 27, 2009

New Information on the CAFO

A friend from Wisconsin emailed us some good news. Petry Trust (the man that owns the property for the CAFOs) has the property closest to us for sale through a realtor now. He also has one other parcel north of town for sale. Such good news! I am hoping all the other sites will be put up for sale soon. It it is such a drain on peoples hopes to have that hanging over their head. Believe me, I know! So my wish now is that he has given up his quest to start factory farming anywhere. There are still sites near us that aren't for sale, but at least the closest one appears to be ruled out.

We were at the farm this weekend and had friends from Illinois who were on a motorcycle trip visit us on Saturday then camp at the farm that night.



After spending Saturday morning weeding the garden (or should I say, finding the garden :-), we went to the Kickapoo Country Fair at the Organic Valley headquarters in LaFarge. It is such a fun place to be. This is our 3rd year at at the fair. Good food, vendors & entertainment. We listened to David Rhodes, author of the new book "Driftless" in the word tent, had a tasty veggie wrap, listened to good music & saw Nanda who do "funky kung fu arcrobatics" in the kids stage area. They were great!
When we got back, we took our friends out to eat at the Driftless Cafe in town. We love this place. It has the best pizza ever. In fact it has such good pizza, we can't get past ordering it & trying something else! A couple of weeks ago when we went there to eat, the owner was playing ukulele with two other people. They were having such a good time, it inspired me to buy a ukulele at a garage sale last Friday before we left. I just need new strings & I'll be all set. I used to play guitar & the chords are all different, but I hope I can learn.

We had a camp fire after getting back to the farm but we were all tired from the day & were in bed by midnight.


Saturday was also our son Shane's birthday. He turned 29. He & a bunch of friends went boating down the Illinois River to Peoria & spend the night in a hotel. Wow, next year all of our kids will be over 30! Where does the time go?


Shane & Kristie

Sunday, after our friends left, it was back out in the garden for me. I harvested garlic, a couple onions, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce and squash.




Hard & soft necked garlic




Can't wait to make a squash casserole this week!




We found some scaffolding on Craig's List so we can begin working on the windows in the front of the barn. We have 3 new windows for our soon-to-be living area that we will be working on in the weeks to come. We are trying to decide what to do with the rest of the windows. The Amish that built those windows didn't put the quality worksmanship into them like they do their furniture. The windows were made from green wood, not painted and are all warped with some glass just falling out. The new living area is the main focus now, but we will need workable windows for the shop area sometime.


It was good to be at the farm again. Last weekend we took a road trip to Road America for the vintage weekend in Elkhart Lake, WI with our friends Bob & Pam. It was a lot of fun as usual, but I always miss being at the farm :-)


Steve & I in the TR6. Thanks for the picture Pam!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barb, so happy to hear the CAFO land near you is for sale. too bad a bunch of you couldn't get together and buy it in hopes of keeping them from coming back. I'm sure the economy is playing a part in the sale of the property. Our kids are 30 and 33. Boy! doesn't time just fly!! Looks like your garden is producing pretty well in your absence! I was surprised to hear the Amish skimmped on the windows! They play such an important part in heating and cooling!! Maybe they were the only lazy Amish around...LOL...debbie

angie said...

Oh Barb, such good news! I hope a sale goes through to a non-CAFO person. The farms on both side of our farm are for sale and based on your experiences; I am nervous. Especially since one is 250+ acres of pasture ground.

Sounds like you are having a fun summer. We love that fair too. It is such a great time.

Barb said...

Hi Debbie...I wish we could buy it. It would solve a lot of problems.
Hi Angie...I hope no CAFOs end up by you. That would be terrible! I am still nervous about the other sites near us. They aren't for sale (yet). I am hoping it is only a matter of time & they will be.