videos and harvest time

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks and, first of all, our hearts go out to my cousin, Jack Graybeal, and his wife Barbara who lost their son in a car accident last weekend in the Woodbine area.  The funeral will be this Saturday morning and it is my privilege to videotape the service.  I can't imagine the grief that comes from losing a child at such a young age.

The good news is that I have have a lot to videotape in the last few weeks that is a positive note.  I was commissioned by the northern Baltimore County 7th District Recreation Council to videotape and produce DVDs for the participants in "The Jungle Book" and "Pocahontas".  The children involved in these productions range in age from very young to late teenagers and the talent they display is astonishing.  You may remember that our son Robert was the music director for these productions for several years and that is how I got involved.

I also have been busy making a DVD slide show for two wonderful young people who are getting married in a month and I've been hired to videotape their wedding.  Jessica and Noah are bibliophiles.  Jessica is also a gifted writer and speaks French fluently.  She graduated from University of Chicago in June, 2003 with a degree in English.  She did a 3 month post grad publishing course at Columbia U. after college graduation, then started at Penguin. Noah graduated from Dartmouth in June, 2004.  He did the same post grad publishing course at Columbia U. after graduation from Dartmouth in 2004, then started working at Random House.  Two talented people who have charming parents.

After that, I have another wedding to videotape for Nicole Lovelace, a little girl from our church who is all grown up now.  But I still think of her when she was six years old and the life of the party in Sunday School. Time flies.

This is harvest season and there is a lot happening here on the farm.

First, we have been blessed with an abundance of potatoes, peppers,  tomatoes (large and small), onions, and strawberries.  We have dug up only half of the potatoes so far.  Today, I washed them off and let them dry.  We already had a couple potatoes for dinner tonight!  We cooked them on the grill the old-fashioned Boy Scout way...wrapped them in aluminum foil, put a little oil and seasoning on them, and mixed in some fresh onions and carrots and let them cook for 15 minutes over a hot fire.  Boy, were they good!


The other big farm news is that we are going to raise chickens.  It will only be two or three chickens and it

will be a joint project between Barb and me, our neighbor Courtney Bishop and her children, and our other neighbor Art Wannlund.  Barb and I are providing the chicken coop and the brooder kit.  Art is providing the location (where my grandfather used to have his chicken coops!) and the fresh water and electricity.  And Courtney and her kids are buying the chickens and will raise and care for them.  Barb and I are looking forward to a few of the fresh eggs but mostly we look forward to seeing the lifestyle of raising chickens alive on this farm again.  Art has been wonderful about helping me get some of Granddad Fishel's vegetables going again, such as the strawberries and the asparagus.  These were plants that I had forgotten how to grow but he remembered.  For some reason, I've always been good a remembering how to grow tomatoes and potatoes.

One final note, as an aside.  I've discovered how fast a person can gain weight...and then lose it.  I had to stay awake for three days last weekend to videotape all three productions of Pocahontas (they changed the cast each show) and I filled myself with sugar and caffeine. A really bad idea and I gained seven pounds very fast.  As soon as the weekend was over, I threw myself into every physical activity I could to lose the weight before my weekly Medifast weigh-in on Wednesday (today).  Surprisingly, I was down two and a half pounds from last week!  I felt like one of those prize fighters who goes on a crash diet to make his weight class.  Of course, now every part of my body hurts.  But it was worth it.

Next up:  vacations in Canaan Valley, West Virginia...and later...in Ocean City, Maryland. Can't wait!