SneezingCow.com

Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

Cart:

Loading...

Archive for June, 2010

Dang Pigweed

Planted a patch of oats where the pigs were last year.  Got some amazing oats…nearly shoulder high and deep green.  Unfortunately they’re infested with pigweed (lamb’s quarters?) that is equally green and head-high.  Hand-pulling it to salvage the oats.  Leaves a patchy-looking mess but better than giving up entirely, which I was prepared to do until my wife jacked me up.

We have two other patches of oats planted on land that hadn’t been tilled for 25 years.  It’s paler and a tad stunted, but relatively weed-free.  Old-timer across the way says that’ll change next year when the weed seed gets to the tilled ground.  We’re going to try to do some preventative fall planting.

We like the oats because I cut it stem and all and we feed it to the chickens all winter.  They turn it into food, bedding, and eventually, mulch.

Field corn is doing well for the most part.  Our first year of that.  Best patch is the one my wife and daughter weeded while I was gone.  I cultivated nearly all of it before I left on book tour.  Just used a small rear-tine tiller.  Got too rainy to finish, and when I came back after two weeks away, it was remarkable to see the difference between the cultivated and uncultivated corn.

Frankie and Oprah

I met Frankie Staton years ago while writing a piece on black artists in country music.  Now she’s auditioning for an Oprah project at this link.  I like Frankie’s idea of an old married couple sitting down with a young married couple.  I’d volunteer for that.

Just Local Road Signs

I’m back home.  I can hear the rooster crowing even as I type this.  So good to see my wife.  Her blue-eyed smile.  Have just had a great morning in the office with my girls.  They drew and cut up scrap paper while I unpacked the accumulations of the road.  Also took a walk out the lane with the young one on my shoulders to check the corn…I got half of it cultivated before I left.  The cultivated half is thriving.  The uncultivated half is pale green and stunted, but I believe it still has a chance if I get out there in the next couple of days.

Regarding the tour and things in general, I expressed my thanks via yesterday’s Shelf Awareness post, and remain grateful.

And now for fun, a couple of pictures.  During the tour, we often discussed local foods and sustainability (although I tend to avoid the “s” word, as it is in danger of becoming over- and mis-used).  We regularly patronize Eau Claire’s own Just Local Food cooperative, run by friends and neighbors of ours.  Lately there has been some obstructive road construction near the store, and it was fun to open my email in the motel room the other day and find some photos from Larry Glenn (the man who did the live recording of my humor albums Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and I Got It From the Cows) illustrating how the Just Local crew has been dealing with the traffic trouble (their logo is a carrot):

Working for John Prine

Every since I was introduced to his music on a cassette in a boombox played by my friend Gene in a basement while playing darts (follow that?), John Prine has been a leading literary influence (yep, literary – musical of course, but primarily literary) on my writing.

Yesterday, Oh Boy Records released “Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows,” a tribute album on which a wide array of artists honor Prine by covering his songs.  The first song on the album is “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)” covered by friendly neighbor Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

I have never met John Prine, but it is among one of the more unexpected honors of my haphazard life that I was invited to collaborate with Justin on the liner notes for the album.  The final revisions were completed at my desk, but I marked up the rough draft while sitting in a deer stand.

Thanks, Justin.  And thank you, Mister Prine.

I previously posted about Prine performing a song from the album on David Letterman.