A local coffee shop does fabulous breakfasts. Things really boom on the weekends, and our pigs got the Sunday leftovers. They seem to especially favor the lemon ricotta crepes.
Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer
Archive for May, 2011
Just Heard a Big Boom
Over in the next valley. That’d be our 82-year-old neighbor Tom. Shooting his cannon. Sometimes it’s just for fun. Today I know it’s in honor of those who have served and serve. To the echo of the boom, our little family adds our quiet thanks.
Chicken Out
Raggedy old rooster-pecked chicken got out yesterday. Nowhere in sight at dusk. Out and about this morning. Would-be farmer tries to get chicken back in. Kindness fails, patience nonexistent, farmer defaults to what he learned as defensive end for 3-3 New Auburn Trojans football team in 1982. Chicken wins, farmer realizes why he never got that football scholarship.*
*a football scholarship to nursing school…now that would’ve been nifty.
Office Helper
She’s back in the house now, along with the purple bear she calls Star-Bottom.*
The table was made in the 1940s by my grandfather for my father.
I think his take on Mickey was abstract enough that the trademark attorneys at Disney will direct their efforts elsewhere.
*Yes. I know. The real Star-Bottom is probably shaking it somewhere even now.
Mary Cutrufello Guesting With Long Beds
NOTE: ORIGINAL POST SAID JUNE 7, that was…umm…wrong. It’s June 9. Yes it is.
I’m honored to say that when the Long Beds show up to play at Phoenix Park on June 9 (and at the Mousetrap later that same night) there will be five of us, as Mary Cutrufello has consented to be an honorary Long Bed for the evening.
Among other things, Mary can let’er rip.
Delicate Dance
Finished writing just after midnight last night and on my way to the house I noticed the granary door was open. We have a batch of chicks in there, and although they’re under a screen weighted down with rocks, we secure the doors at night to keep out roaming chicken-nibblers. While shutting the door, I thought, smells like skunk in here. Then I heard a noise, and there he was looking right back at me. I backed away from the door and he moved, but rather than go out the door, he crossed over to the old horse stall where the chicks are. It’s a dead end, basically. So I tiptoe over and peer in, and there he is curled up at the far end of the stall.
I gotta get some work done, so this is the shorthand version, but it took me a while to get that skunk out of there. Somehow he managed to spray everything but me, and we are both out and about our business today. So far no one has told me I smell like a skunk. I cannot speak to whether or not the skunk’s friends and family are accusing him of smelling like a human.
Speaking Event: WI Rural Health Summit
Evolution of a Pig Hutch
Four years ago I scored a major scavenge: a giant plastic pig hutch made from an industrial chemical storage silo cut in half with a Sawzall by a man named Garth. Garth was using both halves to house heifers, but when he got out of the business he said I could have the hutch for free. The only catch was that I had to haul it home – an adventure I’ll describe some other time. Let’s just say that thing is impossibly heavy (the plastic is over a half-inch thick…you can’t budge it without a tractor and hydraulic loader) and was 11 feet, seven inches wide. If the DOT had been on patrol that evening, I’d still be filling out paperwork and they would be auctioning off my truck and trailer. I mean, this thing was big:
Rest of the story (and action photos!) after the page break. (more…)
Neighbors Got a Cow
Y’know how it is in the country, sometimes you’ll get a call from the neighbor needing some help with unloading a cow. So you get on your tractor (OK, your mother-in-law’s tractor) and you head on over there.
More photos of the cow in transit over here.
Who made the cow? Our own Steve Bateman, who made Transmission Man and also works in less permanent mediums…
Tent Show Radio Tonight – Unsung Stories of the Civil War
If you’re within range of one of these stations tonight (Saturday, May 21th) we hope you’ll join Mike as he hosts another edition of Tent Show Radio from Big Top Chautauqua. Information on streaming the show here.
The musical performance will be the Unsung Stories of the Civil War, and in this episode’s monologue – delivered from the backstage dressing room with the one lonely little lightbulb burnin’ – Mike reads an essay based on a letter written by the wife of his great-great-great grandfather after she learned of her husband’s death in the Civil War. You can join the Tent Show Radio Facebook page here.
SET LIST:
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Helper’s Warning, Young Boys Gone From Home, Old Abe, Enlistment Jumper
Michael Perry: Monologue
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Bailey’s Dam, Mobile Bay, The Planter, Hobo Blues
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After we played a benefit show in Mike’s hometown of New Auburn, a sweet lady told us we sounded, “Just like Gordon Lightfoot…only zippier!” We figured that was about perfect.