leaves are changing

...and blowing...

I had a wonderful time at Argyle Cheese Farmer in Argyle, NY this weekend. Made cheese with Val Bines as expert cheese technologist and "the girls". The words for the week were "flocculation" (a perennial cheese workshop favorite) and "quiescence".

We made a bid on a farm in Hebron. Apparently they feel that the markets are not dropping like the rest of the world. Confidence is nice. I wish it would spread through the rest of the world right now. Maybe our farm will sell then... A wet farm with nothing fancy for soils and a derelict barn (we were hoping to call home?)... They countered with double our offer. Our offer was not bad either. Funny, they actually want us to buy the whole deal, but it brings the farm back over $300,000. This farm acquisition project in this county is odd. In one farm they want a balloon payment in 5 years on a $350,000 farm. In one they up the price by $50,000 in the two weeks from our calling for an appointment to our coming to the showing, without a call. This was with a burn and bulldoze house project.. I hear it takes a year to find a perfect place in this county, but this is absurd.

I dislike the schools out here in central New York with a passion. They are condescending to parents and they offer nothing creative or encouraging to the children. The whole thing used to be about making it fun to learn, not giving a first grader test anxiety or expecting parents to do the brunt of the teaching. Why not homeschool again? I am so disappointed in a paid tuition school too. We pay taxes to a regional school for nothing and then a tuition for a system that is not any better, but in other ways.

It is an easy thing to get discouraged. There are a few of us out here who have worked hard to get people "into" the concept of buying local food. With the economy turning the way it did, and so fast... all of this work was for nothing. This cheap at all costs, almost determined to be poor mentality is too much to bear. I am so sad to see us leave,but Ineed to be around a group of people that appreciate good food made locally...

We also need to be near my mom and David's family. It often takes moving far away to appreciate where you come from, right?