very nice review!

Thanks to Katherine Cole for the very nice review - from her recent bind tasting ... get your 'cow' now it's going fast!

2008 Big Table Farm Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton District Pinot Noir ($45): Sur lie aging and a careful combination of new and used oak make this splurge wine a delight for the senses, with a silky texture and lightly spiced baked fruit flavors. Josephine the cow, a resident of Big Table Farm, gets a star turn on the keepsake-worthy label. Find it at Cork a Bottle Shop Alberta and Lovejoy, and Storyteller Wine Co.

Below from today's work in the studio this one is called 'limoncello' - it's official I will be having a show in Carlton in April! : ) more on that soon!!

thank you Katherine Cole!

very exciting stuff (if you're a wine geek that is)... Katherine Cole writes wine columns for the FOODday section of The Oregonian newspaper and MIX magazine. - she did a blind tasting of abotu 18 wines if I counted right and pulled out a few that 'stood out' ours was among them... nice!! check out the video if want to really geek out !!

click here for the video

eggs in another form

After moving the chickens on Sunday we enjoyed the fruits of our labor Brian made his amazing eggs Benedict which were paired with bloody Mary's : ) ummm - good man -



and today's painting... featuring what else my eggs : )

not one to complain about the weather

I don't mind weather - thank goodness since I moved to Oregon... - rain sure bring it on! - I have rain gear really good rain gear in fact no matter what type of weather I'm out doin' chores every morning and evening... I'm warm and dry I know how to dress for the stuff... we have houses for animals to get cover and aside from tearing up the ground a bit and having to move them in the rain... no worries right.. ?? NOT THIS WEEK!

this week the rain is officially cramping my style!! Duane said perhaps this coming weekend we could try my plow - I was thinking with all that dry weather there are a few spots on my place I could drag a plow just to give her a trial run with out it being pure 'soil sacrilege'! well with this freggin rain this week that slim hope is flickering out FAST!! look at this forecast people!! eshhh .. wishful thinking... --- sigh!

photo comming soon!!

So I went over to dunes tonight and hung out has some vino and talked horses, life, and tack room celing height you know barn talk...... I laid eyes on the plow he has scored for me to use for the plowing competition!! holy cow if I wasn't already dreaming about plowing I am even more now - It'a buaetiful old John deere plow and damn am I excited to put my hand on those handels! - I feel like the boys are really working well together and I'm sooo excited fro Feb 20th!!! more photos to follow! - this is a photo from the web but kind of the stlye of plow : )

indoctrinated

(this was the pig 'ambulance' that Chris rigged up for moving her around I think she almost liked the special attention)

I talked to my friend Chris last week - the one who I called about 6 months ago in the middle of harvest when I had two loose baby pigs and needed help right then and there - Chris dropped everything and came!.. Chris and Amy are organic farmers who live in Forest Grove about 20 min away they have become good friends and are both good farmers -



any way chris called and asked if I could help him doctor a pig. I was excited to be asked... humm maybe this means I'm a real farmer now : ) - anyway it was nice to see my friends and there new spring pigs the little girl was SOOO good she was caught with out too much fuss we held her over a sink for a good long time cleaning her wound and fixin her up and she sqwirmed a tiny bit but mostly just let us hold her and seemed to know we were trying to help her out ...


(holding a pig over a sink is always kind of funny : )

we prepped a little area for her to heal that was clean and dry and I'm sure she's on her way to being all healed up.

painting at Big Table

Took advantage of a tiny window of sunshine today to do a painting here at the farm... see if you can find my neighbors cows : )

that time of year

It's still winter but we have been having a spell of very warm weather wet but warm...

The grass seems to think it's early march as do the chickens - there gonna get a rude awakening if or should I say when we get a cold snap... which I shouldn't talk about as we are down to about 1 and a 1/2 cords of wood...


lots of spring growth! which the animals all LOVE~


we are at 4 dozen a day now and more on the way ... when spring really comes in earnest!
if there are any locals that would like eggs there are for sale here at the farm. just drop me an e-mail



Drove horses both days this weekend! Sundays work was in the rain they boys took it well I think we minded it more than they did... and so since the harness was soaking wet (not something you want to do all the time) I figured I may as well scrub and oil it as I've been wanting to get that done for a while... I've started to really get excited about the upcoming plowing competition in February in WA (the 20th to be exact:) and have been slowly getting me my boys and equipment ready. (shoot I even had a dream abotu it last night : )


before scrub and oil


after scrub and oil : ) and a little elbow grease polish to the old brass : )


Also Josephine and I have been bonding a bit more of late she has finally decided me being right up next to her is ok with her and scratching her is a VERY good thing.. cows really don't' tend to like to be touched and handled unless there dairy cows that have been handled since birth - gentling a cow takes a lot of patience - it has taking 2 years of sweet talking Josephine to get her to trust me enough to hang out for scratches!! pretty nice really and boy is she soft!!!


A tree we just lost in the wet pink dusk light.

Home after a good trip!

we left the farm in the hands of my family (BIG thanks to Chris, Mary, Joseph and kids!) they promised to do all the care and feeding for us for two and a half days! and took great care of things...



we arrived at LAX and suddenly we were in a different world for sure! - the weather was notably GREAT!!




we also put our new garmin to the test (thanks to my brothers for this awesome gift!)


our hotel was chic and luxurious!! very welcome!



our first appointment was to pour our syrah for the staff at the tin roof bistro and talk about the wines and a little backstory ... they were super and very enthusiastic : ) we stayed for a meal which was yummy... thanks Tin Roof





the main event of the trip was the pinotdays festival which was very well attended with a great group of folks who all love pinot - it was great to pour our wines for these folks both trade and the public... and tell our story .. I'm not sure the LA crowd understood why we had little plastic farm animals on our table but they came around when they tasted the wines...





Our dinner Sunday night after the event was well deserved and we went to a new restaurant in Venice beach The Tasting Kitchen that some folks at the event recommended and WOW it was one of the best meals we EVER had!! if you are any were near Venice beach GO!! the food was off the charts and the spot was hip but laid back at the same time...the servers were professional and very personable... a truly memorable time and a great end to the trip!


I'm now in for some well earned sleep!!

clementine trying to help out : )