Life down on the Farmfest
Finally! Time, energy and a working internet connection. Now maybe I can tell you all about our fun.
We were hoping to get the hell out of Dodge a lot earlier than we did last Tuesday, but as it turned out the shop has had a slight upturn in business, and I'm a solo act right now. I needed to push as much of the work out as I could possibly get out before I left. Since Paul had the day off I dragged him along with me to keep me company and help out with some itty bitty tasks. Together we put in a reasonably full day, finally getting out of there a bit after 3:30 in the afternoon.
It was 6:45 before we finally pulled out of the Aldingbrooke gate towards our destination some 220 miles up the road. Yeah, we're nuts enough to start that kind of drive that late in the day. We'd booked a room in Gaylord for the night so we could get up and head the 20 or so miles to Johannesburg first thing in the morning on Wednesday. Our goal was to not have to camp in the dell this year, and the best way to get a good campsite (ie, topside) was to be a pre-festival Farmhand (volunteer).
It worked.
And so did we.
Once we'd picked out a place for our camp Paul joined the workcrew that was stringing the lights for the woods trail, and I spent the afternoon with Linda, the only other woman on site at the time (aside from Stacey Jo), doing set up. Our two families got to be pretty good friends over the weekend, and we'll be keeping in touch with them.
It was several hours later when Paul and I again met up just in time to head down to Grayling to spend the evening with Rudy.
I was really apprehensive about that evening. Deb and her boyfriend were coming to join us for dinner, and I wasn't sure quite what to expect. I was quite relieved when the door opened revealing, not some ogre bent on my destruction, but a fine Amazon of a young woman with long dark hair and a triple labret, who looked every bit as awkward and nervous as I felt.
Over the course of the evening both Deb and I relaxed a bit more. A couple stories about her Dad when he was young really seemed to spark some interest in her. She's never had much opportunity to hear stories of his younger days.
We've still got a long way to go, but we've made a start. Nice young woman. I'm glad and grateful for the chance to get to know her better.
So----
Next morning it was back to camp. Paul did a couple more hours on lighting for the second stage while I set about organizing our camp. Thursday at Farmfest is quiet. People are just arriving, setting up camp. Music doesn't officially begin until Friday at 5pm. "Parking lot picking" happens all the time, and there are pick up sessions at the second stage though, so there's almost always music from somewhere.
Thursday was the start of the mutual admiration society that Linda's husband Joe and I formed. Joe owns the hot damn allstar macdaddy of camp kitchens. It starts with an army surplus command center tent and cast iron dutch ovens and finishes with gourmet touches like pepper grinders and Cuban coffee. I remember how impressed I was last year just seeing it from outside. Puts my own well stocked, efficient and organized little camp kitchen waaaaaay to shame. It was a thrill to actually spend time inside it.
It's always the same when foodies find each other. Techniques, recipes and tastes swapped all weekend long. My pumpkin pancakes now have a "biggest fan" in the form of Joe and Linda's little boy. I need to remember to email them the recipe.
This year Mother Nature put in a serious bid for part of the attention usually reserved for musicians. I'll tell more of that chronologically, but I got my first taste of it Thursday night while waiting for Paul outside the porta-johns as a meteor streaked over my head in the diamond strewn black velvet sky.
Music. That's what we were there for, right? Well, in all reality, music is only part of it. Coming together with such a cool group of people in such a beautiful place is the real reason.
It was amazing, as always. And, as always, we didn't get to the stage to "see" everyone we would have liked to, but the music from the main stage carries pretty well. Unless they were also playing on the second stage in the woods below us you could most everything.
We did see some amazing performers, though. I'll provide links to some of my favorites of the weekend in another post. If you go by which CDs we brought home, I'd have to say that would make "Like Water Drum Works" and "Ragbirds" our favorites. The Ragbirds are particularly cool because they sound rather like someone took a big bag, dumped Sinead O'Connor, Dar Williams, a bunch of bluegrass pickers, jazz musicians and Irish trad players in it, gave them a good shake to blend and poured them all out on a stage to see what they'd get. Some of those things/people should be totally at odds with each other, but it worked and worked well.
Only got to see Matt Watroba and his partners David Mosher and Theresa Smith (The Pine Warblers) for one of their two performances. We were running just a little behind to get to the main stage for that performance, but managed to get there just in time to hear Matt singing "Old Love". I was thrilled. It's one of my favorites by him (my other favorite being the first song he ever wrote, a beautiful song for and about his wife). Didn't realize until later that Paul got away with not dancing with me to that song. It's our rule. He must dance with me anytime "Old Love" is played. He owes me a dance, durn it.
I never did see Matt running around the grounds anywhere, so I'm assuming he stayed overnight in Gaylord. Camping isn't everyone's cuppa. Too bad, though. Interaction between performers and fans is part of the fun of festivals. Maybe he stayed up in the camper area. I didn't go up there much, so I wouldn't know who was there. Fiddle phenomenon Jeremy Kittel stayed just one camp over from us, though, on the other side of Joe and Linda's camp from us. I just had to rib Joe about "classing the place up" with dinner and music.
We found out how well that solar shower works this year.The weather was much warmer than originally expected on Friday and Saturday, too warm for me to be content with just a PTA bath and rinseless shampoo (of which it turns out I was out, anyway). The first few seconds on Friday, as the water that had been standing in the black hoses ran out, were pleasantly warm. Then the water started drawing from the tank. It was brisk, but tolerable--even refreshing, just a bit warmer than Kenny's pond (for those who know Kenny's pond). Wish I could say the same thing about Saturday morning's shower. OMGs!!!! My scalp was almost instantly numb from the cold, and the shriek I let out made Paul decide he'd rather be grubby, thanx. I did manage to get my hair shampooed, but the rest of me just got the longest rinse I could tolerate.
I learned a few things about Farmfest showers. 1) Do not shower early in the morning, particularly when the solar tank has just been refilled from the well. 2) Having to stand in line for a warmer, late day shower is not an inconvenience. Use that waiting time to make some new friends. 3) Shower shoes or flip flops make standing on the grated shower floor much more comfortable.
Friday night was when Momma really started her own show. As we relaxed on the main stage lawn listening to Freshwater, I saw more than a half dozen meteors. There were many more maybe meteors that I caught out of the corner of my eye but were already gone by the time I turned my head. I never saw a meteor shower or even a single shooting star until I was an adult, so every time I see them now I get filled with a very child-like wonder and excitement. Being way out in the woods where you can really see just why they call it the Milky Way is a treat for meteor watching.
Saturday evening the western sky glowed with a rainless rainbow---although it may have actually been something called a sundog. Regardless, it was cool.
Considering the names of the bands playing over the weekend----"Bluewater Ramblers", "Coldwater", "Freshwater", "Like Water Drum Works" and "Airbourne or Aquatic" it just seems more than a little cosmic that Saturday night/Sunday morning brought the first rain they've had around there in weeks. And rain it did. I've never seen anything like it. The rain started somewhere around 4 in the morning with a gentle shower. Within the hour, though, the rain picked up to a steady downpour and the thunder and lightning rolled in----rolled in and stayed for 4 hours! it was amazing!
Also amazing was the fact that we didn't suffer any major rain damage. With the exception of a back corner that caught a bit of a puddle because it could have been staked out better the tent and our gear stayed remarkably dry. On the other hand, some of the places the rain did get into were interesting. Nothing in it got ruined, but I'm still trying to figure out just how rain got inside the first aid kit.
And we stayed dry---well, sort of. Thunderstorms produce great energy for, well, you know. (Got another story from Rudy's house concerning similar things I'll post about separately. There are a couple separate Rudy stories I'll cover.)
I hated to see Sunday come around because it meant the end was near. We really did put it off as long as we possibly could.
While Paul packed up the tent and most of our personal gear I headed out to do my final four hours Farmhand duty. I was originally scheduled to put in my hours in the Pig Pen, which is the information and Farmfest merchandise hub, but when I got there I could see they were more than adequately staffed. After talking to the Pig Pen coordinator I decided to volunteer at the children's area instead. I'd been given a head's up by a staffer that volunteers were really needed there.
I had the most incredible fun working with the kids. I don't think I sat down for more than 15 minutes of my 4-hour shift. My table/project was Rainbow Fish Prints. I ended up laughing, and covered in tempera pain,t with a clothes line full of the work of many future Picasso's. I'd have gladly put in more time, and told the Children's Activities coordinator that I would be thrilled to put in all my Farmhand hours in the children's area next year (for which she was extremely grateful. She never has enough volunteers.)
The camp kitchen still needed to be broken down and packed after my Farmhand shift, but we ambled off to see the Ragbirds play first, catch up with a few more friends and fellow Farmhands to say goodbye, get our Farmhand schedules signed off and exchanged for meal tickets, buy our shirts and CDs---basically avoid the inevitable---leaving.
Even after we did get everything packed we found reasons to dally. Joe and Linda asked us to stay for a little dinner so we wouldn't have to stop on the road. It gave us a little more time on the farm with friends. It was nearly 9pm before we finally got on the road (and 12:30am when we got home. I hauled tail).
Sad. It's always sad to leave that wonderful place/experience. Next year, come hell or high water, we will be staying through until at least Monday. And next year, some of you must come with us. You'll never regret it.
Just to let you know, they're already planning a fund-raising concert at the Ark for this winter. I will be keeping you all informed.
We were hoping to get the hell out of Dodge a lot earlier than we did last Tuesday, but as it turned out the shop has had a slight upturn in business, and I'm a solo act right now. I needed to push as much of the work out as I could possibly get out before I left. Since Paul had the day off I dragged him along with me to keep me company and help out with some itty bitty tasks. Together we put in a reasonably full day, finally getting out of there a bit after 3:30 in the afternoon.
It was 6:45 before we finally pulled out of the Aldingbrooke gate towards our destination some 220 miles up the road. Yeah, we're nuts enough to start that kind of drive that late in the day. We'd booked a room in Gaylord for the night so we could get up and head the 20 or so miles to Johannesburg first thing in the morning on Wednesday. Our goal was to not have to camp in the dell this year, and the best way to get a good campsite (ie, topside) was to be a pre-festival Farmhand (volunteer).
It worked.
And so did we.
Once we'd picked out a place for our camp Paul joined the workcrew that was stringing the lights for the woods trail, and I spent the afternoon with Linda, the only other woman on site at the time (aside from Stacey Jo), doing set up. Our two families got to be pretty good friends over the weekend, and we'll be keeping in touch with them.
It was several hours later when Paul and I again met up just in time to head down to Grayling to spend the evening with Rudy.
I was really apprehensive about that evening. Deb and her boyfriend were coming to join us for dinner, and I wasn't sure quite what to expect. I was quite relieved when the door opened revealing, not some ogre bent on my destruction, but a fine Amazon of a young woman with long dark hair and a triple labret, who looked every bit as awkward and nervous as I felt.
Over the course of the evening both Deb and I relaxed a bit more. A couple stories about her Dad when he was young really seemed to spark some interest in her. She's never had much opportunity to hear stories of his younger days.
We've still got a long way to go, but we've made a start. Nice young woman. I'm glad and grateful for the chance to get to know her better.
So----
Next morning it was back to camp. Paul did a couple more hours on lighting for the second stage while I set about organizing our camp. Thursday at Farmfest is quiet. People are just arriving, setting up camp. Music doesn't officially begin until Friday at 5pm. "Parking lot picking" happens all the time, and there are pick up sessions at the second stage though, so there's almost always music from somewhere.
Thursday was the start of the mutual admiration society that Linda's husband Joe and I formed. Joe owns the hot damn allstar macdaddy of camp kitchens. It starts with an army surplus command center tent and cast iron dutch ovens and finishes with gourmet touches like pepper grinders and Cuban coffee. I remember how impressed I was last year just seeing it from outside. Puts my own well stocked, efficient and organized little camp kitchen waaaaaay to shame. It was a thrill to actually spend time inside it.
It's always the same when foodies find each other. Techniques, recipes and tastes swapped all weekend long. My pumpkin pancakes now have a "biggest fan" in the form of Joe and Linda's little boy. I need to remember to email them the recipe.
This year Mother Nature put in a serious bid for part of the attention usually reserved for musicians. I'll tell more of that chronologically, but I got my first taste of it Thursday night while waiting for Paul outside the porta-johns as a meteor streaked over my head in the diamond strewn black velvet sky.
Music. That's what we were there for, right? Well, in all reality, music is only part of it. Coming together with such a cool group of people in such a beautiful place is the real reason.
It was amazing, as always. And, as always, we didn't get to the stage to "see" everyone we would have liked to, but the music from the main stage carries pretty well. Unless they were also playing on the second stage in the woods below us you could most everything.
We did see some amazing performers, though. I'll provide links to some of my favorites of the weekend in another post. If you go by which CDs we brought home, I'd have to say that would make "Like Water Drum Works" and "Ragbirds" our favorites. The Ragbirds are particularly cool because they sound rather like someone took a big bag, dumped Sinead O'Connor, Dar Williams, a bunch of bluegrass pickers, jazz musicians and Irish trad players in it, gave them a good shake to blend and poured them all out on a stage to see what they'd get. Some of those things/people should be totally at odds with each other, but it worked and worked well.
Only got to see Matt Watroba and his partners David Mosher and Theresa Smith (The Pine Warblers) for one of their two performances. We were running just a little behind to get to the main stage for that performance, but managed to get there just in time to hear Matt singing "Old Love". I was thrilled. It's one of my favorites by him (my other favorite being the first song he ever wrote, a beautiful song for and about his wife). Didn't realize until later that Paul got away with not dancing with me to that song. It's our rule. He must dance with me anytime "Old Love" is played. He owes me a dance, durn it.
I never did see Matt running around the grounds anywhere, so I'm assuming he stayed overnight in Gaylord. Camping isn't everyone's cuppa. Too bad, though. Interaction between performers and fans is part of the fun of festivals. Maybe he stayed up in the camper area. I didn't go up there much, so I wouldn't know who was there. Fiddle phenomenon Jeremy Kittel stayed just one camp over from us, though, on the other side of Joe and Linda's camp from us. I just had to rib Joe about "classing the place up" with dinner and music.
We found out how well that solar shower works this year.The weather was much warmer than originally expected on Friday and Saturday, too warm for me to be content with just a PTA bath and rinseless shampoo (of which it turns out I was out, anyway). The first few seconds on Friday, as the water that had been standing in the black hoses ran out, were pleasantly warm. Then the water started drawing from the tank. It was brisk, but tolerable--even refreshing, just a bit warmer than Kenny's pond (for those who know Kenny's pond). Wish I could say the same thing about Saturday morning's shower. OMGs!!!! My scalp was almost instantly numb from the cold, and the shriek I let out made Paul decide he'd rather be grubby, thanx. I did manage to get my hair shampooed, but the rest of me just got the longest rinse I could tolerate.
I learned a few things about Farmfest showers. 1) Do not shower early in the morning, particularly when the solar tank has just been refilled from the well. 2) Having to stand in line for a warmer, late day shower is not an inconvenience. Use that waiting time to make some new friends. 3) Shower shoes or flip flops make standing on the grated shower floor much more comfortable.
Friday night was when Momma really started her own show. As we relaxed on the main stage lawn listening to Freshwater, I saw more than a half dozen meteors. There were many more maybe meteors that I caught out of the corner of my eye but were already gone by the time I turned my head. I never saw a meteor shower or even a single shooting star until I was an adult, so every time I see them now I get filled with a very child-like wonder and excitement. Being way out in the woods where you can really see just why they call it the Milky Way is a treat for meteor watching.
Saturday evening the western sky glowed with a rainless rainbow---although it may have actually been something called a sundog. Regardless, it was cool.
Considering the names of the bands playing over the weekend----"Bluewater Ramblers", "Coldwater", "Freshwater", "Like Water Drum Works" and "Airbourne or Aquatic" it just seems more than a little cosmic that Saturday night/Sunday morning brought the first rain they've had around there in weeks. And rain it did. I've never seen anything like it. The rain started somewhere around 4 in the morning with a gentle shower. Within the hour, though, the rain picked up to a steady downpour and the thunder and lightning rolled in----rolled in and stayed for 4 hours! it was amazing!
Also amazing was the fact that we didn't suffer any major rain damage. With the exception of a back corner that caught a bit of a puddle because it could have been staked out better the tent and our gear stayed remarkably dry. On the other hand, some of the places the rain did get into were interesting. Nothing in it got ruined, but I'm still trying to figure out just how rain got inside the first aid kit.
And we stayed dry---well, sort of. Thunderstorms produce great energy for, well, you know. (Got another story from Rudy's house concerning similar things I'll post about separately. There are a couple separate Rudy stories I'll cover.)
I hated to see Sunday come around because it meant the end was near. We really did put it off as long as we possibly could.
While Paul packed up the tent and most of our personal gear I headed out to do my final four hours Farmhand duty. I was originally scheduled to put in my hours in the Pig Pen, which is the information and Farmfest merchandise hub, but when I got there I could see they were more than adequately staffed. After talking to the Pig Pen coordinator I decided to volunteer at the children's area instead. I'd been given a head's up by a staffer that volunteers were really needed there.
I had the most incredible fun working with the kids. I don't think I sat down for more than 15 minutes of my 4-hour shift. My table/project was Rainbow Fish Prints. I ended up laughing, and covered in tempera pain,t with a clothes line full of the work of many future Picasso's. I'd have gladly put in more time, and told the Children's Activities coordinator that I would be thrilled to put in all my Farmhand hours in the children's area next year (for which she was extremely grateful. She never has enough volunteers.)
The camp kitchen still needed to be broken down and packed after my Farmhand shift, but we ambled off to see the Ragbirds play first, catch up with a few more friends and fellow Farmhands to say goodbye, get our Farmhand schedules signed off and exchanged for meal tickets, buy our shirts and CDs---basically avoid the inevitable---leaving.
Even after we did get everything packed we found reasons to dally. Joe and Linda asked us to stay for a little dinner so we wouldn't have to stop on the road. It gave us a little more time on the farm with friends. It was nearly 9pm before we finally got on the road (and 12:30am when we got home. I hauled tail).
Sad. It's always sad to leave that wonderful place/experience. Next year, come hell or high water, we will be staying through until at least Monday. And next year, some of you must come with us. You'll never regret it.
Just to let you know, they're already planning a fund-raising concert at the Ark for this winter. I will be keeping you all informed.