A Visit To Pizza By The Pond !

(a photo essay by Laura Wentz)



 I went to a dog trial in Minnetrista, Minnesota, over the weekend and came home by way of Grantsburg, Wisconsin and did Pizza by the Pond.

Before I ordered a pizza I met some of the younger guard dogs.

I watched Dave milk the cows and the goats

I met Tule and Elmo's puppies.

I had the Fresh pizza and got a Just Cheese Please to go

Pizza going in the oven.

Cows grazing at sunset.

Jenny and her family showed up too. We had a great time eating delicious pizza and fudge and just sitting around talking. Dave & Mary are wonderful hosts and if you're in the area on a Sunday, you should stop in.

Laura

Baling Hay, Pup Nannies, and Whirlwinds!

Ancient old Mulberry tree, trying to hold onto it's leaves during the high wind

The past two weeks has been absolutely sublime... warm and dry,  perfumed by the aroma of leaves crunching underfoot. Glorious but brief! If I were  "in charge", I would make darn sure that Indian Summer lasted at least until Thanksgiving!
 A few days  of blustery whirlwinds stole away most of our leaves, revealing  the naked topography that was previously veiled by green. It's sort of like watching  time rewind, the plants that are still green in the wood lots are also the same plants that are  first up in the spring.





Wind rows of hay waiting for Dave  to  fix the baler before it rains again.

The good part of the windy days was that it became possible to dry some hay. Dave has become "one with the tractor seat" latelly, furiously trying to get up as much hay as is possible during this brief and  dry stretch of time.

About three weeks ago Tule, our Spanish Ranch Mastiff gifted us with a litter of 8 pups, and two days later  Setsuko, our Japanese intern, arrived. The next week, Sophie, (our British intern) joined  the fray, creating the best "puppy nanny team" known to LoveTree!!!

Tule, cleaning up the greedy little pups.

All 8 pups are robust with healthy appetites...their poor mom has to eat super quick before the little buggers take over her food dish!




A pan of pups?


It doesnt matter to the pups whether the food  bowl is empty  or not, they will make good use out if it.

Just like Autumn,  Setsuko  left before we got used to her being here! With her  command of the English language (which sometimes bordered on a "Charro" impersonation), coupled with her great sense of humor and compassion for the animals, she deftly  knitted herself into the fabric of  this farm's history. Setsuko only had a little over two weeks to spend here  before she moved on to Canada, but her whirlwind visit left us scheming for ways to keep her here, what a spitfire! We miss you Setsuko!






Changes.....

Fall, Indian Summer, my absolute favorite time of year, the colors are now peaking! I once turned down a consulting job because it wouldve taken me away from here during this amazing time. This season IS why we tolerate the long winters, the  bizarre weather patterns and the slippery roads.

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Brilliant Fall  Staghorn Sumac

 A sudden cold snap wakes us up out of our summer daze, jarring us into the reality of change


Andy's last day at the St Paul Market before going off to college.

Just for today, I  want to stop time.  I love the autumn, but I will sorely miss the summer. The little boy will always be my little boy, although I am so proud of him as a young man.

"Holmes Lake Apple Orchard,  just down the road, open  24/7

Many beautiful changes have taken place during the last month, the apples down the road at Holmes Lake Orchard are now ready for the picking...where else can you go to a 24 hour pick your own apple orchard?

"Tule" one of our Livestock Guardian Dogs, heavy with pups.

"Tule, our Spanish Ranch Mastiff gifted us with a litter of 8 pups, photos will soon follow!

Dave was FINALLY able to beat the rain  and get some  hay up!!!



Jon with "Windy"

Jon, a very pleasant  young man from  Georgia (USA) has come to stay with us for a while to experience farming in the northwoods, he also makes GREAT pizzas!!! 

"Setsuko" a cheery gal from Japan  has blessed us with her presence for two weeks, and "Sophie" arrives from the U.K this coming Saturday....my goodness!

Yes! We are open this Sunday!
It's been crazily busy here the last two weeks, we are all feeling the push to squeeze  the most out of summer. See Dave, see Dave run, run, run!
We will update soon with more photos, I just need  a new usb cord, nasty  Border Collie pup ate the  last one.
The tomatoe garden is saturated in red, the basil is creating it's own country, and the husk cherries are ever so slowly becoming ripe. And the cheese....the cheese is putting on age  and  exploding with flavor !!! It's going to be a great (and delicious) Sunday!
If all goes well today, I will be able to update with current photos of the farm and our new interns!

Hope For The Future!

There's an intern in that there guardian dog "pile on"....somewhere!

Last Friday we took the three interns and our sons for a canoe ride down the upper St Croix, (the river was at  a ten year high! ) Marine (our 18 year old intern from Paris) and our son, Andy,  had the unique adventure of riding approximately  two miles down a VERY  fast river while holding  onto the bottom of a capsized canoe before we could manuever them to shore...thank  heavens for life jackets! Yup, it was definitely a memorable experience for our all of us. The next morning ( Saturday), Marine  spent the day helping me sell cheese at the St Paul Market.  As my customers greeted Marine, they eventutally asked her how her summer vacation was going at LoveTree, to which all morning that little pixie  tirelessly  answered  (with her soft breathy French accent)    "I  have had a great time on the farm!" She then would lower  her voice to a whisper while  dramatically widening  her beautiful hazel eyes and add  " although yesterday.........I almost died."
Gads!  She loved every painful wince that she could muster out of me infront of  my customers.

What a character!


Over the past six weeks we have had the immense pleasure of hosting three amazing young interns, and now, one by one, they are leaving us...it just isnt fair. We are always excited when new interns arrive, meeting new folks is always exciting, but these three were an adventure  by themselves. We never expected to fall so much in love with ALL of them...and now they leave!

Farewell to Marine at MSP ...tears, we all had tears

Marine flew out for Pairis on Saturday after the market.

Lauren feeding the calves, more tears flowed as we said goodbye

  Lauren flew back to Syracuse this morning.

Kevin is so proud on that tractor, I hope we dont hopelessly enmbarass him with our tears when we say goodbye, and he thought that river was bad!

 Kevin is scheduled to leave for New York  next  Wednesday, (doesnt appear that he has plans for returning to China anytime soon).


Our hearts are so very heavy, we already miss them.  To help soften the "blow', Aurore (from Belgium) recently arrived, her perky and upbeat personality is truly a gift, even though she too will be leaving at the end of August.   Since she was also on  "That Gawdawful River" trip...we were afraid she was ready to leave by that  Friday afternoon, thankfully, she is a curious sort and thought it was worth  giving us another chance, as long as we keep her away from the river.

These three young adults milked and fed the cows, goats and sheep, tended to the guardian dogs, helped with fencing and worked  in the kitchen with the pizza, rode the tractor and yes, they also helped with the weekend markets.   These three were given a list of chores that needed to be accomplished, but just "how" the chores were to be accomplished was up to them. Before July, none  of them had ever met  the other, yet they worked out their differences, achieved compromises and developed an amazing  team atmosphere all on their own.
A young Chines man of traditional values who is interested in farming, an urban Parisian young woman who loves to dance and needed English immersion skills before business school in the fall, and a fiercly independent and soulful young woman from Syracuse whose main focus is conservation of our nation's forests. To these three young adults we will be eternallly  grateful, for they have renewed our hope for the future of our country, humanity  and our planet.