For those of you who have been following, or have been forced to sit through our rants about industrial wind coming to town, you will know that this is a good headline.

On Feb. 6, the townspeople of Jackson enacted a strong wind turbine ordinance. This means that if industrial wind turbines come to town, the developers will have to negotiate deals with those living within a mile of them. These are the people that will have to live with the noise and the decreased property values that the turbines bring. Go to our wind page for more details.

We had a big party a couple of weeks ago with all of those who have fought the battle in the last year to celebrate.

So now, after spending about 40 hours a week on average between the two of us working on the “damn wind turbines”, we hardly know what to do with our time. Wait a minute..... we do. More updates to the farm and its website!!!

After a glorious several weeks with blue sky and no rain, we finally got rain last night with more predicted. We also had a hard freeze!

So we got the potatoes and squash out of the ground, and put cover crops in. Beets, carrots, parsley, kale and brussels sprouts still very happy in the cold.

We also planted several varieties of winter wheat that Dave had started as seedlings. This is part of the grain trials we started in the summer. At some point, I will provide a full report!

We spent a very pleasant Sunday afternoon at the Common Ground Fair, the country´s largest organic agricultural fair. No visitors to show around, no agenda, just wandering about. We ran into about 20 people we knew, which either tells you that we get around, or that the progressive community here is very interconnected. Maybe a bit of both.

Looking forward to Heather´s parents visiting this week.

Here´s a quick update. Dave has been working his you-know-what off.

- Garlic has been harvested and dried! A bit epic, the harvest. Rainy weather made for hard, hard ground and stems that pulled off easily from the heads (bulbs), even with every row being forked. Now it just needs to be cleaned, which basically means tossing it up and down in a mesh hammock to get the dirt and dried paper off. Then we need to weigh it and figure out what we will replant and what we will sell.

- Cabin construction started! What does this mean? Expensive power tools!!! Dave and Mark are cutting the timbers to size with a 16 3/4-inch Makita skill saw. (A really really big saw.) Chiseling of the mortises and tenons starts next week. Big power planer on order!! Does planing of beams explain the origin of the phrase, “Shiver me timbers”?

- Organic re-certification! We were re-certified a couple of weeks ago, and the inspector said MOFGA would be interested in training Dave to be an inspector.

- Grains almost ready for harvest! We planted a lot of grain this year (by Maine small farm standards), including about 40 heritage varieties that Dave ordered from the USDA grain genome bank. Saskatchewaners take note, Marquis was among them. If you still remember Marquis. Before Monsanto took over the world and started selling farmers seed that kills itself every year. But I digress.

- Vineyard being prepared! Dave has laid out the vineyard, subsoiled and put in amendments. We will plant about 1300 vines in the spring.

- Travel! But not for vacation. Heather is headed off to India, Paraguay, China, and possibly Egypt in the next month or so. Provided the visas arrive on time.

More details on garlic, construction, and grains coming up as soon as I get a chance.