Progress!

I just returned from probably my favorite weekend of the year. It began with a date with my honey on Friday night. We went to see The Last Station at Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor. We ate a big pizza and shared a salad with delicious feta-garlic dressing. The movie was very good, and now I'm interested in learning more about Tolstoy and (gasp) possibly revisiting Anna Karenenia. It was a fun night. I was so happy to be off the island for a date for the first time in over a month!

But it was really Saturday morning that the fun began. Eliza and I dropped Jason off at the dock for the 7:30am boat and then we took off on our adventure. We drove down to Unity and waited impatiently in a diner until noon. Finally the hour rolled closer and we jumped in the car and drove over the hills to MOFGA (The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association) Seed Exchange and Scion Wood Swap! We parked in the lot and walked into the education building where lots of people were milling around long tables set up in the middle of the room. On the tables were bundles of scion wood from apple, pear, peach, and cherry trees, grape vines, and current and elder bushes. Scion wood is one-year-old whips of wood that is cut from the tips of branches. This wood is used to graft onto mature trees and young rootstock in order to clone fruit varieties. There were many varieties of apple scion wood to choose from, and we went slowly down the table, carefully choosing according to the fruits' qualities; How long does it store? Is it a good dessert fruit? How about making cider with it? In the end we came home with probably 20 varieties of apple, 3 varieties of pear and pieces of black currents and elder.

The black currents and elder sticks simply need to be stuck in the ground and they'll grow, but the other wood needs to be grafted onto mature trees or root stock. So, next we went upstairs to learn about the art of grafting. We basically learned two methods for grafting: whip and tongue and bark grafting. After the workshop we carefully packed our scion wood and newly purchased root stock into the trunk of the car and we headed off down the road toward Topsham and the Down East Folk Dance Festival!

After a delicious dinner at El Camino in Brunswick, we put on our dancing clothes and walked into the gym. We could hear the fiddle music playing from down the hall. We paid our admission, wiped our shoes off really well, and walked into the dance hall. What a sight! Hundreds of smiling faces. Skits twirling in the air. Bodies moving together in the form of the dance. We sat the first dance out and just watched, getting reacquainted with the calls: ladies chain across the set, hey for four, do-se-do your partner, balance and swing, in long lines go forward and back. The music energetically beat the 4/4 time of the tune. As the dance progressed, the music faded out and slowly began to build in volume and energy as the dancers worked together, moving back and forth, spinning around. The last eight counts of the dance moved forward and as the dancers approached the next round of song, the music built. The energy in the room welled up, and as the dancers moved towards the next set of partners, there was a hush. Everyone was waiting and sensing the static energy going through the whole set of dancers and connecting them with the music. Then just when the people's feet hit the first beat of the next round of movement, the band burst through the energy, loudly hammering out the tune. A roar went through the crowd, finally releasing. Pure joy! Eliza and I danced the rest of the night. Our feet ached. Our shoulders cried in pain from spinning and spinning. Our heads felt drunk although we didn't have a sip all day. It just filled me up!

I got home with my packages of grafting supplies and my whole body filled up from dancing the night before. I ran down to the woodworking shop and was met by the glorious sight of five new pieces cut for the house. And big pieces, too. While I was getting my contra-dance fill, Jason was working away all weekend, cutting purlins and joists. Now we're up to 27 braces, 2 principle posts, 3 common posts, and five joists and purlins. We're right on schedule for our goal of a late August frame raising. Hope springs!!!