How long WAS that year??

Besides the farmers' market,

2008 involved fledging a career in freelance astrobiology

from a picnic table at Jack Lake,

learning a bit about the extreme amount

of dirt and heck involved in small potatoes,

incorporating the Global Science Institute,

and learning that logos are very costly.

Apparently I also I bought a big front porch with some trees and a house attached,

and did some galavanting in nature,

including a canoe trip up the Eau Claire

(wherein we narrowly averted a sudden nasty storm),

...tagging some sturgeon with the DNR...

...searching for elk calves with the DNR

(I found a turkey hen sitting on some eggs

and several million mosquitos, but no elk calves)...

...and giving a talk about the stars

to a wonderful group of kayaking ladies at the Bear Paw...

...and that's pretty much it for 2008.

Oh, wait!! And then there was the World Science Fair in New York,

where I met Jane Fonda...

...and the awesome Upward Bound kids I taught at River Falls...

...and the filming of the Canadian documentary about aliens

(5 bucks to whoever recognizes the location)...

...and the photo shoot for Discovery Magazine...

...and that one figure from my dissertation that ended up in

National Geographic (in much shnazzier form, of course)...

...and the manure pit north of town?

...AND THAT WAS 2008.

Ha! I didn't miss 2009 after all.

See, the thing is, according to my memory, nothing actually happened since my last post in early 2008, so technically I haven't fallen behind. But today when I rediscovered this blog, I thought, wow, that was a nice way to keep track of my history, because the truth is I am not at all skilled in remembering the past. Ask anyone who has tried to revive an ancient argument with me. Past, shmast, it's over. NEXT!

But according to the following photos, some neat things actually did happen during the last 18 months. In fact, I just remembered that the reason why I stopped posting to my beloved blog! It was because, in the spring of 2008, I became obsessed with the idea that we should have a Farmers' Market in Antigo. Antigo, home on the silt loam, a soil over which songs have been written, the heavenly loam where anything grows, a land which flows with maple syrup in the spring, the flat ancient lake bed now visible from satellite images as an ocean of farmland on the edge of the true north woods.

And yet this is the same Antigo where we now import 80% of our food, where we buy our groceries from Roundy's and Walmart, where we all consume a gallon of gas per day simply by eating, where it is not even possible (...um, legal) to buy milk from the local dairy farms! Travesty! Affront to American self-reliance! Recipe for disaster! Down with crappy food!

So, a bunch of miracles happened and we now have an Antigo Farmers' Market where Antigonians can buy locally grown lettuce, spinach, apples, pumpkins, squash, beans, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, maple syrup, bread, garlic, onions, herbs, blueberries, raspberries, fish, beef, lamb, soap, honey, celery, broccoli, cucumbers, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, beets, corn, kohlrabi (which I hadn't even heard of before), flowers, transplants, cheese, and even some fancy wooden furniture and artsy/musical stuff. Tell me we can't live off the land!! Tell me we have no basis for a locally owned economy!! The market has survived two seasons, and we are continually coaxing this thing along...

The initial conspirators from left: Pam Augustyn (hydroponic tomato grower), Brad Igl (organic patato farmer), Alex Crockford (organic dairy farmer), Steph Bures (organic dairy farmer), Brian Igl (organic potatoes), myself (self-appointed poster child for how awesome it is to live in Wisconsin), and Vicki Adamski (maple syrup farmer).

"Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."