Greetings from Le Petit Somme! That's right, we named our "estate". The place certainly seems to have a mind of its own. The small oak tree that sprouted between mowings. The oak that fell over (no one heard it) in broad daylight. The everchanging high and low spots in our yard. Yes, seven tenths of an acre of prime Western New York swampland. (You thought the Barton's had it tough.) When I was young they called this place frogtown after the only cattle that could be supported here. Come to think of it, my parents called it the same when they were young. It was a recent revelation some developer had to actually build houses...ahem...excuse me...estates here. Being true homesteaders we look forward to a challange. Isn't that why we do what we do after all? We're gluttons for punishment. For example, many people hold the notion that milk comes from cartons. We know otherwise, and I am bound and determined to buy a registered herd of Holsteins and house them here in a tent. A guy I know raises hay on his swamp. Maybe I can get him to park one of his wagons on my lot. I'll just tarp it or something. After doing the math(O.K. after this machine does the math for me.) That's about $27.50 a gallon, but hey I figure good milk is like good wine and I'll have plenty left over to sell to the neighbors, family, friends, ...the pentagon! ( So that's how this happens, maybe we shouldn't be so hard on them. Perhaps they're supporting many homesteaders and cottage industries.) Anyway I'll keep juggling the figures...maybe goats...pygmy goats yeah that's it... Le Petit Somme means roughly "a little snooze". Around here a little snooze is not recommended with the landscape constantly shifting. Best to keep one eye open. I am always hoping that gurgling sound from the ground is a scarce natural resource. Then we can sell and move to a less challenging homestead, or maybe a homestead for the challenged. Until such time, we'll be making the most of what we got. Here's wishing you the best on your plot!

-- Ed Weaver (edzreal@postmaster.co.uk), October 19, 2000

Answers

Oh, Ed! It sounds like your place will never be boring. Is your house built on pontoons? If not, you better build a real barntype structure on pontoons so you have a place to go while you put them under your house.

I have really humourous and entertaining pictures in my mind about cows and tents...

Remember, if the frogs are big, filet that back meat too, and skunk cabbage roots are edible. Be sure to get a dog with webbed feet, explore uses for swampgas and enjoy that swamp music from the croaking choir.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), October 19, 2000.

Oh my! Congratulations on your homestead and I DO hope that the gurgling is worth $$$$. Enjoy!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), October 19, 2000.

Ed--when I was a kid my Uncle used to take his dogs out and hunt bullfrogs at night. He would send us some of the skinned back legs to eat--coated in flour and fried in a little bit of butter,they were really delicious! Homesteading at it's best seems to revolve around" making lemons out of lemonade"--maybe you have a cash crop there already waiting for you to develop it! I am still trying to come up with a name for my five acres of blackberries and mud-- I envy anyone with the imagination to sum up where they are at in 4 words or less-- Good job!! Happy frogging--Lynn

-- Lynn Royal (homesteadmama@aol.com), October 19, 2000.