Two Barn Farm is starting to turn, after a long winter hibernation.  We have a basement full of vegetable seeds, on heat mats under timed lights.  If the neighbors were watching, they’d call the cops thinking we were growing something else.  We’ve been talking of tilling, and of bio-char this year.  FYI: Bio-char, adding charcoal remains to garden beds.  Yes, we have plenty to burn off.  However, the ground is defrosted only an inch or so.
Today feels like spring.  Warm, clear, sunny, yum.  I had the urge all afternoon to go get some brats and start grilling.  We sent the morning working on house projects.  The kitchen has molding, some more in the bathroom, and I finished off some flooring transitions.  Score a few more items from the to-do list.  Reagan loves crossing items off.  We often add new tasks to the list, just to cross them off right away.  My gratification comes from creating new, clean to-do lists, slightly shorter than the last one.  We did both today.
We also burned our brush pile at the in-town house.  This was a small one.  Yes, we can burn in town.  No, we were not the only ones today.  Yes, there is a bonfire like no other waiting at the farm.  Yes, it used to be called a barn.  Bonus, I moved coffee roasting operations to the garage today.  No coffee smell in the house.  And I cleaned out the garage a little as well.  I might do this more often.
Today was also a good day to catch up with friends.  In small towns, you run into them when you least expect it.  Winter seems to hole us up too much.

I did add in a few bike maintenance projects today too.  Over the winter, I ended build a new tubular wheel.  I mounted a tire on it, and took it for a spin today on the TT bike.  I wanted to make a LSD ride out of it.  (Long Slow Distance.  ie, low heart rates)  I got 22 miles off OUTDOOR trail and road riding done.  I must say, that my first all-tubular ride left me amazed.  These tires really do have a better ride quality.  However my heart rate kept creeping up.  It was far too much fun and excitement to be on the road, hitting 35mph and seeing how long you could keep it.   Every time I sat up and rested, a car came.  I ended up diving back down on the bars and making it look good.
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy.  Until next week, true believer.

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I have decided to try to tune out as much news about the economy and stock market as possible.   Some figures are up, others are down, and bad news everywhere.  Nothing makes sense.  I will point out that I disagree with the teachings of my recent business degree.  I see how many of these companies fell to self inflicted wounds.  Greed led us here, and shady accounting.  Enough of that.  Here is true woe:

Faithful Customers Sad….
We just found out that the coffee house that Reagan and I “cut out teeth on” is closing.  While we call ourselves coffee snobs, we were never seen carrying logo-branded cups around.  Reagan learned her coffee chops at Circle Moon, as she worked here for quite a while.  Their true Italian Cappuccino was unmatched.  I found myself sitting here quite often, enjoying coffee, the owners, and other patrons.  We started to know the regular customers ourselves, personally.  This was the tightest sense of community I felt while living in Loveland.  It was this coffee house that bound us.  Several of Circle Moon’s customers even came to our “Empty house” party, the night before we headed to Iowa.  I even saw tears.

John is a remarkable person, an amazing craftsman, and has a wonderful family.  I wish him well in his new endeavors.  If anyone is in Colorado on March 12th, I urge you to stop by on closing day and pay respects to the best people, the best coffeehouse, and the best Cappuccino and coffee we have ever seen.  Make it a wonderful blowout.

PS.  I’m surprised we have not talked about a road trip for this yet.

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