#420 Wild Indiana

No, we're not talking about the Colts season. We're talking about the natural wonders to be found all over the Hoosier State.

After 20 years exploring outdoor Indiana, our friend Mike Habeck has written and published Wild Indiana.

Big Hat Books, Indianapolis' independent bookstore in Broad Ripple, sells Wild Indiana as does the Indiana Historical Bureau bookshop inside the Indiana State Library with more local outlets in the pipeline. 

We've heard good reviews from our outdoor Indiana friends and it has 5 stars on Amazon.  

The book has 160 maps. I like it too.

Yours in appreciating Wild Indiana,
Kelly

#419 Digitizing the Johnstons

The Johnston family photos have been hidden away in boxes long enough!

Here are some of my favorites.

Lillian and Ira, Kelly's maternal grandparents

Glenn and Lorine, Kelly's parents on their wedding day

Kelly Gene at home with his parents who named him after Gene Kelly

Kelly's first day of school with his briefcase and fancy boots

If you want to see more Johnston family photos, check out our Flickr photo set.

Yours in enjoying a glimpse into the folks who made Kelly,
Mary

#418 Polyface Farm

If you've watched the film Food, Inc. or read Michael Pollans' book The Omnivore's Dilemma, you know about Joel Salatin and his Polyface Farms.  On Friday, I tagged along on a field trip to Polyface Farms with 60 University of Virginia students curious to see what all the fuss was about. 

Just an hour's drive from Charlottesville in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, we were greeted by Mr. Salatin.  His guided tour took us through a HoopHouse cohabited by chickens, rabbits, and pigs, the winter parking lot for EggMobiles, the 2009 Millenium Feathernet, the hay barn where we walked on the cows' diaper, the turkey RoostMobile, more pigs, and finally the heated sales-building-turned-lecture-hall.

The University of Virginia media relations staff wrote about our visit.  Check the excellent photo accompanying the article.

What did I learn from our visit?  A mixture of fact and opinion.  Fact: Only an hour's drive from Charlottesville, Polyface Farm is 1000 feet higher in elevation than Charlottesville and in the same horticultural growing zone as South Dakota. Opinion: Too many folks are behaving like victims asking the government to protect them and their food supply rather than taking the initiative to investigate and make their own smart local choices.

You vote at least three times every day for the kind of food you want to be produced.

Yours in wanting to make better food choices,
Kelly