fun on the farm

I just got back from an awesome trip to visit Clare, who - despite having two broken arms - was, as usual, a super-fab Hostess with the Mostess.

She and her husband share an amazing old Victorian farmhouse on 70 acres in the Willamette Valley (about an hour SW of Portland). It's aptly named Big Table Farm, and the place is a bit of a fixer-upper, but is so beautiful - looks almost fake. The house is truly amazing.

In addition to longer-term plans for a vineyard, they've jumped in with both feet on the farm animal thing.

They have chickens - about 50 or 60 of 'em. They have a horse named Chief and a dog named Clementine. They have a guard llama named Edward, and baby goats named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And a bunch of other goats with other names that I can't remember. They have quail and chuckers and pheasant. And two big pigs, named Prosciutto and Pancetta. :-)

They are doing the organic thing, and hope to sell some of the farm products locally - they've already got their eggs snapped up my some fancy-pants restaurant in Portland.

Clare and I got to hang out a lot, which was great for me - I really miss her.

And we had an amazing girls day at a super-cool spa in the Pearl District of Portland. (Followed by the requisite pilgrimage to Powell's Books, where I could have stayed for a week.)

The next day my beloved friend Helga and her husband Alex and their two kids (Max, and the wonderful Sofia, my God-daughter) showed up for a visit. This wasn't planned to coincide with my visit - just lucky timing!! I really miss Helga too, so it was just fantastic to have both my girls in the same place at the same time...

Helga brought her brother and his wife and kids (who live in Portland), and Helga's mom Jane. And then Brian's brother Dara and his adorable kid Samuel showed up, with Brian's mom. Clare's brother Joseph showed up with a friend of his. It was a giant crowd, and it was so so fun. The kids got to go on tractor rides, pet the horse, hold the baby chicks, and hike up to see the pigs and the goats. The adults got to all cook together and hang out and laugh at the kids.

Then everyone stayed for one of the best dinners ever.

We all ate outside around in impromptu table made of sawhorses and plywood. Brian smoked a brisket and yummy mashed potatoes, Alex grilled up hamburgers and sweet onions, and we had a giant salad that the kids and i picked from the garden about an hour before. Tons of great wine and sun tea. Joseph and his friend brought fresh huckleberries they had picked that very morning, and a berry crumble they made. We ate the crumble for dessert with vanilla ice cream we made by old fashioned crank handled machine that Dara had brought.

After dinner, everyone pitched in and we got the whole place cleaned up pretty quickly. I went to bed that night very full, very happy, and very very grateful for my friends.

Can't imagine a better trip. Will post photos soon.