Newsletter - Oct. 17, 2020 - extra edition

 

Fall greetings from the King family! l. to r. - Kenny, Cathy, Edwin, Billy
(photo by Donya)

Here's a little update on what the King family has been doing and will be doing as we wind up this season and head to 2021.

First, news from Nomadland, the film co-produced by Emily Foley, of team Frog Holler (when she isn't going Hollywood. :-)

Nomadland had several concurrent premieres in September - Telluride(at the Rose Bowl and attended by Frog Hollerites Emily, Edwin and Freya), Venice (where it won the Golden Lion award), Toronto and New York. In Toronto it won the People's Choice Award, which is often considered "Oscar-predictive". So the big question is: Will Freya be walking the Red Carpet?

The word must already be out that Freya is a star. She went along on a service call at Dunning Toyota and ended up on their Facebook page!

Many of you enjoyed the feature on the lovely ladies of Frog Holler. Well, they go through their winter rhythms as well and a number of them are starting to molt. When chickens molt, they lose their feathers and look quite scrawny. But molting is a natural process, triggered by decreasing day length, that enables the hens to refresh their feathers before the winter. 

It looks like Butterscotch can't shake her tail feathers for a while!

Here's Phoenix, getting ready to rise from the ashes.

Her "pin feathers" are showing! (developing feathers)

She'll look like this soon!

Now Simone and Tommy want some page space! Simone (named after Simone Biles) and Tommy (named after Tom Brady, the G.O.A.T - yes we have a Patriots fan in our midst) are our two Nigerian Dwarf goats and you see them photographed inside a fence because they are ba-a-a-a-d! 

Simone and Tommy, partners in crime :-)

What did they do to merit being in the pen? Really just being goats is quite enough. Although they are terribly cute and their acrobatic antics are always entertaining, they can quickly destroy a vegetable patch, the exterior paint of a car that they try to climb, or a roof's shingles. We usually keep them in a large enclosure where they can munch to their heart's delight, but lately they have been repeatedly breaking out. Until we can secure them, they are in the chicken pen, and you can certainly assume that the ladies are not thrilled! But aren't they cute?

We went back to a Daikon Radish patch that we thought we were finished harvesting and found this monster, displayed by Kenny King:

Aren't you glad you didn't find this in your share box?

This is a terribly amateurish clip of the farm's new drone, purchased used from a neighbor who can be seen giving instructions. Please forgive the sideways section of the footage - adds to the dizzying effect of this strange technology. And it shows you what the dogs think of this new farm critter! Unmute to hear the obnoxious hum.

We aren't exactly sure how we will use the drone - maybe next year all of the CSA newsletters will be filled with drone footage! :-) We do hope the drone will give helpful footage of the farm fields, the Holler Fest layout, and most likely for more music videos. Now that farming duties have lightened a bit, Billy King has had more time to share his music online - no aerial shots yet but they're probably coming!

Here is one of Billy's latest songs, with his musical pal, Emily Slomovits, playing violin and singing backup. It's a challenge these days to create duets across the distance, but brother Kenny King worked the dials to integrate the files and this beautiful collaboration resulted. "Resist", by Billy King.

 Billy is playing banjo on the balcony of our barn and playing piano back in our stone cabin in the woods. Emily is at her parent's home in Ann Arbor. 

And here is another new collaboration just released. Billy puts these up on his Facebook page and you can go there for more music and some Facebook Live short presentations. Here's what Billy wrote on his page for this song:

Hi friends, please enjoy this recording of an "anti war" song written by my late father, Ken. While he was very outspoken with his political views he rarely expressed it in his music. I can only imagine what he would make of the current climate. Thank you Emily Slomovits and Cathy King for helping with the project. You'll notice some extra studio tracks, I recommend ear buds for the best sonic experience. Thanks for listening.  "Miss That Kind of Love", by Ken King

Again, we're back at the stone cabin; Emily in Ann Arbor. Kenny King on the dials.

We hope you have had opportunities to enjoy Autumn in our beautiful state of Michigan, despite the current "state of affairs". We wish you a safe winter, finding health in your home and peace in your pod.  We'll be hunkered down, taking care of farm critters, ordering seeds, keeping in virtual touch with friends and family, and trusting in Mother Nature to bring rest to the earth this Winter and renewal this Spring. Be well everyone!

Freya, Fall and Frog Holler