Down on the farm, yeah, that’s how the Cosmic Psychos would sing it back in the early ’90s. Three farmers from the outback cranking out bulldozer punk. Now it’s almost twenty years later and I’m down on the farm and Abba is today’s soundtrack – shift happens. Rob is seen here planting garlic, I on the other hand am here to do some photography so there might be enough photos to post while we are away in Yellowstone.

This past year did not see much travel for Caroline and me, between her mom visiting for eighty-seven days starting last January to my nearly seventy-five days in Santa Barbara caring for my uncle we only managed to visit Death Valley, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Tuba City up on the Navajo Reservation, Blue and Nutrioso in Northern Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana in October and finally the Oregon coast over Thanksgiving. During 2009 we will make an effort to return to form and travel A LOT! On the calendar so far: Yellowstone in January, followed by a short trip to Disneyland. Caroline’s mom will meet us back east for a trip to Niagara Falls, Washington D.C., and points between and then late in the year we have plans to road trip the Deep South starting in Atlanta, Georgia. We are likely to visit Monterey, California as well since neither of us can remember the last visit to the aquarium. A visit back to Yellowstone before August is required as a favorite riverside drive will be replaced by a bypass and will eventually be removed from the park. I’d like to walk its length and photograph the canyon outside of winter conditions. I really should get busy planting some road trip ideas into my mind.

I have left Santa Barbara for a few days to be on hand for the re-opening of Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm which is expanding from a farm stand to a small farmers market. Rob has added tent space to allow about a half dozen vendors to join him on Saturday mornings selling fresh local food to our community. More people than any of us imagined showed up for opening day. Above is about the largest group of visitors I have seen taking a farm tour. I have also come back to town as this Tuesday is our Presidential election and I have been so busy in California I had not the opportunity to request an absentee ballot.

This is the cover photo for a book detailing the progress of a year on Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm in Tonopah, Arizona. Over the course of the last week, I have worked furiously to finish preparing the 240 photos on 100 pages that will fill this 11×15 (28x38cm) hardcover book. In between caring for my uncle, I would have a few moments here and there to jump into Photoshop and MyPublisher to finish in time to upload the book before MyPublisher’s 50% off deal expired. Well, the book is done and uploaded. If you would like to see more of my farm photography and read what I have been ghostwriting at his blog visit: http://www.tonopahrob.com. The book is a gift to Rob for Christmas and was commissioned by his best friend and farm manager Jerry.

Back in June, I wrote how I have found myself sixty miles from home out west in the small community of Tonopah, Arizona, volunteering on a small all-natural farm. Then the Summer heat put a stop to that as outdoor work became next to impossible. As Summer drew to a close, my uncle broke his hip and I missed the preparatory work that went into bringing the farm back into shape for the Fall/Winter season. Today I am driving back to Santa Barbara to help my uncle as tomorrow is the day he will be released from the nursing/rehabilitation center and go home. On my way out west to Southern California, I stopped by the farm to check progress and torture myself with all that I have missed out on. In two weeks Rob will reopen the farm stand which will be expanded into a mini farmers market with a number of new vendors on hand. My time at the farm was brief as I still had another 450 miles ahead of me.

Three hundred plus pounds and counting, that’s how many tomatoes I’ve taken home from my volunteering out on the farm. What do three hundred pounds of tomatoes look like? Well, the boxes in today’s photos hold about eleven and a half pounds each, which equates to twenty-seven flats of tomatoes which would stand seven and a half feet tall. So, what does one do with that many tomatoes? One gets busy, that’s what. I’ve made stewed tomatoes, canned whole tomatoes, pasta sauce, basil and bell pepper pasta sauce, V8 tomato juice, dried tomatoes, and tomato salads. We’ll be eating the sweet taste of summer well into next year, I can assure you.