Moving Back To the City

Since I left the farm a couple weeks ago I have really been seeing alot more things that some how relate to farming. We have alot more farms, cows and tractors in the south that I have never noticed before. I have really missed Massachusetts and can't wait to go back in September for my Mom's graduation. The farm taught me more about my life and what I want to do with it.
Sometimes I do like to be clean but what I like most is to be out in a field harvesting veggies or in the mud playing with my friends. I will really miss Maggies Farm and The Farm School but I will still want farm some day.

Rammy the ram.

Sad day here at the farm. Rammy, our 12 year old ram, had to be put down. The vet came and we were all around him when he took his last breath. He was a fine fellow- probably sired 100 or so lambs in his lifetime. He started a decline last summer when his best bud, a big brown steer called #2, was sent to slaughter. The vet performed an autopsy on his body and we all gathered around in amazement as we examined his organs one by one.

Today I am thankful for Rammy's life and the contribution he made to our farm.....and life goes on....

I heart Ode.

I've had lots of conversations with different people over the last few months trying to understand the financial crisis we find ourselves in. It's a concept that my brain has trouble absorbing. I start out strong and convicted that I'm going to learn the real answer and then start trailing off as my conversation partner continues to explain....Insert JA's thoughts here:"hmmmm, what flavor of frozen yogurt actually is my favorite? or maybe I actually prefer sorbet now"...."who was the cutest Brady brother: Greg, Peter or Bobby?".... "I wonder if the lent that comes out of the dryer filter can actually be composted or if that's just a myth...." It's as if, without fail, at some point my brain shuts off or is unable to understand the words they are saying- almost as if they began speaking in Chinese.

It seems as if everyone is playing the blame game too. The Democrats blame the Republicans. The Republicans blame the Democrats. Who exactly do you believe? It seems there is ample finger pointing in the industry itself- banks, mortgage companies, mutual funds & stockbrokers....all befuddled and bemuzed about what exactly happened and who's fault it is. Now here we sit....waiting to see what Obama's move is going to be. I have a feeling he has no idea how to fix this big fat mess we are in....I have a feeling that nobody does.....I have a feeling the big whigs all start thinking about what flavor frozen yogurt is their favorite or how much they really hate the cantelope flavored jelly bellies when they are asked what to do....they don't know any more than I do.

Jurriaan Kamp, Editor-in-Chief of Ode Magazine wrote an editorial in the November 2008 issue which helped me understand on a small level what has happened to our financial system. While it is in general terms his message is very clear. I could try and paraphrase his words but his letter was so perfectly written I dare not try.

The Need for Tulips

"The very first recorded investment bubble had to do with tulips in the Netherlands in the 17th century. At the time, new tulip varieties were traded at prices 20 times higher than the annual income of a skilled craftsman. In one story, someone even bought a special tulip bulb with 12 acres of land. The bubble burst, as they've done so many times since.

We tend to think bubbles are wrong. But they serve an important purpose. They finance creativity, opportunities and economic growth. The tulip mania of the Dutch Golden Age brought the development of many extraordinarily beautiful flowers. In the 19th century, many people made- and subsequently lost- a lot of money building the railways that provided the necessary infrastructure for the Industrial Revolution. Without the railway bubble, there wouldn't have been an Industrial Revolution. More recently, we experienced the Internet bubble that imploded in 2000. Again many people lost a lot of money after others made fortunes. Yet the bubble laid the foundations for the digital infrastructure driving today's economy.

For the past few months, we've seen a new bubble bursting. It looks like the same story all over gain. But it isn't. First of all, the losses are much bigger than during the Internet bust. The housing crisis threatens the very roots of the international financial system. But there's something else: It isn't so clear what upside this bubble has served. Granted, more Americans than ever own their own homes. But the rise in home ownership over the past decade hasn't been so big, perhaps a few percentage points. That rise doesn't explain the huge amounts of money now being lost.

The housing bubble is a consumption bubble. Americans have borrowed $1 trillion more than they earned over the past 10 years. And they spent that money. Not on railways, digital infrastructure or, for that matter, renewable energy projects. No, they spent it on consumer goods, most of which have, well been consumed by now. So that tragedy of the current bubble is that after the dust has settled and balance has been restored in the market, there isn't much to celebrate. The party is simply over."

excerpted from the Letter from the Editor, Ode Magazine, November 2008

Well....alrighty then....and there we have it. In this age of uncertainty and turmoil, each of us can play a part in moving forward toward positive change. Don't wait for Obama. It's each of our responsibilities to fix the present so that our children and grandchildren will have a decent future to walk into.

Oh, and by the way, Ode Magazine is a must read for "Intelligent Optimists." It's smart but not over your head. Most of the articles are pretty short and easy to understand. It promotes hope for global change. It's different and refreshing!

Game of Logging

I have had several "first" experiences since starting farm school last October 1. One of the hardest, most fun, and certainly the deadliest, was participating in a "Game of Logging" class which instructed us on how to use a chainsaw correctly. Farmers don't just drive around on their tractors all day looking cool. Sometimes they need to clear land, buck up wood for burning or just take out their frustration by rushing into the woods and felling some trees just for the heck of it. Best they should know how to do it safely and efficiently so they can get back to driving around on their tractors looking cool.

Our instructor, Bill (who fondly became known as Chainsaw Bill to the student farmers) started our first class on chainsawing by ensuring we student farmers understood how dangerous this tool can be. This guy is a bad-ass....I have no doubt that he juggles chainsaws, eats sawdust for lunch and cuts down trees with his bare hands. By the time he was finished with the detailed injury explanations, color photographs of the numerous people killed by logs and cautions about everything that can, and frequently does, go wrong, we were all sufficiently scared enough to never go near a chainsaw. That, however, was not an option, and we all suited up in the cool logging costumes and headed out into the woods for some hands-on instruction.

The Game of Logging classes are set up as a competition. You receive points during the class for knowing the parts of the saw, knowing basic saw maintenance, determining safety hazards, handling the saw and hitting your target when felling your first tree. Now, I'm not one for bragging but I took second on the first day and first on the second day. Our third class we decided not to keep score....I mean, I didn't want to show up all those 20 something year old student farmers. I won the helmet I'm wearing in the picture. I'm thinking of changing my name to Paula.....Paula Bunyon that is. You can call me PB for short.

For more information on Game of Logging click here:

http://www.gameoflogging.com/

If you ever have a chance to take the course don't pass it up. It's excellent!

Pass the Peace

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.

Etty Hillesum

An Interrupted Life

"Sadako Sasaki was two when a United States bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. She died ten years later of radiation-induced leukemia. In the hospital, she began folding a thousand paper cranes (the white crane is the sacred bird of Japan, and 100 origami cranes traditionally mean the granting of a wish). Her friends asked children in Japan and 13 other countries to make a contribution to a memorial in Hiroshima's Peace Park, which was set up in 1958 with the words:

'This is our cry, this is our prayer, to build peace in the world'

inscribed on its base. In the 1980s students of the International School, looking for a way to keep this message of peace alive, set up the 1000 Crane Club; they produced a booklet and asked groups of children world-wide to become members by sending 1000 paper cranes for Sadako's memorial. The first response came from an American school in 1986. Children, almost entirely unaided, had started a movement and established a globally recognised symbol of hope for peace." copied and pasted from www.ppu.org (peace pledge union)

This year we made peace cranes for friends and family to hang on their tree with instructions and paper for them to make one and pass it on. Find instructions on how to here: http://www.pacificfriend.ca/html/how_to_fold_a_paper_crane.html

Amidst the hustle & bustle, packages & bows, tinsel & trimmings take a moment to find a little peace.....then be sure to pass it on!

Wishing everyone a Joy-full Christmas and a Peace-full New Year!

Winter is here!

Winter is here! We survived the worst ice storm in 30 years last week and are marveling over the amount of snow that has fallen in the last 24 hours- maybe a foot or more- more predicted for the next 24 hours. Seasoned New Englanders have little tolerance for our glee...."just wait" they say- "silly southerners" they think to themselves....so maybe by April the novelty will have worn off but for now it's fantasticly fun! I feel like I've stepped into a New England postcard scene....now I know what all those faux winterized sticks, twigs & berries you buy at Michael's are trying to look like.

Back by popular demand.

Hey folks. I'm back....well, sort of. I've tried over the last couple of months to update my blog regularly but my days start early and end late....with a lot packed in between the beginning and end and most nights it's like I would go into a little bitty farmer coma which made it pretty hard to write. Thank you to all who have asked, written, emailed, called, wondered and pondered about where I am and what I am doing. This has been a crazy and wonderful learning adventure and I do want to share it with you all!

I've been in farm school two months now. It has been fun, hard, rewarding, overwhelming, intense, smelly, gratifying, dirty, joyful, hilarious, cold, hot, delicious, tiring, weird, invigorating, scary, wild, and worthwhile. My day starts around 5:45am in the usual way- making lunch for Mac & Annie and cooking breakfast. Daily chores start at 7am with our first "class" starting at 9am, the last class ends at 4:30 pm which is when our afternoon chores begin. "Class" can be any number of things from an inside class on soil to farm work to a field trip to another farm. Chores are divided up between the 10 students working in pairs. Care for Pride the milk cow, our 2 Belgian work horses, Ruby Star & April, our beef herd, our sheep flock and our coop full of chickens are all on the chore rotation as well as cleaning the farmhouse (built in the mid 1700's). The students also take turns cooking lunch & baking bread during the week. We have had intensive classes in chainsawing, power tools, driving draft horses, harvesting and washing veggies, tractor driving, cheese making, tree identification and soil health. We have framed a goat barn at the home of one of our staff members and have also been building an enormous new greenhouse for our use in next season's planting. We have visited a slaughterhouse and witnessed pigs being killed and cows being skinned and gutted. As the weather turns colder, we have tucked the farm in for the winter season....planting garlic, mulching beds, preserving food, stacking hay, moving animals to the barn, taking soil samples and spreading manure & compost on beds.

Life here is good. I'm standing in the line with a neon arrow pointing to farm life...Ma, Pa, Sal the mule, the prairie & the plow...where is that dotted line? There is a simplicity to the work that I am doing that is profoundly rewarding. It feels important....meaningful....fulfilling in a real way. I think we spend alot of our time creating a pace of life that is out of sync with the rhythm of the Earth...I'm happy to have taken the time to slow down and listen to the pulse of the Land....it's as though I've spent my whole life falling through the air, flailing and helpless and I've finally come to rest in Mother Nature's arms. She says, "What took you so long?" "I got diverted by TJ Maxx along the way but I'm here now," I reply.