Stories shed light on simpler life
My paternal grandfather and his brother Sam told some great stories about the ‘kid wagon’ that came through the old country neighborhood to carry the children to the one-room schoolhouse.
Barnyard notebook is better than a time capsule
The notebook we kept in the dairy barn was a way of communicating with one another from one milking to the next, but it makes me laugh out loud to read some of the zany things we shared.
Times may change, but people don’t
When I step out on my back porch and hear nothing at all, see the harvest moon shining brightly in the sky, I know that we are blessed. Quiet, calm, safe, serene: there is no doubt in my mind that the world would be a much better place if more people came home to this peacefulness at the end of each day
Memories go beyond the photographs
It has been said that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. Well, you also can’t choose your co-workers, which can cause a fellow all sorts of angst.
The secret to a farmer’s happiness
To say man is of the earth and that his well-being, even his very survival, depends on an occasional return to it is not enough. It is important to try to find out why this is true. Some people, those most distantly removed from farm living, accomplish the necessary return by going to parks, visiting [...]
Our inner compasses have gone awry
If we lived in an ideal world, it wouldn’t require written laws and rules. But there are those who attain land and animals and do not sense their own laws within them. In Ohio, this turned into tragedy.
The circle of life marches on
Sometimes life is full of amazing little surprises, though it takes a bit of looking to find the best ones. For those of you who have read my column for many years, you might recall that my family endured a house fire in the winter of 2000.
Judith Sutherland: Have we lost civility in this country?
It will soon be two years ago that my husband was injured in a car accident when a woman ran a stop sign and turned his full-size truck completely around in the road, fracturing a vertebrae in his mid-back.
Bringing in the cows — best job ever
Each day we wander the Vermont woods for an hour or two. I love the leave-taking, the sound of the goats’ bells. Herding is a way of doing something while doing nothing; it asks only for one’s presence, awake, watching animals and earth. Wind rakes the trees. Clouds float shadows through the grass. – By [...]
Judith Sutherland: Even idols can have rock-solid roots
After my recent Farm and Dairy column in which I dreamed of joining Diane, Peggy, Kathy and Janet as the fifth singing Lennon Sister, I received more comments and compliments than I’ve had in a very long time.
