All my life, I have been certain of one thing. Dairy farmers are not paid nearly enough.
Now, this has been true even when others who write about such things were saying that the industry was strong, the price better than it had been for years. I don’t care what the authors of such things […]
A knock came on my door as I worked in the kitchen one late afternoon this past week. I was startled because I had not heard a car come down our long lane.
I was happily surprised to see that it was the oldest of the three sisters who walk through our farm on their […]
“I spent the afternoon astraddle the ridge of the new barn-loft roof laying down a ridgecap, a course of overlapping shingles that covers the seam where the shingles meet from each slanting roof face. It would have been difficult not to have been happy up there. The fall migration of monarch butterflies, stunning creatures of […]
“If you’re in the wrong place, the right things don’t happen.”
– Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, 1942
There are some things we are given absolutely no choice over in this life. We are born in to a certain place and time, we arrive with parents and family members already in place, and life begins for each individual with […]
“On the farm, I’d come to see that my animals managed to avoid, almost entirely by instinct, the dramas that humans create for themselves. I envied them.”
– Jon Katz, Izzy & Lenore
I once heard the comment that animals don’t have nearly the troubles that humans have, mostly because they cannot talk. Wow. Truer words […]
“Wes Jackson is fond of saying that if your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough. And no one is thinking bigger about sustainable agriculture than Wes Jackson.”
– from People We’re Pleased To Know
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Recently, I stopped for lunch and a soft drink while out running […]
“My father asserted there was no better place to bring up a family than in a rural environment. There’s something about getting up at 5 a.m., feeding the stock and chickens, and milking a couple of cows before breakfast that gives you a lifelong respect for the price of butter and eggs.” — Bill Vaughan […]
“Dad hitched up the horses and told me the farm was my responsibility now. He was going in search of work, for a week, a month, maybe a year. I felt the weight of it all the way to my bones. I had a man’s job. As Pa drove away, my mother cried. I did […]
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
— Anais Nin
I met Pippi Longstocking on the first day of school when I was 7 years old, and meeting her changed me forever. I had read […]
“The summer skies are darkly blue
The days are still and bright
And evening trails her robes of gold
Through the dim halls of night.”
— Sarah Helen Whitman, 1803-1878
What a beautiful summer! I would wish for this to last all the way to Christmas and beyond if I thought I could get my way for just one […]
