Berkshire summer begins

And now, here I am back in the Berkshires, smelling the last of the lilac scent, which is slowly fading from remembering as the thicker summer air seems to be moving in. I am always amazed at the sneakiness of the seasons, how they manage to slide into play subtly. I am trying desperately to catch spring sneaking off; it seems that I came back to a changed Farm, everything had bloomed from one shade of green to about one hundred different hues of foliage--everything from celery to forest tones. And flowers bursting forth in places not even I imagined they would come out to greet the dawn.

The gardens have begun to bloom. The leafy heads of plants are bursting through the soil and starting to shade the ground below. Asparagus and bibb lettuce has been making their way into the Kitchen and into our bellies. The thick shoots of asparagus, which push forth from the ground--a green tipped mound, cracking through as some sort of iceberg tip, breaks forth from the sea--are especially delicious. Nothing goes wasted.

This year's asparagus actually grows behind the garden plot that TSO, Mummy Dearest and I are making into our little trial grounds for flowers and food stuff this summer. I have planted Detroit beets (insert shout out to my homies here) and green onions. Tonight I plan on planting my cosmos and columbines, and as soon as my little seedlings in my house get a little bigger, my delphiniums, shasta daisies, parsley and red peppers will be going into the plot too. TSO is planting scads of tomatoes, all kinds of corn (ornamental and edible), peppers, beans and some other things which slip my mind; Mummy is planting flowers. (Pictures to follow).

Though it has been cool and rainy these past few days it seems that summer is lumbering ever toward us; we saw it in the first wave of the summer vacationers who trekked into town en masse this past weekend for Memorial Day. Why do the Berkshires get so busy during the summer?, you ask. Well, the Berkshires (always farm land) became a vacation spot and home to the wealthy beginning in the mid-1800s and the pattern has not changed. In olden days the Berkshires were (summer) home to Edith Warton (Lenox), Herman Melville (Lenox), and even Nathaniel Hawthorne (Stockbridge?) to name a few. In more modern times, Normal Rockwell (Stockbridge) has given way for persons including James Taylor (Stockbridge) and Yo Yo Ma (Tyringham), as well as a slew of other famous faces who pass through and can be seen as frequently in town as some wildlife sightings around the farm. (I am still hoping to see Kate Winslet--my favorite actress--who is frequently spotted in town).

The Berkshires are just over two hours from both New York City and Boston and aside from the Berkshires dazzling beauty, it is also known for its artisans: glass blowers, potters, knitters/weavers, as well as it's cultural atributes: Jacob's Pillow, Shakespeare & Company, (TSO and I just saw Romeo & Juliet here last week-good!) MASS MoCA, and Tanglewood (where the Boston Symphony Orchestra summers). Berkshire County offers a rural, quaint, quiet retreat from city life, without being too far from diversions. And so it begins. Our quaint, rural life will be full of traffic until the first leaf peepers creep away in October...

love, love, love, love, crazy love

Seems an age in middle Earth has passed since last I wrote. Somewhere in that space of time that I was away from my blog I made a trip back to Michigan to attend the wedding of my friend Stac (and Jay), which meant I was also home to celebrate my Mom’s birthday and celebrate Monster Nephew A’s 3rd birthday (a little early). I still can't believe my little monster is 3! I remember anxiously driving to the hospital to meet my first nephew; to hold this tiny little person; to make promises over this sleeping angel. And now, he is three and full of mischief just like his old auntie. Time does fly, no?

"The only reason for times is so that everything doesn't happen at once." ~ Albert Einstein

While home I:

• Slept and slept and slept on my first day home. Apparently staying up all night before I flew wiped me out. I also hadn't been sleeping well before I left so I think my body needed it.
• Friday I went to Stac and Jay's wedding in Flat Rock, MI. My first time there--though I only saw the inside of the church, the reception hall and my hotel. Did a reading at their wedding--1 Corrinthians 13:1-7 ("Love is patient, Love is kind") --think it went well...up until the part where my shoe fell off as I was doing the reading (when I read behind podiums I kick one foot up behind me) and I couldn't get it back on. Doing that gracefully just didn't happen; wound up having to walk to my pew with one shoe flopping haphazardly, though my friends swore after that they couldn't even tell. The wedding was alright, I think I was too tired and travel weary to have a lot of fun. Was so glad that best friend K came up and joined me so I didn't have to suffer another wedding dateless! Thanks K!!
• My sisters' family, my Mom, my bro A3 and I all went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village complexes were ideas from Henry Ford, who wanted places to showcase pieces of American history. Henry Ford Museum houses a history of transportation as well as rotating exhibits (now the museum has "Rock Stars, Cars and Guitars"), while Greenfield Village was designed to show what the United States that Henry Ford grew up in would have had. Henry Ford had places of important significance brought to the grounds, i.e. the Wright Bros. shop where they built their plane; Edison's lab where he experimented with electricity, etc. They are both very cool places to visit if you ever find yourself in MI. I love both places as much as I did when I was a kid, and it is now cool to see my niece and nephew Monsters S and A enjoy the exhibits.
• The Sunday I was in town happened to be the weekend of my church's college grad mass, which I attended with best friend L, since she is the planner behind it all. It was interesting to think that I was standing in front of the community just a year ago, having just graduated. How much changes in a year! After Mass we had a picnic in Royal Oak: A1 and M and monster niece S and monster nephew A, my Mom, my bro A3, best friend K and J, best friend L and K and their two girls L and A, Chris and Katie, Julie and her two kids, and A1's friends: Grandma Grace, Marta, Anna, Victoria and Ella. It was great to let the kids play so we could all chat, but it was cold--what the heck it's May!!
• Had dinner Sunday night with Kim and Jesse and Camille. Nice catching up and grabbing a beer at the WAB in Ferndale, though their food really does suck. At least the Raspberry beer was good!
• Monday hung out with best friend L and K before K drove me to the airport.

All in all my time home was good, albeit very busy, something I hope to rememdy when I go home in August. Less running around, more sitting and visiting in one place. But...that is never the case. It is nice to be loved and have so many people want to see me, but it's tiring too...a good dilemma to have though, no.

In the spirit of all things l-o-v-e, here is the reading I did at Stac and Jay's wedding (so glad she let me pick first!):

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

~ 1 Corrinthians 13:1-7

And below is a picture of my dear heart, monster nephew A's, "flowers," which he picked while we were picnicing. I love the kids.

shout out to my homies

Welcome goes out to Kimberly, a new MMFL blog follower!

awake--check, watching a movie--check, packed...ummm...

It is nearly 11:30pm. I am leaving for the airport--to fly to MI--at 4am. These are all the things I haven't done yet:

• Packed
• Cleaned Mummy Dearests' (and Hubby's) house where I have been staying all week while they were on vacation. It's not really dirty...just need to gather and take home my crap.
• Wash a load of laundry (which would include the clothes that I am still wearing and the clothes that I need to PACK!)
• Check in with Farmer MacDonald to make sure he is still driving me to the airport at 4am. Well...guess I will just expect to see him since it's too late to go check with him.

I am looking forward to the time away from community, to get some perspective and take some time for myself. I am going to my friend Stac's (and Jay's) wedding on Friday. As a singleton I always feel on the outskirts of some secret society when I go to weddings. I have a sneaky suscpicion that one of these days I may actually be in a committed relationship and all the non-singletons will teach me the secret-you're-gonna-get-married-handshake. Until that point I stumble on and am both awed and frightened by the thought of marriage. I think the idea of promising that you will spend the rest of your life with someone is amazing. But the thought of spending the rest of your life with only one person is scary as hell.

Whenever I think of weddings and have to actually go to a wedding, I always think of one of my favorite comedies, Four Weddings and a Funeral (which I know I have quoted on my blog before). It is such a funny and honest way of looking at relationships and marriage and reminds me a little of some of my friends.

Found this quote from the movie and cracked up reading it, hoping that the best man's speech may be half as entertaining as this:

Charles: "Ladies and gentlemen, l'm sorry to drag you from your desserts. There are just one or two little things I feel I should say, as best man. This is only the second time l've been a best man. I hope I did OK that time. The couple in question are at least still talking to me. Unfortunately, they're not actually talking to each other. The divorce came through a couple of months ago. But l'm assured it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Paula knew Piers had slept with her sister before I mentioned it in the speech. The fact that he'd slept with her mother came as a surprise, but I think was incidental to the nightmare of recrimination and violence that became their two-day marriage. Anyway, enough of that. My job today is to talk about Angus. There are no skeletons in his cupboard. Or so I thought. I'll come on to that in a minute. I would just like to say this. I am, as ever, in bewildered awe of anyone who makes this kind of commitment that Angus and Laura have made today. I know I couldn't do it and I think it's wonderful they can. So, back to Angus and those sheep..." (Four Weddings and a Funeral)

Outside of that, the weekend will be spent hanging with my family and friends. I am looking forward to it, and just hope that I catch up a little on my zzz's while I am home. I sometimes pack too much activity into my time at home and come back exhausted. Well, without further ado, I should sally forth and pack, etc.

Thinking of traveling reminded me of this poem which I was introduced to during my undergrad and which I have LOVED ever since! Enjoy!

Land lies in water; it is shadowed green.
Shadows, or are they shallows, at its edges
showing the line of long sea-weeded ledges
where weeds hang to the simple blue from green.
Or does the land lean down to lift the sea from under,
drawing it unperturbed around itself?
Along the fine tan sandy shelf
is the land tugging at the sea from under?

The shadow of Newfoundland lies flat and still.
Labrador's yellow, where the moony Eskimohas oiled it.
We can stroke these lovely bays,
under a glass as if they were expected to blossom,
or as if to provide a clean cage for invisible fish.
The names of seashore towns run out to sea,
the names of cities cross the neighboring mountains-
the printer here experiencing the same excitementas when emotion too far exceeds its cause.
These peninsulas take the water between thumb and finger
like women feeling for the smoothness of yard-goods.

Mapped waters are more quiet than the land is,
lending the land their waves' own conformation:
and Norway's hare runs south in agitation,
profiles investigate the sea, where land is.
Are they assigned, or can the countries pick their colors?-
What suits the character or the native waters best.
Topography displays no favorites; North's as near as West.
More delicate than the historians' are the map-makers' colors.

"The Map," Elizabeth Bishop

P.S. Speaking of land...I went to check on and water my seedlings...parsley has sprung up over the past two days. Now waiting (im)patiently for the other seedlings to sprout. Good thing I will be in Michigan this weekend and unable to watch them...something about a watched pot never boiling...hmmm... ;)

my bovine ilk

The cow is of the bovine ilk;

One end is moo, the other, milk.

"The Cow," Ogden Nash

I picked up some of my old habits when I returned to the Farm, one of them being my Monday afternoon milking shift down in the Dairy Barn. After several weeks working alongside Farmer MacDonald I am back to milking by myself (for the most part--with an occasional helping hand with a particularly sassy cow).

So, in the spirit of cataloging all things Farm, I thought I would share some information on milking and also one days milking stats. We are currently only milking 9 of our dairy cows, and yet that produces enough milk to provide our Farm community (of about 100 people) with milk (skim and whole), cream, cheddar cheese (mmm...so good!) and cheese curd. (We also sell our cheese to the public).

Most people have that very Hollywood-city slickers-meets-Laura Ingalls Wilder mental picture of milking cows. No, dear readers, we don't sit on stools, rhythmically squeezing milk from the udders for hours on end. We use a more modern (though not state of the art) system of milking.

• In the warmer weather the cows need to be brought in from the pasture across the street. This can be interesting if any of the old girls is feeling feisty. Usually they are ready to be milked and cross right into the pasture which leads into the Dairy Barn.
• First thing is to feed the cows grain and nutrient supplements.
• After putting together the milking equipment (udder wash bucket, milk collecting cans, measuring pail) the pumps are turned on.
• Before milking each cow all the teats must be washed and dried and then each checked for infection or somatic buildup. This is done by squeezing out milk from each teat and checking it for discoloration or chunked milk.
• After the cow is checked and all is clear, the teats are connected to the "spider": fingerlike pumps which cover each teat and pump the milk through a tube into the collecting can. (Bigger dairy farms have the milk go straight from the cow to the holding milk tank--we're not quite there yet.)
• When each cow is finished the "spider is unhooked from that cow and the milk gathered is weighed and poured into the holding tank.
• Since the weather is so nice now we turn the cows back out into the pasture for the night.
• And just like in the Kitchen, the last thing we do before calling it a night is do the milking dishes.

Milking this number of cows usually takes me about an hour and a half to an hour and forty minutes...not too bad...and I like spending the time with the cows.

It's funny how smells grow on you and become, like a memory, an association of things familiar. Whenever I smell cows I think of the Farm and the longing desire to be in the country, away from traffic and congested cities and the stink that is the belching of industry. I think it is funny that people are offended by the animal smells on a farm. I am more offended by the smells of the city.

Our cows and the the pounds of milk which they produced this Monday (milk produced by each cow varies each day) ran as such:

Josephine: 19lbs (a.m.) 14 lbs (p.m.) Total: 33lbs
Bobbie 33lbs (a.m.) 14lbs (p.m.) Total: 47lbs
Sasha: 26 lbs (a.m.) 22lbs (p.m.) Total: 48lbs
Sushi: 33lbs (a.m.) 25lbs (p.m.) Total: 58lbs
Beasley: 29lbs (a.m.) 23lbs (p.m.) Total: 52lbs
Sylvia: 30lbs (a.m.) 21lbs (p.m.) Total: 51lbs
Jasmine: 44lbs (a.m.) 38lbs (p.m.) Total: 82lbs
Emily: 30lbs (a.m.) 24lbs (p.m.) Total: 54lbs
Stella: 24lbs (a.m.) 18lbs (p.m.) Total: 42lbs

Cory, Asha and Theresa are nurse cows for the calves.

something...maybe?

Got an email from the town library--where I have recently applied (for an Intermitten Sub position)--to set up an interview. Librarian M wanted me to have an interview this weekend, but I will be back in Michigan for my friend Stac's (and Jay's) wedding. I tried to set up an interview for next weekend when I am back, but then the Librarian will be on vacay. Apparently we are going to play a little email tag until we can pick a date. Librarian M (at Town Library) said that there is no rush as the budget for this position might not even kick in until July 1st. That is good.

Getting this email was very encouraging. I have been thinking about library life a lot lately. Thinking of what I would be doing back in Library Land; preparing for Summer Reading, getting into that last-minute-what-needs-to-be-done-mode, as school winds down and parents and kids prepare to rush into the library, like waves onto a shore. It is not that I regret my decision to leave library life for farming, it is just that I miss it a little. Hopefully something will come along by way of a part-time or sub something or other position. It will be good for me to stay current in library trends, and also good for me to get off the Farm more too. Sometimes community is an intense place to work AND live.

the relation between man and vegetable

These pictures show Week 2 of my seeds. If you look closely you can see the first green shoots of life bursting through the soil--mostly from my shasta daisies.

I am looking forward to Memorial weekend and planting; giving the land control of what I puppeteer indoors in planting plastic. I will stay my hands and water pitcher and allow Mother Nature to make sure there is enough water and sunlight.

Lately I only think in poetry (I wish I could only speak in poetry too, instead of blathering through daily conversation), so I turned to Emerson for what I could not eloquently put into words.

"The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

growing out doors

"I am enamour'd of growing out-doors,

Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods,

Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes and

mauls, and the drivers of horses,

I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out. "

~ Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

Can I use the same quote two blogs in a row? I just did. I love it so much...and it reminded me to put up pictures of my seeds which I started and which soon will help me do what I love, as Whitman put it, "growing out-doors." In true Farm fashion...I used old empty flats and a strawberry plastic container to plant some of my seeds: Shasta Daisies, Red Peppers, Parsley and Delphiniums. I will also be planting Columbines, Cosmos, Detroit Beets and Green Onions, but those things can wait until ground planting time. TSO and I will be sharing a garden plot. I AM SO EXCITED!!

WEEK 1:

of men that live among cattle

"I am enamour'd of growing out-doors,
Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods,
Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes and
mauls, and the drivers of horses,
I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out. "
~ Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

Pam asked me to blog a little more about the Farm where I work, but I am not really sure where to begin, so I guess I will blog about some of the things here that make us unique.

First, our Farm's history:

In the nineteen-teens, the founders of the Farm borrowed $1,000 and made a down payment on a farm in western Massachusetts. Eight people arrived with the founders and quickly discovered that there was a great deal of work to be done at the Farm to make it a livable place. The work and tasks were shared by everyone; others soon appeared, offering their labor in exchange for respite from their own trials and tribulations. (Back in the early days of the Farm there was no distinction between mentally ill persons or social outcasts as they were also thought of then--today we call these persons, "guests.")

Today, the Farm combines clinical practices with valued work and community life, but the original Farm vision remains intact; the Farm maintains a philosophy of believing that every person has something valuable to contribute to the community, regardless of the mental or emotional limitations they may face.

The way that we combine clinical needs of the guests with work and community life is by being a work therapy program, which in this field is rare. Guests come to the Farm with the expectation that aside from having their mental health taken care of (through meetings with Therapists/Social Workers/Medical staff who coordinate meds and therapy, etc.) they will take part in a work program. Work program is vital in the sense that we help the guests learn life skills: managing their illnesses and being able to hold a job, learning skills in specific fields (farming, kitchen, restaurant work, etc.) and also learning to not be isolated in their disease. (The client base we serve covers schizophrenia, schizo-effective disorder, bi-polar disorder and depression.)

The farm is unique too in that it is the first mental health program of its kind in the U.S. But the Farm is also unique in that not only do our guests live in residences here, but the majority of staff and their families do too, making it a true community. Staff and volunteers make a small income here, but what we reap is the benefits of community: 3 meals a day (as well as a stocked kitchen to do your shopping in); fresh vegetables from May-October/November from our own gardens; livestock which provides us with beef, pork, (turkey for Thanksgiving), eggs, milk and cheese; as well as a beautiful landscape: proximity to the Appalachian Trail, many locals trails on and off farm (the Farm has 18 hiking trails), and the ability to get to so many cultural events in this culturally stimulated county we live in.

So, I guess that's a start!

Here is a pic of one of my favorite Farm trees. Enjoy Spring all!

the Mexican Avenue bus

Watching Desk Set. I love this movie--it is so dated, but I still love it.

This clip makes me crack up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvuWT5dgpAQ&feature=player_embedded

I'm not avoiding you!

I feel like I never have the energy to sit down and write about Farm life lately (and I too have been avoiding my journal). The blog ignoring part comes partially from the fact that I don't have internet at home and partially because I have been feeling a little stressed out lately for a multitude of reasons.

My best friend Mummy Dearest wrote on Life in Avalon,

"Where we live is most peoples' idea of escape: on a Farm in the hills, quiet and low-stim. But what we do, which is to work with people recovering from severe mental illness, is far from slow-paced and bucolic. Daily I work with people in despair, hopeful for recovery, but often finding themselves taking one step forwards and two steps backwards. The work is rendering on a daily basis, often challneging me in ways I am unaware of."

While she was speaking of stress in her life from different reasons, I thought it was a great way to explain a bit of our life here and the constant push and pull we feel at work. Work that I still love. Never fear dear readers, I am still loving my job and life in our sleepy little town, I just need to get outside more, walk of the stress and make sure that I am communicating as effectively as I can.

Per Pam's request, I will be writing more in the next couple weeks to come (I will be house sitting for Mummy and sucking up all the internet time I can!!) and a lot of it will hopefully explain the farm more!!

Oh, on the Library job front: sent a resume to Small Town's Director for the Intermittent Sub position that was posted recently...we shall see.