A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals: Who are all these people? and stress in our lives.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Who are all these people? and stress in our lives.

I added a blog feature (see left) that allows me to see not only how many readers I've had in the last 24 hours, but where they're from.

What a surprise to see how many readers there are from all over the US and even the world! Here's a somewhat random sample, just the most recent 24 hour clip:

Location Time
Morrill, ME, United States Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:13:42 -0500
Central District, Hong Kong Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:43:26 -0500
Palmerston North, New Zealand Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:08:58 -0500
Dixmont, ME, United States Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:09:23 -0500
Biddeford, ME, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:31:40 -0500
Vancouver, BC, Canada Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:49:53 -0500
Paducah, KY, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:26:20 -0500
San Antonio, TX, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:12:18 -0500
Monrovia, CA, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:01:13 -0500
South Portland, ME, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:44:28 -0500
Casselberry, FL, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:56:30 -0500
Harrisonburg, VA, United States Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:53:41 -0500

Harrisonburg is easy. That's my father-in-law, Aimee's dad, Dick. Hi Dad.

Someone from Morrill, close by, checks in almost every day. Hi! Nice to "meet" you.

The rest of you are presumably random visitors, although a minority might be regulars. I would have to analyze the results every day to find out, which I'm not likely to do.

But I am surprised to see how many folks, from all over the planet, check in to see what, if anything has been happening on a small farmstead in the Maine forest.

I hope you find something worthwhile.

As for what is happening on this small farm, the answer is not much. We're already tired from teaching. Aimee was particularly exhausted yesterday. A couple months ago, in midsummer, in a fit of "leading from the front," she assigned herself (she's her own boss, now, as Director of the Center for Biodiversity) to teach Cell Biology, a class for which she is only marginally qualified to teach. As an evolutionary ecologist, Aimee works mostly with whole animals, their DNA, and the environment they live in, not their cellular structure and function.

The upshot is, not only does she have to work her butt off just to stay a page ahead of the students, but she also has to prepare laboratory experiments in a field in which she has barely ever worked. That and her Director duties have her close to the end of her tether. It doesn't help that she cannot ever do anything half-way. She just isn't built that way.

But she is setting a good example, making sure the quality of teaching is good (better than it would be with a random adjunct hire -- the other option), and saving the college money.

Still, it's definitely a bit OTT and we had a conversation yesterday about what we could do to cope while she gets done with the class.

As for me, I am just plugging away with students at our barn project, which goes well, and doing my best to stay ahead of my other classes, while almost all my research and service work is on hold. I'm not at the end of my tether, but I have very little extra time in my day and am usually content to get done with my work, come home, do the farm chores, check on the animals health, and collapse on the couch with a plate of dinner to watch the BBC news, a detective show, Jon Stewart, and go to bed.

Couch spud.

All of my former idealism about how bad TV is for people is out of the window. For years, roughly from leaving my parent's home in 1978 to late 1996, I never even owned one. For years after that I just watched video movies on weekends. These days, I still only watch about two hours a day, but it helps me relax. If I had to do a hobby or read a book, or even make conversation with my lovely wifie, in those two hours, I wouldn't get to the totally passive, absolute wet rag state that I achieve before bed and all the poison stress would invade my sleep, resulting in a downward spiral.

Corticosteroid, I believe, especially cortisol, are the chemicals the body produces under stress. I am long familiar with high stress in the workplace, and I believe these days I can tell when my body is under the sway of additional cortisol. I can also tell when I have successfully bled most of it away.

That happens around 8.30 pm most nights when I turn the thing off, usually after having watched Jon Stewart's "moments of Zen" on our DVR, and stumble outside to taste the air, look at the stars, and walk the dogs.

I also find blogging relaxing, which I suppose takes me back to my original thought about who the audience is for this here farm blog.

Having an audience is nice. I'm glad I'm not writing to myself all the time.

(Although I suppose I am in some ways, since this is a journal or diary of sorts.)

But don't expect great thoughts or great writing this fall, or you'll be disappointed. We will be in a kind of survival/shut-down mode until the college vacations arrive.

Luckily the first of those comes soon, the President's Day holiday, for which we have a four-day weekend.

Amen.

Let's hope Aimee uses it to get some rest. I'll try to make sure, but as Dick knows well, she's impressively stubborn and doesn't always do what is good for herself.

6.05 am. The day just began. Aimee got up to take her shower and I must eat my breakfast and also get ready. Another day on the line.

Wish us well. We could use it.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.

After getting tired of spam comments (up to a dozen or more per day), I required commentators to be Google "registered users". You can write me at mwomersley@unity.edu if you have a serious comment or question and are not a registered user.

Spammers -- don't bother writing -- there's no way I will post your spam to my blog. Just go away.

The Farm

The "Womerlippi Farm" is actually a homestead or smallholding where most of the food is grown for our own consumption and that of our friends and family. We raise Corriedale/Romney-cross sheep, feeder pigs in season, and Golden Comet, Aruacuna, Black Laced Wyandotte, Brahma, and Buff Orpington hens. We have wooded pasture, old apple trees, and a large kitchen garden. We build and maintain our own energy-efficient buildings, service and fix our own vehicles and farm equipment, and generally live a thoroughly self-reliant lifestyle. Our farm goals are less economic and more psychological/spiritual and lifestyle oriented. We like an independent, quiet home life with a lot of interaction with animals and the earth. Farming, building and energy-related engineering were also part of our education work at the former Unity College. Having said all that, we're practical people and grow a lot of pretty solid food and fiber. We're also happy to sell you some eggs or yarn or lambs.

PS: "Womerlippi" is a combination of our last names, "Womersley" and "Phillippi." The one is broad Yorkshire, the other Greek, although Aimee's ancestry and home culture is Pennsylvania Dutch/Shenandoah Valley Church of the Brethren. When Aimee and I married, she didn't take my name. She said she "wasn't trading up."

Why is this "A Great Farm Diary?"

Because the setting for the events recorded here is the "Great Farm" of Jackson, Maine, that's why. (Not because this is such a great farm, although we like it.)

Started by privateer and financier Israel Thorndike in 1806 as a vacation home, the famous Great Farm of Jackson was an agricultural showcase for this area of Maine, and Thorndike used it as such, an advertisement for his private land office business, as he disposed of the famous Waldo Patent, in which he was a part owner. Land purchasers could work off their mortgages as laborers on the Great Farm. Most deeds in Waldo County trace back to Israel Thorndike.

Thorndike, born to a family of modest means, went to sea to make his fortune. He captained a privateering vessel during the Revolutionary War, and tweaked the nose of the great Royal Navy more than once. He then settled to a life as a financier, merchant, and captain of industry in Boston. He remains listed as one of the fifty richest Americans of all time. He was the author, with Eldridge Gerry, of the first recorded gerrymander, and so his name went down in history for that peculiarly undemocratic deed too.

He was, in short, a rich, arrogant, unrequited arse, whose primary redeeming feature was impressive ambition. If you are such a person, you should feel ashamed. My work in academia has introduced me to many such wealthy people, and frankly, I'm tired of them. The world doesn't revolve around you and your silly ideas of what is important. Grow up.

Our own much smaller farm sits on a few acres of the original 2,000 that Thorndike developed as an agricultural showcase. As he was a famous Federalist, while Aimee and I are obvious neo-Jeffersonians, of sorts, I doubt he'd be pleased with what we've done with the place. But we don't give a rat's wotsit. As I said, we like it this way.

Read the very last posts in the archive for more details, or use search terms like Israel Thorndike or "Great Farm history" in the Google Blogger search engine (above, on the left).

How this Diary is Arranged:

From Mick:

The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive below, click on the link provided, and read backwards from there to get it all in chronological order.

To find out what is happening right now, read the first post first.

Other blogs by Mick: UC SAR, UC Sustainability, Farm Diary

Enjoy.

Farm Produce

Purchasing Womerlippi Farm produce in season can be done by email arrangement, and/or by shopping at the Marsh River Coop in Brooks.

We sell yarn, fleece, lamb, and livestock for meat or breeding.

The yarn is Bartlett Yarn's 4-ply, a medium-thick yarn, in natural gray and brown, as well as natural dyes. It is soft and bulky, and makes nice old-fashioned knitwear. You can buy it for $7.50 a skein by emailing womersleymick8984@gmail.com. We ship priority mail, minimum four skeins at a time. The shipping is extra. We also have raw white and brown (natural colored) fleece in large quantities each spring, unwashed, untreated. Email us at mwomersley@unity.edu and name your price. Expect to pay shipping or pick up in person. Coming to the farm itself without prior appointment is not recommended. We have a child. We also have a dog who bites. We like that he bites, because we have a child we want to protect. If you come unexpectedly to the farm, stay behind any temporary hot-wire gate or fence, or park in the driveway, until someone comes. We'll know you're there because the dog will tell us. Loudly. Annoyingly. They will wake us or our kid, if we are asleep. We will be mad about this.

If no-one comes, we're not home. Go Away.

If you are yet more foolish and try to get out of your car and/or cross a gate or fence, expect to get bitten by a shepherd dog, rammed by a ram, or chewed out by a shepherd.

A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals