A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals: Our tree and the upcoming solstice

Monday, December 20, 2010

Our tree and the upcoming solstice

One of the best things about winter in Maine is the clear cold sky we get much of the time, mostly in January and February, but also in December sometimes. The Canadian high pressure systems that dominate our weather about half the time may bring cold, but they also bring clear, deep blue skies and abundant sunshine.

Yesterday and the day before were like that. It was the weekend after Final Exams at college and we had grading, but Aimee also wanted to visit her beech tree study plots out in the woods behind the house, while I wanted to get our Christmas tree.

This meant that Mary-dog and Haggis both got a good walk with Aimee, while Haggis got two, because he came, as he always does, with me to find the tree.

The annual Womerlippi Christmas tree is an occasion for ritual. It always follows the same ten important steps:

The husband announces he's off to get the tree.
The wife groans and complains "not again!"
The husband must then say "Only a little one."
The husband then takes Haggis the dog out, with a saw or some other tool, disappears into the deep forest for a very long time, where he finds a suitable tree, cuts it, and drags it into the garage to trim. The tree must be malformed, lopsided, and at least two feet longer than the ceiling height of the house.
The tree, suitably trimmed, covered in snow and dead leaves, is erected in the house. The top must be bent over by the ceiling. The wife must look at it and shake her head theatrically. The husband drags the tree back out, trims enough off the base to make it fit, and brings it back in.
Now the tree is really deformed.
The husband must now be unable to find the ornaments, even though he put them away last year. Then ensues the ritual 'hunt for the ornament box."
Finding the ornaments and lights, the husband trims the tree.
The husband lights the tree and stands back, rapt, to admire his handiwork.
The wife inspects the husband's handiwork, and smiles just a little tiny bit.

This important ritual, apart from the Removal of the Tree procedure scheduled for Twelfth Night, is now complete for another year.

This year I failed utterly to complete the ritual as it should have been done. The tree was not big enough. It fit in the room the first time!

Better luck next year.

In other important news, the winter solstice occurs tomorrow around 7pm Maine time.

It's always a good feeling, when you live in a northern place, to see the days begin to get longer again. The coldest weather is still to come, but the sunshine and blue skies we begin to get more and more after the solstice make up for the colder temperatures.

5 comments:

Deanna StopplerDecember 20, 2010 at 3:10 AM
That is too funny! It's a cute little tree.
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MickDecember 20, 2010 at 3:13 AM
What are you doing up so early? I thought it was only grumpy old fellas like me that were online at this odd hour.
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Little Sis in CardiffDecember 20, 2010 at 11:19 AM
You forgot.....

The lights don't work. Take out each and every bulb and replace with a spare bulb. Eventually find the dud one - usually the second last in the string. Hang lights. Lights fall down (or tree does!!).

Cat tries to play with decorations. Tree falls down (again)

Dog attacks any pressies accidentally left under the tree

Any more????!!!!
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AnonymousDecember 20, 2010 at 11:23 AM
You forgot.....

Lights do not work. Replace each and every bulb with spare. Find the dud one - usually the second last in the string. Hang lights on tree. Lights fall down (or tree does)

Cat starts to play with decorations - tree falls down (again)

Dog attacks pressies accidentally left under tree

Any more???!!!!
ReplyDelete
Replies
Deanna StopplerDecember 23, 2010 at 3:03 AM
Hey Mick,

I am a morning runner and the earlier I rise the more miles I can put in. Plus, I love getting up early! Just me and the dog and a hot cup of coffee.
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Add 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