A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals: Fall, soon.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Fall, soon.

It's a quiet Sunday morning here in Maine, where the fall climate is just starting to kick in, and very welcome it is too, after a long humid, hot summer. Here the sheep are enjoying apple 'drops" from the Macintosh-type apple tree in our dooryard. I say Macintosh-type because that's what they look like, but we don't really know, the tree being perhaps 100 years old. The apples are big and red this year, and they make the sheep very happy.

Last night I went out to walk the dogs and was surprised by how cold it was. Although I couldn't see Orion yet, the stars were bright and the Milky Way clearly visible. I didn't see any Perseids, but the night before I saw three! And the nice cool night! Probably it was only around 50 F, but that's definitely chilly when for several weeks now it hasn't dropped below 60.

I'm looking forward to First Frost. After that it gets much easier to do yard, garden and sheep work, because the bugs are then long gone and the humidity drops away. Snow will be here soon enough, and there's plenty to do to get ready, so I wouldn't be upset if we had an early frost. We're starting to get tomatoes, so that's the main worry -- a frost before we get tomatoes -- over and done with.

Our average First Frost is August 27th, but we've seen one as early as August 22nd.

Our barn cleanings were steaming in the cool weather yesterday morning, while the garden has the distinct look of early fall, with the onion tops already fallen over and the potato vines dying back.

While the extension project continues apace, now we've gotten in a supply of new materials for me to work with.

We'll need to take a brief hiatus from drywalling today to get some plumbing done. The pipes need to be rerouted, since I plan to get our on-demand hot water heater out of the basement and into the extension today if I can. Some of the pipes need to go under some drywall, and then we'll need a partial plumbing inspection, before we go back and finish up the drywall.

This heater will last several years longer, I'm sure, if I get it out of the damp basement and into the new "laundry room."

This space, about four by seven feet, carved out of the new bathroom, is really a laundry closet, not a room. We got the idea from Aimee;s mum and dad's home, which has such a closet. It will have louver doors and shelves for towels and wotnot. It also has an exterior wall very suitable for the vent/air intake to the propane fired hot water heater. Not only will the unit last longer, but we'll also solve the problem of the snow covering the vent. Last winter I had to "suit up" in my insulated coveralls, go out back and shovel the snow away on several occasions, all before my morning shower.

Not very sensible.

I guess I'd better get on with it, then.

Wittering away on the Internet is not very productive, especially when the weather is cool and dry enough to get a lot of work done today..

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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