Cindy was on the phone trying to get directions to a new source of feeder pigs.
Cindy: We’ll be coming from up around Sweetwater. (The pig farmer was around Cleveland, TN.)
Farmer: OK. Turn on the road that takes you to Dalton, GA.
Cindy: You mean Dalton Pike? (What he had left out at this point in his instructions: take I-75 south 30 miles to the second Cleveland exit. Turn left on 64 and follow about 5-6 miles until you see the signs for Dalton Pike. Turn left. Fortunately, we had both been in that area a number of times over the years.)
Farmer: Yep.
Cindy: OK. How far down Dalton Pike?
Farmer: A bit. Y’all want to turn near the old school they tore down. (Hmm, a bit problematic for guests from out of town.)
Cindy: Helpfully, “Any other landmarks?”
Farmer: There is a big golf course where you need to turn. (Bingo!)
Cindy: What road should we look for…?
Farmer: The new road.
Cindy: OK. We take the new road next to the Golf Course. What next?
Farmer: Turn right at the first stop sign. Go past the old dairy barn and look for my road on the left. I’m the last house on the left.
Cindy: How far down is the old dairy barn? (This area of the state is littered with barns old and new.)
Farmer: A fair bit.
Cindy: About how many miles is the old barn?
Farmer: Oh, a few.
Cindy: (Giving up on this line on inquiry.) What is the name of your road?
Farmer: Green Valley.
As it turned out we found his farm with no problems. And, the new road was conveniently named New Road.
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Reading this weekend: Uncivilization: the dark mountain manifesto by Paul Kingsnorth. A short arts based critique of any technological solutions, in part, to our current dilemmas.
It has been a busy week getting the garden in for the summer, moving the cattle and sheep to new pastures and having an early season dinner in the backyard. So, time for one from the archives.
This Farm Note from the archives was written in April 2009. This is before I began to regularly post on the blog. The Farm Notes began in 1999 and were shared for those years with a group of friends and family. Over the coming year I will post periodically from those archived Notes.
Chuckle. Know these instructions well — “Where the old Pratt place was — where the old mill was — where the Gwyn place burned down,” etc.
Yep, all guilty of assuming shared knowledge, eh? Hope all is well.
Brian