Most enjoyable or interesting books read:
- The Epistles of Horace (Horace)
- A Short Walk in Hindu Kush (E. Newby)
- Memories of Gascony (P. Koffman)
- Social History of Bourbon (G. Carson)
- True Grit (C. Portis)
- King’s Day (T. E. Porter)
- Burden of Southern History (C. V. Woodward)
- Complete (3 volumes) Calvin and Hobbes (Waterson)
- One Man’s Meat (E. B. White)
- The Last Farmer (H. Kohn)
2023 readings
It is the wind: Discovered evidence of a tornado down Ross. Rd, Stockton Valley, and Pond Creek. Dozens of shattered and splintered trees in a miles long path. Nothing reported by weather service.
Timing: Anxious to check on Ginger this morning, due to farrow. And…farrowed!
Farewell to a pet: January 30th. Chip is in in final stages of kidney failure. 19, which is quite old for an outdoor cat…. Chip died at 11 am, buried him in the garden.
Connections: Thinking about when we only had three news stations. There seemed to be much more common purpose. Less is more.
Over-sowing pastures: Rye, red and white clover, 7-top turnip sown in three sheep pastures.
The cold: 3-15-23. This is one of the coldest days in March (23 degrees). Although it doesn’t compare with April 7th, 2007 when the temps dropped to 18 degrees. 95% of the Tennessee apple crop was destroyed.
The cold, revisited: 3-19-23, 19 degrees at 7am.
Achieving the proper life balance: 3-30-23. Highs in the upper 70’s. Sitting on the back deck smoking a cigar, sipping an Old Fashioned.
Off the farm: Drove out to Overhill nursery. Cindy picked up some bog plants for the pond. Took a lovely drive over the mountain to Tellico Plains for lunch at the bakery.
Sheep: Picked up some Dorset-Hamp crosses. If we can keep them alive, they will mark a change in the direction of our flock. Larger and meatier.
Publisher: 6-25-23. Turned final manuscript into publisher.
Dorper ram: Butchered on the farm, (June 29th) the Dorper ram. 14 for dinner on July 2nd. Smoked the ram for 8 hours in the China box. Expected high of 96 was cooled down by t-storm to 72 degrees. Dined on front porch.
Chanterelles: July 5th, two pounds harvested.
A Good Daily Harvest: July 19th. 1.5 bushels of Golden Delicious, 50 pounds of potatoes, sweet corn, and collards to the kitchen. Fed three tubs of “old” greens to hogs.
It is the wind, again: August 7th. Wind storm. Power out for 24 hours. Neighbors were without for 48. Trees down everywhere. We lost 2 dozen oaks across the farm. Many were snapped off. Tornado? Spent August 8th with chainsaw removing the largest that had fallen across the drive.
August 15th: 5.25 inches of rain. (note: this was the last until late November)
Hog news: High in 90’s, no rain. Ginger is not bred. So, bought barrows from Mike and Sabine to feed out for customers.
Paying the idiot tax: Tractor wouldn’t start. Couldn’t quickly find the problem. In the middle of haying. No time. So, paid an “expert” to trouble shoot. Corroded battery cables. $320. What a chump.
Hog news: Small boar brought in to breed Ginger. He is intimidated and runs away from her. We may have to get him lifts if he is to do the job.
Politics: Democracy is increasingly a chance to play a role as an extra in a play written, directed, and acted by others.
Book news: October 1st. The book is finally published. Feeling ridiculously pleased with the effort.
Cooking schedule for the coming week: October 3rd. Chicken and dumplings, seafood gumbo, beans and cornbread, pork dish with greens, pasta carbonara.
Three rules for a good day: Express gratitude. Work well. Don’t buy anything unneeded.
Women and Men, the real differences: Cindy spent most of the morning doing laundry and the afternoon working on a new table in the workshop. I skipped farm work. And went out and had a burger and a couple of beers with Tim, followed by a long nap. Cindy fixed dinner.
Resilience: How resilient is our farm? It is a question that can’t be answered until the reasons for asking it becomes “active”.
Weather: Hard freeze expected (October 31st).
New Year’s Eve: Nasty cold. 25 meat birds to butcher. Ginger (three failed breedings) to finally be hauled to slaughter on January 4th. Happy New Year.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
Reading this weekend: A Bookseller’s Tale (M. Latham), a marvelous work about why we read. How to Focus, a monastic guide for an age of distraction (J. Cassian). This last is another of the Princeton reprints of classics, each given a modern title.
