If you’re like me, you’ve been glued to the news of Ukraine for the last 10 days. We all know wars are great for news station ratings. And undoubtedly each of us reads or listens to that news through the… Read More ›
Archives
AgriCulture: One Degree
The farm feels like the world in microcosm. The world has Vladimir Putin. The barn has a half-castrated ram (the result of poor testicle-banding on my part) who I’ve now named Vlad. In general it is inadvisable to name animals… Read More ›
AgriCulture: Show Me the Door
I hear the sound: Puh-puh-puh-BAM! Then, silence. Still, like a child that’s been caught in the act, before it starts again. Puh-puh-puh-rustle-rustle. “Helllloooo,” I yell down to the kitchen from my upstairs office, secretly hoping someone is just visiting. Bringing… Read More ›
AgriCulture: Just Encased
If you live near here, you’ve been encased in ice for the last day or so. A quarter inch of it wrapped around every surface, everything glimmering. There is a brittle beauty to the ice-encrusted landscape. The pasture is paved… Read More ›
AgriCulture: What, Me Retire?
All this week I’ve been appreciating my farm chores as welcome breaks from the stresses of my day job. As a lawyer, I often represent people with serious illness whose insurers are denying them access to treatments. This week I… Read More ›
AgriCulture: Warm Bedfellows and Other Sources of Heat
Do you “spoon” when you sleep with a spouse or bed partner? Outside, the shutters may be banging against the house in the stiff western wind; the windows encased in white frost; the wind chill at minus 20. But inside,… Read More ›
AgriCulture: The Push and the Pull
There is nothing linear about life, history or society. Nope, it’s all push and pull, fits and starts, up and down, step forward and step back. Former President Obama used to quote Martin Luther King Jr. to the effect that… Read More ›
AgriCulture: Away and Happily Home
On the rare occasion that I ever leave the farm for more than a day, my recurring fear is that something will happen that can’t be handled by whomever I’ve entrusted with its care, requiring me to abort my trip… Read More ›
AgriCulture: What Sheep Trolley Problem?
Last week after I pondered culling my two oldest ewes for the benefit of the rest of the flock, my friend Steve excitedly texted: “I love the sheep trolley problem…. But it doesn’t mean as much if you don’t really… Read More ›
AgriCulture: Stop the World, I Want to Get Off
On a cool but sunny late November day, I enjoy observing my flock of sheep dotting the pasture. On the whole, they look sleek, fat and healthy. But the two senior ewes, Nilufer (13 years old) and the unnamed number… Read More ›