FAQ

Q: Where is the owner of this blog? Is Amey still alive?
A: Yes, I'm still alive, just been too busy to do much writing.

Q: Is there any hope that we will hear from you soon?
A: Yes, in fact I am working on a series to post hopefully in the not too distant future. Can't you just sense the anticipation building?

Q: What season is it there on your little farm?
A: Well, there are 5 basic seasons on a farm: spring, summer, fall, winter, and mud. This week it was mud. I think we're gearing up for a little more winter now. I have read that in the Inuit language they have a zillion different words for snow. It is my opinion that we should have a zillion different words in our language for mud. What's the word for partially-frozen "crispy" mud? I really like that kind. It doesn't suck the boots off your feet, yet it is also not completely frozen solid to where you're slipping and sliding all over the place. Plus it has a unique feeling when you step on it. Kind of like walking on glass, only not so dangerous.

Q: So what have you been reading lately?
A: The most recent issues from Mother Earth News and Wise Traditions, as well as Children of the New Forest (a school book). Not to mention the seed catalog (I like Baker Creek Heirlooms) and various interesting articles on the web.

Q: What do you make of the political scene these days?
A: What's up with John McCain? I can't believe people are voting for this guy. If only Giuliani were still in the race, that would split the vote and lower McCain's delegate count. I still like Ron Paul and plan to vote for him. At any rate, politics is a nice diversion. Something to get your adrenaline going. But political solutions will never be The Answer to the world's problems. So there you go.

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

George and Martha, by James Marshall

The George and Martha books are a series of books written by James Marshall about two best friend hippos. Each book contains several very short stories about George and Martha's adventures. If you value honesty and humor in keeping relationships healthy, you would love these books. I bought my kids a couple of new George and Martha books for Christmas (shhhh! don't tell them!), but they are really for me, because I love them so much. Let me give you a bit of friendly advice: if you have kids, buy one of these books. If you don't have kids, think of a kid you know and buy one of these books yourself so you can read it to them. At least that will give you an excuse. These books are really that great. I've read that there is a tv show based on them. It can't possibly be half as good as the books. Trust me.

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Warm and joyful tales by the author of All Creatures Great and Small

This is just a lovely book about the experiences of a rural vet and the various animals that he encounters. We've been reading it for our studies in first grade (my second son). The illustrations are just beautiful, and I think I enjoy reading it as much as my kids enjoy hearing it.

We had a country vet visit our little homestead last week as well. My only registered goat, a Nubian, came down sick last week. Turns out she was stricken with goat polio, which is a vitamin B deficiency. So we've been giving her shots twice a day and she seems to be doing better. We are hoping that her vision isn't damaged permanently. Thanks to everyone who prayed for our Ellie. It feels a little silly asking people to pray for a goat of all things, but...all creatures great and small the Lord God made them all, right?

Here's a link to an article reviewing a new book I'd like to have a look at (Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes). The book reviewer didn't seem to think much of the book, but it sounds to me like maybe the book's author has a few things figured out.

Turkey Pic

Here's a picture of one of our turkeys. I don't know where he got the sign, but it sort of reminds me of that book, Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type. Have you seen that one? I love it. I redecorated the blog to look a little more back-to-school/fall-ish. I love the red plaid in the background. I need a dress in a cotton print just like that.

My latest book is The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, by Wendell Berry. I have taken to reading a lot of agrarian philosophy-type books lately. This one is excellent so far. Also, I never did review that Nina Planck book. I think it's called Real Food: What to Eat and Why. Well, it's been a month or two since I read it, so I can't get really specific as far as reviewing it, but it was an excellent book and worth looking up at the library if you are interested in cooking with fresh ("real") ingredients. Joel Salatin also has a new book out I would love to get: Everything I Want to Do is Illegal (link is to an article he wrote a while back with the same title - it's a pdf file). Provocative title, isn't it? Doesn't it just make you want to pick it up and read the whole thing cover to cover?

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver

I found this book at the local library, and lo and behold, it is on the New York Times (non-fiction) best-seller list. Apparently that's not unusual for Barbara Kingsolver. I know I have heard of her before now, but this is the first time I have ever read anything she has written. She has also written many other fiction and non-fiction books that all sell very well.

The focus of this book is around the year Kingsolver's family of four dedicated themselves to eating entirely locally for one year. They allowed themselves one item each from "the outside". Her husband continued to buy coffee, for example. That's his special item. Other than that, every food they ate either came from their garden or from someone nearby. The story begins in April when the asparagus makes its appearance. Easiest for them to procure were the vegetables they planted in their own rather large garden. Most difficult: dairy and grain for bread. Kingsolver takes us through their food year, and gives a running commentary along the way. Her husband (Steven L. Hopp) and older daughter (Camille Kingsolver) also write little snippets here and there on social issues involved with eating, recipes (they all sound delicious), and other food memories.

Kingsolver's main concern that propels her towards a "locavore" diet appears to be reducing fossil fuel emissions that promote global warming. Another concern is losing the botanical diversity that produces thousands of varieties of different fruits and vegetables. When you buy produce at the store, only a few varieties are selected for selling due to their appearance and shipability. This creates a large group of plants that need to be put on the botanical equivalent of the "endangered species" list.

I'll tell you what, this lady really knows how to turn a phrase, and this book had me giggling from cover to cover. Yet it is not a comedy, but stands on the substantive notion that it is indeed possible for people to live without twinkies, and the world would be a better place if more people tried. Well, she convinced me, but then I was already convinced. My top concern though, would be the nutritional side: how much nutritional value is lost when we, say, ship strawberries east from California? What's the difference between beans picked this morning and beans picked last week? My understanding is that local fresh food is nutritionally superior to picked-two-weeks-ago food. Which only makes sense. I am also concerned about relying so much on Middle East oil. I happen to think that shipping foods long distances costs more than the simple price of fuel.

Like the author, I too am concerned about the loss of diversity in the botanical and biological world. When we see only one variety of each type of produce planted on most farms throughout the country, it makes you wonder what would happen if that one variety was struck with some sort of deadly blight on any given year. Most poultry farms rely on hatcheries to deliver chicks each spring, and most of those are hatched through artificial insemination techniques. These birds are bred to have such large breasts, that it is impossible for them to breed naturally due to the....ahem, logistics. So the author decided to start her own flock of Bourbon Red turkeys. Bourbon Reds are an heirloom breed of turkey. That is, they've been around for ages and they can actually naturally reproduce. She goes into much more explicit detail on turkey reproduction than I wanted to know, but I did find myself coming dangerously close to coveting that little turkey flock of hers.

I have come to many of the same conclusions as this author, but we are arriving at our destination from different starting points. She is obviously not a Christian, making it a point to refer numerous times to history based on evolutionary time-lines, and stopping to conjecture on why humans are the way they are, centering the conjecture on how we evolved. When her daughter asked her where things came from, her answer was less than succinct. Nutrition rarely enters into her discussion either. Not that it doesn't matter to her (I'm sure it does), but from my point of view it is much more central than Global Warming theory. I don't disagree that (parts) of the world are warming, I just don't think it is a human-created catastrophe. However, the point to me seems to be moot, since there are plenty of other good reasons to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to conserve energy and natural resources.

By way of concluding my book review, let me just say that this is a great book, and we would all do well to look for more ways to support local commerce, especially food sources. I will be looking for more of her work to read, while knowing that I will likely disagree with her on points of theology, but likely agree whole-heartedly on the wonders and morale-boosting power of good food.

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle. We've been reading this book for my older son's second grade school year, and we are having a great time with it. It's easy to understand the language used (not sure how you would classify it...maybe 19th century "old English"), and it's neat how the language adds to the fun of the book (words like "wot" and "quoth").

If you are interested in seeing our school reading schedule, we are following the Ambleside schedule fairly closely. We will finish our school year by the end of July and take August off. The next school year will begin on Labor Day (we'll have a 3rd grader, 1st grader, and a preschooler). It's great how much I'm learning! The best thing about next year is we'll be starting some serious American History. Exciting!

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

Certainly I read this book as a child, but it's amazing how I do not remember anything about it. This is a classic that children must read. It is hilarious. The funnest part is coming up with the accents for the characters (you have to read it out loud). I did Ratty in my best British accent, and Badger was as low a tone and as gravelly as I could muster. But the best character in this book by far is Toad. Clever Toad. Handsome Toad. Humble Toad. If that doesn't crack you up, you haven't read the book. I can't wait to read it again with my younger son when he's in second grade.

Happy Birthday Beanie Jeanie

It's my daughter's birthday today. She was born four years ago today at the end of four hellish days of kidney stone pain for me. But hey, that's not important, who cares about that! It's HER day, not mine! After just four years of living, she has become a connoisseur of fine ponies. You probably didn't know that this is a picture of Rainbow Dash. See, you are just as ignorant on ponies as I am. I didn't know either until I just now looked it up on Google images. Happy birthday daughter! (note: of course she can't read this, but I will tell her about it.)

I also wanted to post a link to a milk article. "Scientists breed cows that give skimmed milk". This "progressive" feat is nutso. The article says scientists have found a cow that gives skimmed milk, then talks about the properties of its butter. Huh? What butter? Skimmed milk means no cream. Butter comes from cream, yes? Hopefully this won't "catch on". Milk comes with fat because you need the fat to properly utilize the natural vitamins A and D that are also (hopefully) in milk. So this new cow is actually a step backward in nutritional science.

I haven't posted much lately because I have been so busy. But I have been able to get some reading done while at my boys' ball practices. I've been reading Nina Planck and Wendell Berry. Both good authors. Maybe I'll write some more about them sometime in the future. In the meantime, pick up a copy of Planck's Real Food at your library. Great "food" for thought.

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

The Little Duke, by Charlotte M. Yonge, is one of the books I've been reading aloud with my second-grader this year. This is a wonderful, historically accurate story about Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, who was the great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. It takes place in 10th century France. Richard's father is assassinated and Richard inherits his dukedom at the young age of nine. It was written close to a hundred years ago, primarily for children, but it's a great read for adults, too. The book's cover doesn't particularly arouse a great deal of interest; however, the story is riveting. We only read a chapter a week, and it is hard to stop at just one. We found this book listed under Ambleside's Year 2 reading list. This is the (free) homeschooling reading schedule we have been loosely following for the last year. If you think you might be interested in this story, you can find it on-line at The Baldwin Project. Personally, I like to have it in book form. It's hard to cuddle up on the couch with a computer. But if you read it from the computer (or print it out, which would probably cost close to the same as buying the book once you consider the amount of paper and ink it would take), it's "free".

Brave New World vs. 1984

Today is the second anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo. At the time she died, I wrote several blog posts about the politics surrounding the ruling to allow her to dehydrate. Her brother recently wrote an article for WorldNetDaily that fairly summarizes the press’ treatment of her life and death. I so appreciate the “alternative press’” handling of cases like these. You do not get an accurate picture of what is happening from the lamestream media (I didn‘t make that up, I read it somewhere else, but I forget where). They can make you think and feel however they want you to, just by the way they word their stories. Which leads me to the subject of today’s post.

I just finished reading Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell. Huxley’s book first came out in 1932, Orwell’s in 1949. They are both referred to so often in our culture, that since I hadn’t read them before, I thought I’d better give it a shot. They are what’s called “negative utopias” - visions of the future “perfect” society that obviously fall far short of real perfection. They are similar in that in both works, the value of the individual is nothing. All is for the good of collective society. Both societies are governed by an elite few. Huxley accomplishes this “good” through genetic engineering, conditioning, drugs, and encouraging promiscuous behavior. Orwell makes the accomplishment through force: continuous universal monitoring, constantly rewriting history, and physically reprogramming independent thinkers through torture.

We have a number of common words and phrases that come from these works: Big Brother, newspeak, “Orwellian”, thought police, thought crime, and doublethink all come from 1984. Huxley gives us the word soma (a drug used daily to even out people‘s emotions), as well as numerous plot line references in many modern books, movies, music, etc.

Basically, Brave New World keeps people in line through pleasure. 1984 controls through pain. We obviously have elements of both at work in our society today. More and more we are using genetic engineering to select for traits that we consider desirable. Conditioning is made easy through television, the press, and public schooling. Both adults and children are often drugged before even making an effort to discover the root cause of physical and psychological problems. Promiscuity is accepted and even encouraged. We are forced into allowing the government to decide whose lives are worth living and whose are not (quality of life has replaced sanctity of life as the overriding value). Computers and credit/bank cards allow tracking of almost everything we do or buy.

Here is what Neil Postman (in Amusing Ourselves to Death, a book I haven’t made it all the way through yet) says about the comparison between these two books:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.…In 1984,…people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

So, perhaps we could say that the United States is more like Brave New World, and any Muslim or Communist totalitarian regime is more like 1984. There are exceptions, of course. Such as the Terri Schiavo case, when government decides that death by dehydration is the best way to fix a disabled woman’s problems.

These are two very thought-provoking books. If you are a reader, you might consider reading them. I would not recommend them for anyone under 18 due to adult content. Bottom line: there will be no “perfect” societies this side of heaven. Jesus is the only perfector, and the fall of man through sin guarantees an imperfect world. We should all pray for wisdom in discerning evil and good.

Vacation Reading: Crunchy Cons

Just finished reading Crunchy Cons for the second time while we were on vacation. This is a rather big picture, but I wanted you to be able to read the subtitle. Isn't it a hoot? I decided not to type all that out.

This was an amusing book to read in a serious sort of way, if that is possible. The book doesn't really answer how these people will save America or the Republican Party, but I imagine it was just too hysterical of a title to pass up. What it is about: there is this fringe group of conservatives who take their "religion" seriously and make a conscious decision to live in the physical world in a way that is only a continuation of their spiritual views. Dreher calls this "sacramental living". This has incidental political consequences. Politics is not the point of this book.

But there are some amusing anecdotes to tell along the way. These "crunchy cons" find it hilarious that THEY of all people, are taking up a lifestyle that is stereotypically in the domain of the far left. Their opinions on conservative social issues have remained the same, but disagreement with fellow conservatives begins when you start talking about food, money (and big business), the environment, education, etc.

I've had amusing moments like that before. I still remember the first time we went to a little co-op store in an urban residential area in the nearest big city to us. They had this new-agey eastern mystic music playing, and it smelled like patchouli. Everywhere there was hemp-this and hemp-that. And every "flavor" of incense you could possibly imagine. Not to mention all the soy/tofu stuff. I felt like a real oddball. I knew I had to have been the only conservative Christian to ever shop in that store. It just made me want to laugh out loud.

Of course, the book isn't all about anecdotes like this. He uses them to lead up to his main idea, which is this: it is vital that we live our lives consistently by our beliefs, and to truly prioritize family, not just give lip service to the importance of what we say we believe. Make your family's culture your religion externalized.

For anyone interested in this book, here is Mr. Dreher's "Crunchy Con Manifesto":
1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship - especially of the natural world - is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk's conviction that "the institution most essential to conserve is the family."

I have to say, I share most of the same convictions that the author shared in this book (I say most, not all). I guess that makes me a Crunchy Con. However, one of the characteristics of "crunchy cons" is that you can't nail 'em down with a book. We just are who we are, whether anyone puts us in a book or not. It's nice to be recognized as a force, though.