Farm Sign, Big Delivery Week, Jim Web
More wintry weather. Probably 4 inches of snow. Then ice. Then rain. Then mud. The kids enjoyed building a snow man while it lasted.
Still keeping the cows, pigs, and chickens fed. A dead battery and a flat tire on the tractor made this week’s feeding a little more frustrating than normal, but it happens. Our hay supply is holding out, but we’ll be cutting it close by the time spring rolls around.
Strong winds a few weeks ago blew down our farm sign. We finally got around to putting it back up.
Not much weather for tackling the many fencing and farm projects on my list, so after the chores and necessities were taken care of, I spent some time while it rained working on a writing project that I’ve been dabbling with over the past few years. Maybe if we get lot of rainy days this year, I might eventually get it finished.
Amy has been keeping the cabins cleaned and the freezers stocked with more beef and chicken broth. Today is a big day of preparing orders and coolers for tomorrow’s Abingdon Farmers Market and herd share deliveries. Abingdon and Marion tomorrow. Knoxville on Monday. Bristol and Kingsport on Thursday. And then Chilhowie and Abingdon on the following Monday. Which delivery location is best for you? Also, we are open to adding new delivery locations if there’s enough interest in your neck of the woods to justify our making the trip.
Feeding cows and going back and forth to town, I listened to more “Born Fighting” by Jim Webb. Here’s a few more quotes:
“It also demanded that they be strong, both for their own survival but also for the well being of their extended families. And again, a familiar pattern reinforced itself in what would become the Scots-Irish character: the mistrust of central authority, the reliance on strong tribal rather than national leaders, and the willingness to take the law into one’s own hands rather than waiting for a solution to come down from above.”
“They were strong, keen of practical intellect, and reliable. They were hard-faced, thick palmed farmers who doubled when necessary as ferociously dedicated soldiers. They were women who married early, bore numerous children, worked alongside their men in the fields, and frequently ran things by themselves when their men were gone. They were children who grew up quickly and learned from an early age to expect hardship and physical confrontation as a way of life.”
“And no government, other than that which they agreed upon among themselves, would control their daily interactions. In such a wild uncharted place, the book of God was vital, for it nourished their spirit and laid boundaries for their conduct.”
“The families from the north of Britain accepted and actually expected that their lives would at some point include harsh and even bloody conflict. The men expected to fight, and every able-bodied man was automatically a member of the local militia. The women expected their men to fight and sometimes their homes to be invaded. Strongly independent, these women understood also that they would be required to run households and farms when their men were away.”
“These were uncommonly tough people used to hardship. They asked for nothing from the government or anyone else, and nothing is what they usually received.”
Have a good week.
Will