Change of Pace, Irreversible Damage

This week on the farm…

Another beautiful autumn week. The leaves seem to be peaking a week later than usual this year. It would suit me if the weather stays like this till spring. We mowed the yard, the cabins, and around the barn for what is likely the last time of the year. As the end of one season leads to the beginning of another, so it is in regards to our work on the farm. As I put the mower and weed eater away, I got the chainsaw back out and cut the first load of wood since late spring. 

I didn’t miss moving chicken shelters this week. Not one bit. More of the same when it comes to keeping up with cows and pigs. Both our cattle numbers and hog numbers are down compared to years past. Usually, we have 2 or 3 groups of pigs in the woods. Right now just one group out in the woods, with another group close to the barn that will be the next to go to the processor. With our cattle numbers down, we should have plenty of stockpiled grass to graze them deep into the winter months. 

Speaking of cattle numbers, our numbers decreased a little more this past week as another load made the trip to the processor. We got them in and sorted Sunday afternoon, and I hauled them up the road on Monday. On Wednesday we got more meat back from the processor. We were ready for it. Back in September at the end of chicken season, our freezers were packed full to the brim. After Saturday’s big meat deliveries and Amy’s delivery to chilhowie on Monday, our freezers were as empty as they’d been since COVID. It’s nice to get them filled back up again. Our inventory online won’t be updated until after we fill next month’s herd shares. 

On Wednesday Amy delivered between 400-500 ORVF hamburger patties to Rich Valley Elementary and Northwood Middle School. All the schools in Smyth County are eating local hamburgers for lunch today. What a great way for Smyth County schools to show support for local farms. We are thankful for the opportunity to be a part of it. After dropping off the hamburger patties, Amy delivered 100 sirloin steaks for the Chilhowie football team for their pre-game meal before the game tonight. It probably would’ve been cheaper and more convenient for them to just make a Sam’s run, but we are grateful for their boosters club feeding them local meat. Hopefully it will fuel them to play like superstars tonight and result in another big W for the Warriors. 

A while back Amy listened to and encouraged me to listen to “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” by Abigail Shrier. Shew, it’s a lot to take in. So far, it’s been a very thorough and well investigated assessment of the transgender craze especially in young teenage girls. Not just in regards to the social pressure and identity searching that is causing it, but Shrier also points out the consequences of this culture change. The irreversible consequences. On one hand it’s heart breaking, and on the other hand it’s infuriating that so-called medical professionals, school administrators, and parents would encourage youngsters to make these detrimental decisions. When I was in school, we had to get parental consent to go on a field trip. Nowadays, some schools are taking these kids on a trip to the opposite sex without parental consent. A trip they can never fully return from. 

“This is a story Americans need to hear. Whether or not you have an adolescent daughter, whether or not your child has fallen for this transgender craze, America has become fertile ground for this mass enthusiasm for reasons that have everything to do with our cultural frailty. Parents are undermined. Experts are over relied upon… Government healthcare laws harbor hidden consequences.”

“The little ones are taught that they ‘might have a girl brain in a boy body’ or vice versa. Schools that administer this instruction never acknowledge that as a scientific matter, it’s gibberish. It is biologically nonsensical to suggest that a girl’s brain, every cell of it stamped with XX chromosomes, might inhabit a boy’s body… Nonetheless, this drivel is taught with the same sobriety and apparent thoroughness as facts about human reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases.”

Concerning “the theft of women’s achievement,” Shrier writes, “Biological boys identifying as girls are already overpowering the very best high school girl athletes across the country. Female runners, swimmers, and weightlifters are being routed by trans-identified biological boys, many of whom were only middling athletes on the boys’ team. Those who object to the unfairness are either dismissed or accused of bigotry. All of which to say, girls have likely noticed that they’ve lost favor in the broader culture, their private spaces turned co-ed, their sports records stolen, their protestations of unfairness shouted down as bigotry.”

“The stress brought on by puberty is age old. What is new is today’s adolescences' relative inability to bear it and the constant presence of apparent alternatives… marked by the conviction that no one should ever endure any manner of discomfort: Ritalin for inattention, opioids for pain, Xanax for nerves, Lexapro for the blues, testosterone for female puberty. Adolescence is a long haul, and today’s screen loving teens are an impatient crew. They might be forgiven then when adopting the contemporary creed ‘There must be a pill for that.’”

“Then there’s our modern day obsession with mental health, medicating everyone toward the optimal level of happiness as if we are all just tires in need of topping up… Perhaps we’ve trained adolescence to regard happiness as a natural and constantly accessible state. Perhaps they’ve come to believe momentary sadness amounts to a crisis.” 

Have a good week.

Will