January’s back. The month of reconciling and reevaluating. Bob’s and my fingers touch every piece of meat on the farm, examining condition, tallying stock, physically assessing what has been damaged, what has sold, what isn’t moving….And why. It’s the month when we pour over the numbers with mom, dad and the crew, celebrating the […]
Hear What You Want
The first time Mom and Dad brought me to New York City, I stood in Grand Central and cried. We were only five minutes off the train, and I pleaded for us to turn around and get on the next one going back upstate. I was twelve, and totally aware that my behavior was most […]
The Walk
Mom and Dad sent a text around last week, reminding us that we need to be at the farm at 6:30 this morning to load the turkeys. Dad wanted to meet in person on Sunday morning to go over winter changes and, again, to discuss loading the turkeys. He reiterated that he wants everyone at […]
It was all about the wait.
“There must be 700 people on this line,” Bob tells me. We’re driving to Cape Cod for a CSA delivery, and we’ve detoured to a Renaissance fair for the girls’ amusement. I bought tickets ahead, expecting this would cut our wait time. Balderdash. I’m dismayed to realize that the Ren fair is so packed, the […]
It’s all about the dress.
“What’s homecoming?” Such questions are common among homeschoolers. Ula’s boyfriend Jack, who’s a senior at Cobleskill-Richmondville, asked her to go the dance with him. He explained that it was semi-formal. Say no more. Ula had 2 weeks to work out what to wear. So it began with rummaging through her scrap fabric heap and extracting […]
The Neglect and Party Theory of Music Education
They used to cry and carry on when Bob would take out his guitar and I’d start to sing. When I first entertained the idea of home-schooling, I had the notion I’d teach my kids to be musical wizards. SinceI never became a serious musician, I intended to give my children every opportunity to succeed […]
Covid Pleasures (?!)
I’ll be the first to tell you I LOVE masking. I’ve enjoyed two years of not getting colds and flu bugs. At the cafe, the girls and I have decided it is just a more hygienic way to do food service. We see a lot of customers in the course of a day, and we […]
You Gotta be BAAAAAAAD to be Good!
Sheep tipping has become a thing here on the farm. Every spring, Gwen the shearer travels to Sap Bush as part of her annual circuit through the northeast. Like her dad before her, she sets up in the barn and invests long days working through the flock, removing their fleeces so that I can have […]
Everybody’s Favorite Neighbor
When it rains, it pours. I’m sitting in the cop car, staring out over Panther Creek on Sunday, looking at the back of the cafe, waiting for the cop to take down my statement about the body upstairs in the house where we’re parked. He’s being very kind to me. But he’s not a fast […]
Math Lessons
I remember starting on my parenting journey, meeting a high school freshman who, her parents assured me, was “gifted.” She was already studying calc II (and yet she couldn’t make her own breakfast). In my youth I was an AP math student, and a math tutor in college, and I presumed my own children would […]
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