Enjoying the special moments

August 25, 2025

Enjoying the special moments

With the weather very beautiful this week – okay, we were wet and cold on Wednesday but not complaining – it was natural to ease into the farm week, irrespective of the pall that was hanging over us of financial instability for 2025, exacerbated by the loss of the 55 turkey poults last Friday night (8/14). Being surrounded by caring staff members on Monday (Paula continues to give me biweekly leg massages for my now almost resolved Lyme leg), Tuesday’s incredible productivity with the weeding of 7 beds, turning over of 2 cucumber beds to one more planting of summer squash, mulching of our new basil and tulsi, harvesting of all of our winter squash before the deer ate too much of it, and the last day of John’s regular time here as he moves off to full-time employment, left us that day sure we could accomplish anything. Wednesday’s rain was a blessing from nature, which we now no longer take for granted. Friday I was able to talk to Mario from Spain, a 2020 WWOOF volunteer, for a full half hour and learn from him that he reads this newsletter religiously (in his words) to get his weekly inspiration. Saturday Brendan’s teaching of 8-year-old Alexandria how to zip tie together a broken chicken crate was a special moment as I watched the transfer of knowledge from one generation to another. As we drove Brendan and Justin home on Saturday morning Jack mused about the special needs folks at Camphill Village and how they are so positive spirited, unlike most “normal” adults who let their cares get in the way of their appreciation of life’s miracles. A way of being to aspire to.

Gratitude this week

There is a very long list of folks who reached out after our most recent disaster with lots of ideas and sympathy. Thanks to Aaron, Sarah, Karen, Doris, Clare, Ellen, Leslie, Paula, Heidi, Kim, Paul, Stu, Judy, Becca, Sue, Lucy, and others. Thanks to those who have convinced us to get electric fence, and for the night solar lights, and we are still considering the hunting options. And to Sally and Amanda for their donations. We are also considering the Go Fund Me advice, and will be in touch.

My strong gratitude this week goes to Jack, who has jumped on this problem and done the electric fence research, worked with Brandon to pace out our potential bird house moves in the pond field (the bird houses are either 8’ x 10’ or 8’ x 12’) and we move them onto fresh pasture 5 times per week). Jack and I, when we are at our best are “partners in crime”, and he has really moved into the driver’s seat on figuring out this latest farm problem of ours. Thank you, Jack for being in my life for now 49 years!

Want to Know Whereof You Speak? Check This Out

by Jack Kittredge

If you like visual representations of facts about the world and have a free minute, browse the Internet for “Our World in Data”. You will be amazed at how many facts and figures you can quickly learn about. The site has 47 public affairs topics covered (from Animal Welfare to Fish Stocks, from Food Prices to Migration Flows) in hundreds of individual maps and graphs. It is clearly a mainstream site, sourced and financed by major news organizations and foundations and as such steers clear of really controversial topics, but for the ones it does cover seems to keep to “Just the facts, Ma’am” as Joe Friday used to say.

It seems ideal for checking out something you just learned to see if it is really true. The graphic which caught my eye was about national life expectancy vs. per capita health expenditures (see chart). People in most all of the advanced nations born in 2024 are expected to live well into their eighties, some almost into their nighties (Japan, Italy, Switzerland). The US number, however, is still lingering down there in the late seventies, just ahead of China and Poland. More embarrassing than this, though, is how much we pay to be so far behind.

It costs us each more than $12,000 for the privilege, over twice the amount paid by most of those advanced Europeans and Japanese, and 50% more than our closest competitors. The health expenditures include from all sources: individuals, insurers, and the government. (You can even work a slider to pop up the info from past years, to see how these relationships change over time.)

This particular graphic helps me evaluate the constant assurances I used to hear from the US Department of Agriculture that we had the healthiest food supply in the world, or from some politicians who used to praise our private medical system as avoiding all the bureaucracy and thus the expense of public or socialist medicine. It is handy to have a way to check out at least some of the many claims one hears today and sort out the spurious ones. Have fun!

2025 MHOF CSA

CSA Week of Labor Day – September 1 – 5

Dear Monday CSA members,

Please be advised that we will not run the CSA on Monday, September, but will run it on Tuesday, September 2.

CSA Week 12

Packing the Friday CSA last week

Best guess for food this week

Lettuce – hopefully for all shareholders as we start a new crop and haven’t seen any deer depredation for a while in this crop
Arugula – well, we squeezed it out last week, and maybe this week? We decided to hold onto the old bed one more week, knowing our new one will be starting up soon
Marjoram
Basil
Tulsi
Beets – I hope you like these, because they keep coming
Kohlrabi for Wednesday larges – we forgot you last week
Kale
Some cucumbers, though they are on the way out
Summer squash
Grapes from the font deck of the house
Chard
Green beans – maybe, the Mexican bean beetles are taking down our third crop, but we might have some beans for some
Tomatoes – are interminably slow this year. The plants look very nice, and we have mostly been able to give out one tomato each to the larges this past week. Keep your eyes peeled.