Springing

It's beginning to seem rather Spring-ish with sunshine and warm temperatures and green things pushing up out of the ground. Here at the farm things are Getting Done -- the barn roof gets a new tin patch, fences are being repaired, ground plowed for potatoes, trees cut for fire wood and more mushroom logs -- there's even talk of a milk cow and a couple of pigs -- though nothing definite yet.

Every spring is like this -- we burst with energy and the weather, no longer cold but not yet hot, makes everything seem possible. And this spring, with the dire state of the economy, getting the most out of the farm seems like an important priority.

With the best will in the world, it's still going to take time to turn things around and I think of our predecessor here -- Clifford -- who said of the Great Depression, "Hit didn't make much difference to us -- we went on doing what we always had done and eating what we always had et -- there was times, though, we had cornbread for breakfast for we couldn't afford biscuit flour."

We moved to the farm during the oil crisis of the seventies, always with the belief that if things got really bad, we'd be better off here than most anywhere else.

It still feels that way.