Too Long on the Farm

 

Way back in 2010, I wrote short blog that listed some of the odd things I noticed that reflected how much the farm influenced what I thought and said.  I actually took the time to update it in November of 2020 because there was soooo much more!

The kicker for these is that, while some seem a bit silly, they accurately reflect actual thoughts or are a faithful recording of actual conversations and states of being.  Laugh all you want, but there are plenty of grains of truth here.  If you nod and agree, you're probably a farmer - especially a farmer of a small-scale, diversified operation.

If you don't get it.  That's fine.  You haven't experienced it and that's ok.  You'll just have to trust me when I say:

You know you've worked on the farm too long when ...

• ...you see the words "harrowing experience" for a Halloween advertising and you immediately think of a using a farming implement.  
• ... even worse - you consider writing a blog about your latest farm "harrowing experience."
  
• ...someone asks you how you are doing and you say, "the lettuce looks good."
• ...and the fall-back answer is "well, the weather has been nice/difficult."
  
• ...you know there are cobwebs on your hat from the Poultry Pavilion.  You've had people point it out to you.  And, you still haven't cleaned them off.
• ...stains on the knees of your jeans do not mean your jeans are not clean - at least from your perspective.
  
• ...you'd like to CHUCK the wood at the woodchuck.

 

• ...after seeing that Sesame Street clip, you wonder if the woodchuck might actually CHUCK the wood back at you.
  
• ... there is a small jolt of surprise when you meet someone who doesn't know what kale is...or kohlrabi, bok choi, etc (sorry, had to stick with k's).
• ... but after doing this for many years, you are now surprised when someone DOES know what kohlrabi is!
  
• ... there are six or more shovels in your possession and you wonder if you should buy a *few* more.
• ... and even after changing how the farm works and those changes have reduced the number of people at the farm - you still think about adding shovels, rakes and other hand tools. 

• ... you strain your neck trying to look behind farm buildings and in the tall grasses by farmsteads for tools and implements that might be useful to you.
• ...and then after many years of farming, you start wondering how you can get rid of tools and implements that turned out not to be so useful and wonder if you should adjust and get some NEW tools that fit you better.
• ... you wonder if people are straining their necks to look behind our buildings and in our tall grassy areas.
  
• ... someone asks you what you've been doing lately and you are tempted to say, "Lemme esplain...no, there is too much.  Lemme sum up."  (Ok, this one is more of a thing for people who like Princess Bride than a thing for farming)
• ... you bite your tongue and edit your comments so they are suitable for the general public when you hear a non-farmer's opinions about the weather.
• ... you editorialize about the weather to whomever will listen (or appears to listen)
• ... all of your analogies seem to refer to farming, vegetables, poultry or ... of course ... the weather.
• Someone asks you what you did over the weekend and you tell them about the weather. 

• ... most of the catalogs on the end table have pictures of drip irrigation, greenhouse heaters, chickens, tractors or tomatoes on them.
• ... the back entry has twleve or more pairs of shoes/boots for two people.  
• ... every shoe on the back entry seems to have poo on the bottom of it when you need one that does not.
• ... someone asks if you like tomatoes and you reply with a diatribe about heirloom versus hybrids, the relative merits of trellising techniques and the yield levels of three of your favorite varieties.
• ... a picture promoting a cross country team makes you wonder if you could convince them to train on the farm by either fetching the needed tools, taking the harvested produce back to the packing are or (worse yet) you consider hitching them up to plows or cultivators.

• ... you appreciate Winter for the physical break it gives.
• ... your picture of Summer when it is Winter is always so much better than what it ends up being.
  
• ... your biggest gripe about Winter has less to do with cold, wind, snow or ice and MORE to do with the lack of daylight hours so you can do work outside.
• ... the line between 'just enough farm talk' and 'too much farm talk' in casual conversation is too readily crossed.
• ... the line between 'just enough farm talk' and 'too much farm talk' is rarely crossed because you have convinced yourself that no one really wants to hear farm talk.
• ... you get surprised when people actually DO want you to talk about the farm.
  
• ... your dreams include giant turkeys chasing you with a wheel hoe.

I'm sure I'll come up with more at some point in the future.  But for now, I hope you were mildly entertained.  Have a good day everyone!

Clan Leaf

It can be pretty easy to underestimate the value of a single leaf.  After all, each healthy deciduous tree and bush is covered with lots of leaves during the warmer months.  Then, as the cold months approach, the leaves detach themselves from the parent plant, falling to the ground.  Some of them might go out in a flash of glory, showing off bright yellows, oranges and reds.  But, ultimately, they will fall.

If a person wanted to, they could pull a leaf off of a tree and the tree would barely notice.  Whole branches, covered in leaves, might come down in a storm, but the tree can live on.  Once the leaf is no longer part of the tree, the leaf withers and fades.

It's enough to conclude that leaves aren't terribly important.  Just an unnecessary appendage that some people will grumble about when they fall to the tidy lawns in suburban neighborhoods.  A fragile decoration that is shredded in a hailstorm or gnawed by various insect larvae.

Now that we have reached Thanksgiving, very few trees in Iowa are adorned with leaves.  We find ourselves walking under the boughs of trees as they reveal their skeletal features.  While we know that most of these trees are merely hibernating, we can't help but feel that they are dead.

Because leaves harvest light, which becomes life.

We know this, even if we can't immediately describe the process of the conversion of light to energy.  The leaves are a measure of health.  Leaves speak of the wind.  Leaves provide a place for the songbirds to swim as they seek out their own sustenance.  Leaves collect droplets of life-giving water.  

And this is where our definition of importance might need adjustment.  Just because the removal of one does not result in the death or loss of the whole, larger organism, it does not follow that this single leaf has less importance than any other part of the tree.

While a branch may not fully appreciate or understand the function and form of a leaf, it still needs to recognize its value and respect it.  The roots will never see a leaf, but it takes its nourishment through photosynthesis while the leaf is part of the plant or as a result of decomposition after the leaf falls and is broken down into useful nutrients.

So, here's a blog to honor Clan Leaf.  They may be easy to remove and take for granted.  But, they bring light and life to the rest of the organism.  Without them, the tree will eventually die.  But as long as some still appear each Spring there is hope.

Exceeds Expectations

We got our winter squash crop in pretty late this past season because we simply had difficulty getting started.  The good news?  We pretty much know what we're doing by now with these crops and we gave them the best start we could in hopes that we could avoid an early frost.  And, happily, the first frost was late this year so things went just fine.

I got the couple of dozen Burgess Buttercup squash that I've set as a goal each of the past three years.  Since those are my personal favorite for eating, that's a very good thing.  Tammy, on the other hand, probably prefers the Waltham Butternuts and I am perfectly fine eating them as well.

We got pretty close to three squash for every couple of row feet for the Walthams, which is a fine result based on our historical harvest records.   

On the flip side, we only harvested one, smaller, pumpkin.  They simply needed more time and a bit more attention than we gave them.  This was one of those times where I just knew we were fighting a losing battle.  We didn't get the fence up the same day we planted.  So, of course the deer tasted several of the pumpkins that first night.  Then, there was the limited time to do the needed cultivation.  So, we opted to cultivate the crops that were already doing better rather than those that were already showing signs of a struggle.

This is a normal process at the Genuine Faux Farm.  We try to do as much as we can.  Actually, we always try to do MORE than we know we can.  Then, as the season progresses, we find ourselves making choices.  We've learned that it's often better to spend our time on the crops that are doing well so they keep doing well than it is to try to rescue crops that are having a rough time.

So, this year's choice for squash was to see the Waltham's and Burgess through to completion.  Of course, we would have liked the pumpkins to produce too.  But we don't regret the decisions that led to this at all.

A typical size of a nice Waltham Butternut squash is somewhere from three to four pounds.  Sometimes, we get a bunch of nice five pound squash.  This year was pretty much average in that respect.

Except for one squash that exceeded all expectations.  You might notice it is much bigger than the two other squash in the first picture.  The smallest squash was just under four pounds and the one lying down on the table was approaching five pounds. 

Then there was this monster.  How does eight pounds and a bit over four ounces sound to you?

Yeah.  That's a good sized squash.  And it's going to be our centerpiece on our kitchen table for a couple of months.  Usually, that spot is reserved for a nice Musquee de Provence pumpkin.  But, I don't think we're going to be too unhappy seeing this one on the table for a while.

Seed Saving - Quadrato asti Giallo

A couple of years ago, we grew out Napoleon Sweet bell peppers for Seed Savers, in Decorah.  It was a good experience, even if the season was a bit marred by the removal of my kidney early in the year.  The good news was, we did come up with some good seed production that year that had a high (95%) germination rate when we tested.  

We decided to give it another try in 2023 and grew out some Quadrato asti Giallo peppers and you can see some of the results above.

This time I was able to spend more time selecting plants and being more intentional with removing plants that weren't showing the best qualities for this particular heirloom bell pepper.  At the seedling stage we culled about 20% of the plants for various reasons and another 20% did not get transplanted because they were not showing the same vigor or they exhibited a growth pattern I did not like.

A few more were removed when the fruits weren't what we were looking for - and then I waited for the harvest.

When we grew the Napoleon Sweets, we took those red peppers to the Jorgensen Plaza kitchen and they cored them and returned the cap with attached seeds to us.  In return, they got inexpensive, Certified Organic, red bell peppers they could use fresh or freeze for later use.  This time, we cut them ourselves and sold the cut peppers to interested persons.  The rest we did not sell went to the chickens or the compost.  

Sometimes, you just have to do what you have time and energy to do.

I have to admit that I liked the taste of the Quadratos in this batch and I was pretty happy with the quality of the fruit in the harvest.  The next step is to do our germination test.  If it is acceptable, the seeds will go to Seed Savers to fulfill the contract.  If not?  We'll have to consider what might have happened with the pollination and go from there.

Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to grow more out for seed in 2024.  This is the sort of thing where a little success breeds confidence and a couple of repetitions means we've had a chance to improve some of the processes.

I suspect, even if we don't have a contract for 2024, we're going to be growing a few more things for seed - maybe for ourselves, maybe for others.  

We'll see.  But, we've got some success to stand on - and that's never a bad thing.

More to Say - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the first Postal History Sunday after Thanksgiving 2024.  The American Thanksgiving holiday has been, and continues to be, an important one to me.  It reminds me to exercise my gratitude muscles in all things that I do, including the postal history hobby.  So, let me take a moment and thank everyone who has taken a moment to read and enjoy Postal History Sunday, it is a privilege to be able to share what I can with you.

I am also grateful for those who have provided feedback to me.  I received kind appreciation for my efforts while I attended Chicagopex last week.  And, every so often, someone will leave a comment on the blog, or in social media, or in an email providing encouragement, additional information, and positive criticism.  All of this helps me to feel the effort has value. 

This week, we're going to provide more information about some recent Postal History Sundays.  It never seems to fail - after I complete an entry and put it out "into the wild" for everyone to read, I discover something else that might have been good to include.  Well, is this my blog or not?  Since it is, I can certainly take the time to do a PHS entry that shares some of these things with you!

A Subtle Difference

On November 12th, Postal History Sunday featured letters mailed from the United States to Switzerland during the 1860s.  The topic was certainly big enough that it made sense to gloss over a detail or three just so the main points weren't obscured.  

But, there was one omission I felt sure that someone would bring to my attention. Then, much to my surprise, no one did.

35- cent per 1/2 rate via Prussian Closed Mail - to Andelfingen, Switzerland

So, let me show two letters a bit closer together.  The first letter was mailed on April 27, 1863, just days before the postal rate was going to change to 33 cents.  In fact, by the time it arrived in Aachen on May 12, the rate had changed.

33-cent per 1/2 ounce rate via Prussian Closed Mail - to Ambri, Switzerland

And this letter was mailed on July 30, 1866, arriving at its destination by mid-August.  It is interesting to note that this letter was mailed just after the final battle of the Seven-Weeks War (Austro-Prussian War) on July 24 in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

And now I am going to ask the question I thought someone else might have asked:

What's going on here?

1863 Cover to Andelfingen	1866 Cover to Ambri

These markings are called weiterfranco markings and they were used by members of the German-Austrian Postal Union (GAPU) to indicate that a certain amount of postage was to be "passed forward" to the next postal service.  In both cases, the postage was fully paid by the person who sent the letter in the United States.  The US sent 12 cents to Prussia to cover the expenses Prussia was responsible for.  That included the amount of postage that was due to Switzerland!

So, these weiterfranco amounts represented the amount of postage, in German currency, that was supposed to be handed over to Switzerland for each letter.  The kicker here is that the amounts for each letter is different.

The first letter has markings that read "f1" and "3"

The second letter has markings that read "f2" and "6"

The first thing we need to know about these is that the members of GAPU used two different currencies.  The Prussians and northern states would be passing silbergroschen and they would include the "f" before the amount to indicate it was a weiterFranco (paid amount forwarded).  So, the "f1" and "f2" would indicate 1 silbergroschen and 2 silbergroschen.  These markings were applied at the Aachen exchange office in Prussia.

The southern states used kruezer (3 kruezer for every 1 silbergroschen).  So, the corresponding "3" and "6" refer to kruezers and were applied in Baden - likely on the train that carried the mail. 

So, the first cover, mailed in 1863 at the 35 cents rate, was paid in full.  The Prussians passed 1 silbergroschen on to Baden and then Baden passed the equivalent 3 kruezer on to Switzerland.  The second cover, mailed in 1866, was mailed at the 33 cents rate and was alos paid in full.  The Prussians passed 2 silbergroschen to Baden, which then passed 6 kruezer to the Swiss.

So, now the questions is... why?

The answer lies with the destination for each cover within Switzerland.  At the time, Switzerland still had a distance component to their postal rates.  In their agreement with the GAPU, there were two rayons (or regions).  The amount of postage due to Switzerland was based on a rate of 1 silbergroschen (or 3 kruezer) per rayon for a simple letter.  Our second letter was in the second rayon, so it required more postage to be paid to Switzerland.

If you would like to learn more about this, this Postal History Sunday looks more carefully at mail between Switzerland and the GAPU.

And, for those that are curious - the rate people in the United States paid to send a letter to Switzerland via the Prussian Closed Mails did NOT change, even if the letter went to the second rayon of Switzerland.  This was simply how Switzerland and the GAPU accounted for letters exchanged between them.

More Humbuggery

On October 15th, I got to have some fun and write a bit about Humbugs and Dead Letter Mail.  This 1865 letter was sent to the Dead Letter Office as either an "unclaimed" or an "unmailable" item.  But, the postmaster wrote the word "Humbug" at the left.  They were apparently aware that James E Dunnell was working some sort of scam that encouraged people to depart with their money.

In this case, the amount was $10.

I surmised that this might have been a lottery scam.  But, guess what I found soon after writing that article?  

This letter - which, unfortunately, does not have a corresponding cover (envelope or wrapper). It is a lithographed circular that is promoting a lottery with an entry fee of....  ten dollars.

This letter is from the "Office of Thos Boult & Co" who professed to be General Lottery Agents.  In fact, they claimed to be "Licensed" by the government.  And, even better for me and my story - this letter is dated March 21st, 1865.  While it is certainly not directly related to my "Humbug" envelope, it is direct evidence showing that the lottery scams were quite active at that time.

The letter opens by recognizing that most states had laws against lotteries:

"Dear Sir, From what we can learn of Public Sentiment in your State, we are satisfied that there is among your People, a strong prejudice against dealing in Lotteries and feeling that this want of Confidence, cannot be removed until some person draws a good Prize."

Of course, like any "good" scam letter, they make certain to underline the last part to get the mark's attention.  The idea being proposed is that the recipient can trust them to represent them for a lottery (thus getting around the law).

"... we offer you the chance of a Handsome Prize in a Certificate of a Package of Sixteenths of Tickets on the Grand Havana Plan Lottery to be drawn ... on the 30th day of April 1865."

Thus far, the letter has not quite gone so far as to promise a positive result.  However, they do go on to illustrate how much there is to gain - with so little to lose.

"... no deception lies concealed under this communication; now as our object is to increase our Business among your Citizens; by putting you in the possession of a Handsome Prize; we offer you the above described Certificate with however this understanding that after we send you the money it draws, you are to inform your friends and acquaintances that you have drawn a Prize at our Office."

Of course, the saying "thou doth protest too much" comes to mind.  No, no!  Of course, we don't intend to take your money and run.  We just want to take your FRIENDS' money and run. 

Now, they still won't promise that the mark is guaranteed a win, but...

"... if the Certificate does not draw you net at least $6000 we will send you another Certificate in one of our ever Lucky Extra Lotteries for nothing you perceive that you now have an opportunity to acquire a Handsome Prize; that may never again present itself; Improve it before it is too late, by sending your Order immediately..."

This letter seems to have everything.  It tells us that we shouldn't delay and it even has it's "but wait, there's more!" moment.  They'll send you another chance at a special lottery for free.  It's a two for the price of one deal!  And, of course, by the use of capital letters where they don't exactly belong and some judicious underlining they do a fine job of pointing us to the main issues of concern.

"To facilitate the prompt execution of our proposal use the enclosed envelope and make your remittance to our Office... Wafer or Seal your letter so that it will not come open in the Mails.  Please consider this letter Strictly Private and Confidential, and send your order without delay"

So, we come to the bottom of the letter.  The very same people that are hoping to improve their business by having more people participate are now attempting to tell the mark that this correspondence is a secret.

And how much was the cost to enter to have the opportunity for a "Handsome Prize?"  

Ten Dollars.

So, even if the envelope to James Dunning had nothing to do with this particular scam, there was likely no end to copy cats of this scheme.  It really does seem like a good possibility that the envelope held money to enter an illegal lottery.

from US Mail and Post Office Assistant

 The US Mail and Post Office Assistant was a monthly periodical that provided a wide range of material concerning the US Post Office and the mail during the 1860s.  Lottery swindles show up periodically in this periodical, including the one described above for a "Wright, Gordon & Co."  If you would like to read some of the detail, you can click on the image for a larger version.

This is where I realized that Jas. Dunnell may not have been the individual who was running the scam.  Instead, someone who would claim to be their "agent" might have attempted to pick up the mail for this, potentially fictional, individual.

Perhaps the one person from this period of history you might think of when we talk about humbugs would be P.T. Barnum.  And, as a matter of fact, Barnum wrote a book titled "The Humbugs of the World" that was published in 1866.  In it, he reveals a wide range of scams, including the very lottery scheme outlined by this letter.

P.T. Barnum 1851 - public domain image

Barnum revealed that there were several "companies" that used the same scheme including Boult & Co, T Seymour & Co, Hammett & Co, and Egerton Brothers.  And, while he ridiculed the scam itself, he had very little patience for those who sent them money either.

"Now, those who buy lottery tickets are very silly and credulous, or very lazy, or both. They want to get money without earning it. This foolish and vicious wish, however, betrays them into the hands of these lottery sharks. I wish that each of these poor foolish, greedy creatures could study on this set of letters awhile. Look at them. You see that the lithographed handwriting in all four is in the same hand. You observe that each of them incloses a printed hand-bill with “scheme,” all looking as like as so many peas. They refer, you see, to the same “Havana scheme,” the same “Shelby College Lottery,” the same “managers,” and the same place of drawing. Now, see what they say. Each knave tells his fool his only object is to put said fool in possession of a handsome prize, so that fool may run round and show the money, and rope in more fools."

 Later on in the same chapter, Barnum outlines another lottery scheme that appeared in late 1864.  This scam took the approach of telling the mark that they had a lottery ticket with their name on it that had already won, but since they hadn't purchased the ticket, they had to do something to collect their winnings.

“Your ticket has drawn a prize of $200,”—the letters all name the same amount—“but you didn’t pay for it; and therefore are not entitled to it. Now send me $10 and I will cheat the lottery-man by altering the post-mark of your letter so that the money shall seem to have been sent before the lottery was drawn. This forgery will enable me to get the $200, which I will send you.”

Barnum outlines clearly how the post office is often used for the lottery swindle.  The perpetrator could mail a batch of circulars at any post office.  And since they were printed (lithographed) they qualified for the cheaper postage rates.  They could drop the circulars off at a post office and leave town.  There would be no office or person there to whom it could be traced.

As far as payments, those too could be directed to some smaller post office where a relatively anonymous person could call for letters.  And if the postmaster or others in the town started acting as if they were suspicious, they could simply leave the area and allow the rest to go to the Dead Letter Office.  All the better to run the scam again some other day without being caught.

Mr. Meeker, I presume?

This envelope, mailed in 1936, was sent to a Mr. Lincoln V. Meeker.  The address directs the letter to the ship at Port of Spain, Trinidad.  However, when delivery was attempted, it was found that Mr. Meeker had "left the ship" and apparently no forwarding address was known.  As a result, the letter was returned to Albany, New York.  

The letter was sent via a Foreign Air Mail service to Trinidad at the cost of 20 cents per 1/2 ounce of weight.  This airmail letter rate was effective from Jan 1, 1930 until Nov 30, 1937.  For those who enjoy collecting US air mail, I believe this was carried on FAM route 6 from Miami.  Those who know air mail far better than I can confirm or deny that bit of information.

The September 10 Postal History Sunday included this item as one of a few that I featured on that date.  And, to be honest, I didn't give it too much space then.  Since that time, I have identified someone who could possibly be our mysterious Mr. Lincoln V. Meeker - the person who left the ship called the Steel Navigator before he could receive this letter from Albany, New York.

Lincoln V. Meeker (at left), Regional Director of Union Carbide Pan America 1967

I was able to locate someone with that name in a publication titled Revista das Classes Produtoras (Magazine of Production Classes), 1967\Ano XXIX N.991.  The connection between Union Carbide (where this Lincoln V Meeker served as Regional Director Pan America) and the Steel Navigator is largely coincidental - but how many Lincoln V Meekers existed that allow us to draw those lines?

The Steel Navigator was a commercial steam ship for the Isthmian Line.  This line of steamships were an outgrowth from the US Steel Corporation.  It was not uncommon for companies, such as US Steel, to begin looking to acquire ships and building their own transportation service branch.  

cover - US Steel News, July 1936

The Union Carbide story has some parallel history in that, like US Steel, it was first incorporated in the early 1900s.  Union Carbide's focus was on metal alloys early in its history.  It is credited with a low carbon ferrochrome that was a precursor to stainless steel.  

This is how we make a connection for Lincoln V. Meeker.  Is it possible that he was a passenger on the Steel Navigator - and perhaps an employee of US Steel?  His position with Union Carbide as the Pan America Regional Director gives us both a connection to related product lines and an area of the globe.  It is possible that the intended recipient for this letter was a young Lincoln V. Meeker and, at the point this letter got to Trinidad, he had gone forward on another ship, a plane, or whatever, to another location.

Or maybe he jumped ship to Union Carbide from US Steel?  

For now, this is all I've got to go on.  Obviously, we can't yet draw any conclusions - it's all just a few facts that, with a lot of imagination, just might hold together.  But, it's progress.  Even if that progress turns out to have gone in the wrong direction.

And now, we find ourselves at a stopping point for this week's edition of Postal History Sunday.  I hope you were entertained, at least a little bit.  And maybe, just maybe, you learned something new.

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Thank you for joining me today!  Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.

Soup's On

I have to admit it, Soup has never gotten much credit for her role at the Genuine Faux Farm.  And that might be because Soup typically doesn't do all that much.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I fully recognize that a cat has their own priorities for what is important and what isn't.  It's never entirely fair to place our human priorities on a feline, even if it is perfectly normal for a cat to place their own priorities on a human.  Still, Soup doesn't explore the farm much, doesn't seem to hunt, and she rarely picks up the pace much more than a stroll.

Her biggest contribution to the farm is probably the Inspector.  Yes, that big lug was Soup's kitten.

Soup was likely an indoor cat that someone dumped at the farm several winters ago.  We're guessing she was evicted because she apparently doesn't quite understand that the litter box is the ONLY place to go if you're an indoor cat.  Otherwise, she likes skritches and has always indicated she prefers to be inside buildings rather than outside of them.  She even enjoys a lap if the farmers sit down - a rare thing when they're outside.

In general, she's pretty mellow.  Sometimes Soup's a bit skittish if people are new to her or are moving quickly.  She doesn't like it if you bend down over her to pet her.  Instead, she'll approach if you kneel or squat down to her level.  And she sticks around the main part of the farm, closer to the house and buildings - apparently unwilling to push the boundaries unless the humans are around.

In general, she let's Murphy be the dominant cat between the two of them.  But, there is a sneaky streak hidden deep in this cat.  Murphy was playing with a rodent she had killed earlier and Soup noticed.  Murphy, being a bit of a brat as only a young cat can be, insisted on moving the show towards Soup, probably expecting the older can to do what she normally does - get out of the way.

Instead, Soup surprised everyone by snatching the dead mouse from Murphy, trotting several steps away, and then eating it.

No wasted motions.  No extra theatrics.  It was just, "Give me that, kid." and then it was gone after a few quick bites.

I guess we need to remember that even cats on the farm don't always fit in the boxes we put them in.

Trying to Be Flexible

The flex tine cultivator has been sitting in one spot for a few months, since I last used it, and it needs to get moved to its winter storage location.  There are some things we need to do to prepare the hen room for colder weather, like acquire new heaters for the water and put the plastic cover over the sides to cut the wind and keep some heat in.  And we still need to finish the end of season work in the high tunnels.

The Thanksgiving "break" on our farm is often a good time to do this work - but it's often a better time to be disappointed that we didn't complete these things BEFORE it got chilly enough to make the work uncomfortable.

Now, if there is sunshine, the high tunnels will be pretty nice to work in.  So, I don't want to complain about that too much.  But, I still need to organize the garage so the car can get into it.  Already Tammy has had to deal with frosted windows in the morning more times than I want to admit.  

Unfortunately, the garage is not a "warm" place to work anymore.  And there will be things I will look at and sadly recognize that I won't get those things done AGAIN this year.  The same thing will happen in the truck barn.. and the Poultry Pavilion.. and pretty much everywhere else I walk on the farm.

This is a cycle we go through every year.  It's probably a cycle that many of you who read the blog can recognize.  We spend so much time just navigating our lives that all of the grand plans that we expect to accomplish throughout a day, week, month, season or year, seem to get pushed aside.  Only the regret that they weren't realized remain.

Ok, regret and a solid resolve that we will do better next time.

You could try to tell me that we should adjust our goals to fit reality - but that won't work.  Part of the issue is that, when you are a steward of a small-scale farm, there are things that need to get done and no one else is going to do them.  But, in reality, the issue is big enough and complex enough that a simple paragraph or three doesn't even begin to cover it.

So, I find myself trying to model myself after the flex tine cultivator (the first image).  The heavy, but flexible tines bounce over the soil, disturbing it enough to uproot small weeds.  It bounces over and around tougher objects, like rocks or bigger plants.  I need to bounce around some of these bigger obstacles to continue to move forward and make things better.

And that's what soothes me when I am discontented with progress.  We are making progress, continually.  We just don't always have the huge visual or obvious improvements that we crave.  And, yes, we don't get to it all.  But, we're still moving forward.  

I just need to be flexible enough to accept that.

Using Thanksgiving to Cultivate Gratitude

On this day of the year, in the United States, we have created a holiday we call Thanksgiving.  Like so many things in this world, the depth and complexities remain hidden from so many of us - often in plain sight.  It is so much easier putting a nice little facade in front of the building to hide its true character which, like humanity itself, has its disappointing features and its redeeming qualities.

Because many of us like to have a good "origin" story, we have adapted events of 1621 to fit our idealized first Thanksgiving feast (though it was not ideal).  In fact, if you need to have a "Europeans in North America" Thanksgiving origin, that would actually be much earlier than 1621, according to this Smithsonian article.  But, we should not ignore that peoples throughout the world have celebrated the harvest and given thanks for the blessings of the Earth and the communities in which they live for probably as long as humans have had cause to be grateful.

And that, my friends, is where the root of my celebration of Thanksgiving comes from.  This day is important to me because it provides me with a ritual event where I am encouraged to think and ponder what it means to give thanks.  

What it means to have gratitude.  

What it means to have my eyes open to see the world with awe and wonder.

I try, most years, to write an annual Thanksgiving blog post.  The first such post stuck with being marginally promotional for the Genuine Faux Farm, local foods, and trying to encourage people to think about where and how their food was raised.  But, there was also real and intentional gratitude embedded in those writings.  There is never anything wrong with being genuinely thankful - and making sure you express joy, contentment, and satisfaction that might come with it.  It just so happened that my life, in particular, followed a tight orbit around the Genuine Faux Farm.  So, it should not be a surprise that my observations of the good things in this world might be filtered through that lens.

Over time, as I became more comfortable with the idea that I did not have to edit what I wanted to say so I wouldn't make a potential customer unhappy with me, I expanded my horizons for sharing in writing how I have gone about giving thanks. I suppose some of that freedom came from a realization that it was highly unlikely that a potential customer was going to read much of our blog anyway - except maybe one quick splurge out of curiosity.  But I think it was more the fact that I have a desire to be helpful to others - and that I do not always feel as if I have the power to accomplish that goal.

And now I speak a truth that I have spoken many Thanksgivings prior to this one.  Giving thanks is difficult.

And that's why having a day set aside for giving thanks is important.

It's not for the holiday feast.  It's not to celebrate a mythical, historical dinner.  It's not to show off for others.  It's not for the holiday shopping.  Or at least it shouldn't be.

It is because cultivating gratitude is HARD.  It is because exercising your awe and wonder for this world and the beings on it is IMPORTANT.

And this brings me back to this photo from July of 2010.  This picture reminds me that I can find reasons to give thanks, even in some of the darkest times.

It was in May of that year that Tammy and I were within a whisker's breadth of terminating the grand project that was the Genuine Faux Farm.  The rains had been so persistent that spring and early summer that our crops were literally drowning in the field.  But, we had committed to a field day to build our first high tunnel that July.  Despite considering cancelling, we decided to honor our commitments and we went through with it.

The rains were still falling up to the moment we started unloading the trailer (in fact there were a few raindrops then as well).  And then, the rains stopped.  The high tunnel was built.  And the sunset broke through the clouds.

There it was.  Something to be awestruck by.  Something that made me look at the world in wonder once more.  Something that provided the tiniest bit of hope.  Something we grabbed and ran with.

There are still miracles - and this was one of them in my life.  The miracle was the simple fact that I found enough energy and will inside of myself to recognize reasons to give thanks.  The miracle came when I lifted my head up from the soggy ground and took a moment to look at the world around me and seek out something positive.  It was difficult and I even felt foolish for reading so much into a sunset.  There was still so much work to be done to recover what looked like a lost season.

But this moment of awe and wonder was a turning point that would have been missed if we hadn't made ourselves READY for it with real effort and real intention.

I found new hope and new energy from that moment forward - because I took a moment to exercise my gratitude muscles.  I slowed down to appreciate the beauty of the world around me and it taught me once again that I was stuck in a rut that was largely of my own making.  Certainly, things were bad as far as our current crops and our farm were concerned.  But, we had so much support from so many people.  We were healthy and capable.  The good Earth had not abandoned us either, we just needed to find new ways to work with it and the current circumstance we were in.

I don't know where you are in your life right now.  I will never fully understand what troubles you or how hard things might be for you.  But, I can tell you that I also struggle sometimes to appreciate my life and offer gratitude for it and the things that surround it.  I can tell you that this seems to be normal as I have yet to find one person who does not fight this from time to time.

I can also tell you that seeking out something that evokes feelings of awe and wonder and working to exercise those gratitude muscles works for me.  Maybe it will work for you too?  We are all different and maybe a picture of a sunflower won't help you out much.  Or maybe it will.

Cultivating gratitude is not supposed to be easy, but the work is good, honest work - and the results are worthy of meaningful thanks.

Danger of Chlorpyrifos Revealed Over Time

It has been over a decade since the moment I felt the droplets of pesticides on my head and shoulders as a crop duster flew over our farm in Iowa.  To be precise, it has been 11 years, 3 months and 18 days since a mix of chlorpyrifos and two other pesticides was dumped on the western portion of our farm, coating our vegetable crops, our poultry, our bees, and our person, with an unwanted cocktail of poisons.  If you cannot tell by this introduction, that moment was a pivotal point for my farm and my life.

So, I was among those who were glad to hear that EPA effectively banned chlorpyrifos on food and feed crops in 2021, by setting tolerance levels of that pesticide on food to zero.  While it did not solve the problems of drift and pesticide misapplication I have experienced, I knew this step was an important one.  And now, I am among those who are equally dismayed by a recent court ruling that reversed EPA’s action to limit use of this dangerous insecticide.

Chlorpyrifos injury starts the journey

After I was coated with pesticides during the 2012 incident at our farm, I was left with the question, “Now what do I do?”  After a quick call to a trusted doctor, I ended up taking a shower for the next half hour.  But the damage was done.  I ended up having to seek treatment for breathing problems and I found that I sunburned much more easily during the weeks that followed.

That was my first truly meaningful introduction to chlorpyrifos – an acute pesticide poisoning caused by an aerial applicator that wasn’t terribly concerned about where they dropped the chemical.  Prior to that, it was just another pesticide that row crop farmers used on their crops every year.  I didn’t like it, but I lived in Iowa and that’s how it was.  I was just like other members in a rural community – we just dealt with it.

I also farmed, but I had opted not to use any form of chemical pesticide, preferring to use crop rotation, intercropping and wild spaces to deal with pests and diseases.  So, while I was aware that other farmers used them, I didn’t really concern myself too much with the details of particular chemicals or formulations.  I was more concerned that their applications of pesticides stay on their side of the fence.

But after experiencing this misapplication, I became invested in learning about chlorpyrifos and other pesticides.  And, what I was learning moved me from having a general concern that pesticides were a philosophical problem to a growing realization that they posed a great danger to us all.

Chlorpyrifos drifts easily

A few years later, in 2015, our farm participated in PAN’s Drift Catcher, a citizen-science project.  As a participant, we were given a compressor that would pull air through test tubes with resins that would collect certain insecticides, chlorpyrifos among them, if they were there.

I diligently changed the test tubes twice a day during spray season.  I labeled each carefully and placed them in a freezer until all of the samples were collected and could be sent in for testing.  I wrote down observations about the weather and took notes about who in the area was spraying.

When the results came back, we learned that we had “positive results” for chlorpyrifos.  And this was certainly one of those times where “positive” did not mean “good.”  Neither of these readings were taken at a time when one of the fields adjacent to our farm was applying pesticides.  Instead, both readings came at a time when the target field was at least a half-mile away.

It was at this moment I learned something else.  Chlorpyrifos drifts from its target application easily and well.  Particle drift of pesticides occurs during the spray, or application, process.  Smaller particles of the pesticide can be carried by the wind to locations outside of the intended spray zone.  Some pesticides are more prone to drift than others, and chlropyrifos is among those that drift easily.

TWA – Time Weighted Average; REL – Reference Exposure Level

As I reviewed our test results, I was astonished to learn that one set of positive readings was the result of an application that was over a half-mile away and, while the wind was coming our way, the wind speed did not exceed five miles an hour.

I started to ask myself how much exposure people like Tammy, my partner, and I have had to chlorpyrifos over the years?  How much did we inadvertently allow our farmworkers, often college or high school students – somebody’s children – to be exposed to these chemicals?  And what about the neighbors’ children?  Clearly chlorpyrifos travels through the air and is finding its way into our bodies.  And we knew its use was, and still is, ubiquitous in our state.

EPA needs to affirm and complete the chlorpyrifos ban

I realize that it is often difficult for people to fully appreciate and understand the dangers chlorpyrifos poses to those who are regularly exposed to it – until they or someone they care for experiences it for themselves.  I am ashamed to admit that I was among those people.  But now I have had some of my own experiences and I believe it is important to share them with you – hoping you will understand without going through this process of discovery by exposure.

This is why it is important for the EPA to re-establish the chlorpyrifos ban on food and feed products.  But, that, by itself, isn’t the whole story.  The food ban does not impact corn crops for ethanol, or row crops used for seed production.  It does not remove its availability for ornamental plants or roadside applications. This is why I believe the EPA should go further and simply ban its use entirely.

It’s for the good of farmworkers who spend their days outdoors and in harm’s way.  It’s for the children in communities who play next door to fields that receive regular applications of this chemical.  It’s for you and me, because we don’t need persistent doses of this dangerous pesticide in our lives any longer.

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This blog is cross-posted from the Pesticide Action Network's Ground Truth blog.  I write and serve as Communications Manager for that organization.

A Sense of Fun - Postal History Sunday

This week's Postal History Sunday is being written "on location" at Chicagopex, an annual event held in (surprise!) Chicago every November.  The name "Chicagopex" is a combination of the city name and a shortening of "Philatelic EXposition" or PEX and it is a three-day event where philatelists (stamp collectors) and postal historians gather.  There are opportunities to buy and sell items, chances to view interesting exhibits of material, and time to chat with others who have similar or related interests.

I was enjoying my time at the show, but there was a low-grade worry niggling at my brain as Saturday progressed.  What was I going to do for Postal History Sunday this week?  I'd started a few things, but none were so close that they would be an easy finish.

item in John Hornbeck's exhibit

Then, as I was looking at an exhibit that focused on a specific type of Dutch postmark called a "point cancellation," I saw a cover from a town called Sneek.  While the name is pronounced to sound more like Snek, I still can't help myself but read it as an American might (sneek).  And that's when I started considering my sense of fun.

After all, if my mispronunciation amuses me and then gets me to look a little longer at Dutch point cancels - why not?  And the good news is that there was some nice postal history from the 1860s in that exhibit that caught my interest too.

 

For example, here is an item that might make a nice "Merry Chase" PHS entry.  It was mailed from Amersfoort in the Netherlands to Florence.  It looks like Milano (Milan) and Venezia (Venice) were also part of its travels.  This is the sort of thing that is often "fun" for me.  But what is fun for me may not be the main interest for someone else.  In this case, John Hornbeck focuses on those cancellations, postmarks that were used to show that a stamp was used to pay the postage.

from Chip Gliedman's exhibit

 Here's a different sense of fun that might be understood by a broader range of the population (unless more people than I think like the "Sneek" angle).  How about a piece of mail that was salvaged from the wreck of the Hindenburg?  

Yeah. That wreck.

While there is nothing actually fun about the disaster and the loss of life that came with it, there is something amazing about seeing, in person, an artifact that survived the crash.  It's the sort of amazing thing that most people can relate to.

from Omar Rodriguez's exhibit

Postal history and philately covers a lot of territory and those who enjoy it can approach it from all sorts of directions.  The first postage stamp issue for Mexico was overprinted with the name of each district and it could be an interesting challenge to see if a person could find an example from each district.  Including Tabasco.

And yes, tabasco sauce used a pepper that originated from this region as a principle ingredient. 

from Jim Mazeppa's exhibit

Sometimes, philatelists and postal historians pick different ways to focus on what they study and collect.  We can focus on cancellations, geographic regions, time periods or maybe a specific postage stamp issue.

The Overrun Countries issue of 1943 and 1944 featured the flags of countries overrun by the Axis powers.  As a young collector, this was a series that I hoped to complete some day.  So, of course, I can't help but appreciate seeing a whole exhibit featuring that series.

And when you focus on some smaller portion of philately or postal history, a person can dig into all kings of details.  For example, the process of printing these bi-color stamps could result in some flaws in the printing.  Shown above are examples where the red ink was doubled, making it look blurry.

from the exhibit of Charles O'Brien

And that brings me to another way to have fun with philately and postal history.  We can look at ways where things went... well... wrong.

If the paper being used to print a postage stamp was folded at the time it was run through the printer, it left an unprinted area when (and if) it is unfolded.  Stamp printing processes typically had good quality control processes, but enough are printed that errors sometimes find their way into the wild.  Some people enjoy the hunt for things that are different because there were errors in the production process.

from John Hotchner's exhibit

Speaking of things that didn't quite go as intended.  There are people who enjoy tracking down forgeries of postage stamps.  Sometimes, those forgeries can be found on a cover that someone actually tried to use a forged stamp to pay the postage.  

In the case above, the attempt was not successful and the Postmaster at the town of mailing contacted the Postal Inspector.

from Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's exhibit

 

And sometimes, you can have fun by exploring reasons for odd things like - why is Napoleon frequently featured with one hand tucked into his clothing at his stomach?  Apparently, it was a way to symbolize "gentlemanly restraint" and was often associated with nobility.  It wasn't because he bit his fingernails and it left them unsightly and distracting to look at.  And it probably wasn't because he had a perpetually upset stomach. 

And, hey, have a little fun. Pick your own absurd or not so absurd reason why it was important for Napoleon to conceal one hand while being painted.  But, I do think the idea that it was a way to cultivate an image of nobility and power was certainly consistent with his ambitions.

My own sense of fun

Frankly, I found myself enjoying just flitting around the exhibits, taking an image of things that just popped out at me for whatever reason.  And, once my attention was grabbed by something in an exhibit, I allowed myself the opportunity to try to appreciate what made the topic fun for the person who was sharing their efforts with all of us.  I found myself appreciating the work of all who put together their materials to build a display - even if the topic or approach was not something I would want to do myself.

After all, my own sense of fun often tends toward rate and route puzzles like this one that was posed to me at the show by someone else.

This particular item is a cover front (the back has been cut off - and maybe some of the sides have also been reduced).  But ,there are four, 5-cent stamps and a single 1-cent stamp from the US 1861 postage series.  The color of the five cent stamps is known as "buff" and is an uncommon color to find in this condition on a piece of postal history.  And that's probably one of the biggest reasons a philatelist would like it.

But, what about a postal historian?

This is not a typical example of a letter sent from the United States to Switzerland in 1862.  There is a lot of different stuff going on and there was some question as to whether there was any reasonable explanation for how it all hangs together.  We even have to consider if it doesn't hang together!  And if that's the case, we have to decide if that means it's been altered in a way that its value as a postal history item was in question.

And here's where I make you all shake your heads and wonder what in the world is wrong with me.  How can ANYONE possibly enjoy looking at an old, messy, piece of paper and think it would be fun to decipher and determine as much as they possibly can about it?

Well, that's the thing about a person's sense of fun.  It doesn't have to make sense.  It just has to be fun for that person.

This letter was mailed at the post office in Hallowell, Maine (located south of Augusta), and postmarked on May 27, 1862.  From there, it traveled to Boston, which served as a foreign exchange office for mail to France.  Yes, Boston was an exchange office for other locations, but I opted to say France because that's where this item was originally addressed.

The address panel reads: G.D. Gelman, Esq, care of John Munroe and Co, Bankers in Paris, France.

The Boston exchange marking says: Boston, May 28, Paid 24

This corresponds with the departure of the Cunard Line ship Niagara on that same day.  It crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland) on June 8.  The "Paid 24" indicated that 24 cents needed to be passed to France for their share of the postal expenses.

And that's our first indication that something might be amiss here.  There's only 21 cents in postage on this cover.  With the "Paid 24" marking and a letter addressed to France, we should expect 30 cents in postage to pay for a double weight letter from the US to France using the 15 cents per 1/4 ounce rate.

Shown above is another cover with 30 cents in postage sent from New York to France in 1866.  It clearly shows a "Paid 24" credit in the New York exchange marking.  It too, was carried on a Cunard Line steamship across the Atlantic.

The red double circle marking is French (dated June 10), and the red box marking that reads "P.D." tells us that the French considered this letter paid in full.  So, now we have both Boston and the French postal clerks declaring this letter paid.  That tells me there was likely 30 cents paid... somehow... for this item.  Maybe the extra nine cents were paid in cash.  Maybe there were some stamps on the back (which is now missing).  We can't know for certain.

But here's where it gets really interesting!

John Monroe and Company served as a forwarding agent for travelers.  They remailed this letter to a new address in Interlaken, Switzerland.  The two black Paris marks indicate that it was remailed and no additional postage was provided.  Instead, there are two "40" markings on the cover that indicate to us that 40 Swiss centimes would be due at the point of delivery.

It just so happens that the postage rate for a letter from France to Switzerland in 1862 was 40 centimes per 7.5 grams at the time. Shown above is an 1865 letter from France to Switzerland that was short paid (and treated as unpaid).  It too, shows us the red "40" marking to indicate 40 centimes must be collected on delivery. So that also matches up - another good sign.

So let's review for a second.

The US to France rate was 15 cents per 1/4 ounce which is about 7.1 grams.  This letter was sent as a double weight letter from the US to France, which means it weighed more than 7.1 grams.

The Swiss rate for an unpaid letter from France was 40 centimes per 7.5 grams.  Which means this letter weighed no more than 7.5 grams.

Yes, sometimes you can get that precise if there are enough clues.  Fun for me.  Maybe it makes no sense for you.  But remember, my sense of fun only really needs to be fun for me!

So, that leaves us with a question.  The 21 cents in postage appear to have been purposely placed on this letter, even though it ended up being the incorrect amount. So, we need to answer the question - why would someone so badly miss the payment amount for a letter addressed to Paris France?

One theory that seems to fit:

The sender in Hallowell knew G.D. Gelman was traveling and that the itinerary placed them in Switzerland by the time the letter got to Europe.  Knowing this, they put postage on the letter for the 21 cent per 1/4 ounce rate to Switzerland.  But, they only knew to send the letter to the forwarding agent in Paris...

Upon presenting this at the post office, the sender was informed that not only was the letter overweight, they could only pay the postage to France because the letter was ADDRESSED to France.  At that time, it looks like this person paid cash OR additional postage was placed on the reverse of this cover (which is now missing).

The letter got to Paris and was recognized as paid in full, but then had to be remailed, postage due.

The back of the cover probably had one or two Swiss markings and maybe one or two French markings.  I am guessing it had a Paris receiving marking for its arrival in Paris on the 10th.  I suspect it might have had a French rail transit marking from Paris to Bale (Basel). The Swiss markings might have been a Swiss rail exchange/transit marking and a receiving mark at the destination.

A second theory that might fit is that the letter was intended to be sent via British Open Mail on an American Packet (steamship), but through some series of errors it went on the British Packet and was treated as fully paid.  In my mind, the first theory seems to fit better.

Well, if you made it this far, good for you!  I appreciate your willingness to tolerate my sense of fun for a little while.  

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.