Three Years - Postal History Sunday

Well everyone, we made it.  Welcome to the third anniversary edition of Postal History Sunday - also known as the 156th entry of the weekly series.  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.   

This week's post is a celebration.  I thought I would share things in the "threes" today to symbolically represent three years of posts.  But before I get started, let me remind you that Postal History Sunday is written to be accessible to anyone who has interest.  There are readers who have expertise in various areas of postal history and others who simply appreciate learning something new, but are not otherwise inclined to dig into the subject.   All of you are welcome and I hope you find something to enjoy.

Let's start with the question, "which three Postal History Sunday's come to mind when someone asks you for blogs you most enjoyed writing?"

Three PHS I enjoyed writing

These were posted in bakeries with suggested guidelines for bread prices.

The Price of Bread is an earlier Postal History Sunday (April 2021) that has a great deal going for it.  First of all, the item that started my interest on the topic didn't look terribly special on the outside, but the contents (shown above) really grabbed my attention.  

This paper was posted in bakeries to show that they were following voluntary price guidelines for bread that were established by the government and based on the price of the grains used to bake bread.  Voluntary price controls was a fairly new situation in France and free trade for bakers was established in France in mid-1863.  Prior to that, there were taxe officielle that set prices for bread and these controls were actually a tool that was used to maintain the peace in France.

Discovery of this item led me to search for other examples and I took great delight in exploring the topic of official and unofficial price controls for bread.  This post is an excellent example of starting with the postal history and using it to explore the social history connected to it.

A triple rate letter from the United States to France

The first one is an example of my writing about an area in postal history (and social history) with which I had less familiarity.  The next one is an illustration of a PHS that features materials and a topic area I know extremely well.  Let's Send a Letter to France (Oct 2022) represents an effort where I feel as if I was able to find some of the best words to explain a relatively complex topic - mail from the United States to France in the 1860s.   

This time around, the focus for me was entirely on word choice, topic ordering and illustrations.  I did not have to also manage a research process at the same time I was navigating the writing of the blog.  I can truly say that this blog was a joy to write because it was a celebration of years of learning and accumulated experience that I had an opportunity to share with anyone who felt like reading it.   

My third example of an article I really enjoyed writing is the offering titled Did Garibaldi Delay the Mail? (Nov 2022) that featured an exploration of the cover shown above.  This particular cover has been a long-term puzzle for me as I have sought the best explanation for why it doesn't seem to follow the patterns shown by other covers from the US to Rome during the same time period.

This particular entry afforded me a chance to put into words where my research had taken me.  The effort of trying to explain the problem and present the surrounding information was incredibly valuable to me as I continued to dig into the problems presented by this cover.  The conclusions I share there may not be my absolute final solution, but I feel much better about those conclusions after the effort required to write this Postal History Sunday.

Three tidbits I take ridiculous amounts of pleasure in having discovered them for a Postal History Sunday

There is an island near Bingen where an old tower still stands - and it bears the name Mäuseturm - which is translated as "the Mouse Tower."  This name may actually be a alteration of the name based on a High German word that made reference to this being a watchtower.

In the present day, is known for its connection to a legend that features the Archbishop of Mentz who treated the peasantry cruelly, murdering many of the poor to prevent them from eating too much of the food that was in short supply.  Archbishop Hatto fled to this tower to escape an army of mice, who pursued him there - he was then devoured by the mice as God's judgement for his wicked ways.

This little piece of information in Dominoes (Jan 2022) has become my "go-to" odd fact when someone asks me for an example of strange things I have discovered as I research Postal History Sunday entries, but it's not the only one.

To give you a bit of background, my Bachelor's Degree is in Mathematics and Computer Science.  So, imagine my geeky delight when I discovered that the recipient of the letter featured in Foolish Desire (Feb 2023), Erastus DeForest, is credited with the initial discovery of the chi-square distribution (for those who know some statistics).  Four of his papers (published from 1866 to 1871) are listed in this Catalog of Scientific Papers compiled by the Royal Society of London 1877 (vol VII). 

And finally, one more factoid that I still take delight in learning as I researched Night Flight (Apr 2023).

Postmaster General Harry S New indicated that the US Post Office was aware that night flying was going to be necessary in his 1923 Report of the Postmaster General, signalling a new trans-Continental schedule that included night flying to begin on July 1, 1924.  Beacon lights were installed along the route from Chicago to Cheyenne, Wyoming every three miles to guide the pilots in the section of the route scheduled to be flown at night.  

If you have ever been in the country and well away from towns or cities, you might have an idea how dark it can get.  Now imagine trying to fly a plane at night without any light to guide you.

Three covers I actually acquired because I wanted to write a Postal History Sunday about them

As a rule, I have always had an attraction to items that I think will have an interesting story to tell.  But, I will readily admit that I have added a couple of items to my own collection because I wanted to research and write a Postal History Sunday about it.  The great news about that is, a great story doesn't necessarily require a huge price tag!

Shown above is an example of an item that attracted my attention because of the potential story I could uncover.  The key is the part of the address that reads "Friends Ambulance Unit" (FAU) and I was able to write the PHS entry titled Friends in Need (May 2022).  While I actually acquired this before I was writing Postal History Sunday, I did pick it up because I saw the potential.  

J.R. Little was among those involved in the FAU from its very beginning, and he coordinated acquiring and delivering resources to the FAU across the English Channel providing care for the wounded in World War I.  An old envelope providing a window into a much bigger story is something I really enjoy.

Unlike the first cover, the one shown above was picked up specifically because I wanted to write a Postal History Sunday about it.  And, in fact, it only took me a couple of weeks to accomplish that task.  

Quarantine! (Aug 2022) is an article where I was able to do some detective work to ascertain that the writer was Dr. John Swinburne, who was appointed to the post of Health Officer for the Port of New York in March of 1864 - one month prior to the sending of this particular letter.  The Health Officer was responsible for the Quarantine Station and the processes of quarantining and dealing with persons arriving at the port who were suffering from infectious disease.

Then there is this flashy item that had a connection to my home state and the railroad company that I saw frequently as it maintained a schedule through my home town as I grew up.  It was very inexpensive, but the personal connection motivated me to purchase it and hunt down the story behind it.

Trains of Thought (Dec 2022) was refreshing because it was simply fun.  It's a good example of the balance I am hoping I can manage to maintain over time with Postal History Sunday.  Sometimes it can be enjoyable to really get into the details of postal history (rates, routes, etc) and other times it's better to keep the topic lighter.  Remember, I am hoping people with all levels of interest in postal history can find something to enjoy here.

The three most popular Postal History Sundays

I have had people ask me periodically how much traffic Postal History Sunday gets.  My answer is that online metrics have real limitations when it comes to translating visits to actual readership levels.  But, you can get a sense for overall trends and which articles have gotten the most attention.

According to the metrics supplied by Blogger, here are the three most visited Postal History Sunday entries!

1. Up, Up and Away
2. Business, Madness and Social Betterment
3. Thurn and Taxis

These are all entries from 2021, which does not mean there were more readers at that time than there is now.  Remember, once an article is published, it is available to be read from that point on.  So, it makes sense that older posts have more visits - especially if there are links from newer Postal History Sundays (or other places on the internet) that point to them.

Three items I am looking forward to writing about

Today's Postal History Sunday is not just about what has been, it is also about what we hope will be in the future.  I have several topics I hope to write about in the future - assuming I can find the time and energy to follow through.  I thought I would share three items I hope to write about soon.

Here's an envelope that carried seeds through the mail from the James J.H. Gregory seed company in (probably) 1870.  My personal connection to growing vegetables and farming, combined with my affinity for postal history, makes this an excellent target.  I've combined farming topics with postal history a few times with some success.  So, it feels like it is about time to keep things balanced by going that direction again soon.

Here's another one that is very different from the normal Postal History Sunday.  Anyone who has been a collector from childhood - and it doesn't matter what that collection is - will have some soft spots for items that caught their eye when they were younger.  For example, many kids find it easier to be attracted to stamps featuring animals instead of those that illustrate historical figures or events.

The giraffe in the stamp shown above is part of a series I remember appreciating when I was younger.  So, it's pretty neat to have an envelope that used one of those stamps to pay the postage.

And, of course, there needs to be at least one 24-cent 1861 item in here.  The cover shown above, in combination with a couple of other covers, provides an opportunity for a great story that I have been working on for some time.  But, like so many stories of this sort, it's going to take some time to get it right.  But, we'll get there one day - and hopefully you'll be there to enjoy it, just as I'll enjoy writing it.

Thank you so much for joining me today.  We'll be back to a more "normal" PHS next week.  But, until then I hope you have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

Some bonus material

Tammy and I spent the last few days in Cleveland, Ohio to attend the Great American Stamp Show, sponsored by the APS (American Philatelic Society).  This show is held yearly and is the largest conference / bourse style gathering in the United States.  

I had the opportunity to speak with several other people who enjoy philately (stamp collecting) and postal history and was honored to receive several compliments for Postal History Sunday.  One of the most common compliments was that, while I did not write specifically about the parts of the hobby they focus on, they still found PHS to be entertaining, accessible, and even useful.  One person told me that they knew that, even if they knew nothing about the topic going in, I would not abandon them in the process of exploring it.

Thank you all for your kind words and the support it gives me.  Keep the questions, suggestions and corrections coming.  Feel free to tell me if something wasn't clear and I'll certainly try to explain things in another way.

There were many exhibits at the show.  In fact, there were so many that there was no way a person could easily find the time to enjoy them all.  However, I identified a couple that I wanted to explore a bit more deeply, including the fine exhibit about the Grand Trunk Railway by James Allen. This exhibit shows items for a rail line that interests me because some of my postal history from the 1860s relied on it to get from place to place.

I also had the pleasure of talking with Mark Thompson about his Women of the Black Heritage Series exhibit.  Mark received a gold award for the first time with his exhibit and he is to be congratulated for his efforts.  Each woman featured on these postage stamps has the equivalent of a Postal History Sunday article in this exhibit and I applaud him for his careful work in honoring these outstanding people.

And a big thank you to Chip Gliedman for the personalized "tour" of his Postal History Map of the United States.  It's a gleeful approach to collecting and sharing postal history items in a way that could resonate with most anyone.  His idea?  Find a really neat piece of postal history from each state in the nation and put them in their place on a map.  Everything from a cover partially burned in the crash of the Hindenburg to an item with connections to the Choctaw Nation.

And that's all I've got this week.  I hope to see you again next week for Postal History Sunday.

It Doesn't Always Take Much

Not every seed lands where there is rich, deep soil.  Sometimes they land in a place where the odds are very much against future success.  And yet, sometimes the seed finds that there is just enough.  Enough to begin to grow and find its way in a world that isn't giving it much to go on.

Sometimes a young tree has to innovate if its going to grow.  Or maybe this one was an Ent that sat down on a rock and has yet to stir from its spot. 

Trees can be pretty amazing - and it's pretty enjoyable to see how they make things work with what they have available to them.  It's a good lesson in persistence and adaptability.

PAN Iowa News

I thought this would be a good time to share the Iowa Newsletter that I author periodically for Pesticide Action Network.  If you live in Iowa and would like to receive these, along with alerts and our Ground Truth blog in your email, you can join PAN here.  This gives you a quick look into some of the things I do as a part of my off-farm job.

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When we first moved to the place that has become the Genuine Faux Farm, the first neighbor to approach us was an older woman who “only lived a half-mile or so away.” She brought cookies and invited us over for dinner when we were ready. It was a kind offer that we were, honestly, a bit startled, but still grateful, to receive. You see, in all of our other places of residence, we had not been welcomed by a neighbor – so we did not expect anything different this time around.

While we did not spend a great deal of time over the years with Ruth and her husband, Loren, we did do our best to be good neighbors to them, even when the farm and jobs made it difficult to carve out the time. This is the model we would like to be reality in rural Iowa all of the time. Neighbors welcoming and helping neighbors.

Today, Ruth’s grandson lives in the house down the road and we’re pleased to say that we also get along just fine. He recently gave us the “no spray” sign shown above that belonged to a mutual acquaintance named Sparky. Sparky approached us during our first year of farming when they learned we intended to follow organic practices and encouraged us to be strong advocates.

You might notice that it does all sorts of things to be “loud.” Exclamation points!! Capital letters! Underlining the word “NO!” Bright colors and even a neat little trick with a pair of eyes.

Sometimes, those of us who wish to raise food or work with the land in a way that is not reliant on chemicals find ourselves needing to be loud, even if we don’t like being loud. Otherwise, it feels like too many folks seem to believe it is okay if they infringe on the practices of growing that we are dedicating ourselves to following. In fact, we can sometimes become downright unpleasant if we find ourselves having to try to defend the small parcels of land we steward over and over and over again, with no discernible changes in behavior that might indicate we’ve been heard at all.

Sparky and his friend, Kent, were vocal and, sometimes, bitter, about pesticide drift and misapplication. Kent spoke passionately against the “aerial terrorists” that were becoming far more common in Iowa in the years just prior to his premature death in 2010. He and Sparky both encouraged us to hold our ground and do what we needed to do.

In the present day, we find ourselves with two legacies that we have agreed to follow. We believe in doing our best to be good, and considerate, neighbors. And, while we are not the same kind of loud as those before us, we still do what we can to get people to listen and consider better alternatives to chemical-based food production systems.

If you would like to learn about ways we are “being loud” at PAN, read on!

Thank you for being willing to consider my thoughts and words. Be well,

Rob Faux
PAN’s Communications Manager
Owner/Operator, Genuine Faux Farm, Tripoli, IA

PAN’s website has a new look

If you haven’t visited our website recently, I would like to invite you to do so.  The Communications Team at PAN, which includes yours truly, are pleased with the results.  The resources that people value are easier to find and we will use the new design to provide more dynamic content that we can all use to make a difference as we do our best to “be loud” when it comes to our stand for agroecology and against chemical-based, corporate farming and food production.

We appreciate your feedback, including if you identify a problem with our website.  Please feel free to contact us through the various access points you can find while you visit.

Being louder…visually

Perhaps you have already noticed if you are on some of the various social media platforms, but PAN has been producing more original content that combines excellent artwork by Mikhaila Markham with writing support by the Communications Team.  One of our recent efforts has a specific relevance to Iowa.

We would like to encourage you to like and share these images to reach a wider audience so we can be louder when we speak about things that matter to us all.  We can be found on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Other things on my mind

It is still also possible to “be loud” with the written word.  Even though this year’s Pollinator Week is in the rear-view mirror, pollinators have been very much on my mind recently.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing an exploration of different pollinators that we often fail to appreciate.  I didn’t stop there, also considering the role lawn diversity could have in supporting these pollinator populations in our world.

 

If we truly want to support pollinators in Iowa, we need to reconsider the use of seed treated with neonicotinoid pesticides.  At the very least, the loophole that allows these treatments to remain unregulated needs to be closed.  Perhaps we can take some ideas from recent legislation in Minnesota to inform future work here as we seek to be a bit louder about the possibilities of a better, and healthier, future in our state.

A Ridiculously Good Game

In the Summer, we sometimes start the day off (after chores) with a bird game (Wingspan) and we often end the day with a bird game throughout the year.  I've written about it before, but if you don't recall this is a chance for Tammy and I to remember that we are not completely defined by our workplaces or the farm.  Instead, we are defined by the birds that we play in our three habitats!

Ok, no.  That's not really why we play the game regularly.  Well, the first part is - we are reminding ourselves that we are allowed to spend some time together doing something we enjoy.  It doesn't all have to be about getting feed to birds, irrigating crops, prepping syllabi, preparing for webinars and all of that other stuff we so often find ourselves doing.

Sometimes it's about getting both a Chihuahuan Raven and a Kildeer early in the game and finding a way to parlay that into 173 points.

Let's just say that it was a busy (and fun) game for both of us.  Even if Tammy is a bit sad about losing when she finished with 133 points.

For those who do not know the game, we regularly land in the 85 to 110 point range.  To exceed 120 is considered a very good game.  130+ is a rare exceptional game.

173 is.... ridiculous.  And we both know it.

Now, before you think the wrong thing, you should know that I also own the lowest score for this game too - and it's ... ahem... a little over 100 points lower than this one.  Apparently, my style of play is much more volatile than Tammy's is.

But, we both still enjoy playing and we tend to split the wins evenly.  

Though I might want to bask just a little bit longer after this one.

Supporting Pollinators with Lawn Diversity

I realized I had fallen behind in sharing some of my Pesticide Action Network writing that is published on their website.  This is one of those cases where I started the thought process on our farm blog and then refined it for a broader audience.  This way you get to see both!  This was published on June 22 in PAN's News and Analysis on the website.

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Pollinator Week happens once each year and I always hope to write one or two articles for PAN to get the word out that we can and must support our pollinators. But, as a steward of a small-scale, diversified farm, I can’t afford to think about pollinators for one week. I think about them year-round.

In late April and early May, the grassy areas on our farm were dotted purple with Common Violets, especially under the oak trees and by our smaller high tunnels (a hoop house where we grow vegetables). These little lawn jewels bloom longer in years when we aren’t having our ninth driest May on record. Seeing them got me thinking about how strange it is that we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that less life is better in the outdoor spaces around us, that a “well-maintained” lawn is preferable to a diverse landscape that provides food for our pollinators.

Clover, dandelions, and violets – oh my!

I remember spending a fair amount of time outside and on the ground when I was a kid so I could look at clover, dandelions and violets. My siblings and I even bought into the May Day idea of collecting some of the early spring flowers and putting them into baskets. The only difficulty was figuring out which houses would appreciate finding one of those little baskets at their door after we put them there, knocked – and ran away.

Not everyone saw the beauty in a small, sometimes bedraggled, bouquet of flowers. It’s kind of a shame that so many people didn’t, really.

Violets are an indicator of healthy diversity

If you were (or still are) one of those children who took some amount of delight in picking a few Common Violets, you would know that each flower appears atop its own stem that comes from the top of the root ball. There are no leaves, or other flowers, that share the stem. This means they are perfect for miniature flower art projects.

Every so often, I have found violets that are white, which seems like a conflict of interest or something. Aren’t violets supposed to be . . . violet? Well it turns out that is true, except when they’re white, or maybe even yellow. While yellow violets are a different species, the Common Violet can sometimes have white coloration. We had a couple of plants that featured mostly white flowers down by the high tunnel last year, but I did not see them this year.

Yes, I noticed that they weren’t there. Yes, I went looking for them. And, yes, I missed them.

Some people herald violets for their potential as a foraged food in natural landscapes. Both the leaves and flowers are edible, though I will admit that I prefer observing them to eating them myself. On the other hand, there is another camp that sees violets as a nasty weed to be controlled. After all, you wouldn’t want a slightly different texture and a little color to become part of our urban landscape!

At least some lawn care sites provide a little balance, citing the Common Violet’s beauty and potential as a food item – before telling you how to kill them with herbicides.

Dandelions welcome

Perhaps you don’t think it’s odd to look for violets, but you do think I am at least a little strange for enjoying a nice, healthy bloom of dandelions. But maybe you would change your mind if you noticed the bumblebees bumbling their way around the flowers during their early season flights.

Isn’t it strange how we have somehow decided that clover, dandelions and violets are all undesirables in our lawns and grassy areas? It is documented that Europeans brought dandelions with them as both a food and medicine. Some sources make the claim that dandelions were introduced to North America by the Puritans in the 1600s, though the actual introduction to the continent is a bit less certain.

We wanted dandelions in our lives until we started listening to the sales pitch that they should be killed. Especially if we spent the money for products promoted by the pesticide and synthetic herbicide industries.

From a soil health perspective, we like the way the deep taproots of the dandelion loosen and aerate the soil. We feel that these same roots bring nutrients up from deeper soil layers so they can be used by other plants. And, because they draw most of their moisture and food from a deeper soil layer, they often don’t compete with our food crops, so they aren’t a bad weed for a vegetable farm.

We can relearn that clover isn’t bad

And then there is the clover. Prior to the 1960s, clover was a regular part of lawn seed mixes until the herbicide industry began selling the idea that grass, and only one kind of grass, should be welcome in a “well-maintained” lawn. I still remember that barefoot children always took note of where the clover was so they didn’t accidentally step on a bee and get stung! Now, barefoot children stay off the lawn because it’s been recently sprayed with pesticides.

Give me more clover, more violets and even more dandelions. Certainly, there will be places on our farm where we remove some in favor of other plants. But as far as weeds go, these three are our friends. And, they, along with other flowering plants, provide a long season of food for our pollinators.

Why They're Called Chores

This past weekend, Tammy and I went from a busy week to a different kind of busy.  There were some important farm things that were reaching a critical tipping point - and we finally gave ourselves the time to attempt to address them.  

The biggest issue?  Things REALLY start growing in July.  Especially weeds and the grass around our electric netting.  Obviously, if we let the weeds have their way, our crops aren't going to do all that well.  And, if we don't deal with the tall stuff around the netting, the fences won't do a thing to prevent the rabbits and the annoying deer from harvesting more than their allotment.

So, we spent hours on Saturday in our Southwest plot weeding the rows that were getting out of hand.  And, while we were at it, we took the fence down and cleaned things up before putting the fence back up.

There was a lot of crawling.  These were the types of weeds that mechanical help wasn't going to do much for us, so we hand-pulled.  Then, we picked those weeds up and loaded them into Rosie's bucket (Rosie is our tractor) so they could compost.  There was a lot of effort put into the process during a day that turned out to be quite sunny and a bit warm if you're on black soil in the middle of the day.

Once we completed the work, I don't think anyone would blame us if we found a shady spot and spent the rest of the day sipping lemonade and iced tea and chatted about pleasant things.

But that's not how things work on a farm.  You see, you still have to put all of your tools away and then you have to do all of the farm chores.  There is a reason they are called chores.

You've got to do them even when you're very tired.  Or when you're quite ill.  Or EVEN when you just don't feel like doing them.

It doesn't matter if you've worked hard all day long.  It doesn't matter if you've been away for most of the day.  The birds still need to be put away each day and eggs need collecting.  The high tunnels need to be inspected and closed up.  And the laying hens don't really care if you've already had enough of the day.  They'll still take their sweet time finding their way to their sleeping perches in the Summer Cottage out by Crazy Maurice.

Now, the good, or bad, news - depending on how you look at it - is that there were two days this past weekend.  Sunday was cloudier, cooler and it had some light rain.  The rain wasn't heavy enough to stop the outdoor work, but it sure did make a person damp a bit faster than some good, old-fashioned sweat.  

In my case, I was able to accomplish the task of sweating and getting rained on at the same time.  

Multi-talented, I am.

First, on Sunday morning, we had to do what?  Yes, you got it.  We had to do farm chores.  Because, it doesn't matter if you woke up with a serious case of the "stiff and sore."  The birds still need water and food.  You've got to let them out, too.  The Farm Supervisory Crew demand their food, water, and an appropriate amount of skritching.  Plants need water and high tunnels need to be opened before the day gets too warm.

After that, I spent time working on Freyr field, where we had another electric fence that needed to be cleaned up and reset.  Tammy worked on harvesting green beans (and she succeeded, bringing in over 30 pounds of green bean goodness).  When it got too wet outside, we both worked on weeding in Valhalla, our larger high tunnel.  If anything, we put in a longer day on Sunday than we did on Saturday.

Then, at the end of the day we had to do what?

Yes, that's right.  Farm chores.

For the most part, we don't mind doing them.  But, there are days.  Like Sunday.  Where you really wonder how you're going to get up and go do them.  This is especially true if you've made the mistake of sitting down to eat some food.  All the momentum gone - but you still have to find enough to complete the day and check "farm chores" off of the to do list.

Borderline Benefits: Take Two - Postal History Sunday

Welcome, once again, to Postal History Sunday!  Take a moment and throw those worries into the kitchen scraps bucket and take them out to the chickens.  Chickens don't seem to have many worries, so maybe they can handle them a bit better than we can.

Next week will be the THIRD anniversary of the first Postal History Sunday.  That's got me feeling a little nostalgic, so I thought I would edit and add to one of the earlier entries.  I chose this one because this publication in February of 2021 received responses that led me to realize there actually were a number of people enjoying Postal History Sunday.  It was at that point where this project morphed from "maybe a few people will find some enjoyment here" to "oh my goodness, some people really ARE finding these enjoyable."

And we're still plugging along as we enter the third year.  We'll talk a bit about the future of Postal History Sunday at the end of today's entry - for those who have interest.

An 1855 internal letter between two locations in Belgium

Internal Letter Mail vs Foreign Letter Mail

Let's start with a basic letter from one town in Belgium to another town in Belgium.  As a postal historian I refer to this as either internal letter mail or domestic letter mail.  This particular folded letter was mailed in November of 1855 from Anvers (Antwerp) to a small town named Chokier near Liege.  The price for mailing this item was 20 centimes.

Internal letter mail rates in Belgium at that time were based on both weight and distance, but I don't want to distract from the point I am trying to make here, so I'm not going to talk about the distance factor.  The cost of a letter weighing no more than 10 grams was 20 centimes for this distance - which makes this a simple letter.  We refer to an item as a simple letter when it fulfills the requirements for a single rate of postage.

Foreign letter mail, on the other hand, required the interaction of two postal services in order to get a letter to its destination.  Each postal service was concerned that they receive compensation for their services and the postal agreements in the 1800s (until 1875) were often quite complex.  In fact, there were several countries that failed to have postal agreements with some of their neighbors.

When there was an agreement, you would typically get something like this:

A foreign letter from Belgium to France (1859)

This is a another folded letter that started out in Anvers (Antwerp) in October of 1859.   If you would like to learn more about this particular letter and the addressee M. Evrard, you can take this link to another Postal History Sunday.

You might notice the Anvers postal marking at the top right for Oct 14, which was applied by the post office in that city.  There are two markings in the top center.  One is the P.D. marking we talked about in this October 2020 Postal History Sunday entry*.  We learned there that the box with the "P.D." tells us that this item was "payée à destination," which translates to "paid to destination."  

The other marking reads "Belg. Amb. Calais E" around the outer ring of the circle.    This is an exchange marking that shows where the letter left the custody of the Belgian mail service and entered the purview of the French mail service.  In this case, the transfer occurred on a mail car on the train that went from Calais to Paris in France.

To be perfectly clear, it is possible that the mailbag was opened at some point after this transfer.  The purpose was to document when and where the transfer of ownership or responsibility for this mail item took place.  It is at this point that the item officially entered their ledgers (so to speak).

The cost of this letter was 40 centimes for every 10 grams in letter weight.  So, this was a simple foreign letter from Belgium to France.  The December 1857 postal agreement between these two countries dictated that distance would NOT play a role in the cost of a letter - with one important distinction - which we will discuss in the next section.   

Isn't it a relief to know that we're following some sort of plan today?

*if you happen to take the link for the October 2020 PHS, it is very interesting to note how different it is from this entry and most that follow it.

Neighbors in Different Countries

Could you imagine living just a couple of kilometers from the border between France and Belgium?  Let's say that you have friends who live just down the road, but that is officially in another country.  You do business with people in the next town over, but they also live in another country.  How would you feel if you had to pay 20 centimes for a letter destined to someone 5 kilometers to the North and then pay 40 centimes for a similar letter to someone 1 kilometer to your South just because they were on the other side of the border?

Yeah, me too.

A foreign letter with the reduced border postage rate (Belgium to France)

There were plenty of business interests in southern Belgium and northeastern France and there was likely plenty of pressure to recognize this issue.  The postal agreement provided for a discounted rate if a piece of letter mail crossed the border and the distance (in a straight line) was 30 km or less from origin post office to destination post office.  The distance for the letter above from Courtrai (Belgium) to Lille (France) is right around 30 kilometers, so this letter qualified for the reduced rate.

Actually, the agreement made it even easier for postal clerks to be able to determine what destinations qualified for this reduced rate.  The postal convention listed the locations of post offices that qualified (you can click to see a larger version of the picture).  This excerpt shows the French post offices.

The postal instructions of the time likely provided each of these post offices a list of Belgian destinations that would qualify for the special border rate.  So, all a postal clerk had to do was look at the list.  If it was on there, the special rate applied.  If the destination wasn't listed, they would mark the letter as short paid.

In any event, neighbors who wanted to mail things to someone in another country wound up paying the same rate as the first letter that was internal mail and half the amount the second piece of foreign letter mail required.

The Dutch and the Belgians

A simple foreign letter from Belgium to the Netherlands

The Netherlands and Belgium had similar arrangements for border settlements.  Shown above is an 1868 letter from Bruxelles (Brussels) in Belgium to Vlaardingen in the Netherlands.  The rate for mail from Belgium to the Netherlands was 20 centimes for every 10 grams in weight.  There was no distance component to the mail rate between these two countries at this time other than the special border rate.

An example of the special border rate from Belgium to the Netherlands

If the origin and the destination were close by, this rate was cut in half!  The 1869 folded letter shown above only has a 10 centime stamps for an item mailed from Liege, Belgium (yep, that marking is hard to read!) to Maestricht in Holland.  You will notice that, even though these letters traveled a short distance, they still have a PD marking to indicate that the postage was paid for a letter between nations.  This may have qualified for a reduced rate, but it still had to be processed as a piece of foreign letter mail.

An interesting thing that I have noticed as I look for items like this is that these reduced rate items are far less common than the regular rates between these countries.  And, because they are less common, it is more difficult to find examples that are nicer looking.  

But, why would these be less common?  It's a simple matter of mathematics.  Without doing actual calculations, it would be safe to say that less than 5% of the population for each country lives inside of the area that could qualify for the reduced rate.  On top of that, not all of the mail leaving those areas would go TO a destination that also qualified for the reduced rate.  I think it would be safe to estimate that no more than 1% of all of the letter mail that was sent between Belgium and France or 2-3% for Belgium and the Netherlands would have qualified for these rates.

Huh.  I think that explains it!

Now, if you want a real challenge, try to find examples of an overweight letter that used the border rate!  That's a truly elusive item.

But, sometimes you are lucky enough to find things that others don't.  Here is an example of a border letter rate from the Netherlands to Belgium in 1867.  Each Dutch cent was equal to two Belgian centimes.  So, it cost 5 Dutch cents for a border letter.  You might notice that stamp has a marking that reads "Franco," which happens to be Holland's preferred marking to indicate a letter was paid.  The big difference here is that the Dutch actually used the Franco marking for internal letter mail too, so it is not necessarily a hint that this was a special border rate item.

Know A Good Thing When You See It

The root of these special border rates probably comes from the fact that most postal services included distance as an element for determining postal rates.  The further something had to travel, the more expensive it became.  That certainly makes sense if transportation is your biggest expense.

So, the idea of a special border rate was not really an innovation.  Instead it was a holdover from postal rate systems that required a distance component to determine how much postage was required.  The idea that the rate would stay the same for all distances EXCEPT border mail was the real innovation  that we see much more often in Europe starting in the late 1840s.  Improved transportation methods via rail was resulting in lower transportation costs.  So, the justification for distance-based rates was no longer as pertinent as it had been. 

A simple foreign letter from Switzerland to France

Here is a folded letter mailed in 1862 from Switzerland to France.  The normal rate to mail an item was 40 rappen for every 7.5 grams, regardless of distance.  You will notice the exchange marking in red shows that control of the letter was transferred at Pontarlier (France).  France and Switzerland both used the PD markings to show the receiving nation that the letter was fully paid.

You might notice the red Pontarlier marking has a number "3" in the outer circle.  This is a control marking that tells us the letter was taken out of the bag in Paris and the hand stamp was struck on the letter there.  However, they knew how this letter crossed the border and used a marking that provided the proper tracking.

A special border rate letter from Switzerland to France

And here is an 1860 letter that shows a PD marking and a red exchange marking at Fernex (France).  The letter was mailed in Geneva, which was just across the border from Fernex (Ferney).  Clearly, this is a situation where a border rate should apply, and it does.  Only 20 rappen (1/2 the normal rate) was required.

If Ferney sounds familiar to some of you, you might recognize it better as "Ferney-Voltaire."  The philosopher, Voltaire, purchased the land around the small hamlet of Ferney in 1759.  Once travel is restored, you could go visit his chateau and the community that is part of Voltaire's legacy.  

So, How Do You See It?

That brings me to the last point.  How does a person, such as myself, notice that a letter could qualify for the borderline letter rate - no matter what pair of countries and regardless of the time in history?

The first thing is that I need to know what a normal piece of internal letter mail for the time period looks like.

A simple internal letter for Switzerland in 1864

This internal letter in Switzerland was mailed in Romoos.  It cost 10 rappen (or 10 centimes) to mail and the markings on the cover simply show its travels inside the country.

Most internal letter mail in Switzerland during this time period will have a 10 centime/rappen stamp.  So, if I were to see a letter with that stamp, my first assumption is that it is a piece of domestic letter mail.

A simple foreign letter from Switzerland to Italy in 1867

And here is an 1867 letter from Horgan, Switzerland, to Genoa, Italy.  The rate between nations was 30 centimes/rappen per 10 grams and a PD marking was put on the letter by the Swiss to let the Italians know that they did collect the proper amount of postage.  All in all, this is a pretty normal looking letter between these two countries for that time period.

So, I bring you this one:

A 10 centime stamp, but a P.D. on marking at the top center?

This one was mailed in Splugen in 1865 and has a Swiss 10 centime/rappen stamp applied on it to pay the postage.  The person who offered this item for sale listed it as a piece of "domestic letter mail" because that is what most 10 centime blue stamps in Switzerland were used for.  

What told me to look closer?

You can see it too - it's the PD marking on the cover.  Most post offices during that time did not use a PD marking unless it was a piece of foreign mail.  That is not always true.  Let me remind you that the Netherlands used the "Franco" marking on internal mail as well as foreign mail.  But, it was enough to make me look closer at this item.

Splugen is both a settlement and a mountain pass in the Alps near the Swiss/Italian border.  The hard part was trying to figure out the destination.  The address panel on the front maybe reads "Clafau" or "Clafen," but I couldn't be sure.

 

The back of the folded letter in question - can you read this hand-writing or the postmark?

The reverse shows a receiver postmark for Chiavenna, which is located just South of the border, which clearly makes it a piece of border mail.  After some searching, it turns out Chiavenna is also known as Claven, Kleven and Clavenna depending on the language.  It is just another case where the spelling of a location could be different depending on the person's background writing the address.  We could talk about that more, but I think that could be a Postal History Sunday all its own.

Thank you for joining me this week.  I hope you have a wonderful remainder of the weekend and a positive and fulfilling week to come.  Maybe you had a chance to relax for a few moments today and you learned something new.  If you have questions for this or past blogs or suggestions for future PHS blog posts, feel free to send them my way - you can use the contact form on the ride side of this blog.  

 

And now - if you want to gaze into the crystal ball that holds the future of Postal History Sunday, read on.

 

Looking into the Future

 

Perhaps the most common question or comment I have received during the past year of Postal History Sunday is something along the lines of "how long will you continue with the weekly Postal History Sunday blog?"   Or, maybe it's been more of a "please don't stop with the Postal History Sunday blogs." 

I certainly appreciate the sentiment.  It does help to know that the work is valued by others.  The most difficult part of Postal History Sunday is finding the time - and sometimes the motivation - every week to keep the project going.  The growing season can be extremely difficult because the farm requires a significant amount of my attention and my off-farm job doesn't just go away because the farm needs me too.

So, some of you may have noticed that I sometimes go back to a much older entry and I rework and improve it - just like I did this time around.  There are multiple reasons for this.  First and foremost, I continue to learn new things - which means I can often find better words to more accurately describe what is going on with postal history items I have shown in the past.  Another obvious reason is that this is a way to produce a good Postal History Sunday when the energy or time is particularly low on a given week - this one was an exception because I planned on this particular nostalgic trip anyway!

Another reason that might interest many of you is that I am beginning to explore the possibility of creating a Postal History Sunday book.  Revisiting older posts gives me a chance to explore the material I already have so I can consider options for how that might happen - or if it could happen.

And finally, the only question many of you really wanted me to address is the one I still have not answered.  "How much longer will Postal History Sunday go?"

The honest answer is simply that I don't really know. 

So, here is your short answer.  For the time being, I don't see anything changing.  But, I am considering moving to an "every other week schedule."  Or, perhaps, I'll continue to offer a PHS every week, but one in three will be a reworking of an old PHS entry?  That's actually a bit of what has happened during the most difficult months this year for time management anyway.  In other moments, I've considered building a new site dedicated to PHS - moving to Wordpress so I have more flexibility in creating.  I even dabbled with the idea of doing Patreon or some other such thing.  In other words, I do not foresee PHS going away any time soon.  It just might have to change a bit so I can continue with it.  If you have suggestions, feel free to send them my way.

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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.

Maurice Has Company

I've been seeing Crazy Maurice much more frequently lately - at least twice a day - which is much more than we typically visit.  Trees are not usually as attuned to visitors as Maurice, our Weeping Willow, is.  But, we all know that, as far as trees go, Crazy Maurice is positively hasty and much more friendly toward visiting farmers than most trees.

It's not that I don't like visiting Maurice.  I actually find that to be one of my favorite places to go on the farm.  But during busy days, there are other outdoor places that demand our attention.  At least that's true until we move laying hens (or turkeys) out by Maurice.  Then, suddenly, we find ourselves visiting to provide food and water to those birds.  

Maurice reminded me the other day that I really don't need the excuse of these noisy, fluttery, squawky, twitchy, fussy creatures (aka chickens in farmer language).  Actually, the description Maurice used is much longer than noisy, fluttery, squawky, twitchy, fussy...  this was just all I could remember.  You see, trees don't actually have a single name for anything they observe.  Instead, they prefer to describe what they are seeing, hearing and feeling and THAT becomes the name.

And those descriptions are very long because... trees are very observant.  Perhaps you would be too if you were stuck in one place your whole life.

Let's just say that Maurice is often disappointed in the farmers when they complete their chores before he is done with whatever description he is working on.  In fact, I think I heard Maurice trying to describe the farmers to a Cardinal that was perched in his branches and the word "disappointing" was somewhere in the mix.  If a tree is going to make a name (description), it's going to be honest and you'd better be ready for a few less than flattering parts. 

On the other hand, a Cardinal has even less attention span than we do and it took off before our friendly tree could get past two words.  I think Maurice thought a bit more kindly of us after that reminder.  At least I hope that's the case.

Conservation Programs Have a Place in the Farm Bill

The following was published in Pesticide Action Network's Ground Truth blog on July 19 and I thought some might like to read it here if you didn't notice it there.

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The Yellow Coneflower and the Monarda are just entering peak bloom in two small fields that are within a couple of miles of our farm. Each of these plantings are new within the last few years, and were funded by the Federal Pollinator Habitat Initiative (CP-42) under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Along with the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), these are initiatives that are part of the Farm Bill of which I have seen positive results.

While it is important to recognize that these programs are, in my opinion, not enough to address a whole host of problems that come with large-scale, chemical-intensive cropping systems, they do illustrate for us the potential we have to be better stewards of and partners with our land.

Giving water a place to be

During the first seven years we lived at the farm, we observed the frequent occurrence of flooding in a field a few miles away and adjacent to the Wapsipinicon River. Each year, the land was planted with corn or soybeans. And, most years, a flood would damage the crop and wash valuable topsoil away.

Thankfully, the landowner eventually accepted federal assistance to take that land out of production and put it into perennial plant cover. While they still plant the higher ground in corn and soybeans, the low ground is now built to handle the ebb and flow of a river that is being asked to deal with more frequent heavy run-off as extreme rain events have become more common in this part of the world due to climate change.

This also means there is more space for Red-winged Blackbirds to nest and Dickcissels to sing.  Wildlife has a bit more of a corridor to travel as they seek food and fresh water. And our eyes are given the opportunity to see something other than another corn or soybean field in Iowa.

That, in itself, is good for my soul.

Letting water move without taking soil with it

Some row crop farmers also take advantage of federal funds that are part of the Farm Bill to seed down parts of their fields with perennial cover crops where water run-off typically goes. In Iowa, they often select grasses that they can cut, bale, and use for animal bedding or feed during the winter months.

Sometimes these waterways are fairly generous, like the one shown above. But there are still many fields where no effort is made to identify where water runs. These fields often show deep runnels where soil has washed away during the spring rains before the annual crop has had a chance to establish significant roots in the ground.

Funding for programs like these help farmers do things that are better for the land. This is especially true when we consider those who work on smaller family farms, where the budget for these sorts of projects is often tight. My observation for where I live is that these farms are typically more likely to seek out and follow through with these projects, while the larger, corporate farms are happy to seek out the funds, but not as happy to take any land out of production.

Impacts go beyond a single field

While it is true that there are farmers who would act on their heart’s calling to be a steward of the land without external support, it is also true that this support makes it easier to do just that.  And, we need to remember that the success of one field of pollinator habitat, or a wetland area, or even a single in-field waterway, has impact beyond the borders of the land where the project has been undertaken.

We have noticed that a few wildflowers have moved into the ditches by the road between our farm and the nearest pollinator planting. We have also noticed the diversity in the populations of pollinators on our farm have improved slightly. While we are still concerned about the overall health of these populations due to the extreme use of pesticides in our area, we also see the power of nature, as it shows us it is still interested in sharing the beauty of the world around us.

The projects that are undertaken to handle the flow of rainwater also have impacts beyond the borders of the fields where they reside. A well-placed waterway planting can keep more soil on the land and less in our rivers and the Gulf of Mexico. A wetland near the Wapsipinicon River not far from our farm can absorb and slow the flow of floodwaters before they reach communities downstream, possibly making a difference in many lives.

Maybe these programs aren’t the perfect solution, but they can be a part of moving towards better solutions. I want to make sure we don’t walk backwards and take even these pieces of progress away in future versions of the Farm Bill – because look at the positive results that even smaller efforts can provide.

Screwy Data

When I walk behind a wheel hoe or run Barty (the walk-behind tractor) around the farm to prepare ground or cultivate, I find that my mind is able to multi-task fairly well.  Obviously, I have to pay consistent attention to what I am doing so I don't destroy plants I want to keep with the wheel hoe and the stakes are higher with the walk-behind tractor.  With Barty I can both destroy plants AND potentially do a bit of harm to myself or whatever else gets in the way.

Now, if I am cultivating with Rosie, the tractor, there is usually even less brain multi-tasking going on because that tool has even more potential to do harm.  But, I digress...

In any event, my brain can go all sorts of places when I am walking back and forth between 400 hundred foot rows of veggies.  One place it went to recently, much to my surprise, was my eighth or ninth grade science class.   I don't recall for certain which, and that doesn't matter.

Different Abilities
The instructor for the class was Mr. Rasmussen and he was, generally speaking, a capable teacher.  Certainly, as far as I was able to tell, he knew plenty about what he was teaching and I actually liked most of the things we covered - which is saying something when you are talking about middle school.

Everyone who is reading this knows this is going somewhere - so let's just get right to it.  Mr. Rasmussen had a host of physical challenges.  When he walked, it was with a shuffle that made it look like he could topple forward with each step, his arms hanging at his sides as if they might be too heavy for him.  There were days when Mr. Rasmussen would remain seated for the entire class.  He spoke as if his tongue were two sizes too large for his mouth and the rumor (I never found out if it was true) was that he had had polio when he was younger.

Sometimes he would try to give a demonstration in class that required measuring out some liquid into a glass tube.  He would start with one tube with too much liquid and try to pour from that tube into a second tube to get his required amount.  It was painful to watch as he would pour the liquid from one tube to another.  The shaking of his hands and arms made it virtually impossible for him to get what he needed.

The entire class sat there and watched, unsure of what we should do.  I could tell that some of the members of the class were inclined to just think it was funny and others thought it was sad.  But, in general, it was supremely uncomfortable.  You see, Mr. Rasmussen did not seem to want help, though he did accept it when one member of the class offered to pour it out.

I certainly learned from Mr. Rasmussen, but I suspect I learned more after the experience than I did during it.  Or - at least - I didn't fully realize what I was learning at the time. 

A Lesson Learned

One of the things I learned is that it takes a great deal of bravery to break away from the crowd.  When you add to it the uncertainty that comes with being a young person who is not sure if you are supposed to help....

I remember a good deal of internal pressure and debate when we witnessed our teacher struggling.  I would feel embarrassment on his behalf, but then I would berate myself that there was nothing to be embarrassed about.  His body only allowed him to do so much and there was no shame in that.  The next battle was whether or not he would appreciate help and whether I dared to step forward and offer to change what was going on.  I knew the answer - but then I had to fight my own shyness that was at its peak in middle school.  That, and as a middle school student, I still ran on the training that you waited for the person in authority to direct what was going on.

Mr. Ed Rasmussen

I would like to say that I was the student who finally won the battle and volunteered to help.  But, I wasn't.  Instead, I desperately wanted to be that person.  All the while, I felt a flood of relief when it was someone else who finally stepped up.

Good Data / Screwy Data

When our class would do a lab, he would shuffle from table to table, checking on our progress.  If things were going well, he would approve by saying "Good data!"  If you had made some sort of mistake, his response was always "Screwy data!"  I learned to appreciate the complement that was "good data" and I was determined to avoid "screwy data."  Such is the life of a kid that gets positive reinforcement by academic success.

The desire to achieve "good data" overrode my reticence to try new things in front of an audience.  I have to admit that lab and hands-on courses terrified me at that time for that very reason.  I would very much prefer to try things out without others nearby to witness potential failure or - even worse - see that I did not quite understand what was going on. 

Stepping Up

Stepping up and doing what seems like the right thing always sounds so easy when we say it.  But, if it is really all that easy, why don't we do it more often?  A big part of it is because you and I are all too worried about what others will see and think about us.

Happily, I have changed a bit since middle school.  Sadly, I still lose the battle with myself to do the right thing too often.  But, as far as I am concerned, hearing the words "screwy data" even once is too many.

And so, I find that I try to push myself a bit every day to stand up for someone else just so I can hear Mr. Rasmussen say "Good data" in my head.  Sometimes I do something small like writing a blog that addresses difficult things.  On other days, I speak up when I hear someone say something that is cruel or inappropriate.  Once in a while, I'll stop the truck and help someone at the side of the road who needs it.  There are times when I volunteer to do something to help someone else - even if it isn't something I want to do.

Here's to you Mr. Rasmussen!  Thank you for stepping up.
That's good data.

Long Days

It's true.  The daylight hours are getting to be fewer each day as we enter the month of August.  It's also true - the days can be plenty long when you have a small-scale, diversified farm to go along with an off-farm job for each farmer and a life we'd like to live in addition to all of that!

Tuesday turned into a very long day after Monday was a very long day.  But both were long for different reasons.

Monday's long day started because we wanted to prepare for the arrival of some contractors at the farm to help jump-start a farmhouse project.  As many of you know, the kitchen area is often the center of the house.  So, it's a pretty big project when you need to shut it all down and move stuff out of the way when it involves the kitchen area.

The good news?  We were pretty well prepared for their arrival and the project we asked them to do was completed (up to the point we hired them to work).  The true completion of the project is up to us, of course.

Tuesday's long day started with Tammy heading out to try out some kayaking very early.  Rob tried to get out and do some farm work during the cool hours, only to be diverted by evidence that rats were predating on our broiler chicks.  After doing what I could do on that front, I had to drive to pick up feed for our poultry - and we were off and running.

The day ended after the sun was going down and we were moving the chicks into different containers that we hope will be "rat proof."   We're also hoping to find some rats in snap traps in the morning instead of dead chicks.

And that is the anatomy of a truly LONG day at the farm.  Start it with dead chicks and rats and end it with live, safe, chicks and very tired farmers.

Who Said You Could Have a Routine?

At some point this past Winter, I was asked if I had any particular lessons I had learned after (mumble mumble) years of farming.  I was actually honored that someone was asking me that question, because that implies that at least one person has some respect for my thoughts or maybe my farming - misguided as they might be.  And, I actually like that question a lot because it encourages me to reflect, reframe and relearn.  All things I think can be very good for my mental health.

I gave what were probably some common lessons that other farmers might throw in there.  Things like, "always make sure the gate is properly latched."  Or, "a big part of the job is about how you treat water and soil."  But, there was one that actually still has me thinking because it explains some of the struggles growers on small-scale farms face.

The lesson is this - "finding a successful farming routine is a myth."  And by that, I mean an invariable routine.  A sequence of things you do daily, or monthly, or even yearly, that will almost always give you predictable results.

Certainly, there are things that could be considered a routine of sorts.  We feed and water the animals every morning and we get them safely to their shelters every night.  But, even that routine changes as the year progresses, or as the weather dictates, or as life changes require, or....

Well, you get the picture.  

For example, our routine for dealing with our animals has changed pretty dramatically over the past week.  We moved the laying flock to a new pasture area.  We moved the henlets to a new location.  We added broiler chicks to the mix.  We had to address a problem with raccoons in the laying hens and now we have to address an issue with rats and broiler chicks.  The overall routine is still food, water, shelter - but the execution is very different now.

Just when we had settled into what one might think was a pretty good routine, we went and changed all of that up.

The reality of a small-scale, diversified farm is that the routine routinely changes throughout the year.  Transitions are continuous and success is largely in how you navigate those shifts that may or may not follow the grand plan you had set out with at the beginning.

You know what?  This is a great topic.  Maybe I'll write on it more.

Once I get used to the new routine.