VIDEO: MIND, BODY, AND SOIL.
So I made a video. It's a bit of an experiment––making videos––so I will take any and all suggestions on how I can make it better. The goal is to be able to make videos like this that are fun (hopefully fun) but that are efficient––finding time to make videos is not easy. So anyway, let us know what you think. Got tips or pointers (besides to spell the word "guarantee" correctly the first time)? I'd love to hear them!-Jesse.
IN DEFENSE OF THE SUMMER BEARD.
A few years ago I decided, being that I was moving onto a farm, I had to shave my beard. Up until that point, I'd kept a beard for most of my adult life, and although I had no desire to get rid of it, I figured it was necessary. I just didn't think it made sense on a farm in Southern Kentucky to have a giant mask of hair on my face. I imagined months of hot days in the sun, suffocating and itching—shaving seemed like the logical thing to do. So I shaved. And it was miserable.I was itchy anyway. I suffered several doses of sunburn and overexposure that year. My face was burned everywhere my hat didn't protect. Although I didn't mind the chore of shaving—despite the fact that it involved heating water on a stove, driving to a sunny spot on the farm and shaving by the reflection in my truck's windows—my follicles mocked my efforts anyway by always reproducing a fresh, irritating batch of stubble within a day's time. By the late fall, I'd quit shaving.Going into the next summer season on the farm I debated shaving again. If the heat was that bad without a beard, I thought to myself, then having a beard was going to be much worse. But I didn't shave. And it was wonderful.What I'd never considered about facial hair was its utility. I'd never thought about the beard protecting my face from the sun or insulating it from the heat, and keeping me cool. I recognize that not everyone can grow a beard (like Hannah, who often bemoans this fact). But if you are like me, or any one of the tens of people who've asked me about farming with a beard, I highly endorse the summer beard. It's comfortable. It requires very little maintenance. Yes, it does occasionally retain some of my lunch or beer, but I couldn't see life without it. In fact, two years ago this week was when Hannah and I first became sweethearts—and I know, because she's told me—the beard didn't hurt my chances any. It might have even helped them a bit.- Jesse.