A LOVE LETTER TO NPR.
If you maybe didn't know, we don't have electricity. We don't have lights or a TV. Our computer doesn't work unless it is plugged in....and we don't have plugs. We don't get internet on our cell phones - or phone calls on our cell phones. Basically, we don't have any form of "entertainment" in the classic sense. What we DO have: books, magazines, knitting and writing, our insane and ever-growing menagerie of animals, and our most precious resource: our radio.Jesse and I probably listen to at least 3 hours of NPR a day. On the weekends, we will listen to even more: This American Life, Snap Judgement, Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, Wait Wait. We listen to the news every morning while cooking breakfast, and we often fall asleep listening to a Radiolab podcast. Without television or movies or blogs, the reporters on NPR have become our celebrities - we honestly could name every single foreign correspondent and host of any program on our beloved WKYU.And this is why, last week, we renewed our membership with NPR. Jesse and I will most likely fall below the nations poverty line this year (I learned this from a recent story on NPR!), but we gladly will continue to donate to public radio. Because it is important. It entertains us, yes, but it informs us and gives us conversation and debate and education - out here in the middle of nowhere.So if you ever listen to your local public radio station (or even if you don't!), consider donating during the fall campaign season. It is so valuable, especially to many rural areas that have no other news source. NPR, we love you.- Hannah.
SUNDAY FUNDAY.
This past Sunday was Cher's birthday, and a lovely occasion to celebrate with lots of friends and all of their beautiful children.
These people (these farmers and Radical Farmwives) are the reasons we are doing what we are doing. These are the mentors who inspired us as interns, who continue to amaze and educate us. It was so strange to sit among them as peers, no longer interns. We are wonderfully blessed to get to soak up their wisdom and their families, and so happy to be a part of this crew.HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHER! WE LOVE YOU.PS: Those same Radical Farmwives nominated us for a Liebster Award! Here is their post about it - we will be back soon with the answers to their questionnaire.
WENDELL WEDNESDAY.
Ira fashioned a toy for Wendell out of a piece of sheepy-smelling wool and a rubber hose.
I think it was a sucess.
ONE YEAR LATER.
Right now, I'm sitting warmly in our cabin. The new kitty is playing below me (with anything and everything), the roosters are crowing, Hannah is knitting, Wendell is barking, breakfast is cooking away on the wood stove––it's a typical morning on the farmstead. But it's a typical morning in a place we could have only dreamed of a year ago.In mid-August of last year we were asked to leave the farm on which we'd been living. And when it happened, we had no money, no farm, and no idea what to do next. So, we turned to you. And twelve months later, we have you to thank for this cabin that shelters us, and this beautiful farm we're planting.After being asked to leave that farm, we knew we wouldn't have a home or farm of our own anytime soon––we knew we'd be lucky to even be farming at all in a year. But the Smiths graciously stepped in and sold us 7.5 acres of Bugtussle. You generously pitched in tons of support and several thousand dollars. And now we don't just have a farm, but our dream farm. Exactly one year after we had absolutely no farm at all.On this unfortunate anniversary you have given us reason to celebrate and we want to take this opportunity, and every opportunity, to thank you. You guys are the best, and we truly, and very literally, could not have done it without you. Sincerely, thank you.- Jesse.