New job begins next week

Probably the most frustrating part of having finally decided what I want to do with the rest of my life is waiting to get started on it! While I am not in a great hurry to leave this area, where my family and most of my friends live, I do find myself almost resenting the ten-month delay before I can begin the Sterling College program. I think the resentment would be less if I were still with Spoutwood, which if not exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life is still a farm, and a valuable pillar of the sustainable agriculture movement in Pennsylvania. Or if I could find work at some other farm... but alas, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

So, next Wednesday, September 2nd, I will be starting work at Cunningham Falls State Park, in Thurmont, Maryland. It will be a part-time (20 hours/week) position, as Volunteer Coordinator. This feels a little awkward for a number of reasons. First, if my goal was still full-time service in the DNR, whether as a Ranger or in some other capacity, this would make sense. Getting my foot in the door, learning about park operations, etc. But as it is, it feels like more of a distraction, taking my attention and focus away from what I really want to do. I wouldn't mind that as much if I were doing educational programs, but volunteer coordinator?

The other awkwardness is that I can't exactly tell them what my plans are for the future: they've gone to some trouble to create the position for me and hold it open for the last month; it'd seem ungrateful to say, "thanks, but I'm only going to be here for a little while." And because of the structure of the position (10-month seasonal), I'm supposed to take off two months during the Winter (off-season)... so in fact, I'll be working September-November, and then February until whenever I actually do end up going to Vermont: most likely in May, if I'm going to start my summer intensive in June. Unfortunately, that'll be right at the time the Park season will start getting busy, so in effect after they've trained me and begun to rely on me, I'll be bailing on them. Which kind of sucks: practically, for them, and ethically, for me.

However, I can't not take the position, either. I've got to have some money coming in, between now and Sterling. A full-time position would be even better, from a financial viewpoint, but at least this is something. So I'm stuck doing a job I'm not especially interested in, at a location an hour away from me (which has financial implications, especially if the cost of gas keeps going back up...), for a limited period of time, while I wait to begin what I really want to do. I know, I know: "sounds like life to me," as the country song puts it. My father, God rest him, would remind me that many people are in the same position or worse, and with the economy the way it is, I should be glad I've got a job at all, even a part-time one. But it's still frustrating!

More good news from Sterling College

Received the following e-mail today from Pavel Cenkl, Academic Dean:

Dear Tom,

I'm glad that this program sounds like it could be a good fit for you. I think that a different order of course progression would be possible - we actually frame part of the summer semester as an introduction to sustainable agriculture, and the immersive nature of that program would be a very good starting point.

We could arrange for a formal recognition of completion; I certainly recognize the significance of such documentation for future opportunities.

As far as financial aid, I have cc'd both our Director of Financial Aid, Ned Houston, and our Assistant Director, Barb Stuart, and they should be back in touch with you shortly.

Best,

Pavel

This is excellent news: in plain English, it means that I ought to be able to start the program with the Summer Intensive next summer, rather than concluding with it in the summer of 2011. That'll mean, in turn, that I'll finish up 3 months sooner than I otherwise would have, hopefully increasing my ability to find a more-or-less "permanent" place before winter. Furthermore, they're willing to provide some sort of formal documentation of my studies, even though it's not a degree program.

Now, if I can just get some decent financial aid (read: aid that I don't have to pay back), life will move from "very good" to "truly excellent"! The program is a bit pricey; the yearly cost is $30,750 – although if I'm living off campus, as I almost certainly will be, I can peel almost $8,000 off of that (which would then have to go towards rent for my off-campus place), and that's just for Spring and Fall Semesters: the summer intensive in Sustainable Agriculture is an additional $10,000.

I think that for financial reasons, as well as to simplify my life, I'm going to have to sell this place, rather than renting it out, and move myself, C_____, and all my belongings – stuff in the storage unit included – up to Vermont... where, unless for some reason I/we are able to find the perfect place, I'll be renting for the year of my program. Then we can hopefully find the perfect family farm, either in New England or elsewhere, to finally settle and put down roots. I just can't see being stretched between here and there, or leaving half my belongings behind in storage.

So that means the rental place will need to be large enough to house not only myself, C_____, and the stuff from this place (plus anything she brings along), but also the storage unit stuff. That means 3 bedrooms plus, hopefully, a basement – the latter doesn't need to be finished, since its main role is storage, but it does need to be dry. I've seen such places on realtor.com for $900-950/month in the general area of Sterling College (Craftsbury Common, VT, and its surrounds)... just hope they're still available next spring, when I'll need them!

Background to my farm dreams

I have always had farming in the back of my mind. My current dream/passion/goal to have a small farm of my own took shape somewhere around 2002, plus or minus a bit, but even as a child, some of my favorite playthings were farm-related, and I used to say I wanted to be a farmer when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. Over time, other passions and other goals took over, but the ember continued to smolder in the back of my mind – or heart – waiting for the right impetus to blow a breath upon it and cause it to burst into flame once again.

That breath was breathed by some books I happened to read on homesteading and traditional farming, and the coal was further fanned by websites (many of which are listed on this site, in the "links" section) and other resources I discovered, like ripples spreading out in a pool when you throw a rock into it. I even took a half-day workshop on draft-horse driving offered at the Carroll County Farm Museum, and have the picture to prove it! But my mother’s health was shaky, I was the last of us “kids” to be unmarried and living at home, and so as had happened before, after the accident that took Pa’s life, I put my dreams on hold to care for her.

Then came Spoutwood, in 2005, and at least I was working on a farm – even if it was all produce, with no livestock, and certainly no draft horses or oxen! I advanced rapidly to a position of some authority and considerable responsibility, peaking in 2007-2008. The loss of Ma in 2007, though heart-breaking, freed me up in some respects, but by that time I had a commitment to Spoutwood, and a position that, for the first time in my life, was paying a living wage (albeit without benefits). But then the economy caught up with me, or rather with Spoutwood, and I was first cut to half-time, and then, just a month or so ago, told that my position was being cut.

And that is a brief sketch of the events which led up to this journal entry, last week:

Thursday, August 13^th

Not every thought that recurs is a divine sending. Some are simply pipe-dreams, fantasies or visions of the way things could be, or one might want them to be, if one lived in an ideal world. But there are certain recurring thoughts which, because of their content, their context, or their timing, do seem to me very much like the Cosmos is trying to tell me something. One of those thoughts has been insistently battering away at my conscious­ness recently – okay, primarily since last night, which is not long, I admit… but this is by no means the first time for this thought. It has, as I say, been recurring, for a very long time. This is just the most recent recurrence. And it is this:

I am unemployed. Granted that I will, barring something entirely unexpected, be employed by the end of the month or, at latest, the beginning of September; but the job I will have then is not ideal in a number of respects, ranging from its substance to the fact that it is part-time and not well paying on an hourly basis. Furthermore, it is only an eight-month position. No other prospects – or at least, no tolerable ones – have presented themselves. I must therefore consider options outside of immediate em­ployment. I have on several occasions considered going back to school, but for some reason – actually, for different reasons – I have always refrained. Something or other just was not right. And when I ask myself, “what do I want to do with my life?” here are some of the answers that I come up with:

• be outside a lot of the time
• work with my hands as well as my mind
• as a writer, do something that’s worth writing about!
• be, as much as possible, “my own boss”
• get out of the urban/suburban sprawl to a rural area
• work with animals, plants, hand tools, and simple machines
• be self-supporting as much as possible, especially as regards food
• own enough land to enjoy privacy, and coexist with nature as friends
• do something in which I can, as much as possible, work out of my home
• be able to end the day with the satisfaction that comes from accomplishing tangible tasks successfully
• help to re-weave the connections between humankind, non-human nature, and the world of Spirit
• do something I can hand down to future generations, if I am fortunate enough to have offspring
• live lightly on the Earth
• teach others

When I look at all of those together, “small, diversified family farm” is what seems almost inevitably to coalesce out of the matrix. While there are other possible careers or even vocations that could accomplish several of these ends, that seems to me to be the only one that hits them all. The problem is that I don’t really have the kind of practical, hands-on experience, backed by theoretical learning, which it would take to really make a go of such a small farm. I have been at Spoutwood for five years, but I have basically functioned all that time in a support role: I have not been the one in charge of planning and executing the field plan… and in any case, Spoutwood is strictly vegetables, whereas I want to include livestock in the mix, along with draft horses (or possibly oxen) for at least some of the motive power.

The problem is that there are very few place which offer the kind of training I’m looking for. But there are a few, and of these, by the far the best – that I’ve been able to locate, anyway – is Sterling College, in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. I visited Sterling College all the way back in 2002. At the time I was looking mostly at their Northern Studies program, but I also had the chance to check out their Sustainable Agriculture offerings. I was impressed then, and I continue to be impressed, although of course I haven’t visited recently. Based on the website, though, it looks like they remain head-and-shoulders about the rest.

And of course, this is Vermont! Much as I love Maryland, and I love my home state a great deal indeed, Vermont is one of the places that I have seemed strangely drawn to for years. For whatever reason, I have loved Northern New England since I was a child – perhaps because some of my favorite books were set in that region – and that love has not lessened a bit over the last forty-three years. I know it’s cold and snowy in the winter­time, and buggy in the spring, but it’s so beautiful! And it’s also relatively sparsely populated, at least compared to the rest of the Atlantic seaboard. It gets dark at night, there, outside of the cities, and those are comparatively few and far between; the forests are my beloved balsam fir and paper birch, and there are moose and loons, and even rumors of wolves making their way back into the area, coming down from Canada. The very air there is redolent with evergreen resin!

And Sterling doesn’t just teach the principles of organic vegetable growing, or livestock management (what used to be called husbandry), although they do teach both things; they also teach the important subsidiary aspects: everything from small business economics (essential in making one’s small farm profitable) to the use of both tractors and draft horses – I’m especially interested in the latter – on the farm and in the woodlot, as well as the use of hand and power tools, including chainsaws… basically everything you need to know to make your farm and woodlot productive and self-sufficient. That is something that I have not seen anywhere else, and it is why I am seriously considering undertaking the Sterling program.

And now, of course, I have found out that Sterling offers a one-year, non-degree program in Sustainable Agriculture which looks as if it could have been crafted precisely to suit my needs! There are many practical considerations to be dealt with: do I rent out my existing place for a year, or sell it? Do I look to purchase a place up there, or rent one? And either way, do I look for a small farm now, that I might be able to stay on after the program is over, or just rent a small house to live in while the program’s going on? What do I do about all the stuff that’s sitting in my storage unit, especially if my relocation to Vermont proves to be only temporary?

Of course, now that I am in what seems to be a solid, if still currently long-distance, relationship, my “significant other” will have something to say about these issues, I am sure. But they are ones that need to be dealt with, well in advance of moving up there. Nothing is ever simple! But I do feel strongly as if this is what I should do, need to do, am being called to do – call it Providence, Fate, Destiny, or whatever word/concept you prefer, I do not think it was any accident that I learned about this unique opportunity now, at what may be the one time in my life when I am actually free to take advantage of it. It will be very interesting to see how all the details shake themselves out!

Good news from Sterling College!

Indeed, potentially excellent news. Just received the following letter from Pavel Cenkl, Dean of Academics:

Dear Tom,

Lynne Birdsall, our Director of Admissions, forwarded letter inquiring about Sterling’s Sustainable Agriculture degree program. From your email, your learning goals seem to be consistent with our program; I think that the breadth and scale of our program would certainly help you build on your experience and achieve your objective. I have attached an overview of a year-long program in Sustainable Agriculture, which, although it does not culminate in a degree, could be an appropriate vehicle further develop expertise in both practical and theoretical aspects of farming. This full-time program consists of Sterling’s core agriculture courses and room for further specialization in specific areas. There is also some flexibility in sequencing and scheduling.

As one of the smallest colleges in the country, we would look forward to working with you to craft a program to suit your specific needs. Please let me know whether the program described in the attached file is of interest.

Best regards,

Pavel

The program description he sent along is as follows:

One-Year Program in Sustainable Agriculture

The Sterling Program in Sustainable Agriculture provides opportunities for adult learners who hold B.A. or B.S. degrees (or the equivalent) to achieve competency in Sustainable Agriculture through a 12-month full-time course of study at the College.

The Sterling College Sustainable Agriculture program parallels the College’s mission by combining academic study, experiential challenges, and work. The College farm, consisting of solar-powered barns, pasturelands, gardens, fruit trees, a greenhouse, and a diversity of livestock, is a living laboratory for the exploration of sustainable agricultural systems. Working alongside faculty, students become involved in the farm through a college-wide work program, structured skill-building activities, and careful academic inquiry into farming systems.

Students study the principles of science and economics that underlie agricultural systems and learn a variety of agricultural techniques and practices applicable to the small, diversified farm and homestead. Further classes provide additional technical knowledge, explore and assess a range of agricultural models from biodynamic to corporate farms, and examine the human relationship to nature and agro-ecosystems.

Program Overview

Fall Semester

SS 140 Exploring Alternative Agriculture

AS 110 Agricultural Techniques

NS 245 Soil Science

AS 174 Draft Horse Management I: Driving Principles

Elective

Spring Semester

SS 212 Whole Farm Planning

NS 346 Plant Science

NS 315 Animal Science

AS 179 Draft Horse Management II: Work Applications

Elective / Independent Study

Summer Semester

Session One

AS 215a Agricultural Power Systems

AS 204 Livestock Systems Management

AS 209 Organic Crop Production

Elective / Independent Study

Session Two

AS 215b Agricultural Power Systems

AS 310 Permaculture Design (with certification)

Elective / Independent Study

This recommended course progression assumes students will have had exposure to courses in introductory lab science, ecology, and introductory math.

Please note that all residential students are required to participate in the Sterling College Work Program. For details on this program, please visit our online catalog at http://www.sterlingcollege.edu/cat.

All interested prospective students should contact Sterling College Admissions for information about applying as a non-matriculating student.

This program looks perfect for what I want to do. I have no real need of another degree, especially another bachelor’s degree; what I do need is basic, practical training and experience in the things I need to know in order to properly operate a small, diversified farm. And it looks like that is exactly what this program provides! So I am quite excited ~ bordering on thrilled ~ to have received this information. I am still not going to rush immediately into anything; it’s a major decision and a major step to be taking, and requires some degree of thought and prayer. But this actually makes it more likely than ever that next fall will see me heading north to Vermont.

Updating on this blog, and life in general

Previous visitors will note some changes to the focus, and even the name, of this blog. As I have written in the introductory blurb, the name “Albion's Meade” combines the ancient bardic name for England with a play on words: “meade” can be both a green meadow and the intoxicating brew Celts and Vikings alike considered the font of inspiration. It is also the working name of the small, diversified family farm I hope one day to own and operate: “Albion’s Meade Farm.” Much varied commentary may still be found herein, but a major focus will be my journey toward becoming, at last, a “yeoman farmer” in the Jeffersonian tradition.

Why this change? One reason is that I am currently out of work: Spoutwood Farm, where I have been employed in one capacity or the other for the last five years, is a non-profit educational organization, and the “non-profit” part became all too literal this year. With income failing to meet expenses, they were forced to cut my position, and therefore, me as well. This has led me to do a great deal of thinking and soul-searching, regarding my future, as well of course as more pragmatic job-searching.

Nothing is certain at this point, but the most likely outcome I can foresee is that I return to school, either in the Spring, Summer, or Fall of 2010; the program I am most strongly leaning toward is Sterling College's program in Sustainable Agriculture, after which I would start my own small farm (hopefully with the assistance of my “significant other”), most likely either in New England or Pennsylvania (Maryland, much as I love the state, is just too expensive). Although the Sterling program is undergraduate, I have found no graduate program which compares to the kind of practical, pragmatic, hands-on training provided there; with my existing academic background, I am hopeful of being able to complete the program in two years, same as for a masters. I am making inquiry, however, into the prospects of teaching at Sterling: combined with a small farm nearby, that would be by far the best of both worlds!

So, I am hoping to turn the challenge of losing my job into the opportunity of starting a newer and better life, one which is more integrated, fulfilling, and close to Nature. And as a writer, I am reminded of something I read some years ago – perhaps the best piece of advice ever given to a writer, especially an outdoor writer: “Live the kind of life that’s worth writing about!” That is something I have not really been doing recently. So, all things considered, I am optimistic about my future. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, I hope to be able to turn the challenge of unemployment into the blessing of satisfying, worthwhile work in harmony with Nature.

May it be so!

Children and Nature need each other

January and February are typically the coldest and often snowiest months of winter, despite the fact that the days are slowly and gradually getting longer. At such times, most people (hardcore skiers excepted) adopt a modified form of hibernation, or at least nesting behavior, hiding out indoors where central heating, sweaters, and blankets – not to mention cups of hot cocoa or soup – help to make the weather more bearable.

It may seem strange at such a time to be talking about getting outdoors, but in fact what better time to think about, and plan for, warm weather? The fact is, though, that while we talk a lot about getting out more in the spring and summer, it’s by no means clear that we actually do it. This is particularly the case with children. The days when kids spent summer days outside in unstructured, largely unsupervised play seem to be just a memory.

They are certainly in my memories! Growing up in a then mostly-rural Howard County, I was almost literally kicked out of the house on sunshine-y days. Not because my mother didn’t love me, but because she knew what was common wisdom for untold generations, that playing outside was good for children’s health and development. That intuitive understanding, passed down through generations, has in more recent years been born out by study after study. But nowadays, the reality falls far short of that ideal.

Studies quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal indicate that children, on average, spend 30 hours per week plugged into electronic devices: iPods, PlayStations, cell phones, Wiis, the internet. In contrast, again on average, American children spend less than an hour each month – not each week, but each month – in nature. Even more optimistic reports indicate that the average American child spends less than a half-hour each week in nature.

And it’s been long established by research that the average American teenager can name or at least recognize 1,000 corporate logos, but can’t name 5 birds, 5 trees, or 5 wild animals local to his or her area. In short, we are developing a nation of children who are computer-literate, but nature-illiterate; who are deeply in tune with corporate marketing, but deeply out of tune with the earth on which we are absolutely dependent for our continued existence.

That this is bad news for children is well-attested. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that free and unstructured play is both healthy and essential to children, contributing to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. That news alone ought to have parents and educators earnestly seeking to provide opportunities for such free and unstructured play for the children in their charge. Sadly, this is not the case.

Nor is it children alone who benefit. The land itself benefits from children whose growing years included frequent, authentic, and positive experiences in the outdoors, and it suffers from the reverse. A Nature Conservancy-funded study has found that “The greatest threat to conservation…may be more subtle than bulldozers and chainsaws,” according to study authors Oliver Pergams, Ph.D. and Patricia Zaradic, Ph.D. “Direct experience with nature is the most highly cited influence on environmental attitude and conservation activism,” adding that if the youngest generation loses that experience, the future of conservation is in jeopardy.

The evidence is clear. Children need authentic, unstructured outdoor experiences for their psycho-emotional as well as physical well-being. And nature itself needs such children, to grow up and become its defenders. Sometimes, in this complex world, the answers really are simple: “go out and play” may well be one of the most important things you can say to your children.

Hopes for 2009

Well, here it is, 2009. If I sound less than enthused, it’s for two reasons: first, I’ve never bought into the whole super-hyped concept of New Years favored by some. Yes, it’s a clean slate, a new beginning. Sort of. It’s also very much a continuation of patterns and trends begun the year before, and usually a very long while before that.

And that’s the second reason I’m not jumping with joy over the advent of 2009: it brings a lot of baggage with it from 2008. So in lieu of a bunch of resolutions I might not be able to keep anyway, I’d like to offer a series of hopes – or maybe prayers – for 2009.

That India and Pakistan are able to overcome their deep-seated historical differences and unite against terrorism in the region: both al-Qaida and Taliban on Pakistan’s western border, and home-grown terrorists threatening peace in both countries and across their common border.

That the long cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, particularly Hamas, may likewise be broken. This endless, grinding pattern of grievance, destruction, and death does neither side any good, and places the whole region at risk of a wider struggle.

That we are able to keep our disagreements with Russia and China civil and civilized. Neither of these large, populous nations is a superpower of the first rank at this point, but both are what used to be called “Great Powers,” and wield considerable influence in the world, as well as considerable military power. We cannot expect their interests and ours to coincide perfectly, but the more we are able to find commonality of interest, the better for all parties concerned.

That we are able, as a society, to view the twin specters of global warming and peak oil as one problem – petrochemical dependency – and not two, and find alternatives to our oil addiction that do not try to “solve” one of these in a way which exacerbates the other.

That we finally learn, once and for all, that the economy and the environment is not an either-or proposition. And furthermore, that we need to consider the impact of all of our doings in terms of what some call the triple bottom line: the economical, environmental, and social consequences of our actions, also known as “people, planet, profit.” Lacking any of these, true sustainability is impossible.

That we have the sense to repeal or dramatically alter “No Child Left Behind” to de-emphasize standardized testing, and re-emphasize authentic learning, and creative teaching. And that, in contrast, “No Child Left Inside” becomes more than a slogan, but an integral part of our educational tool-box. Study after study has shown that authentic outdoor experiences have myriad benefits for children. Apparently, our mothers’ admonition to “go outside and play” had more benefits than getting us out of her hair.

And finally, that our new president is given the chance to show what he can do before everyone starts jumping down his throat. I did not vote for Obama; I had and have my doubts about his readiness for such high office. But he’s the choice of a majority of the people, and he deserves both respect and support. Being president is a thankless job in the best of times, and the challenges facing this one are nearly mind-boggling. It will take all of us, working together, to meet them.

But haven’t we met challenges before? Yes, we have. Americans thrive on challenge, and have proven over and over again our ability to rise – sometime belatedly, sometimes grudgingly, but with a remarkable track record of success – to meet them. And that does give me hope for the future, in this year of grace 2009. Happy New Year!