She was not afraid the first time she rode with me. Her mother's only instruction to her regarding beginning to ride was that she must remount after a fall. She has always been willing to push herself physically. None of my other riders have ever completed as many miles in a day as has she. She takes prudent risks. She has spent more hours working my young or wild horses than any of my other riders without significant injury to herself or to a horse. I trust her judgement on all matters equine more than anyone that I have had at the horse lot. And she is only recently become old enough to vote.
Lydia is about to leave for three months to join her brother at the farm that he works on in Maryland. The operation is physically small but it is part of a movement that gives me hope for the future of this country. Her brother is part of the new farmer movement. His wife is too. He was not raised in a farm family and came to agriculture as a young adult. Lydia is also drawn to the ground-the dirt, the crops, the flowers and the livestock that are the fabric of our existence. They all call to her with the strength a shopping mall calls out to other's her age.
Educated young people who are drawn to the ground produce healthier, safer, and even better tasting food, but they do much more than that. They produce better citizens. They raise healthier and happier children. And they give us a renewed shot at achieving Thomas Jefferson's dream of a citizenry attached to the soil.
Deep in the human soul is the need to plant, to grow, and to harvest. That need drives our urge to have the perfect lawn. But even the most beautiful lawn does not fully meet that need. The gathering of the eggs, the watering of the hogs, the milking of the goats, the breaking of the soil, the planting of the seed, and the harvest of the crop are the only things that completely meet that need.
As much as I love having Lydia in the horse lot, it is worth it for her to be gone for a while to immerse herself in that which we all need, whether we know it or not. (not forever, just a few months.)
Last night my daughter, Amanda and her husband, Jake brought my granddaughter, Lucy over to see us. The three of them were just named the local Chamber of Commerce's "Farm Family of The Year." Amanda is a school teacher and Jake works with USDA in water and soil protection. Aside from their full time jobs, they have an ever growing produce and green house operation that is built on Jake's knowledge as a former Peace Corp worker and agronomy master at Virginia Tech and on Amanda's ability and willingness to do very hard physical labor.
They are part of a movement that gives me hope for this nation.
In one way or another I suspect that Lydia will end up being a part of that movement. I strongly suspect that she will bring her knowledge of horses and her compassion for people into whatever part of the movement her future holds.
Those of you that saw Lydia's interview on the tv show, "Wild About Animals" understand why I am both so happy to see her taking this opportunity to learn more and why I hope that this time passes very quickly and I have her back in the horse lot soon.
Lydia will definitely be missed while she is gone..a good organic farm fellowship, though is a gem beyond price..It might be worth trying to get her an internship with Polyface farm up in the Shenandoah Valley, if she is bent that way.
ReplyDeleteI sit here at my desk, there is a copy of rural heritage on my desk..usually is, that, or ACRES, or any of a few other publications, all of them dedicated to small scale sustainable agriculture. There is a strong resurgence of desire, or even necessity to bring the draft animal back into small agriculture, Ox or horsepower made this country, and can certainly help make it better. Lydia is such a one to help that movement along.
Farm Family of the Year. A more important title than anything the Duck Kardashian Boo Boo with the Stars will ever accomplish in a million years. Keep all your senators, ball players (!) actors,
cube bound bidness wonks, and other parasites upon civilized society (my own opinion, don't like it, that is entirely too bad.) at any rate, there is no more important a job title in this world than that of "Farmer." Except for "Mama." A friend of mine, small farmer over in North Carolina said recently, "Oh, you are going to the gym? That's cute."
Lincoln and Jefferson had it right, Lincoln was of hte opinion that a farm should be no larger than what a man (speaking colloquially, ladies) can work at a sane pace, how much attention can be given to quality production on all those extra acres? Jefferson espoused an extreme of diversity in farm production, many products in relatively small batches. An idea completely alien to 200 acres on one farm devoted to Monsanto owned monoculture soybeans. As an aside, Monsanto owns 97% of all soybean and corn production in this country today..remember what grandma said about putting too many huevos in one basket. Soybeans and corn, I might add which cannot exist without heavy chemical application, and chemical fertilization. In light of current events, where is the more insidious chemical warfare occurring? Go ask the bees. -Lloyd