Let’s rewrite the last will of Mr. Farmer
The photo popped up on my social media feed, a snapshot of a worn piece of paper, with water stains and smudged type. LAST WILL OF MR. FARMER I leave: To my wife, my overdraft at the bank — maybe she...
View ArticleRemembering where we came from
It was the late 1960s. Cynthia Koonce, a 30-something born in western Pennsylvania — who’d lived in the Midwest, Colorado and southern California, before landing in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area...
View ArticleFinding normal ‘north of most things’
As a farmer, I will attend events shared in Farm and Dairy as … well, a farmer. Most recently, though, that attendance took me further afield — down a long stretch of gravel road, north of most things,...
View ArticleLearning to tend to birds
It isn’t until you watch a Muscovy duck chase down a zig-zagging mouse and eat it that you realize how little you know about the world. Just over two months ago, I added birds for the first time to our...
View ArticleAre you OK? Because we’re not.
In the middle of a finals week in college, posted signs appeared on the walls of the mail room and in the hallways. Primal scream. Midnight. Frisbee fields. It became a finals week rite of passage for...
View ArticleLimping through a lambing and out of 2021
Farming is often like dancing on the edge of a knife. It can be well choreographed. But one wrong step, one thing slipping out of place, and — chaos. One Sunday morning, I got up to do an early morning...
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The quest to save North Atlantic native sheep
NARSARSUAQ, South Greenland — Karin Flatøy Svarstad grew up on the small island of Voksa, off the western coast of Norway. The daughter of a North Atlantic fisherman, she was raised on tales of far off...
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In Greenland, a chance for respite, reconnection
As I crested a rise along the King’s Road, a gravel track winding through the Greenlandic hills, a sweeping view of the fjord greeted me. So, too, did a familiar scent: freshly cut hay. The hike, along...
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A tribute to Duane Miller, a good dad
I remember my dad as he was in the quiet times. Present. His head bent over his Bible or a nonfiction book, glasses perched on his nose and a highlighter or pencil poised in his hand, a border collie...
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Experts discuss raising sheep indoors at Buckeye Symposium
WOOSTER, Ohio — Faced with steep land prices and unpredictable weather trends, farmers looking to diversify their operations without expanding land use should consider raising sheep indoors, according...
View ArticleLightning round lambing ends 2022
The pregnant ewes waited until the early morning hours of a mid December newspaper deadline day to start birthing in earnest. It was as if they had a committee meeting. “All those in favor of starting...
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