A Quiet, Happy Day

Today is a day of thanks for many reasons.  "We are on this side of the grass" as I like to say, and that is not always of our choosing.  It is a good day.

A year from now things should be much different and I thought it would be a good time to use this Thanksgiving dinner as a benchmark for the future.  In the past we have raised and harvested our own turkey, but not this year.  Still it would be nice to list what came from our garden and other local farms.

Many of the fixin's are from our garden or the sharecrop across the street: onions, garlic, celery, sweet potatoes, squash for pumpkin pie, peas, sage for seasoning.  The green beans and apples are from local farms; and the cranberry sauce, rolls, bread for stuffing is homemade.

The sausage we use for the stuffing is something we are planning on making ourselves someday. We could do turkey again, but quail or pheasant is something I've also wanted to raise. We'll see what happens.

Enjoy your day also.

Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should

We at school were given a taste of the new Common Core style testing this past week.  The teaching staff were herded into the computer lab and given either a Math or English version of a Common Core test facsimile.  English and Social Science teachers were told to take the Math test, and the Math and Science teacher were to take the English test.  I chose the 7th grade Math test because I am in none of the above mentioned departments.  Now remember this is from a company that prepared this test to help students prepare for the test.  It is not a version of the Common Core test.

The test itself wasn't difficult, but the logistics were.  Most questions asked for multiple answers from a bank of 8 potential answers.  Seemed like a multiple choice test to me.  I had no place on the test to "figure" out the problem and no paper to work on.  Supposedly there will be scratch paper that will have to be collected by proctors, but having to work out the problems in my head certainly slowed me down. I eventually resorted to shortcuts to get the answers instead of solving the problem.

The real Common Core test is a flexible test.  Chose correct answers and the questions get harder.  Miss and they get easier.  I didn't notice a difference.  The other thing is if you are answering randomly "dot to dot" the computer will prompt you to return and review previous questions.  My neighbor found that out.

In general the room was filled with frustrated teachers, and the idea was for us to get an idea of what our students will go through. To me the frustration was not with the questions, but how I was tested.  I knew the material; how the question was asked is what bothered me.  I again was left with the feeling that our testing methods can't measure what they say it will measure.  Some students will do well and some not.  I don't think the test will truly quantify which students know the information and which don't.

So I am left with the continual question, Why are we testing?  Is it to understand the student better and help them learn?  Or is it to help testing and curriculum companies make money?

More Confirming Thoughts

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

                                                                            Proverbs 13:12

Why Do What You Do?

I stole this from Chism Heritage Farm's blog.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

Five Skies Review

Five Skies by Ron Carlson was lent me by a colleague and he mentioned it was one of his favorite books.  I've been reading mostly nonfiction the last few years, and mostly about farming, gardening and such, so I thought I'd take a break.

Five Skies is a good book. It read quick and I found myself liking the characters and wanting to see what would happen to them.  The story is about three men; roughly 50ish, 49ish and 20ish; who are looking to be somewhere different than they currently are. They end up in very rural Idaho building a ramp fora stunt woman to jump a canyon.  They are all running from their pasts, while trying to confront the same pasts.

One of the enjoyable things is the two older men teach the younger man to be a man.  The youngster didn't have a father and these two help him grow and mature.

While I enjoyed the read, I'll move back to nonfiction as I am trying to learn a few more things before our next adventure happens.

Not So Random Thoughts

I have too many ideas bouncing around my head, so I thought I'd let a few out.  These are all across the board.

--It seems the President came to believe he could do no wrong so much, that he figured his deceptions wouldn't be found out.  The health care laws just never made sense as a tool to help care for people.  We are fortunate that my job pays for health care, but people should be able to keep their chosen plan.  If I like driving a Corolla or a pickup, I shouldn't be forced to buy and drive a Cadillac.

--Our crops seemed to come in pretty well this summer.  Down in a few things and up in others.  We are blessed to live in one of the best places to grow fruits and vegetables in the world.  What we don't grow, we can buy, for now.

--I'm becoming a believer in cell phone blocking at schools.  If we are truly trying to educate young people, then we are losing the cell phone battle.  More students are clandestinely or openly using cell phone in class. If they are trying to hide it, they are not paying attention to the class.  The CAN"T multitask, even if they think they can.  If so, how come I catch many with their heads looking at their laps instead of doing classwork? Head in lap?  Cell phone or worse going on. And some get indignant if told to put phones away.  Time to just block them.

--Tonight is the last home regular season football game.  It seems so inconsequential.  There was a time that our school sports was always on my radar. Maybe that is a sign for me to move on.

--Our new neighbor is hosting a guitarist for a performance at his house, Richard Smith.  I'd never heard of him, but looking him up.  Great fingerstyle playing.  Here is a link. of him with Tommy Emmanuel.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej9-OW0pOUA

--Just heard a former student has taken a job in the next state.  Great for him.  $80,000 a year as a welder.  I' having to teaching my students howto use a scale and hammer a nail and here is a young person with curiosity and skills.  Want a job, listen and learn instead of texting.

--I just read, via Joel Salatin, that Monsanto has agreed to fund 90% of the Swedish Royal Institute of Agriculture if they abolish their Ecology department.  Which they did.  Seems like another, "Here's your sign," moment.

--It's not new news, but still relevant.  The list of the 10 most polluted cities in America is out. We live within an hour of 4 of them and 2 more are within three hours.  Thanks Dan C. for the reminder.

--Last night we dined on Drive-Through Pork.  The local FFA does fundraiser dinners in the Fall (pork) and Spring (chicken) and we always enjoy the feast.  You drive through the parking lot, pick up your dinners and drive home to great food.  Last night was another of these reminders that education can get it right sometimes. Many kids learning new skills, that's FFA.

Have a great day, and don't forget to remember those that gave something for your freedom this Veteran's Day weekend.

Need More Government?

I think not. Here is  something from someone that can write better than I, Joel Salatin. From the Polyface Farn Facebook page.

Polyface Farm

November 1

In case you didn't know, the sustainable agriculture/local food community is abuzz in recent weeks
over proposed Draconian regulations from the 2009 Food Safety Modernization Act. Overseen by President
Obama's appointment, Michael Taylor (longtime Monsanto attorney who shepherded Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs) to the world, this food policing project is just now getting flesh on the bones. It's ugly.

If you haven't received the action alerts about this, you're not plugged into the clean food and integrity
food movements. The public comment period closes Nov. 15 and literally every single non-industrial food
organization is hopping mad about the proposals.

Like all subjective regulations, it's hard to know what everything actually means. The regulations use "farm"
and "facility" interchangeably, which makes all of us farmers wonder if we are no longer farms, but rather
perceived as food facilities. Each farm is limited to only 3,000 pastured chickens--is this per year, per property,
per business entity? It's all unclear, but obviously if it's the most stringent, it would destroy Polyface Farm.

The regulations almost prohibit using compost for vegetable production and create a scorched-earth
policy toward wildlife that meanders onto farms. The regulations love centralized Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and doesn't want mixed plant-animal farms. Chemical fertilizers are easy to
use; biologically active soil amendments practically impossible. You get the flavor. Did anyone expect
anything different from a Monsanto rep?

But that's not what this post is about. That's all just context. The crux of my thoughts today revolve
around the axiom perpetuated in all these action alerts and info-sheets: "better oversight is needed." While
whipping us into apoplectic frenzy with diatribes about how heinous all this is, the same authors, in the
same evangelistic fervor, say "better oversight is needed." They mean government oversight of food
safety; primarily, I assume, industrial food.

Saying "better oversight is needed" while decrying the kind of oversight we're getting is naive. The
most powerful section of the documentary Food Inc, in my opinion, is right at the end where the revolving
door of industry-regulators shows the business cards as examples. How do you get "better oversight" when
the entire regulatory bureaucracy marches to the beat of the same drummer? While certainly a few lone
voices do exist, the food policing agencies as a whole share the same idealogical fraternity--indeed in
many cases the same college fraternity--as the industry they're supposed to regulate. It makes for a
cozy--and incredibly prejudicial--family.

The wise reaction to all this is to realize that we are getting the kind of oversight we're getting because
that's how government regulations operate. They always have and always will. The government agencies
kow-tow to the biggest players and the whole structure becomes concessionized toward the status quo
rather than a true societal watchdog. The dog bites innovators and rabble-rousers; it licks the biggest
players who can afford to bring it biscuits (wine and cheese dinners).

The problem is not better government oversight. The problem is government oversight, period.
The answer is not better government; the answer is eliminating the government's meddling in food affairs
at all. At this stage of the game, with a First Lady who planted an organic garden on the White House
lawn, if we can't get any better recognition of scientific evidence for decentralization, pastured livestock,
farm diversification, and small-scale processing I would hope anyone still putting faith in government
oversight would begin to question their wisdom.

I have a question for all my friends who share a love of integrity food and healing landscape who still
think we need better government oversight of food. Pray tell, just how are you going to change agency
climates from evil to good? How do you get everyone from Monsanto to Tyson to Bill Gates to quit populating
the government agencies with their lackeys? How are you going to break the good ole boy network between
the corn growers alliance, the chemical fertilizer institute, the herbicide alliance and the pharmaceutical
industry with the ag colleges and the government agencies? How? If you haven't been able to do it yet,
when? Next year, the next year? Just when is this better oversight going to kick in?

Folks, I beg you, please, please, please quit asking for ANY more government involvement in our
food system. You can't convert a demon. We need an opt out strategy, to preserve a food choice for the
natives, before all of us heretics who dare question industrial orthodoxy get rounded up and put on the
reservation--if we sign up as friends. Otherwise, it's Wounded Knee for us. It's just this kind of naive faith
that somehow we can get better oversight from the government that perpetuates and fuels the burgeoning
inquisition. Too many people think they can replace the food extortionists with folks who will love compost
and pastured chickens.

I have news for you--'t ain't gonna happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. We need to quit feeding the
idea that we need government oversight in food. It's given us GMOs, bovine spongiform encephalopathy,
irradiation, DDT, and the demonic 1979 food pyramid that embarked our nation on Type II diabetes and
an obesity epidemic never seen in any civilization in human history. And these people are watchdogs of
food safety? Give me a break.

The way to get safe food and plenty of food choice is to let the players duke it out in the marketplace.
I'll tell my story; Monsanto can tell their story. Right now, it's a stacked deck. The entire weight of the U.S.
government is there to pooh-pooh my story and stamp "approved" on Monsanto's story, or Tyson or McDonald's
or Merck or Pfizer--pick your devil of the day. Any of them will do.

Only when people are responsible for their food choices, without prejudiced government agents coaxing
them, will people finally begin taking the responsibility to educate themselves about food and consequences.
When we remove the tyranny, liberty fosters personal accountability. Accountability fosters informational
interest. Suddenly people will be as interested in their food as they are in the Kardashians, and wouldn't
that be an exciting societal evolution?

Food business that hurt people will get their pants sued instead of hiding behind the skirts of government
food safety agents saying: "I complied with all government licenses." The license means if you join the
fraternity, courts will absolve you of guilt. Get it?

I beg my friends in this movement: please don't give any more credence to government food meddling.
It's why we are where we are. Here at Polyface, we're not sure how much more of this "better oversight" we
can stand. Look at your children. Look them in the eye, and then tell them you are depending on a bureaucrat
to keep them safe. If you can do that, you have way more faith in the industrial food orthodoxy than I do.
As for me and my house, we will put our faith in businesses we trust, people we know, farmers who don't
pepper their entrance with "No Trespassing" signs, sheep dip, and haz mat suits.

Among consenting adults, the freedom to acquire the food of our choice is certainly as important as
the freedom to worship, shoot, or pray. Our country seems to love rebels wherever they pop up around the
world--except right here at home. Here at home, we're called criminals and we live in terror for our farms
and our freedom to feed our children what will liberate them from being enslaved by the pharmaceutical-
medical-chemical-industrial orthodoxy. We don't need "better governmental oversight." We need freedom.

Some Thoughts on Schools and People

I was talking with a colleague the other day about students in general.  We had just left a required by the state meeting with a student, the grandmother the student lives with, and the mother.  Three generations of the same family.  I had the mother as a student and now her child.  At times it seemed the educators were more parents than educators, and not just with the student.  The phrase, "The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree," applies here.  I don't say that in a mean way either.

The conversation after the meeting turned away from the family towards history and the general knowledge that students have or don't have yet.  We talked about the make-up of a high school student body.  I have always held the belief that while attending college a person will never be in a situation were they are surrounded by a higher percentage of people with the same general demographics.  Mostly young, middle class and above family background, generally similar intelligence and motivated to get more educated to advance themselves. We continued that thought with the observations that most work places are similarly manned.  The people your work with are generally like yourself in educational background, income,and such.

Think about how well you get along with your work mates.

We then speculated that high school is the opposite of college and work.  No where else in your life will you be grouped with more differences in people.  No where else will you be you be asked to interact with a larger cross section of the population.  No where else will you have to try to get people with such different ideological backgrounds to work together.

Now throw in egos, and do you see why Congress can't get anything done?