15 days on a bus trip through the South with 12 and 13 year-olds — What does it mean to be white in the United States today? How does a young white person become aware of their whiteness without falling into the traps of unproductive guilt or performative allyship? How can an awareness of how whiteness operates in the world transfer to making a positive…

You now have four books to choose from. For the month of October, the Readers and Writers Book Club is reading and commenting on Howard W. French’s Born in Blackness. Essays are due on or after October 25th. I’m halfway through the book and I liken it to Jared Diamond’s…

Before and After The first frost is always a turning point in the harvest season. A hard frost can kill all the summer produce: basil, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, zinnias, and much more. Tuesday night the temperature kept dropping and Wednesday dawned in the high twenties. This was a classic…

How DNA and documents are not the same as kin relationship — As I research and write about my genealogy hobby, there are moments when I find myself called out by my own research. In those moments I have to decide if I am willing to accept the lesson in front of me or double down on my own version of reality…

Tribute to our good sheep, Lilly I did not expect to have to write another tribute post so soon. It has been just over two weeks since our beloved llama, Precious, passed. I was gone on our school trip and came home on Tuesday to find one of our sheep…

A portrait of Black life in Detroit during a dystopian epidemic Readers and Writers Book Club #RaWBC for September 2022. Some spoilers ahead, but I don’t give too much away. I love podcasts. I love the way podcasts can put people in my ears who challenge my worldview and get…

Non-Farm Friday! September 16th, 2022 I was nowhere near the farm this week! Um, yeah. I’ve been on a fifteen-day road trip with 56 junior high students. So, no, I don’t have any photos from the farm to share. I’m also four days late. …

Farm Friday, September 9th, 2022 Rest In Peace, Precious the Beloved Llama Precious came to our farm in the summer of 2001. Her owners described her as a little brown llama, and they gave her to the school to help us guard our sheep. We had just acquired two Shetland…