Bob White at Eden Farm!

I haven't seen Bob White quail here for about 20 years.  We are at the northern part of their range and they haven't fared well here or elsewhere over this same period.  No till, no edge farming, foxes, hawks, and other farming practices and predators have all but eliminated quail from this area.  But, yesterday I heard that sweet summer song, bob white!  I thought I was mistaken at first, but as I listened closely I heard it again.  I returned the call, roughly.  I can't whistle, I can hardly carry a note, but my whistle must have sounded like a general approximation because I got a return call!  Then we started carrying on a conversation.  Lord knows what we were saying, but one quail was moving closer and responding right away.  I hoped it was a hen, because this baby was acting excited to find what must have sounded like a 200 pound boy friend right in her back yard!

I stayed in place in the driveway and couldn't see a long distance, but it seemed like the quail was going to round the corner any minute.  Shy, coy, or suspicious of my off-key, baritone whistle, she wasn't venturing out of cover and I grew impatient, and just a little self-conscious.  It can be a little quiet here at the farm and, as much fun as I was having, I didn't want to spend too much time whistling at some unseen girl friend.

This morning, as I got the paper, I tried a few good morning whistles.  No return call.  My notes are a little rougher first thing in the morning and I hadn't had any coffee.  They probably moved out of range, or hadn't finished their morning routine yet, but, unbelievably, in a short while, as I was reading the paper and enjoying coffee at the kitchen table, I heard that lonely call.  I returned it without moving from my seat and she responded!  Through stone walls, thermopane, and Krista Tippett's "On Being", our affair resumed.  But, again, I grew bored.  A guy can live to whistle only so long.  A little later, I was out back again, this time practicing my golf swing (yes, its a little quiet here), and heard her call nearby.  I responded and then looked up to see the quail right in front of my garage, standing proud, so proud, in fact, I wondered it if was my girl friend, or an angry rooster.  I didn't want to start any trouble, but Beau and Belle in an absolute fit of fidelity spotted that gal or guy and took off in full chase. I was surprised the quail didn't just fly off but, instead just ran into the dense hay.  Then, I saw a second quail down the road where the first took cover, so it did appear the rooster was trying to dissuade me from flirting with one of his girls.  I called Beau and Belle back into the house to allow things to settle down.  I don't know if I'll every hear her call again, but it made for some wistful moments here at Eden Farm.  I may let the Pennsylvania Game Commission know about the covey.  I just hope they don't ask to record my Bob White whistle!

iView Goes Mobile!

In March, I bought a 2008 Winnebago View RV to do some adventure travel, photography, visits to Civil War battlefields, etc.  So, the View From Eden Farm goes mobile in the iView; a travelogue of photography, phunnies, and philosophy.

Throughout, we’ll continue making memories, the core of what we do with family and friends.  Speaking of family, they are all awaiting a sighting of the View in their respective areas. There’s already been discussion of camping trips with Timmy, Katie, Anna, Molly, Alex, Quinn,and Mattie, trips to the Army-Navy game in Annapolis, excursions to Bama and the Gulf, and wherever else our imagination takes us.

The maiden voyage was to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA on May 9-11 (see link  ).  With a little help from our friends and inveterate campers, Bob and Esther Robinson, we took the View to a beautiful state park and historic site of a former iron furnace.

Its the mid-point of the Appalachian Trial where the hikers have a tradition of having Hershey’s ice cream to mark the spot.  I only hiked a mile or so where the Trail overlapped a park trail, but I made sure to have the traditional ice cream just the same.

There’s is an Appalachian Trail Museum, and several buildings from the iron furnace operation, including the mansion, the Pay Master’s House, now available for short-term rent for up to six guests, the ruins of the old furnace, two beautiful lakes, beaches, trails, and trout streams.

Beau and Belle and I did several hikes, one of 4+ miles, cooling our heels in the beautiful stream as necessary.  It was nice to come back and take a nap in our new View.

I mentioned Bob and Esther, friends and neighbors from Fairfield.  They were so nice to help make sure I was prepared with all the gear necessary for the RV as well as the camping, much of which I had from our family tent camping trips, and the Eden Farm Camporama, of course!  Bob and Esther followed me the 35 miles or so to the Park on Wednesday and helped me set up.  Then, Esther and Bob grilled salmon, I prepared a salad, and we finished with Esther’s chocolate chip cake!


Not bad for a maiden voyage.  Bob came back Friday, to make sure I broke camp ok and follow me home.  There’s a lot to explore in this area.  My next trip will probably be to Falling Waters, Frank Lloyd Wright’s house built out over the water fall.  There’s a revolutionary fort in that area as well.  So, more views from the View before long. 



See ya!

Raisin' The Roof!

The barn is being renovated! They’re tearing the roof off and laying down new lath as they go, so they have secure footing even as they remove the old tin. Two power lifts, one with a scaffold, air hoses, power hammers, nail bandoliers, and pre-sawn 2x4s are a far cry from the tools used when the barn was first raised in the 1800s.

The metal pinch bars, flannel shirts, and denim pants may be the only things the original Krise family would recognize at the work site today. Imagine hand hewing and sawing the wood back then! You’d be lucky to have a couple of guys on the ground cutting and hoisting so you and a buddy could set pieces in place. Without friends or neighbors, you’d be on the ground to measure and cut a few lengths, and then climb back up the ladder to pound hand forged nails. Then, as hard as you worked during the day, as many times as you you had been up and down the ladder, you had to stop before dark so you could milk the cows and feed ‘em some hay. I bet they didn’t join the gym, do yoga, or Pilates!

The barn needs some care. The old tin roof has been patched and repaired over the years, but it’s friable and leaks in the rain. One section of the main cross beam has some rot as does the main diagonal brace for that section. Rain snuck in over time in and ran across the beam and down the brace. Slowly, imperceptibly, the water rotted the spine, and was working its way toward the vines that grew up from the foundation, one working to weaken it, the other to pull it down. Nature doesn’t like verticals, but this old barn has stood proudly against sun, rain, wind, and snow. The men in their flannels and denim would be as proud.

More to come!

New Blog!

I am fortunate to live at Eden Farm, an historic old house in Fairfield near Gettysburg, PA. Its a peaceful place for family gatherings, crab feasts, tractor rides, fishing, and picking wild flowers. I don't do any serious farming, I lease the land for hay, but I am in the business of "growing memories", especially for five wonderful grandchildren and their cousins. It is a great place to entertain friends, play some golf, go skiing, and share quiet moments on the front porch.

The view from the porch is both beautiful and tranquil. At a glance, you take in the gazebo and pond, often filled with geese or an occasional heron, fields of hay and wildflowers, hawks-a-hunting, and the nearby Catoctin mountains. From the rear of the house, you can see the slopes of Ski Liberty, the namesake of our township. The view is open, the perspective broad.

Fairfield is “bookended” between two small, liberal arts colleges, Mt. St. Marys University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and Gettysburg College in Gettysburg. Nearby, is the famed battlefield and National Park, and a thriving community of local musicians, artists and crafts people, organic famers and artisan food producers, orchardists, inn keepers and restauranteurs, naturalists and outdoor sportsmen. I enjoy discovering all the treats the area has to offer. 

I also like to travel, to venture out to visit family and friends. I have enjoyed some great trips recently to visit with them in New England, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, California, New Mexico, Greece and Turkey, and Cuba! I'll add posts from future trips about fun restaurants, points of interest, interesting people, and photographs, since I have finally been able to give more time to photography, one of my  few artistic outlets.

I am on a personal journey as well. I have always been a “seeker” with lots of questions about life.  So, not only will I share some highlights from my travels, but, given my journey, I plan to share occasional witticisms, pithy political observations, and philosophical musings.

Obviously, the perspective from here is open and broad. So, enjoy the View from Eden Farm and, if you care to share, please do.

Geoff

Domestic Partnerships

I spent some time yesterday putting the final touches on an article about gay marriage. After I finished the article, I decided to tackle my next chore- replacing the light switch in the family room with a dimmer. I pictured a quick task of turning off the circuit breaker and swapping out the switches. It wasn't until I actually went to turn off the breaker that I realized I didn't have a partner to holler from the family room once the light went out!  Then I had an inspiration. I played iTunes through my phone and a portable player that I plugged into an outlet in the family room. I turned Rosanne Cash (my “partner”) up loud and smugly went down to the basement and turned off the circuit breaker labeled- family room. Rosanne was silenced and I came upstairs ready to tackle the switch. Unfortunately, the ceiling light was still on! Obviously, the circuit breaker controlled the outlet, but not the ceiling fixture.

So, I went back downstairs to try other breakers. This time, given the number of breakers, I tried two likely candidates. Back upstairs, the light was still glowing. Back downstairs. By now I was exceeding my capacity to remember which breakers I already tried, so I began checking them off on the list on the panel door. Two more breakers. Back up. No luck. Back down, two more. I've got a big panel. At first, I was trying circuits in the family room locale and ruling out the stove and the barn, and more recently-added circuits, etc. Back up. Back down. Then it occurred to me that I had yet to turn off the lights in the basement below the very spot I was trying to control. So, smugly (it doesn't take much does it?) I turned off each breaker in the panel until I darkened the basement. Then stumbling upstairs to swap the switch (I failed to take a flashlight with me), I found the light was still on!

Back downstairs, this time with a flashlight, I tried all the breakers one at a time, including one that was unlabeled, which, of course turned out to be correct, proving the old adage, it will be the last one you try! The switch replacement went without incident, except that I had to go back downstairs three times to get the right size screwdriver. I'm resting now in the family room admiring my work, having  labeled the correct breaker, taken some Advil, and iced my knees.  Now, all I have to do is raise the light by removing some of the chain links while keeping it level.

Wish I had a domestic partner!

Geoff Grant
Valentine's Day
February 14, 2012

Gay Marriage

“Our Words Fail Us”

Language fails us when we speak of Marriage, Weddings, Civil Unions, Domestic Partnerships, Civil Rights, and Religious Rites. A quote in the Washington Post coverage of New York gay marriages on July, 25, 2011 captured an example of the problem. An opponent of gay marriage was quoted as saying, “To sanctify same sex marriage is an abomination.” Similarly, news commentators angrily denounced the California Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recent decision regarding Proposition 8 citing that marriage is “traditionally” heterosexual, or that heterosexual marriage is an “essential institution of society”. But, arguments about heterosexual marriage based on religion or tradition immediately raise the questions, “Whose religion?”, or “Whose tradition?”

States don't sanctify (dedicate as sacred) marriage, they authorize a legal union between two individuals. In fact, it is illegal for Sates or the Federal government to sanctify marriage or impose religious beliefs or “traditions” on the legal requirements for marriage. The First Amendment prohibits a preference for one religion over another, or religion over non-religion. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides equal protection for all people under the law. States can’t discriminate against gender in civil unions any more than they can discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. But, our language or terminology doesn't help us distinguish very well between a State authorized domestic contract between two people (sorry, it's not very romantic!) and a religious wedding, ceremony, tradition, or cultural ritual. As others have noted, our discussion often confuses civil rights with religious rites. What we have here is a failure to communicate!

States license marriage (domestic partnerships or civil unions) between two individuals, which bestows certain legal and social rights and benefits regarding property, other assets, taxes, inheritance, etc. State governments typically specify premarital requirements such as residency, waiting periods, blood tests, minimum age, and family relationships that must be met in order to marry. Likewise, states authorize civil and religious officials to perform marriage; judges, clerks of the court and justices of the peace, ministers, rabbis, priests, and others, thereby recognizing the wide array of marriage practices from very simple civil proceedings to elaborate religious ceremonies. Additionally, States typically stipulate both a marriage license as an authorization to marry and a marriage certificate to document that a marriage has taken place.

Weddings on the other hand are typically ceremonies that celebrate the union of a couple by family and friends. They may be religious or they may be entirely secular. Some religions have their own set of requirements for marriage in addition to what the Sate imposes, for example classes or instruction in the that particular religious tradition for marriage, waiting periods, and other forms of preparation. Religious wedding ceremonies vary greatly among traditions, cultures, countries, and social classes.

Apparently, a Muslim marriage is not considered a “sacrament”, but a simple, legal agreement in which either partner is free to include conditions that are stipulated in a written contract. The first part of the Nikah, the wedding ceremony, is the signing of the marriage contract itself. In Jewish law, marriage consists of two separate acts, called erusin, meaning sanctification, which is the betrothal ceremony, and nissu'in, the actual ceremony for the marriage. Erusin changes the couple's interpersonal status, while nissu'in brings about the legal consequences of the change of status.

In the Catholic religion and many other Christian denominations, marriage is considered a solemn sacrament, a Christian rite, holy matrimony. The priest or minister is authorized to perform a legally binding marriage in the eyes of the state and the legal union requires a license, but the ceremony is almost entirely religious. In fact, even if a couple subsequently gets divorced legally in the eyes of the State, they remain married in the eyes of the Catholic Church, unless the marriage is later annulled- by the Church. Various religions may or may not preclude gay marriage based on their belief systems and traditions- the State does not have a role in this determination. Weddings are ceremonies that mark the beginning of marriages or civil partnerships, but States don't require religious ceremonies to consummate a legal marriage.

Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the new Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, wrote in the Washington Post on February 11, 2012, “The scriptural argument against same-sex marriage is based on seven references in the Old and New Testament that condemn homosexual activity. Each of those passages, however, condemns, exploitative sexual activity that is the antithesis of loving, committed relationships. The Bible is silent on the subject of same-gender, monogamous relationships.”1 Rev. Budde goes on to point out that those seven references, “pale in comparison with the overarching Biblical imperatives to love one another, work for justice and recognize that each of us is created in the image of God.”2

Perhaps the debate is evolving in some parts of the country. The Washington Post reports on February 13, 2012 (the day before Valentines) that some Maryland GOP lawmakers are wrestling with the, “. . .interplay between government and religion . . .”, during that state's consideration of a same-sex marriage bill. Del. Patrick N. Hogan, (R., Frederick), states, “I'm conflicted. While I believe we should provide couples rights, I don't know about using the word 'marriage'

Ironically this whole debate is about two people coming together in love and respect to form a commitment to one another, certainly core values of all religions. We need to distinguish the role of the State in licensing all civil unions or partnerships from weddings, which are religious or secular ceremonies. I can't speak for the various communities at the heart of this debate, and I'm not in favor of constitutional amendments, but one resolution would be for State legislatures to stipulate that the state licenses domestic partnerships, and that otherwise couples, once licensed are free to get married in the ceremony, secular or religious, of their choosing. Above all, let us be mindful, as we resolve this issue, of the first tenet of all major religions- to love one another and to treat one another with compassion.

1. and 2. “On Faith”, Washington Post, February 11, 2012


Happy Valentines Day!
Geoff
February 14, 2012

Selma Cemetery