Maggie's Farm

Reposted from August 2, 2005

I have not posted in a long time, Bird Dog, but things have changed. For one thing, I am typing from an internet caffee in Paris, France, and my new friend Miss Millie is with me here on this church trip which I did not want to do and swore I would not do for many reasons but a gal has the power to twist an old fellers arm like you dont want to know, so I am seeing the high life as seen through our Congregational Church and this is a change for me, as I mentioned, but it may not be not a bad thing to get away from a Vermont dairy farm every 40 yrs or so. For one thing, the pom freets and biftek aint bad at all or the cock o'vin and the wine ordinare out of the jug thing is better grape juice than I have ever had. They have armanoc too made from Frenchie apples which is a good sleep ade. I didnt know they had apples. All food, well, the ladies like food and are mostly a bit heavy, I mean the ladies and the food, but the fancy deserts dont beat Wallmart apple pie and are too sweet but they give you a feeling of luxury I must say and they have a thing called tartatin which is upsidedown but a damn good apple pie and they say "its nicely carmelized". The whole 18 of us agree about one thing, the wine ordinare is just OK with us and cheers things up after a hard day of tramping about. We have seen everything here including Pear lachase and Nortre Dame and lots of pretty pictures and the ladys like the Van go but those cubebist pictures I seem to enjoy the most and Cazanne could have done a good job with Vermont so I bought a print of his to put up somewhere, maybe duck tape it to the bathroom wall because he had a feeling for the land and the farm that you cant put into words. But we now go to Lords or Luordes for everyone to pray which I dont do but maybe Miss Milly will get me on my knees for something as she is a sweet old Vermont widow gal and I guess I aint dead yet but intagled I do not want to get right now since I am not a domesticated animal nor was I ever one really. Then a bus to Teze, then Paris then home. OK, my five minutes of fame is up on this machine and will talk to you later.

(Editor: He means Taize)

OK, Bird Dog, you add the links to this because I can't but we're headed home tomorrow to Boston, then another dang bus back to the Green Mountains, and I didnt think I would ever say this but I am not excited about coming back home and probably will find that Seth and Reuben have burned the place down but you cannot harm growing corn, and I assume the haying was finished up right because only a true moron could screw that up. We actually took the high-speed rail back from Teze yesterday and since you are a Christian gent or at least a wantabe I will have to tell you about that place which if any place can give an old yankee atheist Congregationalist a touch of the spirit, that place can and Miss Millie blew a wad on their CDs so if we stay friends I guess I can look forward to Spirito Sancto etc nonstop when I prefer no sound but the crickets and the dogs and the grumbling cattle. Well we did go to Lordes first which was a holy tourist trap deal almost, thousands of people from all over and lots of sickly ones and we all lost eachother in the crowds and we saw the candlelight march and went to a mass but didnt take communion we being protestants or even hopeless heathen like me and two of our group, two sicklies but I have my doubts because for years they are always ailing but never dying and can drink their wine OK and chow down on the snails, well they did some special deal even not being catholics and it seemed to perk them up. Now but that Teze place I could tell you about at lenth but maybe later, and I aint convertable because I have my principles but it is something and our whole group acting reborn and refreshed in the spirit except me of course, and well Pastor Winslow I worried about him losing his marbles he is a good fellow and can party and dine and can be a tough sob at times and knows farming and fixes his own car but he has a hunger for the spirit and I aint never seen him and Edie as happy as they were there. I am a lost sheep to them I suspect but we have become good pals and they never preach or condesend or do that Christian nicey nice thing and so I respect them back. Galla goodby dinner tonight we have reservations and it aint mcdonalds just a little place Pastor knew about and we will all tank up on the frenchie grape juice vin ordinare and Pastor has his jokes and stories all ready then back to the old Beantown via Air Frog in the am. 

(Editor: photo from the Taize website. Their music, all live and natural, is as good as it gets for modern religious music. It is not rock, but it will rock you if you let it.)

Well, we took over $11,000 on our sugar this year, which ain’t chicken scratch in the Northeast Kingdom, and especially in this state where they want your every spare nickel to buy some vote from some lazy jackass somewhere in this commie state I live in. Not that I need the money myself you know but I figure in life you just keep doing what you do and do what you know how to do until the wheels fall off. Now that I have my bright shiny new Wallmart wellies, I can’t think of a single thing I need except my daily bread and the occasional, well maybe daily whiskeys. I know you fancy folks from Burlington and Hartford and Boston etc might see the way we live up here and think we need all sorts of ---- like 4 wheel drive and oil heat and semi-auto shotguns etc. but that’s because of advertising propaganda that they think that, plus too much time on their hands and not enough work and too much boredom and life maybe too easy so they have to go to exercise school  or restaurants to get tired. Which we dont have any restaurants or exercise schools unless you count the Dunkin Donuts etc. down in St Johnsbury. I always figure those commies I helped kill in Korea had their propaganda and we have Advertising which at least aint from the  ----ing gummint so at least Im not paying my own money to try to fool my own self. Well I guess I am waxing too philosophical for a Vermont farmer but it’s a lull time right now with too much ---ing mud up to your armpits of course to plow harrow and seed but soon enough so just the routine feed the cattle and milk the cattle, bring em in and take em out, which the boys mostly do, but the cattle pretty much know what theyre supposed to do because they arent smart but they arent stupid either and more brain than ---ing horses which are now obsolete animals except for the Fancies and God knows what fool things they do with the dumb beasts. We did paint a side of the house and finished painting the barn connector that we started last spring. My boys don’t exactly enjoy scraping and painting and I can'tpull a Tom Sawyer on them and I think they would rather drag dead cows to the pit but I am paying them and have to keep them mostly busy or it don’t make sense, and these boys were made to work as long as it isn't scraping old paint and they are only happy if they're bitchin about something like some fat girl in town with already 2 fat brat snot nose kids or the valve on the milker or the cow kicking or the paint dripping or the rain fallin or the cost of gas. Bitchin, and beer, and the fat girls, and their slick pick-ups are what keep them going. God bless em they are both strong simple boys Seth and Reuben and basically honest maybe except to the fat girls and the hunting regs and maybe a few other things I would not care to mention online. They do hunt a bit and I know they both shot nice turkeys for their mommas for Mothers Day. I wont eat that dried out ---, and they can't call a turkey worth a damn in my opinion but they always get over their limit with nice clean head shots. I guess they play Indian in my woodlots, like kids, which they are grown-up kids with brains to match.