The Bounty of Agriculture

Red Empire Apples - Cornell Orchards

    Last night I dreamed about agriculture and the bounty of food production in the U.S.   I suppose that is not unusual since I have deep roots in agriculture through my childhood and later career as an agricultural engineer.    I think U.S. agriculture is truly amazing.   The bounty of food we have on our tables year around is stunning.   And while I applaud U.S. agriculture, I have to acknowledge we are also beneficiaries of the bounty of agriculture many other nations.   As we approach Thanksgiving we should pause to give thanks for our good fortune of the riches of food and fiber produced by agriculturalists world wide.

     In my reflections about agriculture as a follow on to my dream I tried identify all the various crops that I have personally harvested in my lifetime.   During my growing up on the farm these are the crops that I harvested.
Grains -  Wheat, Oats, Buckwheat - Wheat and oats were even harvested with a McCormick binder.

Vegetables - Carrots, Lettuce, Red Beets, Onions, Spinach, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Snap Beans,  Red Kidney Beans, Peas, Cabbage, Pumpkins - During World War II there was a huge demand for vegetables and our farm produced as much as we could with the labor we had available.  Harvesting required significant backbreaking labor.

Fruits - Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Tart Cherries, Sweet Cherries, Elderberries, Currants, Grapes - As a general farm we grew a variety of fruits for many different markets.  All these products were harvested by hand labor.

     During my years as a teacher and researcher at Cornell I had the opportunity to mechanize the harvest of many fruits and vegetables.   I participated with a team of engineers and viticulturists in the creation of one of the first grape harvesters.   Other fruit and vegetable harvesting machines that I helped create were, apple harvesters, cabbage harvesters, blueberry harvesters, and lettuce harvesters.   Our cabbage harvester design continues to be the sole design manufactured in the world today.    Some of our work served to reduce the back breaking or stoop labor for the harvest of some crops.

     As we have become a non-agrarian society, most folks have lost all sense of what it takes to produce and provide food for our table.   I think it would be good therapy for everyone to spend a week or two on a working farm carrying out the tasks that are necessary to produce our food.   Meanwhile, be thankful.   Happy Thanksgiving all!

  

Healed

     Yesterday's devotion in the Upper Room was about being healed.   The scripture dealt with the women that pestered Jesus until he granted her request to heal her daughter.   The accompanying story was authored by a woman whose infant son had suddenly stopped breathing and had to be rushed to the hospital.   In that ensuing crisis she prayed out loud and aggressively as the physicians, EM T's and nurses handled the situation.   She was  probably obnoxious to some.   The good news is that her son revived and was completely all right.  You might say healed.

   This story brought to mind for me a flood of memories of the crisis with our own daughter Victoria.   At 14 months she developed an extraordinary high fever and went into convulsions.   A quick call to emergency services brought the ambulance and a quick trip to Cayuga Medical Center.   Nancy and I certainly were in prayer during this crisis.   We spent several days in anxiety and prayer as the unknown malady took its course.   To our delight within a day or so she woke up one morning showing interest in a toy and as it turned out completely healed!   To us a miracle since there was no evident diagnosis for the cause of the fever.

   I guess that each day there are many folks that are experiencing the joy of being healed.   And probably if we are honest about all of our situations we are all in the process of being healed of something,  Whether it may be emotional or physical trauma.   I am convinced that whatever your faith calling might be, that prayer has the possibility of healing and if not healing easing the pain of the malady.

   Among my group of long term senior friends there are three men that I pray for daily.   All three are in recovery and/or remission of cancer.   I doubt whether they know that I am praying for them, but that is of no matter since I am not the healer, but just a channel for God's grace if I am so honored.

No Place Like Home

      Thursday we left for Long Island to visit recently married daughter and her husband at Carle Place, NY.   The visit was both a social time and a work session.  They have moved into their first house and since both of them are working professionals, their days are long and setting up the household takes a lot of extra energy.   So Nancy and I went to work as soon as we arrived.  Viki and Matt had a list of projects for us to do so we had some direction.  However, as veterans of making moves and setting up a new household, we were soon making decisions and storing items where we thought they could bring out later as they made all the many decisions of how they would want to arrange things.    There are 17 steps to the second floor and I think I made at least 50 trips up and down those stairs carrying box after box of stuff for office, bedroom and storage.   A challenge for my geezer back.   Fortunately, Tylenol eases the pain.

An Organized Kitchen in the New House

    As long time New York up-staters we are more accustomed to a slower paced life.   The hyper activity of the metropolitan area is exhausting for us.  Perhaps it is the challenge of navigating the heavy traffic of multi-lanes travelling at 60 to 70 miles per hour to get to our destination.   Although we worked hard, we also took time to enjoy seeing the youngsters and continuing our socialization with Viki's in-laws who we have come to appreciate and enjoy more and more.   We had the pleasure of a great Japanese restaurant on Thursday evening and a great family dinner with the in-laws and Viki and Matt in the somewhat more settled home on Friday.    Viki and Matt will continue to live into making their first house into a home that reflects their personalities and and desires.  Meanwhile we will continue to encourage their efforts and lend a hand when we can muster the energy to visit and work with them.

    Our journey home on Saturday was mostly uneventful in spite of a couple of traffic tie ups in the city and one accident scene on Route 17.   Nancy and I both agree that we are real homebodies.  We love the comfort and familiarity of our home in Cortland and the slower pace of our environs.   We both have the homing instinct and once we start for home from a visit we are much like E.T. in the movie.  We begin to say, "Home, Home, Home" with great yearning in our voices.   Meanwhile, we vow to become more comfortable dealing with the metropolitan area since it is clear our youngest is a big city girl now.

    For everyone there is no place like home wherever it may be.

Rating Ski Resorts

Snowbasin Utah

       Yesterday I received Ski Magazines issue rating ski resorts.  It was interesting to compare my own impressions of the various resorts I had skied at with the ratings by the magazine.   I think that every skier has a different set of criteria for ski resort that best meet their needs.   The most important thing for me is lots of good snow with enough groomers to give me some relief and a variety of terrain and scenery to enjoy at my leisure.   I was pleased to find that if you are looking for the best snow Utah is the place to go.  I certainly agree with the raters on that one.   After skiing Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin last year I have no doubt they have the greatest snow on earth.   And for the geezers,  Snowbasin has it all.   It is notable that Snowbasin has the highest rank for food service and I totally agree with that.

      In the East I really enjoy Mad River Glen as well as Okemo  though overall they do not rank as high as some of the other resorts.  Mad River Glen is great skiing at at a reasonable cost where the emphasis is on being a great skier in a dedicated family oriented setting.   Okemo is great for groomers and service.

     In the By the Numbers page of the Fall 2010 issue of Ski Magazine I note that New York State has the most ski resorts of any state at 48.  With 473 resorts in the U.S. that means New York has over 10 percent of the ski areas in the nation.   I have skied at eight of the New York areas so far.  I think I will put it on my bucket list to ski all the areas in New York State.   It could be interesting!

      Looking forward to the the 2010-2011 season.    Here's to an early start in upstate New York!! Happy skiing everyone wherever it may be.

Memories - A Patchwork Quilt

 United Methodist Church of Moravia Quilt Momento

     Wednesday night Nancy and I went to see the musical Church Basement Ladies 2 at the Merry Go Round Theater.    A delightful night of laughter and a bit of pathos to go with it.   In one of the scenes in the Second Act the young mother Beverly is presented with a lovely patchwork quilt to use for the christening of her infant daughter Katy.   The quilt had pieces of fabric representing the many stages of her life.  They included part of her recently deceased father's jeans, a blue ribbon she had won at a fair, a piece from her christening garment, etc.   Each piece brought back a poignant memory of her life and relationships to date.   I'll confess I was moved to tears.   Perhaps it was because of  my own flood of memories from my past and the recognition of the many fond memories I have of my life and the events in my children's and grand children's lives.

   As I age I recognize that the memories of the past that come to me are scraps of memories making up a patchwork of events in my life.   A memory here and a memory there that are a pieces of a much larger period of time and events.   As a whole these memories weave together to provide a wonderful collage or mosaic of both good, bad, satisfying and troubling thoughts of the past.   However, in the main I am delighted with my memory quilt.   It has been a good if not exceptional life of love and productivity.  I look forward to adding more memories to my patchwork quilt as these senior years roll on.    As we share with one another, I think it is good for us to share our patchwork quilts of memories.

Daily Bravery

     Lots of good news for the Chilean miners today.   As I write this blog 21 miners of the 33 have been rescued.   And the rescue operation seems to be going smoothly.   One has to admire the bravery of these miners.   As a person who is somewhat claustrophobic I can hardly bear to think what it must have been like to be confined deep in the earth for so long.    As one miner put it, "I was down in hell and reached up to God".

      I admire those  individuals that engage in occupations that require a daily bravery.   Among those occupations are  the military personnel, firemen, police officers, miners, and high steel construction workers.   Every day these people put on their gear or uniforms and face the probability of an unexpected hazard.   I salute their dedication.

     Meanwhile the rest of us in more mundane occupations face much lesser obstacles.   But all of us in one way or another have to have some level of daily bravery.  It may be as simple as confronting a conflict in the workplace or as complicated as making an ethical decision.   Although these may not be life threatening issues, these situations require being brave enough to live up to our potential.

   I guess daily bravery comes in all forms.   Staying true to ones self is the goal.

Projects

     I enjoy having projects to work on.  Some projects can be completed in a day and others will go on for months or more.   Yesterday I was working on my plow project.   The plow project is to rehabilitate the Rau Model Plow Collection acquired by the first president of Cornell University Andrew D. White in Germany in 1868.   With the blessing of Ezra Cornell this collection of plow models has resided at Cornell since 1868.   I have been translating the directory from German to English, fixing and photographing the plow models and storing them in protective containers.   The annotated directory with photographs is almost finished and a narrative history of the model plow collection is nearly complete.  At the same time I am writing a narrative of the development of the design of the plow throughout  history.   The project is nearing completion and I will be happy to see the plow models go on display again in Riley-Robb Hall at Cornell University.   (I guess I have been slow at getting this project done, since I have been prodded to get a portion of the collection into the display cabinets.  My geezer prerogative has been to do this project at my pace!)

     Today I completed a physical project employing my practical engineering skills.  At the end of our driveway we have a culvert that  with ends in need some form of retaining wall to beautify them.   So today I cranked up my 75 year old geezer body to move stones, dig soil and lay up a retaining wall on one end of our culvert.   See before and after photos.    Good day for the job since it was relatively cool.
It is nice to have a physical project that has defined boundaries with a beginning and end in one day.

Before

After

    Being engaged in projects is a good way to be upbeat about each day and to look forward to tomorrow.   And I get my wife Nancy to admire my handiwork too!