by Laura Parker Roerden It’s been an eventful time around here with three weekends in a row of crises, both human and animal. The crisis du jour this week was sheep acidosis or grain poisoning of both of our Leicester Longwool sheep on Friday night. Sheep can not eat anything that contains copper (a common element in many grainsContinue reading “All Creatures Bright and Wooly”
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A Way of Life
by Laura Parker Roerden “Farming is a way of life,” was one of my father’s oft repeated phrases. Sometimes he used it to explain why he still farmed in a year when he didn’t make any money or when the work demanded more of him than any sane person would give, like during haying season when he’d riseContinue reading “A Way of Life”
A Separate Peace
Welcoming Lulu by Laura Parker Roerden Last week the ordinary stuttered into extraordinary: our first lamb was born. My eldest son Eli delivered the news in a phone call to me when he went to the barn to close up the animals. “Mom, I think there’s someone here you’ll want to meet,” he simply said, without offeringContinue reading “A Separate Peace”
Losing Ground
by Laura Parker Roerden I saw a pair of ducks this afternoon, a male and female mallard. A hard, northwest wind had just begun to bow the smaller pines; clouds were gathering as the sky suddenly became a drop ceiling. A storm was coming down the river. The ducks seemed stalwart against the wind, though youContinue reading “Losing Ground”
The Bluebirds are Back
And Other Good News by Laura Parker Roerden I was drinking coffee while doing chores in the dairy barn this morning when the vet, Rosario, showed up. “Thank you for coming!” I said, stepping out into the frigid air to greet her, clutching my mug to warm my hands. Rosario looked up to introduce herself, offered an outstretched hand, and hitContinue reading “The Bluebirds are Back”
Warm Eggs in My Pockets
by Laura Parker Roerden For the last several days, I have been collecting eggs for our incubator. It’s a spring task that a hardened criminal could get behind. Since only still warm eggs can be successfully hatched, my morning chore requires sorting eggs by their temperature. It’s blustery and snowing here at the farm, soContinue reading “Warm Eggs in My Pockets”
The Hinge
by Laura Parker Roerden I love this world. And not just in morning, when the long, dark drug of night opens like a clam to the light. I love the hinge itself that swings back and forth as the tide washes over; an attempt at renewal. I love not just the mighty whale but theContinue reading “The Hinge”
Five Mysterious Things
by Laura Parker Roerden 1. All week a peregrine falcon has been stalking our chickens from the remains of a dead tree on the edge of the barnyard. This morning, we found the falcon inside with the chickens in the coop. This top predator, built like a torpedo and armed with talons, had spent the entire nightContinue reading “Five Mysterious Things”
A Marine Conservation Compass
by Laura Parker Roerden This summer’s cinema blockbuster Finding Dory has rightly set off alarms in the marine conservation community against an anticipated spike in blue tang sales for private aquaria, which would decimate wild coral reef populations. But there is a deeper conservation message, simmering just below the film’s surface (if you will pardon the badContinue reading “A Marine Conservation Compass”
For Cousteau
by Laura Parker Roerden We protect what we love, an explorer once told us. But of what love did he mean? The love for a flower or that of a son? The love for a rock held safe in our palm, or that for a steeple? The love of a farmer for a seed or ofContinue reading “For Cousteau”