Life

I've spent quite a bit of time in cemeteries recently, so I thought it would be a good contrast to blog about life. In this case, grapevines. Biblically, Christ uses the vine and branches analogy to talk about salvation through Him. I like grapevines because Concord grapes grow native in Massachusetts without being tended. This tree has grapes growing all the way up it's trunk into its branches. I also dislike our local native grapes because they grow too high up in the trees to reach and taste very bitter, and most of the grape is comprised of seed (I, like many others, am spoiled by a history of eating only seedless grapes).
However, I am sure these hearty native plants have good uses. For wine, or jam, or something that involves straining out the seeds and adding lots of sugar. So, I read how to start my own vines (since the current vines are somewhat inaccessible due to their height in the trees). Evidently, all one needs to do is cut out a piece of vine about a the thickness of a pencil and a foot long, and stick it in the ground in the fall. In the spring, it will sprout into its own vine and grow leaves. This method only has a 50% success rate, so you want to try it with twice as many vines as you want to grow. Once you realize that it has successfully started, you leave it for a year or so to establish itself and then transplant the vine to the desired location. So, a year from this spring, I should be able to transplant four little grape vines to somewhere of my choosing. I haven't chosen the spot yet, but I have a year to figure that out, and built my mother an arbor for them to grow on. Definitely a long term, but low maintenance project.
Unfortunately, this whole way of growing new vines doesn't work with Christs analogy, unless you're pluralistic. I however, am not pluralistic, and soundly ascribe to the idea that to live and bear fruit, the branch must be attached to the vine.
As you recall from my blackberry bush writings, as well as this example, it's a good thing that there's a difference between biology and theology.

This is why we document cemeteries!

This lovely Sunday morning I was busy grinding up yet another load of pears to make pear sauce, when a friend of our family, Gail, called the house to talk to Mom. Mom got off the phone and informed me that the cemetery in the Douglas State Forest, one of 24 cemeteries which was covered in the cemetery documentary which I helped with, had been vandalized. Vandalized! This is one of the worst nightmares of all people who protect cemeteries, second only to a cemetery being dug up completely by construction equipment (we've had a few close calls with that in the past). I informed my mother that I had to go see the cemetery and take pictures, and asked if there was a police report. Our friend had already reported it to the police. My mother told me that I could go to the cemetery once some work was done, so I put a bucket worth of pears through the fruit squisher while Mom went to work calling the town Cemetery Committee officials and anyone else whom she found relevant to the event.
When I was done I drove down to the forest and met up with Sue, a resident of the area and fellow open space committee member. From there Sue and I surveyed the damage. Initially it didn't look that bad, stones were still upright and there was no spray paint. However, people had scratched offensive images and stuff onto two of the slate stones, and someone had dug up an area and re-filled it. You can barely make out the depression in the ground, its on the right hand side in front of the stone with the rounded top. All this damage had been done prior to the last few rains, as it was clear that rain had fallen on the fairly fresh dirt. Whoever dug up the area used a shovel. The area had not been dug deep enough to uncover anything, if there even was anything left in the grave to uncover. All I could say to myself was "WHY?"
It was not until I returned home to look at pictures of the cemetery prior to vandalism that I realized some significance of the hole. As you can see in the before picture, there is a square stone in the right hand foreground that reads "Selena" on it, and a smaller stone behind it which is her footstone. It stands in exactly the same area that had been dug up. Selena's headstone has been moved off to the left and back a bit and is now facing the wrong way, but upright. Her footstone is now in front of her headstone and standing upside down (as seen in in the previous picture, to the left of the depression in the ground).
The grave belongs to a girl by the name of Selena Kimball who died in 1822 at the age of 2 months and 20 days, her parents are buried in a different cemetery, likely meaning that the infant died of smallpox victims of smallpox were often buried apart from otherwise healthy dead people because of superstition, and there was a smallpox epidemic in Douglas in the 1820's.
I'm so angry, someone dug up this girl's grave and haphazardly rearranged her stones. But had it not been for older pictures such as this one (there are a few, this one was taken by username Svadilfari on Flickr.com) we would not have known where her stones and grave are supposed to stand. This is one of the reasons it is important to document old cemeteries.

Labor Day; beginning of the harvest.

Today was a good day for work. My father and I continued work in the upstairs insulating the wall/roof. I continued clear-cutting the blackberry patch since it is full of non-blackberry bushes and old canes that no longer produce, once it is clear cut it will only have fruit bearing branches for next year. This is much easier than pruning other types of plants that don't regrow every year. The New Testament of the Bible speaks of judgment day through a parable about a gardener who cuts off branches that do not bear fruit and throwing them into the fire. Blackberries are pruned Old Testament style: the plants are good, over time, the plants become and full of weeds and less fruitful, rather than picking out the bad parts the gardener clear cuts the whole patch and starts over. Good thing I'm not God. There is no salvation for my blackberry patch.
Today we also harvested peaches. The pear harvest is already underway and I have been selling some at the farmers market, and the trees are still laden with fruit. The peach trees were harvested for the first time today, and it's a good thing we got to them. Some branches were so heavily laden with fruit they broke off. We then took the peaches, boiled, pealed, pitted, and put them in jars into the freezer. While the freezer does consume energy, it also saves. One key to sustainability is eating local foods rather than having food shipped from faraway places on fossil fuel powered trucks from mega-farms. But for those of us in the harsh northern climes eating local fruits and veggies is hard in winter.
Therefore, let us do what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did before us, canning and freezing! Though I may seem like an anti-technologist, I do thank God for the invention of the mason jar.

Recycle and Reuse your Electronics

As you can imagine, we affluent few in the United States go through quite a bit of electronics, not only because we have so many (think of how many TV's and computers the average person owns) but also because we get rid of and buy new ones so frequently. We live in an era where everything gets thrown away rather than lasting long enough to hand down to ones children for generations.
To get an idea of the amount of electronics we go through, here is some statistics from the EPA,
1.9 – 2.2 million tons obsolete
1.5 – 1.8 million tons disposed
345,000 – 379,000 tons recycled,
just in the year 2005. As you can imagine, this number has likely increased since then.
Why should we recycle our electronics rather than putting them in landfill?
This information is taken from GreenerChoices.org
• Computer monitors with cathode ray tubes (CRTs) contain four to eight pounds of lead on average. The EPA has identified electronic products as the largest single source of lead in municipal solid waste.
• Printed circuit boards in computers, music players, and other electronic devices contain toxic metals such as chromium, nickel, and zinc.
• Batteries in the computer may contain nickel and cadium.
• Relays, switches, and liquid crystal displays (LCDs) may contain mercury.
• Plastics used in many computers also contain flame retardants that are toxic and persist in the environment. Studies suggest they accumulate in household dust and in the food chain, and they have been detected in some fish.

To top it all off, I have come to personally realize that some electronics don't even make it to the landfill, but rather these toxins are dumped right in our own community environment. While hiking in the Douglas State forest, there was once a railroad bed for the Grand Trunk. Much work went into the carving of this railroad bed to make it as flat as possible despite the hilly Massachusetts landscape, hence many steep valleys were dug into the hills to enable the train to pass on level ground.
This steep valley dug for the railroad just off my street south of my house has become a dumping ground for all kinds of things that people didn't take to the dump or recycle. Instead, for whatever reason, they dumped their waste in the State Forest.
And there it lies, leaching its toxins into the soil and destroying the view. It makes me so angry.
So, I've decided to fix it, the best I can. I pulled out some computers already, and there are a few more. Conveniently, the 1st Congregational Church is having a recycling drive on the 5th of September. I'm still working on how I'm going to come up with the recycling fee.
I've talked to some people and they said I needed to talk to the Douglas State Forest people, since its their land. I'll have to get on it this week.
I only pray that I will be able to find the means to turn this ugly sin against the environment into resources so that new products can be generated without mining more and more materials out of the ground, then lessening the horrific impacts of America's insatiable demand to new stuff...

Historical Typos...

Even history books have typos...well, I'm assuming it was a mistake.
Today's adventure started while I was in the midst of typing out on my computer a local history book by Lucius Marsh, who wrote the book on a typewriter in the late fifties but never had it copyrighted or printed and so all the copys that exist are just photocopies that are three hole punched and put in binders. Worse, he organized his history by location, as in, he thoroughly covered the individual history of each house in Douglas. The histories are then organized by location along the street they are on, then the streets are organized in the book alphabetically. Needless to say, if you need information about a person's life, you have to know all their street addresses. Actually, just the location, since there weren't street numbers.
Therefore, I have undertaken the great task of typing it out on my computer so that it can later be provided as an electronic resource rather than a fat three ring binder and one can just hit Ctrl+F to search for a persons name, or event, or object, such as "axe-shop", as the axe making industry was very influential in the town of Douglas.
However, today as I was going through the book I noticed that it stated that Paul Dudley, an ancestor of mine, was born in 1776 and died in 1857. Which is rediculous, since Paul Dudley was in the Revolutionary War, and I'm quite sure he didn't fight off the Red-Coats as an infant. Also, we have documents that show his widow was recieving money from the Government from Paul's involvment in the Revolution in 1843. If Paul died in 1857, why was his wife a widow in 1843?
After being utterly frustrated with Lucius Marsh, I checked his source, which was Emerson's History of Douglas, published 1879. I found that Marsh did not make the mistake, Emerson did! Emerson's book shows the Paul Dudley died in 1857 at the age of 80 (hence born in 1776ish considering he died in February and was born in August). This same history book records that Paul's first son David was born in 1788. Emerson either actually thought that a man from the colonial era married and had his first son at the age of 12 or didn't look over his work.
Frustrated with both sources, my mother went online and found his marriage was in 1782 (if we beleive Emerson, that would have been when Paul was 6 years old) and confirmed that he was a Private in the Revolutionary War. But, alas, no record of his birthdate.
So, out to the cemetery we went! My mother and I went a few hundred feet out of the house to the Douglas Center Cemetery, found Paul Dudley's grave, and found that he died in 1837 (notice that's just one digit off the earlier number) at the age of 80. With this new date, it means Paul was born in 1756. Therefore, he fought in the Revolutionary War in his 20's, was married at the age of 26, had his first child at the age of 32. Which sounds a lot better.
Message: always check for typos, always check your sources, and if you want to be sure to be accurate, check your sources for typos. Or better yet, just use common sense to figure out if you've made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, including reputable historians. I would love to be able to inform Emerson and Marsh of their mistakes, except they're dead.

Get thee to a nunnery?

There are a great many things I admire about nuns. Their devotion to God, the simplicity of their lives, the self-sufficiency of their convents, lifestyle that always values people above material things, and their constant prayer and service to all those in need. My interest in them was sparked primarily by an old article in Yankee Magazine entitled, "The Hidden Life of Nuns". However, being protestant, that's not much of an option. Though their are a few protestant convents (see the article in time, "Religion: The Protestant Sisters") but in general the protestant church has some issues with the concept of monks and nuns, mainly that most protestant denominations teach that one should be in the world to serve and witness, not apart from it. I think that this is still a possibility for nuns, I guess a group of protestant nuns could be called "nuns who get out a lot". They would still live a self-sufficient and simple lifestyle, devoted to prayer and service, but would make a point to get out into the community to serve it. Perhaps even take in the homeless and needy into their convent (assuming they had the space) and those housed their would help with the upkeep as they were able.
Overall, these theoretical protestant nuns would be sure to have plenty of opportunities to interact with and thence serve the community in the world through their prayer and work. They would teach in the community, help the needy, make and sell goods for the upkeep of the convent or to donate to charity, and care for creation by living a self-sufficient and simple lifestyle. They could even carry rosary beads, only to remind them of things to pray for rather than traditional Catholic prayers such as Hail Mary, and would not have a crucifix but rather a simple cross as the Heidelburg Catechism states that the church should never create images of God (in fact, it also forbids pictures of Christ even for the education of children, which makes most Bible coloring books and felt board kits for Sunday school in violation of the Hiedelburg Catechism, but that's a debate for another day). All the same, what I mean to get at is that the theological differences between Catholicism and Protestantism should not prevent protestants from taking this brilliant concept, the idea of having a life devoted to God rather than a family or other obligations, from Catholics and adapting their own means.
Maybe someday I will start an order of protestant nuns, in my effort to live a life devoted to God and to devote my dreams of running the Dudley farm to the service of God.

Farmers Market

This past Saturday I went to the Douglas Farmers Market in downtown East Douglas by the E.N. Jenckes Store, where the Historical Society is located. I just love the vibe down there, all the farmers, historians, and fellow persons who care about the well being of the environment and our little locality that is the town of Douglas. It's quite wonderful. There are fresh eggs, all kinds of produce (blueberries are in season) and honey. I found the honey especially exciting as I want to have some bee hives someday in the future.
While I was there I mentioned my newest source of income, selling decorative firewood down by the side of the road and collecting the money in a coffee can. So far people have been honest and I have made 35 dollars on this little side project, hence I have had to go out in search of more viable birch trees to prune. The old birch on top the the hill which frequently gets struck my lightning has been my most recent subject. I will leave most of the tree there however, it is a beautiful tree and the whole concept of it being struck by lightning every few years is pretty unique.
In pursuit of a bit more side income, I may bring some of my wares (as well as some of my mothers homemade things, she too has a blog betsyblueberry.blogspot.com and an Etsy shop) to the Douglas Farmers Market. I have taken up a new craft, I am now making garden hods. I have only made one so far. They are made from scrap wood from our garage and galvanized wire. The one I have made I took the liberty of stenciling the farm emblem on it as this one we will keep to collect produce. Hopefully I will be able to put a few more together in time for Saturday's market. I encourage all for who it is feasible to stop by the Douglas Farmers Market on Saturday, 8 to 1, and support a more sustainable world by supporting local producers.

Iudicare vivos et mortuos; the living and the dead

Successful gardens grow, and thank the Lord that ours has been successful indeed. I've gotten to taste a few of the cucumbers I started in May, and honestly, they are the most delicious cucumbers on the face of the earth. Also, Mama's beans, tomatoes, and peppers have really taken off and nearly overgrown the raised bed. We used some of her basil the other day to make pesto for our pizza, and that too, was the tastiest pesto I have ever had. Mama also made some raspberry cheesecake from raspberries that grown in our patch. The patch however, has become severely overgrown.
A raspberry patch such as this needs to be clear cut every three years to ensure new growth and cut out overgrowth. The last time I clear cut ours was before I went to Iowa for college, so it needs a good clear cutting this fall, I have already begun to cut away weeds, overgrowth, and old growth just to reach the ripe berries which the patch contains. Once again, the berries were quite delicious and all the cheesecake was eaten in the same day (no small feat for a household of three). There is just an inexpressible joy that comes from eating food that one has grown oneself, on ones own land. This is the same land which my ancestors grew their own food on 300 years ago. Through the miracle that is decomposition, the Lord has continued to bless us with good produce all these years in our pathetic New England soil. The death of each plant in the gardens is not in vain, for without it, there could be no new growth, no new life.
Speaking of decomposition, my mother and I went back to the cemetery today to document more graves. This place just down the road is where most of my ancestors who lived in our house and worked our soil are laid to rest. We document graves to honor them and their work, to remember them. Their hard work and faith are not to be forgotten, for all that are buried there, not just our family. There they lie, their heads to the west so that when they sit up they can see the coming of Christ from Jerusalem in the east. No, I'm not superstitious, I don't actually believe Christ will rise in the east (though there's no reason he can't) but it's a rather awesome mental image. For I do believe in the resurrection, that the believers will rise.
The title comes from the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, which both state (with slight variation):

Et ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Patris omnipotentis,

inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos.

he ascended into heaven,he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Hanging Laundry

In my continued effort to serve God and save the planet, I am glad to find that my family already participates an an age old tradition which conserves an immense amount of energy. On of the largest energy consuming appliances in our homes (and the largest household electricity consumer in the country) is our dryer. What people do not realize, is that living without an electric or gas powered dryer is possible. Dr. Sleeth recommends in his book, "Serve God Save the Planet" he suggests the use of the revolutionary, "solar powered clothes dryer". In other words, the outdoor laundry line. In addition, the chore of hanging laundry is a good way to do work with ones hands and accomplish something, which is very good for the psyche. Never mind the wonder of the smell and crisp feel of fresh laundry hung on the line.
Oh, and in the winter, a good laundry rack will do the job, especially if the house is warm and dry from being heated with good old bio fuel such as wood in the stove.

An age old task, drawing water.

I think most of us reading this blog understand the significance of water. We all took 6th grade science and hopefully remember that water is necessary to support life on earth. We understand the wonder of the water cycle and how water is one of the few molecular compounds that actually expands when frozen, which allows freshwater life in northern climates to survive the winter and renews these water bodies each year.
We also hopefully understand the need for fresh water, for drinking and cleaning, both necessary for human survival. Throughout the ages when shortages of fresh water, or droughts, occur there is almost certainly a loss of human life and an economic toll in that area. We no longer blink at the statistics when we are told how many people die because of a shortage of fresh water around the world. Either by dehydration, starvation, or water-borne diseases, all occur because of a shortage of fresh water. Even in the United States, aquifers are becoming dried out with all the water drawn for crops in the west, more saddening however is the amount of water lost to Southwestern lawns and golf courses each year. Just in case anyone needed a reminder of how greedy we citizens of the US can be.
Throughout the Bible, a theme of the importance of water reemerges throughout the text. When Abram and Lot separate, Lot chooses to live in the Jordan Valley near Sodom because, "Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar" (Genesis13:10 ESV). Us Bible readers know just how well that turned out for him... When the Lord (or the three men) visits Abraham to promise him a son, after bowing down the first thing Abraham calls for is water to be brought to wash their feet (Genesis 18:3 ESV). After Hagar and her son Ishmael are exiled in the desert, they run out of water, and Hagar puts her son under a bush so that they do not have to watch one another die of thirst. God speaks to her and promises that Ishmael too will be made into a great nation. "Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water" (Genesis 21:19 ESV). When Abraham's servant goes to find a wife for Issac, he prays that God will show him the right woman by a spring of water when she offers to water his camels, hence he meets Rebekah as she comes to water her sheep (Genesis 24: 10-21 ESV). In the famous Psalm 23 the good shepard, "He leads me beside still waters" (Psalm 23:2 ESV). The woman of Samaria (prostitute?) met the savior at the well when he asked for a drink of water, and he in return offered her living water (John 4).
So what is it that each one of us can do to save fresh water for those who are in need? Use less, only do full loads of laundry or dishes. Put a brick or a full water bottle in your toilet tank so it uses less when it flushes. My favorite, gather rain water in a large cistern (like a 55 gallon drum) to use for watering gardens and other task that do not require clean water. By gathering rain water, you save it from flowing into the rivers and oceans where it is no longer fresh, instead of using up the fresh water in aquifers. Then you too, can go gather water at the cistern, as Christ and the people of the Bible did. You never know who you will be leaving a little more fresh water for.

Then they also will answer saying, "When were you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?" Then he will answer to them, saying, "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:44-46 ESV)

Cemetery Documenting

So, in addition to finding the lost (and unlost) cemeteries of Douglas, we are also in the process of documenting each stone in one particular cemetery, the Douglas Center Cemetery. It is one of the largest (I would guess third largest) and likely the oldest. The process has been going on for a few years now, and over the winter my mother lost track of which headstones had been done and which have yet to be documented. Hence the immense pile of pictures and binders to be gone through.
Alas, and that is only one of 21, possibly 24 cemeteries in the town. In the picture is the Baker Cemetery, but we don't even know if there are any Baker family members buried in this cemetery, so far all we've found are Steele family members. Well, hence the necessity of cemetery documentation.

Dam Woes; water and stone, beavers and politicians

Forgive my mildly punny title. But yes, it seems that Douglas these days is having issues with its dams. You will have read my previous blogs on the problems with beaver dams being built throughout Douglas' waterways. Alas, a problem of a more two legged nature has been ongoing as well concerning the Manchaug Pond dam.
I was initially informed of this issue the first time I attended a Town of Douglas Open Space Committee meeting (of which I have just been voted in as a member!) in which I was informed that MRC (Manchaug Reservior Corporation) and it's parent company Interface Fabrics Group of Atlanta, plan to breach the dam. Meaning, destroy it, remove it. There is nothing wrong with this dam, the company just doesn't want it anymore. According to the Interface Fabrics Group it has "ceased manufacturing operations in Massachusetts in 2003, it announced its intention to divest itself of all of its assets and its subsidiaries' assets in the commonwealth, including the dam" (Vecchione, Ruth. Worcester Telegram and Gazette, June 18 2009). Their representative, Porter states "..."The dam no longer serves the purpose with the intent for why it was built. We believe doing this would ultimately result in a net benefit impact" (Farnsworth, Josh. Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, July 10 2009).
However, those of us even mildly interested in the good of the community, both in Douglas and Sutton, think that MRC is just doing this to relieve themselves of the responsibilities relating to the dam. Very little good could come of breaching the dam, in fact, it would be a disaster. According various officials quoted in articles in both the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and Worcester Telegram and Gazette, as well as my own observations, removal of the dam would have a variety of detrimental effects. Property values of those living on the pond, especially those in cute waterfront properties and the two campgrounds situated there, would decline and these areas may even cease to have waterfront property. Floodwaters from the area would, well, cause flooding downstream from the dam. Bodies of water upstream from the pond would shrink, including the Whitin Reservoir (this may mean something to those of you will cabins in the area).
This dam was originally constructed to keep the water level high to provided flow to the mills downstream, it is true that those mills no longer operate as such. However, the loss of the dam and subsequent loss of water flow would mean the water level would be too low for the Douglas Water and Sewer Plant to keep it's permit, the town would have to truck the sewage out. The Milford Power Plant would suffer and the new "green" Alternatives Building would not have enough flow to power it's proposed hydroelectric plant. In fact, any one of the old mills along this waterway (of which there were once 11) could have it's own hydroelectric power, unless this dam is breached.
As for environmental impacts, it is true, draining the pond would leave us with more wetlands. However, the wetlands we have would change. This means the potential loss of 4 vernal pools, a rare habitat which cannot be re-created. The distruption of wetlands which have already adapted to the placement of this pond 130 years ago would be disasterous in the fragile current state of the environment.
For more information, or to get involved, I strongly recommend manchaugpondassociation.blogspot.com . This blog was the source for most of the information I just wrote about, and provides more coverage of the issue. This organization is strongly opposed to the breaching of the dam and continues posting as the issue develops. Also, it has nice pictures.
Alas, Douglas and it's dams. We have issues when they go up, and issues when they come down. Thank goodness many of our dams have stayed the same. Below is a picture of an old sawmill dam in the woods. No beavers, and no politicians. Just water and stone, you have to love it.

More beavers!

In the days of the Dudley Acres farm, it was found necessary to build a pond to provide a consistent source of water for the farm animals and whatnot. Building ponds was common in the area, there are many streams and marshes and low places. A pond could be created simply by damming a small waterway in a low place and allowing the water to fill it. Such was Dudley pond. Today it still has a man made dam with a wheel to adjust the water height and a spillway to let out water when it became too high.
This body of water still stands, with its dam and spillway. However, the beavers have decided to further alter the pond themselves. They too, constructed a dam, in the spillway. So that the water does become too high.
The current ownership of Dudley Pond is unknown to me, but the highway department has been destroying the beaver dam consistently for two years now, to prevent flooding from occurring in the area. I too, may spend some time in my waders pulling apart beaver dams, though it's not really my place. My ancestors may have built the dam, but it is no longer within the family. I would like it back into the families possession. Perhaps then I could take care of this beaver and maybe even install a micro-hydro generator.

Gardening

In my pursuit to serve God and save the planet, I , like many others, am adopting a more sustainable lifestyle. This of course involves eating foods that are organic and local. Organic, because less energy and chemicals are consumed on fertilizers and pesticides. And local, to save on shipping costs and support the local community. I decided to try and save money also, (being unemployed and all). So, I'm trying to grow my own food. The Dudley acres farm has always had a few pear and peach trees, so we continue to harvest from those. Each fall we can peaches and make pear sauce. This harvest, I also want to make pear wine and pear mead (I will need lots of honey). We have also added three apple trees a few years ago which we can get apples from each year. I also have a large black raspberry patch, though it needs pruning this fall. I planted six cucumber plants this year, only four survived, but all have flowers on them which will turn into tasty cucumbers!
My mother also grows a few vegetables. In her raised bed garden she has tomatoes, peppers, peas, and basil. Next year, we also want chickens to make eggs and to eat all kinds of garden beasties, of the arthropod and gastropod varieties. I would also like some bees in the future to supply honey. Also next year, I would like to grow sweet corn, squash and beans, like the Wampanoag and Nipmuc natives of this area. They grew corn to make corn meal, and planted it with beans to give the soil nitrogen, and squash to keep away raccoons (raccoons will not step on the prickly leaves of squash plants).
In a few years...I also want some goats like Grandma Grace Dudley. We shall see, but as far as I can see, I have high hopes for Dudley Acres Farm to be a farm again. A step back into the past, and a step in the right direction for a sustainable future.

Beavers at Coffee House

Aways down the street from my house, a long way, almost to the Connecticut border, is an area of the State Forest called Coffee House Crossing. At the intersection of South-West Main and High Street was where this road originated. The old road, which is now a State Forest trail, began at the Ninth Massachusetts Turnpike (now Southwest Main), and thence crosses a brook and and the old New Haven Railroad bed (Now called the Southern New England Trunkline Trail). I know this because I have followed it many times by bike, and Lucius Marsh writes of it in his book. Marsh writes, "It has long since been abandoned. The New Haven Railroad where trains once ran, crosses the Coffee House Road Parallel with the Turnpike or Southwest Main Street." The road bears its name from an actual coffee house which stood on this road. Marsh also writes:

The first owner mentioned was Abijah Estes, who sold it to others in 1778. A John Tilley was one of the later owners and a nearby wood-lot bears his name. The Coffee House was not used after 1823. The old horse-sheds stood until about 1848. The Slaters owned is as a wood-land later and others have owned it since. Legend has it that a man was murdered in the cellar of the Coffee House once. Whe it was running as a place to get refreshments , stage-coaches from Providence to Southbridge went by here. The Coffee House section has been the scene of many destructive forest fires. One in 1907 burned for a week.

Well, it is clear that no one has lived here for sometime, and no one will so long as it remains State Forest land. But, I have come to notice it does have one established family, the beavers. I noticed a large amount of flooding on the railroad bed over the last few years in this area, and the other day I went out to investigate. It was then I discovered well-established beaver dams. Upon my return last night to the area I revisited the dam and saw the beaver. It's nearly the size of my Labrador! I failed to get a picture, but I got some pictures of his work.

Lucius Marsh

One of the books I reference frequently in my cemetery hunts and other historical endeavors is a book written by the late Lucius Marsh. He actually wrote three books on the subject; a short history in 1939, one in the early 50's and another updated in the late 60's. The first was just a short history of the town, the second two are quite a bit more detailed. In each, he follows each street in the town of Douglas, and writes about each house on the street. One by one, he follows all the homes, businesses, and other places of interest and describes the history of each one. He pays special attention to any events resulting in a death that happened on these locations. Specifically mentioning a person who may have died in a fire, and two people who died by falling on a railroad track.
His second history was never bound, published or copyrighted. Rather, this old typed document is kept in a binder in the Douglas library. My family and one other have complete photocopies of this document. The second was bound and published and also sits on the shelves in the Douglas Public Library.
Marsh focused on local history because he lived a very local life in Douglas. According to the "About the Author" section of his second book, Marsh graduated from Douglas High School in 1906, held a job in Worcester and served in the army, and then returned to Douglas to serve as the Town Clerk and retired to become the town assessor. He had even worked as an assessor in the 1930's, a job which he found interesting. You could name anyone in the town of Douglas and Marsh would be able to tell you where that person lived.

Douglas Campground

When I was a little girl my family and I often went for long walks, which of course got me into hiking and cemetery exploring later in life. One place we frequently walked to was the Douglas Camp, an old campground less than a quarter mile down the street from my house. In fact, some of the land now part of the campground was given by my grandmother Grace Dudley. Less than a week after my return from Dordt I went for a walk there once again.
When I returned, I found it much in the same slightly run down shape as it had been during my childhood. But there were differences... there was fresh paint, and the bulletin board which once displayed an old map of the camp now displayed a task list with things such as "paint secretary's office, clean roofs, clear brush, hang curtains..." and so on. And I ran into an old couple named Phil and Debby. This couple lived on the top of the hill in the campground and was working to fix it up a bit for this years camp meeting. I introduced myself and asked how I could help. Thus I got involved in volunteering time there, improving the place I enjoyed for much during my childhood.
Here is a bit of a background of the Douglas Camp meeting. According to Lucius Marsh in his untitled history of the town of Douglas. He states, "the Douglas Camp Meeting Association for the purpose of spreading evangelization, was founded by the late George Morse, a Putnam, Ct., manufacturer, in 1874". And later, "The meetings used to be widely attended, but changing population has cut down the number who come".
It is true, to this day the camp meeting, a revival in fact, is held once a year for ten days during the summer. Not many people come, very few as compared to those who came by the train car load in the late 1800's. But, with some work, I think there is hope for great things to happen at the camp once again. Above all, I pray that some will come to accept Christ through the mission that the Douglas Camp Meeting provides.

Porter Cable tractor

One of my favorite tools on Dudley Acres is this early 60's vintage Porter-Cable garden tractor. This spring when we tried to start her up she wouldn't start. We adjusted the carburetor to be sure fuel was getting into the intake, and sniffed the exhaust to be sure fuel was going through the cylinder. It became clear the the cylinder was not firing. So, we unscrewed the spark plug and placed it on the engine surface (so that the outer edge would go to ground) to see if it would spark, indeed, there was no spark. After changing the spark plug, there was still no spark. Next we removed the engine cover and flywheel and a cover plate to reveal the point. In old engines, the point is like a switch that contacts at exactly the right time in the engine cycle to transfer electricity from a power source to the spark plug. We cleaned the point contacts in the gap and found the point in good working order. Next we turned to the power source. In pull cord engines with no battery, this power comes from something called a coil. The coil is just a coil of copper wire, protected from the elements by a sealed container. The coil sits in a metal armature which not only holds the coil, but transfers electricity into the coil. The armature gets its charge from the rotation of the fly wheel, which contains two magnets. When you pull the cord on the pull start engine, the two magnets in the fly wheel run past the metal armature, and allow it to build a charge from the electric field which it stores in the coil. At just the right time in the engines rotation, the points contact and transfer that built up charge to the spark plug, which fires the engine. As the points were in good condition, and all the wires were conducting, we decided the coil was to blame for the engine's inability to fire.
I then went on line and found, in .pdf format, the old parts manual for my tractor based on model number on the Briggs and Stratton engine. This document showed the engine with all it's parts, each part was given a number which coincided with a part number. With this new found information, we called Koopman Lumber, our local hardware store. While they could not search for parts based on the engine model number, they could search the correct part number. Soon, a brand new coil for the Porter Cable tractor was purchased and installed. The old removed coil is shown to the right next to the box that the brand new one came in. I am proud to say that after installing this part (being sure the spacing between the armature and flywheel was correct), the Porter Cable ran once again!
Old advertisements for this tractor states, "Suburban tractor makes lawn and garden work a picnic". And it really does. Shown is a picture of an old ad for my tractor. (thanks to username "Rusty Old Junk" on the website mytractorforum.com). Just after fixing it, I used this tractor to haul over 400 pounds of dirt from a drainage ditch in the yard up a steep incline, through fields and woods, to dump it on a flooded pathway in our woods. This tractor has only a 6 horsepower engine, and yet it was able to haul what I could not. Thank the Lord for simple tractors like this one!
Also, when this tractor came out it was sold with accessories, just as a front mounted snow blowing attachment, a pull behind triple gang mower, a plow, and assorted other things. If anyone finds such an implement that looks old and like it would fit on a small garden tractor, shoot me an email. I would love to find the snowblower and the triple gang mower for this.

Wall Removal

Today I removed an old wall in my attic. The attic of my circa 1720 house is where I live. Its been awfully cold in winter and hot in summer up there, so this year we will insulate it. To improve the air flow in that area (since there are no heaters up there) and the overall appearance of the area, we decided to take out this ugly wall. Don't worry fellow engineers, the wall is non load bearing, an I remembered to turn off the power to the outlet and the light before moving wires...I didn't want any surprises of the electric variety. Shown on the left is a before picture of the wall after moving away all the furniture (it is a very ugly wall). And to the right is the after picture. There was a lot of dust in the air afterwards, hence the awkward picture.

Existential Pleasures of Basket Making?

Today, upon my mothers request, I made a basket. Yesterday she went to Old Sturbridge Village for a historical documents class for the library and at the gift shop she bought me a basket making kit and asked me to make her the basket.
Our family, of course, already has more cute baskets in our old house than rational person could possibly need. I think she just wanted me to do a hand-craft, to reconnect with the old ways of doing things. I would argue that the old way of acquiring a basket would involve using a basket we already owned.
Alas, today I enjoyed the pleasure of hand-making a redundant basket. I made it not to produce a necessary product, but to enjoy making something with my own hands. An existential pleasure of hand basket making. It was neither about production nor progress (in fact, it's a little bit about regress); but rather about stepping back to an older time, sitting still, and quiet, and accomplishing something of my own.