Bull Moose Hunting Society

Here's a neat article about a hunting group in the Bay Area. I wish a similarly-minded organization existed in this area. Actually, it might, I haven't really looked. I should look into it, because this is really the kind of thing I'd like to do.

Work

There's an article in tomorrow's NY Times magazine about the value of working with your hands in a 'knowledge worker' world. The article does a much better than I usually do about explaining the general inclination I have to transition from an office job to a 'real' job.

It made me kind of reflect on what it is that I've been good at in the past and enjoyed and what I would like to look forward to. I have always enjoyed, and I think succeeded, at jobs with the word analyst in the title. I was once an intelligence analyst and now I'm something like a media analyst and I think I'd do well as a policy or political analyst and maybe even as a business or financial analyst.

What I'm starting to realize, and I think this article helped make this more concrete, is that this general desire to figure things out, piece things together, and plan and execute ideas, is a desire at least as well, and probably more, suited to something like running a small farm. When I plan my farm I think of it as a complex system that I am the manager. I want to have a number of different animals and a diverse market garden all working together. Plant waste feeding animals (like pigs) and animal waste (as fertilizer) feeding plants. Time and labor thoughtfully organized to make sure that nothing is picked too early or too late and that every piece of machinery is in good repair when I'm ready to use it.

How much more fulfilling of a use of mental energy that would be. Talk about analysis. Everything working in sync is the ideal but probably never the reality. The analysis would come in constantly trying to figure out why some aspect isn't working and trying to devise a way to fix it with out upsetting the rest of the system.

That to me is the appeal of farming. Or the mental appeal anyway. I also physical rather enjoy the smell of trees and grass and water and manure. Not to mention the wonderful feeling of laying down for the night physically exhausted. That's a feeling a I haven't felt much in the last few year, maybe only when I've been moving furniture or something.

But back to the mental side of it. A good question might be, "If farming likely requires the same mental processes you enjoy now in office jobs, why change?" Well, aside for the aforementioned physical aspects, there's an element of independence I lack right now. I have some liberty to use my judgment on certain aspects of my job right now, but generally I am working to meet standards set by others to create a product fulfilling the needs of others. I've always been a little bit more independent-minded than that. I need to feel like I can just decide to grow rhubarb one year if I want and then never grow it again if I don't want to.

Also, the stakes aren't that high in the average office job. Sure, I could really screw up and maybe even publicly embarrass my employer. But the worst that could happen is a stern talking-to or a write-up or, at worst, termination. Negligence on a farm means living things, as well as the profits they could bring, can die. Somehow I think that pressure keeps your mind sharper.

Now that NY Times article is actually more focused on motorcycle repair, but I started the above train of thought so maybe it's worth a read for you too.

Still in Montana

I haven't updated here since I got here but I've been chronicling our trip on our other blog. I would have cross-posted several posts if I knew how to do that in a quick manner. So far though, we had a number of interesting experiences, including finding some grass-fed beef from a heritage breed and using Nikki's dad's smoker to make some beef brisket.

Being in Montana makes me even more motivated to get out of the city and onto a farm somewhere.

One more thing

I was going to add this at the end of my last post, but it is already t0o long. Nikki sent this to my phone yesterday with the message: EEE AAAWWHH

When I asked her where she saw a donkey, she wrote back that it's a "free-range rez donkey."

In Defense of Food

I'm not really reviewing In Defense of Food, as I am only a little past the halfway point, but I did want to discuss it. Nikki got it for me a while back but she also got me another Michael Pollan book (A Place of My Own) and I started that one and left In Defense of Food by the wayside. Well Nikki and Georgie have been in Montana almost two weeks without me and the only thing good about that is I have had a little time to read.

Anyway, if I had had to give you an outline of what I thought the book was going to be about, I would have been totally off the mark. I thought it would be mostly a manifesto of what you should eat, not what you shouldn't. So instead of an entreaty to grow vegetables in my backyard and support local farmers (which would have been fine), it's actually a very thoughtful and biting critique of the entire development of nutrition science.

Well if I had known that I might have read it even sooner. It actually does get into what you should eat but the 150 pages I've read so far are about how we've managed to radically shift away from centuries of eating tradition, what the health effects of that shift are, and how industry, government, and "science" have helped the process along.

The health effects he discusses are all conditions (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) that have shown up in my family and that mother has strongly warned me about, so I take a keen interest. I feel like I am kind of halfway through a journey of remaking my diet and lifestyle and that this book will help inform me, or at least motivate me, down that path. So it had me reflecting on how I want to eat:

The model diet of my life is how I ate when I was in Russia. I lived in St. Petersburg for a month and I was in a homestay where the family left breakfast for me and cooked me dinner. I can't remember everything I ate, but I remember always feeling really good, energy-wise and intestine-wise. Breakfast was definitely a carb and dairy fest but I also always had some juice. There must have been something else but I can't recall.

Dinner was always amazing - usually some kind of small meat cutlet with a starch and some green vegetables and tomatoes. Also, everyone in the family ate several cloves of raw garlic with dinner and insisted I do likewise. I grew to really like this.

What I liked about that diet was that it was simple and very attainable. The 2 parents and one adult son in this family were all very busy professionals on a budget. Most of the food they bought was either picked up daily at small stores on the way home from work or was grown at their dacha. America doesn't have old ladies selling fresh produce outside of subway stations, but otherwise the basic tenets of this way of shopping and eating should be feasible throughout the US. And actually, I haven't only experienced this kind of eating in Russia. All of Europe seems to leave my stomach feeling the same way - satisfied. Of course, those are my roots so it shouldn't surprise me.

So that's part one of my food plan - eat like a European (when said European isn't eating at their local Pizza Hut). The other thing I would really like to do it get more food for free, either by raising it or hunting it. Neither of those are literally free but you know what I mean. Right now, this part isn't going so well. The only thing I am growing right now is hops, though I do intend to drink them this year. And hunting is a problem because I don't have a rifle (nor could I even keep one legally anywhere in my county) and I don't have anyone to hunt with. I wouldn't mind going alone except I could use a few pointers, especially in the field dressing department.

The third part of my plan is to eat a wider variety of meats and a wider variety of cuts from meat I already eat. This is going a little better. I have ready access to goat and buffalo, two of my favorites, from our local farmer's markets. I've yet to try Hugh-Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for tail and tongue of beef with rich red wine sauce though, and that's where I'd like to head next.

Well that's where I'm at after reading half of the book. We'll see where it goes from here.

Back to the book, I had a funny lightbulb go off last night. I was reading some salon.com article on raw milk and it mentioned Weston A. Price, a Canadian dentist who wrote about nutrition. Only then did I realize that this Weston A. Price, who Pollan talks about extensively, is the same one whose foundation's website I read a lot last year. I remember it because, altough it's a great organization that produces a lot of sensible information, they need a serious makeover. When I first went to their website, I thought they must be affiliated with the Dr. Bronner people but was pleasantly surprised.

Also, I found out last night that Michael Pollan is the brother of Tracy Pollan, Michael J. Fox's wife. Small world.


Finally, here's some reading to get you through your day:

• First a blog post: This is from my sister-in-law Darla's friends who live in Montana. They describe (in both text and photos!) their first experience slaughtering their own chickens. I haven't met these people but I think they are really neat. You'll see why when you realize that the post entitled 'chicken butcherin' day' is immediately followed by one called 'the contemplative element of love.'
• Google is using goats as lawnmowers. Here's a Chicago Tribune article about it. I really need to get into this rent-a-goat business.
• Also from today's Washington Post Home section has a fun read about big agribusiness kind of freaking out about the White House's organic kitchen garden and the inconvenient message it sends to people about the need for fertilizer and pesticide.
• Yesterday's Post Food section had an interesting article on sourdough starters. But the really exciting article was in the Style section, about a trip to Polyface. Why they didn't put it in the Food section I don't know. I can't believe I haven't visited Polyface yet. It's a little bit far with a baby, that's part of it I guess. I am hoping Adam can visit sometime soon and I can take him.