Sheepish farm tales

home of (possibly) Wisconsin's largest used book store, Driftless Books

Photo by J. Harrington

In downtown Veroqua, there's a delightful (to the Better Half) yarn and craft shop named Ewetopia. While looking about, we noticed an information piece, the size of an oversized bookmark, for an annual shepherd's festival being held on Mother's Day weekend next year. Being a kindly sort (on a good day), we picked up a copy and handed it to the Better Half, the world class knitter in the family. Clearly, we weren't paying enough attention to the "back side" of the promotion piece. We got a funny look today from said Better Half when we mentioned a return trip to Veroqua next year so she could attend the shepherd's festival. The festival is the same one we've gone to off and on over the years. It's help in Lake Elmo at the Washington County fairgrounds. Clearly, this is an example of the kind of linkages among folks that can help bridge the increasingly infamous urban-rural divide.

stone four-square with steel reef, outside Veroqua

Photo by J. Harrington

We never expected to find "our" local sheep festival being promoted several hundred miles away. One of these days we should start to explore just what local means, and to whom, and something about why. Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Iowa, share the Driftless Area we've been exploring over the past few days. It's largely farm country, in Wisconsin there's a large dairy component. Trout streams are found at the bottom of the valleys, farms with row crops on the ridge tops, and cows, pastures and wood lots on the hillsides, sort of. We've included a few pictures to give more of a feel for the area. Many of the farms in Vernon County near Veroqua have a definitely prosperous look to them. Of course, we don't know what discussions around the kitchen tables are like. We do know that one creamery store we visited was located right next to a new barn under construction and we saw some new construction houses for sale well outside city limits.

the trees belonging to the tops have roots down in the valley

Photo by J. Harrington

It's been an interesting and fun trip. We're now looking forward to revisiting Minnesota's Driftless Area soon, so we can do a typical "compare and contrast." The Better Half is even trying to talk us into seeing if the rumors of trout in Driftless Iowa hold any truth. Early Summer or Autumn might be better times for fishing and catching Autumn colors so it's worth pencilling some thoughts onto the calendar.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

 Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay.
 Want more 
of everything ready-made.
 Be afraid 
to know your neighbors and to die.


And you will have a window in your head.
 
Not even your future will be a mystery 
any more.
 Your mind will be punched in a card 
and shut away in a little drawer.
 

When they want you to buy something 
they will call you.
 When they want you 
to die for profit they will let you know.
 
So, friends, every day do something 
that won't compute.
 Love the Lord.
 
Love the world.
 Work for nothing.
 
Take all that you have and be poor.
 
Love someone who does not deserve it.
 

Denounce the government and embrace 
the flag.
 Hope to live in that free 
republic for which it stands.
 
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand.
 Praise ignorance, for what man 
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
 

Ask the questions that have no answers.
 
Invest in the millenium.
 Plant sequoias.
 
Say that your main crop is the forest 
that you did not plant, 
that you will not live to harvest.
 

Say that the leaves are harvested 
when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit.
 Prophesy such returns.
 
Put your faith in the two inches of humus 
that will build under the trees 
every thousand years.
 

Listen to carrion -- put your ear 
close, and hear the faint chattering 
of the songs that are to come.
 
Expect the end of the world.
 Laugh.
 
Laughter is immeasurable.
 Be joyful 
though you have considered all the facts.
 
So long as women do not go cheap 
for power, please women more than men.
 

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy 
a woman satisfied to bear a child? 
Will this disturb the sleep 
of a woman near to giving birth? 

Go with your love to the fields.
 
Lie down in the shade.
 Rest your head 
in her lap.
 Swear allegiance 
to what is nighest your thoughts.
 

As soon as the generals and the politicos 
can predict the motions of your mind, 
lose it.
 Leave it as a sign 
to mark the false trail, the way 
you didn't go.
 

Be like the fox 
who makes more tracks than necessary, 
some in the wrong direction.
 
Practice resurrection.

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