The Midland Agrarian: August 2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

putting her up on blocks

I am going to be parking this weblog for a while, removing the battery, draining the oil, taking off the tires and putting her up on blocks.

As time permits, I will be writing on my Anglican Christian faith over at the River Thames Beach Party. For agrarian interests, I have been invited by my talented wife to join her website, Granny Miller's Homestead Garden and Pantry. I am looking forward to this because I originally started this journal back in 2008 because she did not like me hacking into the old Granny Miller blog. I guess if we live together and farm together, we can maybe manage to share cyberspace. I am also excited about this because non topical agrarian information that I write about(Such as building a sheep feeder or moving a pole building) is better presented in a website than a blog format. Any information here will remain.

Thanks for reading and God Bless you!

Why the Midland Agrarian?

Cultural geographers and students of dialect call the great area of the Ohio valley, upper South and lower Midwest the "midlands of the US". The midland dialect around here includes words such as "redding" for cleaning up our rooms, the "Crick" where we get fish or swim, "youns" for plural "you" and "warshing" for the laundry. Cultural artifacts from the midlands include forebay barns.

Western Pennsylvania was also once a part of the "middle ground" between the Great Lakes and the main portion of the Ohio Valley.

I chose the name "midland" agrarian to distinguish between the many fine southern agrarian writers (Like Wendell Berry), and the truly northern agrarian writers, like Russell Kirk and Eric Sloane. This was not an attempt to place myself in their company, but to recognize the unique aspects of my home country, which I love.