The Midland Agrarian: July 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011

Granny Miller RIP

I am posting here to report the death of my wife's website www.homesteadgardenandpantry.com.

While Granny Miller the person is alive and well, "Granny Miller" the small farm blog has bit the dust. We were going to run it out to the end of 2011 then archive it, but Mrs. accidentally killed the site trying to delete some spam. In doing so, she hacked her own site. The files are literally deleted and the folks at Go Daddy cannot revive her. Their advice was hire a web consultant, which is a lot of trouble for a two-bit blog. As this is our busy time of year, a full obituary will follow.

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.