We have a Christmas tradition of visiting the West Baden Springs Hotel and the French Lick Springs Hotel, both classic, beautiful spots. The first picture is of the West Baden hotel, which locals generally know as the Dome. Always beautifully decorated at Christmas. The second picture is by Darcy.
I decided over the weekend that I wanted more than a single Wendell Berry resources page on my personal blog. I’m working on a new site called BerryBlog. It’ll be very much a work in progress for a while. Also, micro.blog folks, I’m still trying to understand how this will work with the timeline.
Happy Yule!
Dear A—, You asked me why I love Wendell Berry’s fiction. There’s no accounting for taste, as you’ve heard, but here’s my attempt. First you should know what the man himself is about. Famously, he left behind a promising academic career to write and farm at his old home place. In the decades since he has become one of the leading lights of localism and agrarianism. His influence has been significant, touching everything from the literary world to family farms to the local food movement.
Last year we had goat kebabs for Yule and we want to do that again this year. Last year we couldn’t find already-ground goat so I sorta-kinda got it done with a cleaver and blender. Today I drove all over Bloomington and finally found properly ground goat, so it should be even better this year.
Everything is so charged now that CPE classes for CPAs are now prefaced with a reminder that while policy will be discussed, politics (and, weirdly, even religion!) should be left out of any discussions.
Does anyone have experience with a good medical alert bracelet-type device? Needs to be very low tech. Search results are pretty spammy and I’d like to get a recommendation from an actual person.
In one of his Just a Few Acres Farm videos, Pete was repairing a plow and mentioned the coulter. Being a Wendell Berry nerd, I recognized that as one of the surnames in Port William. That led me down a rabbit hole. Let’s be clear: the following is pure speculation based on internet research and could be wrong. Coulter A blade or disc set ahead of the plowshare that cuts into the soil, resulting in a neater furrrow.
I’m working on a Wendell Berry resources page. So far I have a list of his fiction in publication order plus a map and family tree. This will mainly just be for my own reference but let me know if you have suggested additions.
We did get to hear some good singing today at the funeral. Hearing this today draws up out of my memory all those country folks, in their country churches, singing their songs in that “high lonesome sound.” We drove around the old stomping grounds in Springville after the burial, reminiscing.