Had My Car Broken Into in Memphis and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog Post!…and Last Thoughts on Mississippi — Part 2

Believe it or not, this started as one post. Thank me for breaking it up. Seriously…

Gene- Hilary’s alcoholic “ranch hand,” Gene is a 72 year old whiskey drinking, confederate flag wielding, deeply racist, redneck, with incredible knowledge of cows and farming, and an accent so thick he could use subtitles. Born and raised in Potts Camp, MS, he hasn’t ventured much outside of the south aside from his years in Vietnam. A very nice man if you are white, Gene informed us that we are the “superior race” and Martin Luther King Jr. started all the trouble (“we gave America to the blacks now they’re giving it to the Mexicans). But despite all of this, we were somehow fond of Gene. It’s hard to hold racism against someone who was born and will die in the same backwoods Mississippi town of 490 people. Besides, he told us the real way to spell Mississippi (M-I-Crooked Letter-Crooked Letter-I-Crooked letter-Crooked Letter-I-humpback-humpback-I)…I’m not sure what that means.

But probably the most profound experience with Gene was one Jason had without me. The day I went to Oxford to write, Jason and Chris went to Gene’s house to learn how to shoot. Jason never had much experience with guns and Chris never fired one at all, to which Gene appropriately responded “Well I’ll be damned.” According to Jason, Gene spends his Sunday afternoons surrounded by pyramids of beer cans and garbage he explains away by saying “we don’t care about littering around here, this is my land,” as he crushes and tosses another into the pile. Referring to the beer can targets as various racial slurs while peeing behind his truck, he was impressed by Jason’s aim. With friends and acquaintances funneling in and out of the steep driveway, Jason was offered beer, whiskey, and a few other substances throughout the 2 ½ hours he and Chris spent with Gene. When he returned to the ranch he gave me a call saying he was a little scared, but the experience somehow made the whole trip worthwhile. I believe him.

Memphis- Originally the main reason for choosing a farm in Northern Mississippi, our time in Memphis, Tennessee was a mixed bag of experiences.

Slave Haven – Slave Haven is an Underground Railroad museum in Memphis, housed in an original manor utilized in the Underground Railroad. Run by several African American women, we heard some theatrical retellings of stories about life as a slave, old slave hymns sung powerfully enough to provoke tears from everyone in attendance, toured the home seeing trap doors and the basement hideout for slaves, saw authentic chains and whips used on slaves, and learned about the slave trade, breeding farms, and other horrific details you never learn about in American History class. This was an eye opening, emotional experience, that for $10 should not be missed.

Getting Robbed – As the title implies, yes, while in Memphis we were robbed, and unfortunately this took place while we were visiting Slave Haven. Our car was parked on the street outside of the museum which is evidently in a very ghetto area. During the tour some of the guides went outside to check to make sure no one was messing with any of the vehicles, but I guess it was too late. When we got to the car, we saw that the lock on the driver’s side had been smashed, and one of my sneakers was lying on the sidewalk behind us. After sorting through the car, we realized a bag of shoes had been stolen but nothing else. Although we were really upset for awhile, due to the nature of being robbed, we were incredibly fortunate that our gps, ipod, and various cameras were left untouched. It wasn’t until a few days later I realized a bag of books and a small radio had also been taken. Frustrating, but very fitting, considering the very poor, crime laden landscape of Memphis.

Cozy Corner BBQ – After the car was broken into we really lost steam. We almost went back to the farm, but decided against it. We headed to a family run restaurant called Cozy Corner BBQ, nestled in the ghetto, but with good parking and an excellent Motown soundtrack. The food was RIDICULOUS. I had a sliced pork bbq sandwich with mild sauce that was almost too spicy for me to handle, with a side of slaw (hold the cole) and bbq spaghetti. Jason indulged in smoked sausage with medium heat, side of slaw (still holding the cole) and bbq baked beans. We split a nameless dessert (literally) with oreo crumbs, chocolate mouse, cake, and whipped cream. Heart attack happy.

Art Gallery – After eating we headed to the only nice area of Memphis we could find and browsed an art gallery. For the first time in my life, I actually bought a piece of art! Local to Memphis, vibrant and beautiful, just thinking about it makes me happy. I’ve shipped it home but Jason took a picture to share with you.

We did a few other things, like grabbed milkshakes at a local café and listened to some flamenco guitar, so ultimately visiting Memphis was a pretty positive experience.  But being robbed and surrounded by poverty in a once thriving city is a little depressing and driving back to a backwoods MS farm became difficult after a few days. There’s an overhanging sadness in this area that I can’t quite define but is there and you will feel it if you are ever in Memphis for more than a few drinks.

The Evil Baby – While cleaning out Hilary’s storage room in the bottom of the barn, I discovered a ragged, naked baby doll with a ripped up foot and a noose of twine around its neck. Originally destined to sit in a wheel barrel of hay in front of Chris’ room for eternity, once he and Jason saw the potential in this baby we just couldn’t help but ride the creepy wave. First we hung it from a hook on the wall of the barn. With further room cleaning, we found a stretchy green shirt we could fit over its head. After awhile we discovered an old lollypop and by the end of clean out, a massive knife. I’m not going to pretend there were already holes in the doll’s hands to hold these things…

The Work/The Ranch- While relaying all of the interesting and fun things we did in Mississippi, it is easy to forget about some of the difficulties we faced regarding life on the ranch. But unfortunately, there were a lot of challenges and frustrating moments for us. When we first met Hilary she was not what we expected, but we tried not to form any opinions until we got to know her better. But within one day of working with her, we realized her heart was not invested in her ranch. The disorganization of our activities and the inefficiency of the ranch were astounding. We often felt unappreciated and being that she did not work with us at all during the two weeks we worked for her, for free, we felt pretty disillusioned about the entire stay. There were often days when we would complete one task and within an hour we would be undoing that task because she had not planned ahead. In addition, all of our work was unskilled, manual labor, without any opportunity to learn or advance our own skills. On top of that Hilary was often critical of our work, picking it apart and asking us to do things differently, despite not working with us or explaining what she wanted clearly. It became very difficult to stay polite and we were often asked to work beyond our hourly agreement of six hours a day. The first week we felt taken advantage of, but the second week we started to clearly state when we were done working. (Correction, I attempted to end our work days in polite diplomatic language, and when that didn’t work, Jason definitively stated “we’re done for the day,” like my very own union leader, a label that flattered him greatly).

For a while we were concerned that we were the problem, but once we confirmed with Chris that he felt the same day we felt completely justified in our unhappiness. Part of WWOOFing is a work exchange, but it is equally considered an educational program for us to learn from experienced farmers, not become free laborers, running errands, cleaning out cars and storage rooms, or painting kitchen cabinets. We were very upset for long periods of time, but when Chris decided to leave early a few days ago, telling Hilary he needed a “change of scene,” we reminded ourselves it wouldn’t be much longer until we too would leave. Some pictures from our time there:

One of the gardens we worked on

shot of gardens and chicken coop

Barn interior…two active horse stables next to ours

beautiful Moon Shine Lake on the property

One of many pastures where cattle roam

Overall, our time in Mississippi was fun and a great life experience, but we are happy to move on to the rest of our trip. Plans have changed quite drastically, so I will be sure to post soon with updates and where we are going next and what we are doing. In the meantime, peace.

Lena

Three Days of Kentucky Livin’

***Warning: This is a rather long blog entry. Read when you have time or are feeling particularly unsentimental about skipping my carefully crafted words.

Much to my surprise, not having a job, an apartment, or family in reasonable distance does not leave me as much time to blog as I expected. It’s been a good three days since I’ve prioritized it and I have to say, playing catch up is not a strength of mine, so I have devised a plan that at the end of each farm stay I will write a blog about “things you missed” but with infinitely cuter phrasing. I ask you all to hold me accountable to this, as I am likely to “forget” when the time comes to actually write it.

Nevertheless the last few days have been filled with excitement; seed planting, rejected lamb babies, electric fencing, Celtic music, pound cake, a visit to Lexington, a quasi dine-and-dash situation, a bone pile, farm pot luck, and more. So allow me to fill you in as best as my consciousness will allow.

On Wednesday I failed to report the birth of two adorable baby lambs! Jason and I were in the yard battling brambles when Rion (pronounced Ryan), Meg’s uncle who also lives on the farm, asked us come into the barn. Apparently one of the sheep gave birth to a baby and was in the process of cleaning him up. As we prepared a separate section of the barn where she could care for her baby, she inconspicuously popped out another one. Sheep are bad ass like that. This quick video was taken a few hours after they were born:

Unfortunately by Thursday we began noticing some strange behavior from the mother, ultimately determining that she had rejected one of the baby lambs. According to Meg this could happen for several reasons; separated from the lambs too early after birth (when we moved the babies into the private area, they were out of sight from Mama sheep for a few minutes), or possibly that the baby’s teeth were too sharp when feeding, thus causing her to buck anytime he attempted to feed. But after filing his teeth and even dousing the babies in some vanilla to equalize their scents hoping to confuse her into accepting them both, it was useless. For whatever reason she would not let the little lamb nurse, so this evening we moved him into the house with the intention of bottle feeding him for the next two weeks. Sounds fun, right? No.

See, apparently baby rams (male lambs) should not ever get comfortable with humans because it will make them aggressive toward humans as they get older. Therefore they become dangerous and a liability to keep. This ram will also not be very good for breeding because he will carry poor genetics (bad mothering, temperamental personality, etc). So in this situation the lamb will either be castrated  to tone down its inevitable aggression and kept as a source of wool and a companion for the other breeding rams, or will be slaughtered once it is older.  At  four days old, the little lamb’s fate is already in question. All because the mother has rejected it. The animal world is a harsh one.

But organic farming is all about sustainability, so while the animal world sometimes has to be a tough one, the plant world can be just as confusing. Not knowing anything (I mean, ANYTHING) about farming, I am continuously amazed by the amount of time and study that must go into the planning and execution of a thriving farm. On Thursday after feeding the animals and milking the goat, we went to another neighbor’s farm to plant seeds in the greenhouse. Everything about planting requires precision from how many seeds to plant to how deep to plant them. It takes time and focus and preferably tiny hands. But when you are rewarded with fresh, homemade pound cake, I have to say it is worth the effort.

Later in the evening Matt took us to Berea College for a Celtic concert by a band called Dervish. Let me just say, on the way to this concert I had no idea what to expect but it was somewhere in the vicinity of curly-haired red-headed drunk college students singing Dropkick Murphys out of tune. So needless to say I was quite impressed when Dervish turned out to be a world-renowned band. It’s a little long, but check out this video we took!

The coolest part about the concert aside from the obvious Irishness of it all, was the fact that midway through a pair of college students went to the front of the auditorium and started jigging. By the end about 40 or so had recreated a scene straight out of Titanic. It was so awesome I almost asked Jason if he wanted to go to a “real party” (I predict only the girls will get this). There’s nothing like seeing a bunch of 20 something kids who don’t need alcohol to stop caring about how stupid they look, while incidentally not looking stupid at all. Well, maybe a few.

Friday was our first day off so we took an hour ride north to Lexington. Ladies and Gents, if you are ever in Lexington, Kentucky be sure to check out the Visitor’s Center downtown. Not only do they give you free locally made soda (holla, Ale-8-One!) but also all the information you could possibly need to plan a day in the city. After taking a walking tour of the historical downtown, we spent some time in the old Lexington Public Library which is now a literacy center where you are encouraged to take one free book to keep every time you visit, ate at a local dive “Meadowthorpe Cafe,” visited Pop’s Resale — a pretty neat used vinyl shop, and checked out the University of Kentucky Art Museum. Here are a few pictures and videos from the day:

MLK Jr. mural in Lexington Public Library

We finished off the evening with a trip to a restaurant called “Willie’s Locally Known” which was recommended to us from a visitor’s center lady who described it as a dive with great music, which is probably my greatest expectation of what heaven would be like. So we were sort of excited to go here. Now, I’m a pretty laid back patron, but to anyone in Lexington let me say I wouldn’t entirely recommend this joint. First of all the band that was supposed to start at 8 didn’t actually come on till 9. But that wouldn’t have been a problem had we not arrived at 7:10, ate our appetizer, and waited for 45 minutes to order our meal…then after an hour having to walk up to ask about it just to have them deliver us the completely wrong order, cold…then after another 20 minutes finally getting the correct meal at 9:20. “Not all experiences have to be good experiences,” I kept telling Jason, for reasons I’m not entirely sure of as it did not make me feel any less annoyed by the situation. But they did tell us they’d comp our meals which we took as an opportunity to walk out on the bill, which we did with great finesse I’m still proud of at this moment.

Though we got home late Friday night, Saturday morning we got right to work, feeding the animals before helping Matt put up a temporary electric fence. Can I reiterate how much unseen work goes into farming? Never again will I mock the life of a farmer. Not that I ever did this. So it’s better to say I will never begin mocking the life of a farmer. They’ve got to be some of the hardest working people alive.

After we finished we cleaned up and went to friends of Matt and Meg’s for a potluck. Anna and Bryce are an equally awesome couple, living on Bryce’s great great grandfather’s farm, running it organically with the help of long-term volunteers Ariel, Eli, and Steve. Ariel was a bad ass chick and as far as I know was not wearing a clam shell bra. She has been working on the farm since August and will be leaving in May to prepare for a 2 year stint with the Peace Corps in Rwanda come June. Eli has been at the farm since January after deciding 20% unemployment in Michigan was not enough to keep him around and working on a farm was better than collecting unemployment on his couch. Steve is Anna’s cousin and is also from Pennsylvania. He volunteered for several months on a farm in California but has been here for the past few months.

These people are amazing.

Each and every one of them were positive, insightful, hilarious individuals who made it easy to forget I never met them before. We had an evening filled with laughter, INCREDIBLE healthy food, fabulous conversation, and a trek around their farm.

Cows: They Need No Introduction

bone pile collected from around the farm

Jason says we should live in it…I don’t think he’s kidding

We left feeling rejuvenated about humanity, which although a lofty statement, is an equally true one. In regular life it is so easy to get discouraged about people, to be brought down by their negativity, or inactivity. It is easy to criticize and form judgment, because when everyone is doing the same thing and living the same life no one really impresses you. I think it takes letting new people into your life in order for your life to feel renewed. SO many people warned me about the bad people I could potentially run into on this trip, but no one ever thought to mention the incredible ones.

Tonight is a week since we arrived in Kentucky and I’m feeling happier and more certain of our decision to be here than ever. I’d like to reiterate my advice to anyone considering a big life change. It is important not to over think your decisions. You may just think yourself right out of living.

That’s all for now.

Peace.

Lena