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  • From: "Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Farm Update
  • Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:09:14 -0400

Well, we've gone from a cool and rainy summer to a cold and rainy fall. I've had the stove running on and off for a couple of weeks already, so maybe I didn't get enough firewood. I think we had our first frost last night; the tender plants like winter squash look dead. It looks like there were more squash than I thought hiding in there. I don't know how ripe they are; if it ever stops raining I'll harvest them.

The farm, as a money-making entity, was a complete failure this year. For whatever reason, people just didn't come out to buy. I barely made back the money I spent advertising. On the other hand, as a homestead, the farm did well. I have 2 freezers full of meat and vegetables that I couldn't sell. Canned fruit has overflowed from the pantry to the other cabinets, and I still have 50# of pears to deal with (the smaller fruit...they will become pear/ginger butter). I have quite a bit of free hay in the barn, both what I cut with my scythe from around the yard, and what my neighbor gave me (not good enough for his horses, fine for my cows).

So I still have bills but have no money except child support, and raising two teenagers costs every cent of that, and then some ("Mom, I need $38 for my trip, plus money for lunch"..."Mom I need $15 for new band shoes"...that's just this week). I can't find a job. I have a Master of Library Science but the library won't even interview me anymore (I've applied for 4 different positions in the past 2-3 years); they tell me that I'm over-qualified for an entry-level job (I think it's that I have a better degree from a better school than the library director...she thinks I'm after her job), so I remain over-qualified and unemployed. I've dumbed down my resume (took off my MLS and BA...they are a detriment in a really rural area) for every other minimum wage job, but there are few jobs, and at 53 I can't even get an interview.

But I worry less about that all the time (senility maybe?). I'm ridiculously satisfied with what I have.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA




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