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The Gentleman Farmer

~ Found somewhere in a part of the country known as north Florida and south Georgia…

The Gentleman Farmer

Category Archives: Living

Football

29 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Family, Living, Passages, Seasons, Sporting Life, time

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

bulldogs, college football, dawgs, dreams, georgia bullogs, hedges, heritage, sanford stadium, season opener, southern boys, tradition, uga 1

For me, the high holy season of college football begins this Saturday when my school, my team takes to the field.

started young...

me and uga one…

It is an acquired taste, not for everyone, though very important in my part of the world.

We start young, us southern boys, playing and dreaming as long and as far as our playing and dreaming will take us.

Throw in the generations of family men who played and dreamed before and will play and dream to come.

Mix in the atmosphere, the pageantry, the tastes, smells, drinks, sights and sounds.

Add the excitement, the energy, the contact, controlled violence.

Then you can see why it is in the blood.  Then you can see why it is who we are.

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Flat

26 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Blogs, Living, Passages, time

≈ 26 Comments

Tags

back pain, bed making, bloglovin, books, contemplation, iphone, reading

As in, flat on my back, as in back pain, as in immobile, as in how the heck does this happen when making a bed, for God’s sake…

view from a bed, flat on my back...

view from a bed, flat on my back…

another view from my bed, flat on my back...

another view from a bed, flat on my back…

a final view from a bed, flat on my back...

a final view from a bed, flat on my back…

Oh well, at least I have an iPhone and a good book, or two, or three.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Moving On…

12 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, time, Totem Hall

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

dodge, lexus, memory, moms, moves, moving, nissan, packing, pathfinder, poodles, ram 2500, roommates, rx400h, scad, sons, u-haul

Our oldest made his return to college Saturday. This was not our first fond farewell, having over the years sent him off to summer camps, boarding school, and the first year of college, but somehow yesterday was different, he was moving into his own home, well, own home with four other roommates.

folding sheets for the first and last time...

folding sheets for the first and last time…

boxed up and ready to go...

boxed up and ready to go…

The whole process was most entertaining and it brought back a flood of memories.

i'll just stuff this...

i’ll just stuff this in…

it doesn't take me long to pack...

it doesn’t take me long to pack…

To begin with, all our carefully thought out plans fell by the wayside. The big Dodge 2500 is still in the shop. She was going to be the workhorse of the move. So, you say, no problem, I am sure you have a Plan B. Well good old Plan B did not work out either. Since my son’s Pathfinder did not have wiring for the trailer lights, there was no U-Haul for us, not rentable. Surely, we can use one of the open-air trailers here at Totem Hall, right? Ooh, too bad, the Lexus, choice three, with tow package and harness, is no good, faulty wiring.

The end result: ah, stuff it in the back of the Nissan.

packed in the back...

packed in the back…

packed on the side...

packed on the side…

packed on the other side...

packed on the other side…

and packed in the front...

and packed in the front…

He is definitely my son.

How crazy time is, really. We move through it, try our best to hold on to it, swimming upstream, you know.

bye moms, bye poodle...

bye moms, bye poodle…

Was it just the other day that I was making my own moves, possessions stuffed into a trash bag, or two? Or how about renting the first moving truck, enlisting a couple of friends with offers of beer and lunch, forgetting to tie down everything in back.

bye totem hall...

bye totem hall…

Then came children, just the births alone seem long ago, though, in the grandness of time, not too far away, remembered, just not able to be captured again, the first words, the first walk, off to school, off to university.

bye son, fare thee well...

bye son, fare thee well…

Life is such a funny game…

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It’s A Sporting Life (1st of a Series)

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Living, Sporting Life, time

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

120 years, calisthenics, continence, daily routine, exercise, living long, living well, moses, numbers, old age, pushups, rock stars, situps

Have I ever mentioned that my plan is to live 120 years, just like Moses and twice as corny?

coming after you, big guy...

coming after you, big guy…

Well, in my mind, to do that I got to keep in shape.  No, really, I do.  Heck, for that matter, you do too.  I mean, wouldn’t it be fun if we all lived to be 120, together, rocking through the ages, still with our teeth, our senses, and, of course, our continence?

just like these guys, only different...

just like these beloveds, only different…

Okay, so, this is my plan.  Each day, in fact each and every day, at the least, I do a set of calisthenics.  This year, to date, I have done 30,590 pushups and 30,590 sit-ups.

bracing for the pushup...

bracing for the pushup…

bracing for the situp...

bracing for the situp…

How did I get there you ask.  Well, I started out on January 1, by doing 10 of each.  Over the next two days following, I did 20 apiece.  From January 4 through January 6, I completed sets of 30, and, well, I’m guessing you can see the pattern.

view from a pushup...

view from a pushup…

view from a situp...

view from a situp…

Of course, the deeper question is why.  For that I have no answer, other than there is great joy to be found in rhythm, routine, number counting, and living to be 120.

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Stuff of Dreams, Stuff of Boys…

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Sporting Life, time

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

archery, avon old farms school, bait fish, boarding school, fishing, golf, hiking, hunting, lacrosse, landlord, quail, roommates, savannah college of art and design, tadpoles, woodberry forest school

Do you ever think that life shows you, gives you, just what need, when you need it, as you need it?

stuff of boys, stuff of dreams...

stuff of boys, stuff of dreams…

Case in point, entering every day into the world of gentleman farming at Totem Hall, I pass a little corner in my home.  Until yesterday, I never paid it any mind.  It was just stuff.  But for some reason, for some reason, yesterday was different; I sat down and, as if for the first time, I saw the stuff of dreams, stuff of boys…

gotcha...

gotcha…

Blessed, our family has always lived surrounded by nature.  Nature has all sorts of bugs, butterflies, tadpoles, and baitfish that need catching by young boys.

boys and bows and arrows...

boys and bows and arrows…

My two sons and I like to hunt and fish.  After summer camp one year, one of the little rascals, maybe both got the idea of bow hunting and fishing.  So we bought an archery set.  Now the only thing left is the bow, the arrows are long gone.

walking and talking...

walking and talking…

I take long walks on our land.  Because of the possibility of running across a rattlesnake or water moccasin, just about all the time I’ll carry a stick with me.  For me, it’s better than a machete, which is too close quarter.

get up and fly, dagnabbit...

get up and fly, dagnabbit…

My part of the world has quail.  Sometimes even if your dog sets and holds, the bird might be a bit reluctant to get up and fly.  The boys use this strap to beat the bushes in hopes of getting the bird to move along.

full count...

spring sports…

Both the lacrosse stick and baseball bat are relics of the past.  My oldest son earned a varsity letter playing lacrosse at Avon Old Farms School.  My youngest tried baseball when he was much younger, maybe not even ten, in the end deciding the sport was too slow for him.

I did not even talk about golf, or tennis, or squash, whose tools of the trade you can see in several of the pictures.  And there is no way I can possibly describe how much fun I had teaching and then getting bested by my two, just a great way for me to grow up and stay young at the same time.

all gone now...

all gone now…

Okay, I staged this scene, but still, why not a bit of poetical license, after all we are all adults here.  The oldest is off to college in Savannah by the end of the weekend, moving into a home with four other roommates.  God help the poor landlord.  Then our youngest son leaves for Virginia and the start of his boarding school career next week.

Time moves along downstream like a river, always present, always changing, always there, never there…

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Three Weeks Is Enough!

04 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Living, Style, time

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

beards, braun cruzer, everyman jack, gillette atra, hair, merkur, old school, safety razor, shaving, shaving brush, soufflé dish

Time to shave.

enough...

touch of grey…

I don’t care whether you’re a boy or a girl, whether it’s a face or a pair of legs, shaving is a chore.

Of course, there are the tools of the trade.

I only break out the Braun when the beard gets thick.

charged and waiting...

charged and waiting…

I have no idea who gave me the brush and no one at Totem Hall is complaining about a missing soufflé dish.

just add soap...

just add soap…

We shop at a local organic co-op and though this stuff by Everyman Jack isn’t organic, it’s sold there, which should count for something.  Right?

politically correct...

politically correct…

I found this vintage Merkur safety razor with its handy dandy vintage case and just had to have it.  I use this bad boy first; you got to love and respect the old school.

men only...

men only…

The first razor I ever bought with my own money from my own job, the Gillette Atra; it is the finisher.  Enough said!

my first...

my first…

Now, beard done, and it’s time to move on to eyebrow, ear, nose, and back hair, no pictures, oh, the joy of aging…

 

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School’s Out…

10 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Family, Living, Music, Passages, Relationships, Vacation

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

ella fitzgerald, heir, kingdom, louis armstrong, parenting, primogeniture, spare, summer break, teenagers, the tams

Gosh, can you even remember no school, no worries, no problem?

Or, as the fabulous Miss Ella and Mister Louis would put it, “summertime, and the livin’ is easy”.

the heir to the throne...

the heir to the throne…

the spare to the throne...

the spare to the throne…

the heir and the spare...

the heir and the spare…

The good news is I know where they are.
The bad news is I have no idea what they did.

How does that song go?  Oh yes, “be young, be foolish, be happy”.

 

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Picky, Picky

24 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Gardening, Gentleman Farming, Living, Seasons, Totem Hall

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bountiful bush bean, dark star zucchini, farm chores, heirloom vegetables, kitchen garden, lioness f1 squash, organic gardening, plants, procrastination, solstice, sumter cucumber, tequila sunrise pepper, vegetable garden, vegetables, victory garden

Most folks call it a vegetable garden.

most say this is a vegetable garden…

Others prefer to use kitchen garden.

some say this is a kitchen garden…

Me, well, for me I go old school; it’s a victory garden.

i love the smell of veggies in the morning…

Here at Totem Hall we let our freak flag fly and do our best to live the whole granola crunching organic lifestyle. Let’s see, for this year’s edition of my victory garden, I planted corn, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, basil, eggplant, tomatoes, watermelon, and, for the sheer heck of it all, potatoes. All are organic, with a big percentage of my garden being heirloom varieties. In case you’re curious, I do talk to my plants. Why not, it works for Zonker.

zonker’s down with it…

On solstice day, I had the first picks of the season. Yeah, yeah, I know the harvest should be earlier, but what can I say, I planted way too late, a victim of well, my tendency to do this or that before doing this or that.

in search of zucchini...

in search of zucchini…

our first squash...

our first squash…

picking bush beans...

picking bush beans…

and the end result...

and the end result…

 

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It’s Summer, So…

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Living, Religion, Totems

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cardboard box, cosmos, karma, mail, messages

Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment.

like the sign says...

like the sign says…

Cut out from a package we got in the mail, so I guess it’s supposed to mean something, probably for a reason, and probably not worth the cosmic, karmic, implications of ignoring.

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Newer posts →

Recent Background Noise

Perhaps my ennui stems from David Bowie's death. I read somewhere that we should consider ourselves lucky to have lived at the same time he did. I do. Many years ago, there was a girl in my secondary school, Debbie P., who was very hip, very groovy, and very pretty. Now I attended Catholic schools and so, as you might imagine, we had to wear uniforms, except, of course, for after-school activity, and that's where I get to the point of the story. Our school was putting on its big play of the year, I had a small part, Debbie was working backstage. One evening during rehearsal she showed up wearing a Ziggy Stardust tee-shirt. I was young, naive, not hip, not groovy, and not knowing who the ambiguous Ziggy might be. During the weekend that followed that rehearsal, I went to a record store and discovered just what David Bowie was all about. It was a transforming experience. Now some forty years later, I farm, David is dead, and Debbie is into Christian rock bands. Did I say ennui...

Recent Bedside Read

Granny's Wonderful Chair is still my bedside read for reasons discussed nearby...

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