Farm Fresh October 2020: Farm Covid, Family Bonding

Farm Fresh News - October 2020

In this issue:

Farm Covid Report
Socially Distanced Road Trip
and Family Bonding
Memorial for my Dad
Farm Pics by Maggie Meeker

Rainbow over The Farm - photo by Maggie Meeker

Farm Covid Report
As we enter the seventh month of our collective Covid journey, The Farm has reasons to count its blessings. Lewis county, our county seat, which hovered at three cases total for several months, has now had approximately 273 cases and only 1 death. Nearby Lawrence County has had 1244 cases and 17 deaths. Maury County to the north, closer to urban Nashville, is a bit higher with 2723 cases with 33 deaths. Tennessee is currently considered a hotspot, with the Maury county hospital filled to capacity.

Here on The Farm, we have been extremely lucky. There has been 4 or 5 confirmed cases by members in the community, and a couple more positive cases with friends who live nearby that regularly frequent the community. All cases have been very mild and everyone has recovered.

Our gate remains closed to outside visitor traffic, but we have always been open for commercial traffic and personal guests. We will likely not open our overnight accommodations or resume any activities such as market days, retreats and Farm Experience weekends, until the case numbers in our area and for the country as a whole have dropped very significantly.

Now all these months later, I think we are all learning how to navigate safely through the sea of people opposed to wearing masks amid a pandemic seems at times both distant and deadly.

Socially Distanced Road Trip

Even though two of my grandkids live just down the road in Summertown (their parents bought 28 acres nearby), we’ve barely seen them since last February. They were still going to public school in March and one had a close friend who tested positive. Our family’s policy has been to play it safe, waiting to see what this pandemic thing was going to do.

Deborah and I started talking about what we could do to rebuild our bond with these now teenage grandkids, and we came up with the idea of a socially distanced road trip. We have rented a big RV, with our own kitchen, bathroom and shower, plus three beds to sleep in. We are currently on the road through the Great American Southwest. As I write this we have been to outstanding landscapes in Texas, New Mexico, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion in Utah, then on to Arches National Park, with some hikes in southern Colorado Rockies to round out our trip before heading back to Tennessee. We try to find the trails less traveled, and often have them to ourselves. If you’d like to follow our journey, keep an eye on my Facebook timeline:
https://www.facebook.com/douglas.stevenson.10

Deborah and our granddaughter recover from a hike on a hot day in Texas.

If you’ve ever been to one of my retreats, or read the essays on my website, you’ve heard me say that sustainability is about more than solar panels and energy efficient homes. It’s about how you pass on your values to the next generation. Because we are here on this earth for only a short while. It is through our personal relationships that the work we start continues after we’re gone. It may take a new direction but the foundation is put in place through love, and we are thrilled and excited to share this adventure with the grandkids.

Anyway, we have come around full circle. Just before coming to The Farm, Deborah and I traveled west in a Volkswagen van, stopping at the Grand Canyon. We drove that van to The Farm and lived in it for the first few months of our time there. Now some 45 years later we are making an effort to pass on the spirit of travel and adventure to a new generation.

Deborah and I headed west in 1972. We drove this van to The Farm August of '73, our first home in Tennessee.

A Memorial for My Dad
Due to Covid, I had not been able to visit my 94-year Dad since February. About 6 weeks ago, he had a fall, and went into rehab, but when it became clear he was not going to recover, he went into hospice his facility allowed me to spend several long weekends with him. He passed a few days ago. My sister and brother were able to be with him at the end, and I am grateful that during my last visits we were able to communicate our love for each other.

Around the year 2000, with my Dad, my younger brother, my son Jody, and me, (when we all had more hair!)

A few days ago, I told the grandkids the story of our family trip to Guatemala in 1990, when Deborah and I took our two children down to rekindle their memories of our time there.

They were just 4 and 6 years old when we returned from our mission with Plenty in 1980. I was sitting on the steps of the Mayan pyramid Tikal, thinking about my grandmother, who had pretty much raised me when I was a child, while my mother worked at the family business. I had this feeling of her passing and said a prayer, feeling inside that I was doing something special and important for our family and its future.

I said to my grandchildren that although it was likely that my Dad, their great grandfather, would pass while we were on this trip, "We are coming around the circle once again, to put our attention and energy into the future, our connection to you."

peace,

Douglas

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Farm pictures from Maggie Meeker

I am grateful to Maggie for allowing me to share her pictures with you. She is one of the best photographers I have ever known.

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PS: Please Vote!
Our presidential election is just weeks away. For those who say or said it doesn’t matter who we elect, there’s no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, I hope your eyes have been opened. If you are in a swing state, I urge you to vote and to get all your friends to vote. The health and wellbeing of millions of Americans, of our children and grandchildren, and in so many ways the survival of our planet, depends on it.

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Peace,

Douglas

Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com