Family Business

Family Business can mean at least two things: private matters concerning the family and a business that includes more than one generation of a family. When I speak neo-georgic, I am talking about the both- what goes on in the family and a business which includes more than one generation of a family. The georgic farmer worked with his family to wrestle a living off the land they owned and cultivated. While they worked together they learned the lessons they needed for life. Likewise, today in a family business, one will see more than one generation working together to cultivate that business, to bring it into productivity, and lessons will be learned from that shared endeavor.

I have spoken of our family business here before. More recently, I started an LLC with my married daughters and that qualifies under the idea of a family business. In our case, our business is more of an organization with a mindset of restoring georgic motherhood, thus bringing sanity to homelife and building community. The georgic mothers of the past learned many lessons from their lifestyle.

First, one of the many lessons georgic mothers learned is that there is a time and season to planting. The same lesson applies to the development of human beings. In our society, we seem to have forgotten that the hand that rocks the cradle, as William Ross put it, rules the world. Over the last few generations, we have proclaimed the value of childhood as a society, but outsourced the rearing and raising of children to a class of guardians, hirelings really. These hirelings were more concerned about their role as trained experts, and for many, their paychecks, than about what was ultimately good for society or for the children placed in their care. There are tradeoffs in letting hirelings and the village tend children and train them, rather than being reared and raised by their parents. When we see child rearing as child care, tending , or babysitting, we devalue the important role of parenting and we also devalue children and the importance of what they really need. In the earliest formative years, little children develop their values, identity, and work ethic. When this happens in the home they are more likely to be working shoulder to shoulder with their parents and learn their relationship to family, God, and community, as they work, play, worship, serve, and learn together. Children raised in the home are also more likely to develop a value for quality and learn a good work ethic centered in the good of the whole, and be a team player.

Second, georgic mothers could clearly see that they reap what they sow. Seeds reproduce after their own kind. Meaning, if you want wheat, you plant wheat, not carrots. How does that translate into parenting? During WWII men were enticed off the farm to fight in the war with the promise of the GI Bill. Many women during war time replaced men in the factories and offices while the men were at war. These women often gained training on the job. During the war and in the generations after it, education was seen as a panacea, and children were channeled into education at earlier and earlier ages. Basically, the seed planted was the nurture of children as a brain, or more purely seeds of a future employee class. Children were trained for 9-5 jobs, and other adult roles and responsibilities were ignored. We have reaped as a society what we have sown. By letting others (be they extended family, hired hands, TV, computer, or professional educators) tend our children, we have treated children like they were only a brain, and failed to prepare our children for a whole life, which leads us to another lesson the georgics learned...

A third lesson the georgics learned was if yea are prepared ye shall not fear. The georgic mother could not guaranty the weather, conditions, or even health, so she had to prepare for the future. This was not just seasonal thinking, but led to multi-generational thinking. In other words, taking the long view, developing foresight, and not just thinking for the present. What has the outsourcing of children prepared them for? A high divorce rate, delayed taking on of adult responsibilities, and narcissim. We have prepared children for 9-5, but that is only one third of their work week and even less of their whole week. We failed to plant the seeds of preparation for marriarge and parenthood. In our head strong push for gender neutrality and professional training, we traded off personal identity, the values of strong work ethic, quality, and relationships. We have also failed to prepare children for citizenship. We have raised generations with an entitlement mentality, rather than with the skills and knowledge necessary for responsible participation in their communities. The result is a huge class of narcissistic individuals who feel entitled to the benefits of someone elses labor. Their world revovles around them, their wants and needs. The preparation for healthy relationships, community, and citizenship begin in the preschool years, in the home.

Yes, there are pockets of families that never forsook their georgic lessons and did not hire out the rocking of the cradle. That group has grown smaller and smaller with each new generation. Now over 75% of mothers with children work and their children tended by others. The general trend in society has been for children to be tended from 6 weeks old, and later either being latchkey or in academic preschools, and then for 13+ years in the care of media and certified educators. The result is an individual that the world has revolved around their entire life. They tend not to be team players and though they may join and passionately support causes, it is external. Starved for real relationships and with little work ethic they tend to use the work environment to replace family and tend to socialize, play computer games, or text message, rather than work.

What's a mother to do? What is the answer? I feel the answer lies in mothers who know reaching out to other mothers, and in mothers in turn, preparing their daughters for a whole future, and not just a career. This is not something entitilement programs and institutions can do for us. We need to reclaim the home. Return to valuing children. Restore the lost arts of Godly Womanhood. Build relationships. Build community. So, that is what my daughters and I are doing. We created a mother-daughter organization to help provide our daughters with a whole education, of heart, mind, and hands, to help prepare them for their future responsibilities as women, wives, and mothers. We wanted to create a community of women reaching out to women and mothers reaching out to daughters. All women are daughters of a the King and with that comes responsibility. I created the Princess Academy in December 2006, and that has evolved into The Princess Academies, an organization I started with my daughters.

This week is the pre-launch week. I invite you to check out the website, explore the drop down menus, and please share your feedback through the contact us form located in the main horizontal toolbar. The free, the free sample, and the Royal Academe monthly content are up. The store is working. If you have any problems with the store or the site I would like to know. I would like to get any bugs fixed by the Grand Opening Celebration which runs 1 July through 7 July. I invite you to visit the site and learn about the Hope Chest Journey, The Royal Academe-(monthly online support),The Commons (the free public area), 4Moms2Go (audio mini-lectures and article downloads), Liber-Tea Luncheons and more…

The Princess Academies

While a Princess is born, A Queen is made!

Georgic Response To Pandemic Fears

There is much being said about the possibility of a coming Swine/Avian Flu Pandemic and possible Global Economic Depression. Both situations are at our door, but will they be averted? Can they be? Can we in any way minimize impact on ourselves?

Frankly, we live in the last days and both are prophesied and both are probable. Will it happen now are later? Usually when crisis like these hit, some are hit worse than others, though all may suffer to a degree.

The city dweller mind-set tends to deal with crisis as they arise. After all, we live in the modern age of just in time manufacturing and on demand printing and digital downloads. The city dweller mind-set does not always see cycles because the grocer and the merchant can bring food and goods from afar when local conditions are not favorable. This on demand lifestyle does not lend itself to conserving but tends towards consumption. Global Depression and/or Pandemic can alter life as we know it in a big way.

What about the Georgic mind-set. Georgics know that there are cycles, there are times and seasons, and we tend to reap what we sow. A neo-georgic sees the cycles of the boom and bust, and knows he must prepare during the boom, for the bust. The Georgic and Neo-georgic tend towards conserving and preparing, rather than consuming. They prepare for the storm while the sun is still shining. Why? Because when it comes they can avoid the panic and rest at home and know that they do not have to worry about finding the shelves empty.

The reality is, though great societal crisis are not as frequent as personal ones. This is not gloom and doom. This is prepare and face the future with confidence. If things get bad for everyone you can be in a position to be an instrument for good. If they just get bad for you, you have reserves to help you weather the storm.

Presently, American officials have declared a health emergency. Napolitano called the emergency declaration standard operating procedure — one was declared recently for the inauguration and for flooding. She urged people to think of it as a "declaration of emergency preparedness."

Along with considering how your larder is, and how your savings account looks, one might ask what your health status is, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Spiritually, if we are spiritually alive, we have an eternal perspective and are in a far better position to those without hope. Mentally, if we have taken the time to develop relationships, learn skills, and gain knowledge, we are in a better place than those who have not. What about our bodies? Health is more than an absence of symptoms. We can look good on the surface and be a landmine of health problems not yet manifested internally. Health is where they idea “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it can be an issue.” Our city dweller just in time mentality translates prevention as early detection, instead of proper lifestyle practices and providing the body with high quality fuel in the form of good nutrition. Stress, poor diet, and lifestyle choices are the usual side effect of affluence and city dweller mentality. What healthy changes might be in order? Do you have a hand washing habit? How is your hygiene, especially when it comes to coughs and sniffles? Do you get enough fresh air and sunshine? What about regular natural exercise like walking? What about your diet? Is it full of nutrient altered processed foods? Do you get enough vitamin A from your diet or supplementation? Your skin health and frequency of colds and illness might be your canary in the mine. When vitamin A levels are adequate your skin and mucus membranes produce anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal fluids to bathe the cells and keep them healthy. These are some of the first line of defense our bodies have. Stress and infection decrease vitamin A levels in the body and therefore produce a state of vulnerability to infection and disease. Late nights and bright lights tend to deplete vitamin A levels. You know, TV and computer screens contribute, as well as ultraviolet lights.

All of these are relatively easy to address without enormous outlay of time and money. City Dweller mentality or Neo-Georgic? It is up to you.

A Georgic Saturday

Our good apple tree got fire blight. The other tree never produced fruit and was good to be chopped down and tossed into the fire. One filbert died, and the other stopped bearing. The almonds were so hard they could not be cracked open. Dead leaves hung from the roses.

While I gently removed the old dead leaves from the roses I discovered hardy new spring growth were pushing out and my leaf cleaning provided the viw of fresh green growth.

Roger and James worked on cutting down the rest of our back yard forest. The shade is gone. Now my six 4x6 raised beds have full sun. The dead, diseased, and dying have been removed. We selected new varieties for our yard. Jonathan's, Elberta's and Galas. More to come and we can place them in choice locations, to follow the sun. However, due to disease, we cannot risk burning this stuff as firewood. Drats. Even if we could, having it set in our wood pile would not be too smart.

We are thinking of adding cots, concords, and berries as well. Berries can be harvested this year!
Yum. We have grown all of this before except for the apricots. We know it will take time to fruit.

We still have a lovely shady front yard and side yards. I stood on the North side of the house and closed my eyes, I could hear the wind rustle the pine boughs overhead nad I could smell the piny smell. The neighbor's tree over hangs our yard.

Thoughts of Georgics and how it applies to parenting and even schooling waft through my brain. There are specific time to plant and to reap. What am I planting in my own life?

Hardtimes Ezers- Grandparents

An ezer is a help, the kind of help that comes through when you need it the most. Baby boomer grandparents can be ezers for hard times to their descendants, as were the boomer's grandparents were to the boomers.

"Times have changed you say." Really? We still have the same needs as our ancestors did, to be fed, clothed, sheltered, nurtured, cared for, and to do the same for those we love.

Boomers look back. Many of our grandparents came from small towns and farms. Our parents raised us with Dr. Spock. Under the artful guidance of our parents and under the delusion that the georgic life was something to shun and get away from, our parents encouraged us to get and education and get a career.

Here we are 50 or so years down the road of life and though our physical eyesiteght may be growing dim, our spiritual eyes are gaining sight. It is hard to not pay attention when the crisis is upon us. Are we ready to be ezers to our posterity? I fear that many of us have been sidetracked and even fallen pray to sophistry of the anti-georgics.

Are we thinking generationally? Are we ready to bless our posterity. Are we a fit prophet generation? Have we developed the relationship with our children that we can be a positive influence in their lives?

When was the last time we read and pondered The Georgics and our culture? Perhaps that would be a good thing to do this year, read, ponder, and discuss the Georgics.

Nature Study Valuable for Neo- Georgics

I have been intrigued lately by the works that came out of Cornell University through their Agriculture Department, more especially their Nature Studies for elementary schools. I have come into possession of several sets of books, that came out of the nature studies movement. I want to learn more about Liberty Hyde Bailey, Alice Gertrude McCloskey, and Anna Botsford Comstock.

I feel nature study is a great foundation for further science study later, giving context and meaning, and the development of skills to record what is learned. There are many valuable lessons to learn from nature. As I read the Georgics, I see a keen observation and understanding of nature and life lessons. Neo-georgics can learn much from the study of nature. I see the natural world as a library and a school. Yet, the natural world is the pastoral view, a sheep herder would take his sheep to graze on fields that were naturally there. Georgics on the other hand is nature tamed, harnessed, cultivated, and pruned to yield a better harvest.

Memories about my Neo-Georgic Grandparents.

Every year grandma would have the city trucks in Decatur, Indiana, dump their leaves on her large garden near the railroad tracks and surrounding the huge oil tanks, on the other side of town, and she worked some of that into her victory garden. Grandpa had his own convenience store/service station and there were huge oil tanks across the street. They had the richest soil, deep black. I can remember inhaling the rich smell. I loved the food from that garden.

I can remember shucking corn, shelling peas, and snapping beans, on grandma's porch. I have never tasted canned peas like my grandmother's. They were dark and firm, sweet and tasty. It must have been her soil. To the town the leaves were waste to burn, to my grandparents it was a precious asset to be utilized. One man's refuse is another man's treasure.

My grand parents had a garage at the back of their property. It took up about half the width of the back property line, and was bordered by an ally behind, and alley to the right, a victory garden to the left, and separated from the house by a yard with a full size Jonathan apple tree, a peach tree, a cherry tree, a lawn, and flower boarder. That apple tree was planted the year mom was born and by the time I came along was huge! When I was in college 20 years later, my brother claimed he picked 32 bushels from that tree leaving the top for the birds in winter.

They had concord grape vines that covered the fence around her victory garden next to her garage. At the feet of the grapes were rhubarb plants. She grew a small kitchen garden in the victory garden space. Those were concord grapes were huge, bigger than the average table grapes seen in mist stores. She pruned, thinned, watered, mulched them, cultivated and harvested lovely, large sweet grapes.

During the autumn we would drive out to grandma's house and she would care for my sister and I. She had us work with her. She would use peach switch discipline. Ouch! She would tell us stories while she peeled apples, we would eat the skin thin she would cut slivers of white, crisp, tart and sweet apples for us. It is still my favorite way to eat them.

Grandpa had a best friend, they decided to go into business. The friend decided on soy beans, and created quite a fortune. Granddad and his brother opened the service station instead. They did this during the great depression. My aunt told me that he always had a job during the depression. He had the service station and hired people to work there, and also held a job at the General Electric plant there in Decatur. That service station is where my older brother pumped gas when he was a boy. I can remember it, though we moved to Hawaii when I was six. Granddad was philanthropic at heart. When people needed something he would give. They often gave him IOUs. I have never heard of him trying to collect. He was a gentleman and when people could pay, they often did. He died suddenly when I was nine. My mother and brother had flown from Hawaii to be with him during an illness. Some people stepped forward and repaid his kindness. My brother threw away about $250K worth of IOUs he found in a box, and my aunt threw away about twice as much because she said they were very old. They were found in the garage. My grandparents were not rich, but God took great care of them.

They were hard working folk. Grandma is more in my memory as she died when I was 29, buried on my 29th birthday. She sewed her own clothes. She was an excellent seamstress. She sewed me many things as well. Grandmother grew much of her own food and froze or bottled what she could. She was known all around the community for her cooking and often did do large suppers for groups like the American Legion. They sent an honor guard to her funeral.

I am definitely inspired by their example! Their example and lessons were not lost on me. They were my ezers for hard times. They not only survived the great depression but thrived.

Harvest Time Activities

Pink Jonathan Applesauce: Last weekend we bottled 41 quarts of Jonathan apple sauce, we cleaned the skins, Sliced them with an apple slicer, pressured them to 12lbs. of pressure, sent them through the Victorio Strainer applesauce sieve, and bottled lovely pink applesauce. My 17 year old, Jeremy, smiles and says pink food is just wrong!

40lbs. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast: Last night Roger and I went to Macy's and bought boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.19 lb. I came home and split them and placed them on cookie sheets in the freezer. Tonight I packaged four of five sheets of huge chicken breasts. I vacuum sealed 21 packages of 2 huge chicken breasts 2 -3 pounds a package), and placed them in the freezer.

Walnuts. My brother-in-law contacted a friend who has a huge walnut tree to see if we could get some walnuts. The friend told him we could come and get all we wanted. There were still many left in the tree. We worked for about 40 minutes, we filled a large black leaf bag, and a few more 1/2 bushel boxes. We still have to shell them. I am grateful to have them as they are usually quite expensive. Unfortunately our 2 filbert trees yielded about 6 nuts this year. So, these walnuts are a God send.