Research the Hard Way

I love doing research most of the time. Books are filled with information that I find useful and fascinating. The internet surprises me with a plum now and then. I have always engaged in re-enactments and emersion weekends, where you get to dress up and live the lives of those from the chosen time period. Sometimes the research comes too close to home. Irene made her way up the east coast and threatened my home and the two mills I love with flooding and wind damage. My first preparation was to make sure all the Greenbank sheep would be safe. The barn and pasture is flood prone, and the sheep could be trapped in the barn and drown. So, I had to move fences and gates to secure them in the top pasture. Our fences are split rail, which means that the sections are not fastened together by anything except gravity. A good flood would wash them away.

The sheep were outside during the storm because it is safer for them, not just because of flooding, but because if they panicked in an enclosed location the whole flock could run into one of the stone walls. We have lost lambs to broken necks from being forced into a wall at high speed. They will find the safest spot in the pasture and lie down till the wind dies down. The next step was to make sure we had ample food for the sheep. We buy commercial food in 50 pound bags, and I moved 10 bags into the barn and emptied them into the containers. My sheep farming ancestors would not have had to move 50 pound bags, but they would have had to do a lot of physical labor to keep the sheep safe and secure. And they wouldn’t have had the two days notice I had. The sheep and the house survived the storm with no damage. While the flood came up around the house we kept it out of the basement with sandbags and sump pumps. But my vegetable garden washed away. I went to work at the Newlin Grist Mill on Monday and found that the basements had flooded and the electricity was off. Generators and garden hoses ran all day, but the telephones and computers didn’t. No hot water or hot food unless we wanted to build a fire in the hearth and cook over that. We were too busy with repairs to spare someone to tend the fire and cook. So, I came out of the weekend with a healthy respect for sudden changes in weather and how our farming ancestors had to respond to those changes quickly. I found out on a deeper level than simply understanding how electricity pervades our lives. I realized that hot food is a luxury and to be had only when the other chores are done. I would have no preserved vegetables for the winter. I can go to the grocery, but they couldn’t. I also came to realize that many of our current notions of how life did not hold true for our ancestors. People who care about them were surprised that the sheep would do better outside than inside, but no one augured with me. Sure enough, they were fine.