Day One: Getting Settled at Juneberry Farm

I am getting settled at Juneberry Farm in Ovid, NY, which is next to Romulus and not far from the more famous ancient destinations of Ithaca, Syracuse, and Rome, itself. I am by the shores of Lake Seneca. While I am a fair piece from Gitche Gumee (aka Lake Superior), this is my first time spending any length of time in The Finger Lakes. It is about thirty miles to Ithaca, where I will visit the GreenStar Natural Foods Market today and do two weeks of grocery shopping.

I have brought some things from home to make it very nice, particularly a picture of Naomi as a three-year old preparing tea and a black-and-white photo of YaYa and I engaged in an Eskimo Kiss.

The place is heated by wood and Harry and YaYa were both so excited to see the toilet, which is a Sun-Mar composting toilet.

I am quite loaded down with tea and tea ware. Today's tea is one that was provided by my host, Guy the Berry Farmer. It is called Slenderizer from Tiesta Tea!

The weather is atrocious. Freezing rain will follow the snow that is coming not down, but across vertically.

I will teach the first classes of the English Language Arts classes that I am doing with the sophomore's higher-level students and the juniors. The juniors have to read Henry Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., who was the father of my childhood pediatrician, Dr. Mark Vonnegut. The sophomores will have four "workshops" on the genres of literature, the learning of academic vocabulary, the writing process, and strategies for deeper reading. Their first assignment will be to choose a big topic from E.D. Hirsch and create a presentation on "cultural literacy" (e.g. if you choose Geology, maybe you introduce us to the San Andreas Fault, the Ring of Fire, etc.). Looking forward to getting started with them.