My Path to Freedom: June 2013

*Sigh*

So, I thought the LeMars Farmers market started this Saturday, but apparently it doesn't.

The other seller I chatted with yesterday said that it used to open in June, but the veteran sellers were worried that the cold wet spring would leave them with nothing to offer, so they moved it back to July 3rd this year.

JULY!!! FFS people!

I asked the Chamber of Commerce person in charge of the market if I could sell MY stuff early, because I DO have veggies to sell. She's avoiding the question. *sigh*

I have lettuce and peas and rhubarb and scapes ready to GO! I was so stoked for this weekend.

Now what am I going to do?

Put up a table in my lawn and sell from there? :-D Put an ad in Craigslist? Sell door to door?
..... This is so frustrating!

On a funnier note, I was visiting one of my favorite sellers last night. She's originally from Korea, married an Iowa farm boy and raised two daughters in LeMars. She walked us home and was introduced to my front yard garden. Guess which crop she totally flipped over?

Scapes of course. :-D The hardneck garlic is the star of the garden again this year. And the scapes are perfect for harvest this week. She couldn't believe that I had some. Apparently green garlic with scape attached is a prized veggie in Korea. She had become resigned to Americans not knowing what it was. I had to promise to order her some this fall and help her plant. And then I had to cut 4 scapes off so she could cook up a BIG dinner with them. :-D She's lucky I like her. I was planning a big order of garlic this summer. I have saved my seed for 5 or 6 years now, and not had any problems. But if I want to grow more next year, I'll either have to eat NONE of this year's garlic or order some more heads from Seed Savers. Yea, we're just going to order more heads, because garlic fresh from the garden is too heavenly to abstain from. So, ordering some for Su won't be a problem.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
:-D I will eventually sell some veggies. This is only a setback.
Have a good weekend everyone. Go support a farmer's market.
-Jennie

I'm at the tippity top of the Millennial cohort that is starting to receive increased attention in the media. 18-30 year olds, also known as Gen Y. Reading some of that media has been interesting. I fit a lot of the statistical norms for this generation. I'm not impressed by or interested in cars. I don't own my home. I'm buried in student loan debt. And I'm the female breadwinner for my family.
Among Millennials, 18-30 of age, 78% of moms are working outside the home. For some reason that small statistic sends conservative commentators into hyperbolic spasms.

Kevin Swanson: 78% of moms are working outside of the home. 17% dad is the primary breadwinner. 61% the mom is the primary breadwinner. 29% are single moms. Okay there it is. That's it. 17% of dads, 61% of moms. Friends, it's over. it's over, it's done. That's it. That's the end of it. It's the end of manhood, it's the end of men, it's the end of fatherhood, it's done, we've gone over the cliff.. ... There will be no more mothers and of course there are no more fathers. It's over. source

Ah yes, because women work outside the home, society is coming to an end. Kevin goes on (and on and on) about this and eventually gets around to equating the trend with this little gem, "Women do not love their children as they used to."

Wow. How deep into your crazy do you have to be to think that female breadwinners are some sign of familial apocalypse?

My husband is no less a father or a man because he's home with the kids instead of me. I'm certainly not less of a mother because I'm working outside the home. We certainly don't hate our children.

The poor things don't even know how abused they are....

We love our children enough to take the best road we can. The best road right now means I need to work because I have a larger earning potential than hubby. Not that he can't support us, he did when I lost my job, but he can't support us AND pay my student loans AND supply health insurance coverage. I can do all of those things, so I do. I also manage to love my children. Every bit as much as my mother loved us 3 kids, and every bit as much as my grandmothers loved their children. I cook them meals, nurse them as babies and snuggle them to sleep.

Why do conservative (mostly christian, let's be honest) commentators go to this level of crazy? Do they make more money or get more power when their flock of listeners are in fear of society crumbling? Probably. Do they honestly think the things they are saying are a form of truth? Probably. And are they still confused about why Millennials are abandoning organized religions? Probably.

A full quarter of us have no religious affiliations, and that number is on the increase.

Millennials also hold less traditional or orthodox religious beliefs. Fewer than one-quarter (23%) believe that the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally, word for word. About 1-in-4 (26%) believe Bible is the word of God, but that not everything in the Bible should be taken literally. Roughly 4-in-10 (37%) say that the Bible is a book written by men and is not the word of God. source

In a nutshell, over half of my age cohort doesn't really give a shit what that dirty old book says. We're not bronze age goat herders. We don't care what their views on gender relations were, including marriage customs, and rules about division of labor along gender lines. Just. Don't. Care.

Economic realities trump fantasy, myth and dogma. Technological increases like the milk pump and refrigeration and birth control means women can control their fertility and take care of infants' needs while working away from the infant.

Raving and ranting about the death of manhood, and the evil feminist who killed it and how those same feminists are likely to kill their children too, is just going to drive more of us away, into the open embrace of secular organizations around the world.

Actually, I like how that sounds. Keep ranting Swanson, as loud as you want. You're doing the secular world a favor.
-Jennie

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Edited: In case Swanson's name sounds familiar, he's active in the homeschooling community, and the guy behind the 'graveyard of dead babies' comment that exploded earlier this year in opposition to a birth control mandate.

Kevin Swanson:

I’m beginning to get some evidence from certain doctors and certain scientists that have done research on women’s wombs after they’ve gone through the surgery, and they’ve compared the wombs of women who were on the birth control pill to those who were not on the birth control pill. And they have found that with women who are on the birth control pill, there are these little tiny fetuses, these little babies, that are embedded into the womb. They’re just like dead babies. They’re on the inside of the womb. And these wombs of women who have been on the birth control pill effectively have become graveyards for lots and lots of little babies.

Because there are so many women in the work force, the women’s hearts are not home. There are far more men who say it would be better if moms could stay home because apparently the dads still care about the kids. The - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-women-do-not-love-their-children-and-society-coming-end#sthash.ah4w0wiW.dpuf

From the Pew Research, Pew social trends survey that came out just this week. Friends, this is the most telling story of all. We’re going to look at the millennial generation alright. We’re going to put aside the baby boomers, t - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-women-do-not-love-their-children-and-society-coming-end#sthash.ah4w0wiW.dpuf

From the Pew Research, Pew social trends survey that came out just this week. Friends, this is the most telling story of all. We’re going to look at the millennial generation alright. We’re going to put aside the baby boomers, the ‘Gen-Xers’, we’re going to look at the millennials who are 18 to 30 years of age. Here’s the most telling story of all: 78% of moms are working outside of the home amongst the millennials.

Buehner: I’m sorry how many?

Swanson: 78% of moms are working outside of the home. 17% dad is the primary breadwinner. 61% the mom is the primary breadwinner. 29% are single moms. Okay, there it is. That’s it. 17% of dads, 61% of moms. Friends, it’s over. It’s over, it’s done. That’s it. That’s the end of it. It’s the end of manhood, it’s the end of men, it’s the end of fatherhood, it’s done, we’ve gone over the cliff. 61% of moms are primary breadwinners, 17% of dads among the millenialls, and 78% of moms are working outside of the home. It’s over. There will be no more mothers and of course there are no more fathers. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-women-do-not-love-their-children-and-society-coming-end#sthash.ah4w0wiW.dpu

From the Pew Research, Pew social trends survey that came out just this week. Friends, this is the most telling story of all. We’re going to look at the millennial generation alright. We’re going to put aside the baby boomers, t - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-women-do-not-love-their-children-and-society-coming-end#sthash.ah4w0wiW.dpuf

From the Pew Research, Pew social trends survey that came out just this week. Friends, this is the most telling story of all. We’re going to look at the millennial generation alright. We’re going to put aside the baby boomers, the ‘Gen-Xers’, we’re going to look at the millennials who are 18 to 30 years of age. Here’s the most telling story of all: 78% of moms are working outside of the home amongst the millennials.

Buehner: I’m sorry how many?

Swanson: 78% of moms are working outside of the home. 17% dad is the primary breadwinner. 61% the mom is the primary breadwinner. 29% are single moms. Okay, there it is. That’s it. 17% of dads, 61% of moms. Friends, it’s over. It’s over, it’s done. That’s it. That’s the end of it. It’s the end of manhood, it’s the end of men, it’s the end of fatherhood, it’s done, we’ve gone over the cliff. 61% of moms are primary breadwinners, 17% of dads among the millenialls, and 78% of moms are working outside of the home. It’s over. There will be no more mothers and of course there are no more fathers. It’s over. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-women-do-not-love-their-children-and-society-coming-end#sthash.ah4w0wiW.dpuf