Items

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  2020-04-17

  Courtney Kelley Oral History, 2020/04/17

• 
  04/22/2021

  Holly Settles Oral History, 2021/04/22

  Andrew Butler conducts this interview Holly Settles, on April 22 at 10:04am. This is a part of the Covid 19 parject by Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. This oral history interview discusses their experience through the covid 19 pandemic.
• 
  05/21/2020

  Sue Buettgen Oral History, 2020/05/16

  University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire student Jack Nord interviews a Minneapolis-based six-grade teacher, Sue Buettgen. In this interview, Sue discusses her initial feeling when she first heard about the COVID 19 pandemic and how it changed her day-to-day routines. She discusses her transition from classroom to online teaching and all the new struggles that presented. She talks about her fears for her student’s safety and their individual home environments are affecting them. Sue dives into discussing social disparities and how the pandemic has highlighted the issue. Sue also discusses science experiments that she was trying to still make fun for her students and how her community has come together to help others. The interviewer, Jack Nord, also chimes in to briefly discuss his life as a college student. They both discuss farming and agricultural problems that have arisen. Sue finishes off by discussing how her home life has been impacted, how her family is coping and keeping safe. She discusses her hopes for the future before ending the interview.
• 2021-09-10

  A new gratitude for our little farm...

  My husband and I bought a little secluded farm in Vanleer, Tennessee in 2013. We had this idyllic notion that we could grow our own food, live off the grid, and have a sense of privacy we never had living in the city. But, were were awful at it, nothing ever grew, our house was the ultimate "fixer-upper" and we were far from everything. In the last two years or so, we started to long for living in the city again, being near conveniences, and not commuting over one miles a day. Then, the pandemic came and my job sent us all home to work remotely. I am museum curator and what I do is very hands on, so that took some clever adjustment and reinvention. We also have the world's slowest internet, but I made it work by duct taping the jetpack to the only window where it worked. As the months went by, I read so many accounts of how the isolation and seclusion of shelter in place orders led to depression. Some of my friends who lived in apartments in the city described feeling claustrophobic and trapped. I realized, that despite other uncertainties caused by the pandemic, that I was happier than usual and felt completely peaceful in our little secluded twelve acre homestead. I could roam around my own land, take my dogs for walks, work on the never ending house projects, or just sit on the porch and appreciate the sunset. When things started to return to normal and we began going back into the office, I broke my foot while trail running and that added another seven months of completely remote work to my job. Physically, my recovery was grueling, but mentally I was doing well thanks to the time already spent quarantining during the pandemic. I have a new love and appreciation for this little farm that won't grow anything now. Both my husband and I have no desire to move back to the city and we have even made peace with the fact that we will never finish all the fixer-upper chores. The gratitude I feel for this beautiful place is immeasurable. I am one of the lucky people who could quarantine and not feel like I was suffering. During the pandemic, we built a small A-frame cabin down near the front of our land and offered it up as a refuge for people who needed to leave the city for a day or two. Now, it's my little yoga cabin and a place where I can sit and be thankful for my little home in the forest.
• 
  2021-08-20

  My Food Supply

  Since the pandemic we couldn’t go out to town that much. We made our farm/garden bigger. We got our chickens. There were about 12 of them and we started working on the garden. Everything in our yard at that time was edible. Then when a dog jumped our fence we started to build an enclosure. It took us about a year to get it done, but we still have a few more fences to drill on. For the entire summer of 2020 we had something to eat from the pandemic straight from our garden. Which is something we usually don’t do since we don’t have the time.
• 
  2020-11-19

  Canadian Mink Farms Should Be Shut-down due to Covid-19

  As minks have shown the ability to contract Covid-19, many countries have attempted to cull mink populations. This opinion piece covers the topic of Mink farms in Canada, suggesting that the federal government should take the opportunity to end the practice during the pandemic. This is due to animal rights abuses, decline in the industry, and possible new mutations. Hamer states, "If the Canadian government is serious about building Canada’s economy back better and more resilient, it should help this declining industry transition."
• 2020-07-03T11:54

  COVID-19 in My Small Suburban Town of West Chester, Pennsylvania

  In my small suburban town of West Chester, Pennslyvania, the effects of COVID-19 were abundantly evident. People of all ages were impacted in significant ways. High school graduates were forced to stay home under Governor Wolfe's stay at home advisory during a time sacred to spending time with peers before college takes us our ways. The elderly worried about the safety of doing basic tasks like grocery shopping, most likely contemplating if this basic need will be an ill-made or possibly fatal decision. Another major event to be noted was the shortages of food and other necessities in the supply chain. This was a real wake-up call for many families in my town. Anxiety and panic definitely could be seen in everyday homes. I recall my one friend racing to Costco after hearing a small supply of toilet paper was in stock. He ended up spending a couple of thousand dollars, filling five carts to the brim with essentials. The sight of many bare shelves triggered this spontaneous decision to hoard. Many families acted similarly in my area, believing that the only option was to prepare to outlast a complete shutdown. While many businesses were forced to shut down, a local dairy farm called Bailey's Farm took advantage of the situation. It proposed a unique solution to the food shortage. Bailey's Farm began to increase its food output by collaborating with local farms across West Chester and Kennett Square. This agreement lessened competition among farms, allowing farms to focus on producing goods that they are most efficient at producing. Bernards Orchard grew a variety of fruits. Baileys Farm increased its milk and cheese production by adding more cows to their grassland. Northbrooke farms sold local pies, bread, pastries, and their famous apple cider donuts. Many other farms contributed to this network; however, these were the farms that I primarily worked with. These farms began to deliver goods to the doorstep of families. This solution relieved families from worrying about contracting COVID-19 in grocery stores, running out of food during a shortage, and simultaneously supported local farms. At the beginning of summer, I had hours of free time; I was advised to stay home and limit interactions with my friends. To utilize my time wisely, I began to look for work to have savings for college. Jobs were scarce because of the many closed businesses. I was beyond grateful when Bailey's Farm reached out and hired me as their new milkman to drive their refrigerated truck. Yes, I occupied the small niche of a milkman during a Global Pandemic.
• 
  2020-09-24

  Watching the Plants Grow

  I spent the summer working on a farm and tending to a little garden with my mom at home (to be fair it was her garden...I just helped out a bit)! It was a privilege to get to escape into the outdoors and work until I was tired on things that I thought were meaningful.
• 
  2020-07-05

  How a Toronto quarantine trend became a London area farm sanctuary's headache

  "The program took off like a rocket in April, when the coronavirus crisis reached full swing. Suddenly, adopting ducklings became something of a craze in Toronto, where thousands of families discovered a welcome distraction from the daunting headlines and cooped up days at home because of the pandemic. However, some families who signed up apparently didn't understand what they were getting into. Some seemed to be unaware the pair of ducklings they paid $150 to foster at home would eventually have to be returned to the farm from whence they came in order to be sold..." "A London area farm sanctuary says it's been forced to clean up after a foster baby duck program when some of the participating families from Toronto couldn't stomach the fact the ducklings they paid to raise might end up on a dinner plate."
• 
  2020-06-08

  COVID-19 Inside Arkansas Prisons: Virus Spreads Through Inmate Populations and Staff

  This article is the first of a three-part series covering the covid pandemic inside the Arkansas State Corrections facilities. NPR reporter, Anna Stitt, interviewed several prisoners and focused her reporting on the Cummins Unit, the state’s largest and oldest facility. While no cases were reported inside the prison until one month after the state had issued a stay at home order, once the virus entered the facility it spread quickly. Stitt covers the different stories reported by employees and officials as opposed to the inmates at the prison and other facilities in the state. The inmates report lack of access to bathroom facilities, being ignored when sick, and many other problems. The officials on the other hand tell a very different story.
• 
  2020-04-30

  Life on the farm during the pandemic of 2020

  Life on a farm during the pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-30

  So much yard work gets done in quarantine!

  Since we have been in lockdown my partner and I have transformed our previously unused backyard into a little urban oasis with tiny shrines and a path to the cow pasture at the back of the property. The hard work has kept our minds busy and the beautiful results are a pleasure to spend time in when the work is done.
• 
  2020-04-26

  Preparing for the Summer

  Daniel Quintero, age 23, has found a lot of positives within the COVID-19 pandemic. He was optimistic during the interview and emphasized the value he's found living on a farm. "I think if this hadn't happened, I wouldn't be able to be living on a farm and go back to the land, to get connected to nature. Although I was born in a city, I've really enjoyed farm life and learning how to care for a plant. Being in nature has taught me a lot. Also, given that I'm underloading at Carleton, I've had a lot of time to really take in what I'm learning by living at a farm. Although I'm sad to not have a graduation or senior spring, I've still managed to get meaningful things out of this."
• 
  2020-03-20

  Coronavirus flyer posted at Thomet Stables in Ada, Michigan

  The flyer shows that even places that don’t experience the type of crowding the CDC suggests avoiding are taking significant steps to reduce risk to staff, as well as the ways that risk cannot be eliminated. People need access to their horses to continue to care for them, but that is still risky.