Well, doug’s still here, but it’s the deepsouth part that’s no longer all that accurate. In fact I’ve been a geographic poser since May 1, as my wife and I moved back to Minnesota.
I was lucky in love. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (Well the sun moves through space a couple of hundred miles per second or something like that so it was in a far, far away point in time) I met a beautiful, sensitive, sassy, smart, artistic farmer’s daughter. Her being a farmer’s daughter had nothing to do with it as far as I was concerned.
However, this past year her father passed on – he was 101 and over the past winter we elected to return to the farm. Lorna’s dad was classic Hoover, Eisenhower Republican. His outlook on life was forged in the Great Depression when he inherited the family farm from his dad. The farm was in debt when he took it over, and Lorna’s dad managed to work off the debt during the Depression. That made him a cash on the barrelhead type of (non)consumer for the last 70 years. Anyway the farm has been debt free over that time period, so we are in a pretty good place sitting on some of the best farmland in the world. Land so good it belongs in Iowa (I’m a Hawkeye).
So we’re doing what we’ve done in the past – before we moved south in 1994 – we’ve got a massive garden and are now being overwhelmed with veggies. A tsunami of tomatoes is landing in our kitchen right now. I still do my thing, which involves managing investments, but farmer’s daughter believes rows to hoe are as equally important as stocks to trade. Rightly so, for if you elect to choose this lifestyle rows to hoe are equally important. Thoreau preached simplify your life.
Another big reason we are back here is we do believe real hard times are coming and it’s going to be better on a farm than in a city. So, if I’m one of the Kos ‘doom and gloomers’ - well I’m kind of practicing what I’m preaching. Why I might have a chance to vote for Democrats that can actually win in the future – provided the deathers don’t overthrow the government first (snark?).
Anyway, I’m getting to write this because farmer’s daughter is in town on business. When she it’s back it’s farm chores for me.
So if you’re on a boat in Hudson Bay, then I guess I’m still deepsouth of you. But relative to the lower 48 – I’m not so much deepsouthdoug any more.
I’m willing to change my name provided I don’t lose my Kos history. So should I keep deepsouthdoug (I’ve always thought it was kinda of catchy), or should I change it to..............tundradoug – which would be an apropos name come January!
So far, it's been a wonderful summer up here in Minnesota.