Fleeing the conference
We try to report our failures
here as well as our successes. So I feel obliged to admit that we
only managed to attend a quarter of the Acres USA
conference.
We drove up to Ohio
Monday so Mark could attend the first part of his pre-conference course
Tuesday. The pre-conference classes were amazing, but by the time
they ended on Wednesday night, Mark and I knew we couldn't survive
another day getting up before dark, coming home after dark, and staying
inside a huge conference center for the time in between.
Yes, there were a dozen
Amish people at the pre-conference. No, they didn't seem to be as
badly affected by the concrete jungle as we were.
I was dying to see
Harvey Ussery (oh, and Joel Salatin), both of whom spoke Friday.
I was itching to listen to in-depth lectures on plant secondary
metabolites, cover crops, and more. I wanted to peruse the
bookstore and trade show, and to hear more about Fertrell's
Nutri-Balancer (which pastured poultry keepers seem to swear by.)
But we couldn't do it.
I like to pretend that the
reason we stay home so much is because the farm needs us, but the truth
is we need the farm much more. I don't think we relaxed until we
stepped out of the car on the edge of the hay field, waded through the
flood waters, and fired up the wood stove.
Note to self: Two days
of conference is about our max. No way can we combine a
conference with a family visit --- preferably, we'd plan it so that
half of each conference day was silent contemplation time. Live
and learn....
Note to readers: All is
not lost! Once I digest the experience a bit more, I'll have a
really awesome lunchtime series on Mob Grazing for you. And I
think I can get a partial refund and use it to get MP3s of most of the
conference. Stay tuned.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I'm glad that you two enjoyed the pre-conference, but I don't think there's anything wrong with recognizing that having to deal with large groups of people and being shut in a building throughout the daylight hours just isn't your thing. I wouldn't call it a failure; I would call it a learning experience.
After all, there are lots of other ways to get that information that don't involve putting yourself through a lot of discomfort or worse.
Personally, I have to put on my "big city persona" to get through anything that involves large groups (that or be a performer/presenter/etc. - basically I can't take being part of the crowd), and it's useable duration is 48 hours at best, heh.
That's how we planned our Organic Growers School experience, and it was much nicer. I think the problem here was twofold. First, we tried to combine the conference with a family visit, and that meant absolutely no down time. Second, the conference was too far away --- when it takes most of a day to get there and most of a day to get back, that only leaves two possible days at the conference before my "ack, I want to go home!" feelings start.
In contrast, the Organic Growers School was just a couple of hours drive away, so travel didn't eat up all of our time. And we only went to about half the classes, even leaving partway through ones that were poorly led. The result was a lot of great learning without feeling overwhelmed.
Boy, I read your second sentence as "I'm not laughing WITH you guys, but AT you." Clearly it's time to turn the computer off.
I guess that's the sign of a true homesteader, someone who asks if it's worth the time away from the farm to learn more about farming....
I somehow missed this post the first time but saw it linked in your recent post. I felt the urge to say BRAVO! I am so impressed that you not only knew yourselves well enough, but also Listened to yourselves. I am not sure I would have been so brave.
You definitely made the right choice. I am impressed.