Benjamin Vogt's Blog, page 37

1870s Advertising

I've finished looking over some archives of the Herald of Truth, a 19th century Mennonite newspaper based in Indiana and devoted to aiding Mennonites on their way from Europe. There are reports from those preparing to come over, lists of collections taken by American citizens to help pay for passage, warnings to immigrants about scam artists at the NYC docks, updates about new communities in the Plains, and climate reports. And then there are the ads:





Gray's Special Medicine The Great...

Guilted Environment

Warning--this post has no stats, no links, no proof. Just thoughts, experience, belief. Unfortunately, belief is something easily poo-pooed in a culture that more and more is cynical toward groups--whether that be a religion, a bunch of garden writers, or a corporation. We have good reasons for cynicism; look at our federal government / special interest figure heads. Look at your last girlfriend who left you for a Packers fan.



As the conversation over the National Wildlife Federation and Sco...

My Writing / Gardening Shed

I don't have my mythical 100 acres to restore to prairie yet, but I found the cloister I'd like to build among it. Which one do you prefer?











Just imagine the books I could write and gardens to imagine in my little haven. And these are just some of the designs by a firm in the UK. You can have a green roof if you like, a wet bar, a bathroom. Whatever. If you have $40,000, send it my way? (Actually, one million would be better--need the land and a tractor and geothermal and solar and wind t...

NWF in Garden Bed with Scotts

I'm sure most of you have heard that the National Wildlife Federation, promoters of the backyard habitat certification program, have partnered with Scotts of Miracle Gro and fertilizer and insecticide fame. Two programs are key: increasing wild songbirds (by buying Scotts birdseed) and getting kids back out into nature (where they can absorb all kinds of Scotts products). I apologize for my snark. Go read Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home, and Louv's Last Child in the Woods. That's all you need ...

The Hawk in the Garden

For ten minutes I watched a sharp-shinned hawk try to snatch songbirds from my garden. It was an awesome experience. Guest post with pics over at Wildlife Garden.

Low German Mennonite Sayings

I bet I get about two comments on this post. But it's interesting to me as I might include some of these in the next book. I try to imagine each being quite clever, moving, funny, instructive, even scolding in their day. But were they? And what sayings do we have today that will be thought strange or hard to understand in one or two hundred years? "Like shooting fish in a barrel."



1) Wan du friee jeist,

dan besee die eascht de Mutta.



When you go courting to get married,

first observe the mo...

Macro Orcam

I recently did two things against advice I received: 1) bought a 15x 70mm binoculars and 2) at Christmas asked for and received a 25mm Canon SLR lens tube extender. I'm pleased with both, since I can now see birds much further away (and into neighbor's windows) with the former, and the latter produces such images as the below (click on to expand):







Marble in garden gate






River Birch








Copper bird feeder




Invasive rush
I do need to take these macro shots with ...

Ode to the First Day of School

I'm sure I've posted the poem before, but this is the second half of the absence policy I give to my college students -- it sums up my teaching style pretty well.





Did I Miss Anything? by Tom Wayman





         Question frequently asked by

         students after missing a class



Nothing. When we realized you weren't here

we sat with our hands folded on our desks

in silence, for the full two hours.



Everything. I gave an exam worth

40 per cent of the grade for this term

and assigned some read...

The Garden

I wasn't going to be a sheep and do a long retrospective, but I really, really need something good to hold on to, anchor into, and over 4 years now it's always been the garden. Many good things have happened this year (poetry collection accepted, work in Orion and The Sun, radio interview, self published a garden book after narrowly missing a press), but none as evocative and moving as this small world I help along each year--just as it helps me along.



"'What is the world?' [my son asked] Wh...

Holiday Poem O' Mine

Today one of my poems, which appeared in American Life in Poetry a few years back.   Grandpa Vogt's--1959  The food is on the table. Turkey tanned to a cowboy boot luster, potatoes mashed and mounded in a bowl whose lip is lined with blue flowers linked by grey vines faded from washing. Everyone's heads have turned to elongate the table's view—a last supper twisted toward a horizon where the Christmas tree, crowned by a window, sets into itself half inclined.   Each belly cries. Each pair of ...