Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 118
May 12, 2011
Train for the Marathon!
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Do you have friends who have missed out on this season of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, now they can catch up!
There are two Season 2 marathons on the horizon
Sunday, May 15
and
Tuesday, May 17 leading up to the finale!
Check your guide for the times on Planet Green
Click to here to see how you can win a Nook Color autographed by The Beekman Boys!
D.I.Y. Full Season Re-cap
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How's your memory?
To honor the season finale of Season 2 of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, we decided to make the re-caps a little more interesting.
If you can re-cap the entire season AND predict what's going to happen in the season finale and beyond, you may just have us in the palm of your hands.
We're going to give away an autographed Nook Color to the entry that does the best job of summarizing the season and whose prediction of the future we like best.
Leave your entry in the comments section below.
Entry must be received by midnight on May 15 (watch the Season 2 marathon on May 15 if you need a little refresher course in all things Beekman)
Garden Party 2011
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By Memorial Day weekend, spring has generally sprung in Sharon Springs, so we throw a Garden Party to celebrate its arrival. We hope that you'll join us this year.
The festival, right on Main Street in Sharon Springs, runs Saturday and Sunday from 10-5
On both days, over 40 hand-selected artisans will have their goods on display throughout the village, and all of the businesses in Sharon Springs look forward to helping you make the most of the day. Our friends at Landreth Seed will bring over 5000 seedlings to help jump-start your garden.
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Special events on Saturday
At 9:00am join an interdenominational choir for a "Blessing of the Planting" in song in the Chalybeate Temple park in the center of the village.
From 11:00am-noon local artist and stonemason Michael Whaling will sign copies of his beautiful new book, The Garden Wall At Beekman Farm at The Village Hall Gallery on Main Street. To read more about this project at the farm, click here
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At 1:00pm rest your feet while listening to the special lecture, Design Inspirations for Small Gardens by our special guest, Steven Whitesell. Lectures are held in the community room of the Sharon Springs Library. Seats are limited to 65 people, so come a little early.
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Steve Whitesell is a Landscape Architect for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and lives and gardens in Schoharie County. He has BFA and BLA degrees in Landscape Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in the History of Decorative Arts, with an emphasis on Garden History, from Bard College.
At 2:00pm join the members of the historical society for a tour of historic Main Street in Sharon Springs (meet in front of the Historical Society building on Main Street)
At 3:00pm, Steven returns to the lectern to discuss "Herbaceous Planting Design"
At 4:30pm, join us in the fountain courtyard of The Roseboro Hotel (home of The Beekman 1802 Mercantile) for a special preview performance from the Glimmerglass Opera season. Glimmerglass is the summer home of NY's Metropolitan Opera
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[image error] Glimmerglass Festival Young Artists Katherine Henly and Wes Mason perform favorites from opera and musical theater, including a special peek at Annie Get Your Gun. Representatives from the opera will also be on hand with information on all of the summer's performances and activities
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Special events on Sunday:
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At 11:00am join former editor-in-chief of Martha Stewart Living magazine, Margaret Roach, whose website, awaytogarden.com, is one of the most popular gardening websites in the world, for a discussion on how gardening changed her life.
This is a ticketed event. Tickets are $10 at the door of the Community Room of the Sharon Springs Library. Ticket proceeds and sales of Margaret's new book, And I Shall Find Some Peace There, will benefit The Farmers' Museum
From 1:00-2:00pm local artist and stonemason Michael Whaling will sign copies of his beautiful new book, The Garden Wall At Beekman Farm at The Village Hall Gallery on Main Street. To read more about this project at the farm, click here
At 2:00pm join the members of the historical society for a tour of historic Main Street in Sharon Springs (meet in front of the Historical Society building on Main Street)
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The Farm Tour
Note: if you have tickets to tour Beekman Farm on either day, please plan to arrive promptly at your schedule time. Bring a print-out of the email notification you received of your ticket purchase. Parking is limited, so please carpool if possible.
All guests will be able to help in some of the spring planting at the farm (THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT, THE NEXT FARM TOURS WILL BE HELD DURING HARVEST FESTIVAL, SEPT 24 and 25. Tickets online in June)
Other things to do while visiting:
Visit Sunnycrest Greenhouse and gawk at all of the beautiful things in their greenhouse (just outside the village on Route 10)
Howe Caverns (about 12 miles away) is one of the most extensive cave systems in the world. There's even an underground river boat ride!
Visit the incredible @KhloeKardashian @KourtneyKardash in Cherry Valley (7 miles down Route 20) with over 100 varieties of lilacs for sale.
Visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and The Farmers Museum in Cooperstown
Stop by the world-class Arkell Museum in Canajoharie (about 10 miles down Route 10) for their and then take a short hike to see the waterfall in Wintergreen Parkx exhibi
Eat something! Stop by some of these places that you may have seen in the TV show: The American Hotel, The Black Cat Café, My Sister's Place Café, Dairyland, and Sharon Tavern
For more information about Sharon Springs and the surrounding area, check out the Enjoy Sharon Springs website. Click here
May 11, 2011
Know Your Enemy
[image error] Gopher Wars, Part I
In the universe of my little garden, gophers are the black holes. I never see them but I can infer their presence by their interaction with other matter. A suddenly failing plant has no roots. Mounds of freshly dug soil appear in flowerbeds untouched by human hands. Collapsed channels wind through a perfect lawn. Gophers were there and they are my enemy. Normally a mild-mannered matron of Bonita, these rodents bring out the Carl Spackler in me.
Let me warn you now, my otherwise sweet and sentimental nature is set aside on this issue and so the material that follows may not be suitable for the most sensitive in the audience.
Gophers are the bane of my life. We have been battling them for twenty-eight years on this plot of land. We have tried any number of methods with few successes and many futile gestures. We have lost hundreds of dollars of plant material. Several times I twisted an ankle stepping into a gopher hole – most recently, just a week ago. A neighbor built a platform and set a spa on it, all of which collapsed because of the gopher activity under it.
[image error]I have read everything I can get my hands on about gophers, as if knowledge is power. One description of a gopher pointed out its wide, powerful shoulders and narrow hips. Though I may have been charmed by such a description of a man, it isn't what I am looking for in a rodent.
Despite what you may have heard, gophers do not hibernate and they can be active any time day and night. They spend most of their lives below ground. They have very poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell and their whiskers allow them to detect movement in (and on) the soil around them. A gopher's lifespan is about three years. In Southern California, a female gopher may have as many as three litters a year, usually with four or five young but as many as ten.
The most important thing to know about controlling them is how they move below ground and that they are very territorial. A gopher will live in a network of runs 6 to 12 inches below the surface. However, some tunnels will go as much as six feet down where a nest and food storage chamber may be — but because gophers feed mostly on the fleshy roots of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees, you can expect them to be feeding where roots are. Also, gophers will be more active in irrigated areas. Our neighbor to the north does not irrigate their empty lot; they have very little gopher activity. We, on the other hand, battle constantly.
Because they are territorial, a network of burrows will usually be occupied by a single gopher except during mating season. Gophers are so territorial that they will fight to the death to fend off invaders. If you are successful in trapping a gopher, resetting the trap will probably not get another gopher right away. Most authorities say that the burrows may not be reoccupied for a couple of months or, in my experience, much longer. Because of this, I like to dig up the runs to prevent a return engagement. Even if I don't completely collapse the entire network of runs, a new occupant will still have to reconstruct it and there will be telltale signs.
I will add an anecdote to this. The man who helps us in our yard has another client between two very infested neighbors who are not controlling their gophers at all. The client found a run connecting the two infested lots and the overpopulation around him caused the run to be reoccupied every week or so. Estimates for re-infestation are just estimates.
I was double digging my vegetable bed a month ago and found a run right up the middle. I stopped everything and shoved a hose down the tunnel and, running full force for twenty minutes, the water never backed up. From this, I could tell it was probably a well-developed network of runs. Such a network, occupied by a succession of gophers over months or years, will include lateral runs designed to divert flooding (from irrigation or rainfall or me) away from the nest and food chamber. Sneaky little devils.
I found where the run entered the bed and set traps. Finally we got the little devil. I dug up what I could of the run and continued the double digging — and found another run. This would explain the failure of my cucumbers last year. I thought I had miscalculated the irrigation and, observing powdery mildew and other damage, removed the plants. Now, I think gophers played a part.
In desperation, I tilled the whole bed like some kind of maniac. Not the best solution but sometimes I panic.
How many gophers can infest a plot of land? I find disagreement on this: estimates are as low as 16 to 20 per acre or as high as a few hundred. I find this last number implausible since a single gopher's territory can cover an area up to 2,000 square feet and there simply can't be enough snacks for a party that big. My optimistic nature wants to believe the lower figure. I don't think anybody really knows.
[image error]On our property, the invasion is coming across our southern property line into what I call Gopher Alley. The photo shows the areas where we see active runs this year. There are also a couple of areas behind the photo's point of view. Fortunately, the current neighbor, who purchased the property last year, is starting to see the seriousness of the problem and is taking action. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
So what's this girl gardener to do? When controlling this or any other pest, there should be a method followed. I was trained by the Master Gardeners to implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. In the Big Master Gardeners Bible, they define IPM as "the use of all suitable pest control methods in a compatible manner that minimizes adverse effects to the environment." Heady stuff. How that plays out in my yard will be covered in "Gopher Wars, Part II."
Laurie Gore is Zone 9 Deputy Heirloom Gardener. She and her husband Frank are big fans of the movie Caddyshack – he enjoys the golf humor, she has used it as a training film for Integrated Pest Management.
Gopher It
[image error] Gopher Wars, Part I
In the universe of my little garden, gophers are the black holes. I never see them but I can infer their presence by their interaction with other matter. A suddenly failing plant has no roots. Mounds of freshly dug soil appear in flowerbeds untouched by human hands. Collapsed channels wind through a perfect lawn. Gophers were there and they are my enemy. Normally a mild-mannered matron of Bonita, these rodents bring out the Carl Spackler in me.
Let me warn you now, my otherwise sweet and sentimental nature is set aside on this issue and so the material that follows may not be suitable for the most sensitive in the audience.
Gophers are the bane of my life. We have been battling them for twenty-eight years on this plot of land. We have tried any number of methods with few successes and many futile gestures. We have lost hundreds of dollars of plant material. Several times I twisted an ankle stepping into a gopher hole – most recently, just a week ago. A neighbor built a platform and set a spa on it, all of which collapsed because of the gopher activity under it.
[image error]I have read everything I can get my hands on about gophers, as if knowledge is power. One description of a gopher pointed out its wide, powerful shoulders and narrow hips. Though I may have been charmed by such a description of a man, it isn't what I am looking for in a rodent.
Despite what you may have heard, gophers do not hibernate and they can be active any time day and night. They spend most of their lives below ground. They have very poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell and their whiskers allow them to detect movement in (and on) the soil around them. A gopher's lifespan is about three years. In Southern California, a female gopher may have as many as three litters a year, usually with four or five young but as many as ten.
The most important thing to know about controlling them is how they move below ground and that they are very territorial. A gopher will live in a network of runs 6 to 12 inches below the surface. However, some tunnels will go as much as six feet down where a nest and food storage chamber may be — but because gophers feed mostly on the fleshy roots of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees, you can expect them to be feeding where roots are. Also, gophers will be more active in irrigated areas. Our neighbor to the north does not irrigate their empty lot; they have very little gopher activity. We, on the other hand, battle constantly.
Because they are territorial, a network of burrows will usually be occupied by a single gopher except during mating season. Gophers are so territorial that they will fight to the death to fend off invaders. If you are successful in trapping a gopher, resetting the trap will probably not get another gopher right away. Most authorities say that the burrows may not be reoccupied for a couple of months or, in my experience, much longer. Because of this, I like to dig up the runs to prevent a return engagement. Even if I don't completely collapse the entire network of runs, a new occupant will still have to reconstruct it and there will be telltale signs.
I will add an anecdote to this. The man who helps us in our yard has another client between two very infested neighbors who are not controlling their gophers at all. The client found a run connecting the two infested lots and the overpopulation around him caused the run to be reoccupied every week or so. Estimates for re-infestation are just estimates.
I was double digging my vegetable bed a month ago and found a run right up the middle. I stopped everything and shoved a hose down the tunnel and, running full force for twenty minutes, the water never backed up. From this, I could tell it was probably a well-developed network of runs. Such a network, occupied by a succession of gophers over months or years, will include lateral runs designed to divert flooding (from irrigation or rainfall or me) away from the nest and food chamber. Sneaky little devils.
I found where the run entered the bed and set traps. Finally we got the little devil. I dug up what I could of the run and continued the double digging — and found another run. This would explain the failure of my cucumbers last year. I thought I had miscalculated the irrigation and, observing powdery mildew and other damage, removed the plants. Now, I think gophers played a part.
In desperation, I tilled the whole bed like some kind of maniac. Not the best solution but sometimes I panic.
How many gophers can infest a plot of land? I find disagreement on this: estimates are as low as 16 to 20 per acre or as high as a few hundred. I find this last number implausible since a single gopher's territory can cover an area up to 2,000 square feet and there simply can't be enough snacks for a party that big. My optimistic nature wants to believe the lower figure. I don't think anybody really knows.
[image error]On our property, the invasion is coming across our southern property line into what I call Gopher Alley. The photo shows the areas where we see active runs this year. There are also a couple of areas behind the photo's point of view. Fortunately, the current neighbor, who purchased the property last year, is starting to see the seriousness of the problem and is taking action. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
So what's this girl gardener to do? When controlling this or any other pest, there should be a method followed. I was trained by the Master Gardeners to implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. In the Big Master Gardeners Bible, they define IPM as "the use of all suitable pest control methods in a compatible manner that minimizes adverse effects to the environment." Heady stuff. How that plays out in my yard will be covered in "Gopher Wars, Part II."
Laurie Gore is Zone 9 Deputy Heirloom Gardener. She and her husband Frank are big fans of the movie Caddyshack – he enjoys the golf humor, she has used it as a training film for Integrated Pest Management.
A Backyard Brood
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If you're like me when I was chicken-less, you might be wonderingwhere one buys chickens. It may seem odd to look online, but there are several hatcheries throughout the United States, and most have websites where you can read descriptions and see pictures of the various breeds. Everyone has their favorites, and I'm especially fond of New Hampshire reds and barred Plymouth rocks, as both breeds are good layers and do well in our cold Illinois winters.
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If you order 25 chicks, they will be shipped through the mail in a box like this.
Believe it or not, your one-day-old chicks will be sent through the mail. Although there are instructions on the box for the post office to call you when they arrive, so that you can come in and pick them up immediately, some post offices are better than others about doing this. It's a good idea to talk to your mail carrier and let him or her know that you are expecting baby chicks and you will be happy to go to the post office and pick them up. The sooner they get home and into a nice warm brooder with food and water, the better.
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We use an old water trough as a brooder for the first two weeks, but a microwave box is also a good size for 25 chicks.
A brooder is just a fancy name for a box with a heat lamp, and there are dozens of designs online. Hatchery chicks are hatched in an incubator, which is why they have to live in a brooder. If they had been hatched by a mama hen, they would run under her whenever they needed to warm up. Chicks need to stay at 95 degrees for the first week, and each week they can be five degrees cooler until they're feathered out around four to six weeks. Be sure that your heat lamp cannot accidentally fall or be knocked into the brooder, which could cause a fire. If you have a dog or cat, make sure it can't get to the chicks. It is not uncommon for a sweet family pet to discover its inner hunter when meeting chicks.
Feeding chicks is easy, as starter feeds are readily available at feed stores, and there are even feed stores in the city of Chicago. If you want to raise your chickens without drugs, be sure to check the ingredients, because most chick starters are medicated. There is no need to use medicated feed in small flocks, just as there is no reason to de-beak them. Small flock owners also find no need to vaccinate chicks. When chickens are not squeezed together in confinement, they tend to be very healthy, and hens are quite calm. If you can't find an unmedicated starter feed, a grower or finisher feed will work fine.
Although you could repurpose a tuna fish can as a feeder or waterer, there are good reasons to buy real chick feeders and waterers, and they only cost a couple dollars each. If chicks have an open can with feed, they will make a huge mess, and if they have a large space with water, they can walk through it and get soaked, which can lead to hypothermia and death.
If you missed last month's post, which talked about chicken myths, click here. Next time, I'll be talking about housing for your layers and daily life with your backyard brood. If you already have chickens, tell us about your favorite breed in the comment section!
Deborah Niemann dragged her professor husband and three children to 32 acres on a creek in the middle of nowhere in 2002 to start raising their own food organically. She blogs regularly at Antiquity Oaks, and her book, Homegrown and Handmade, comes out this fall.
May 9, 2011
Happy Birthday, Brent!
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This picture was take on the very first day we stumbled into Sharon Springs on that fateful apple-picking weekend excursion.
It's Brent's birthday today. I hope you'll all wish him a happy day because he's the most deserving person of appreciation that I've ever met.
It's tough for me sometimes, because I see that the world's understanding of Brent doesn't always line up with his actual contributions – to myself, to our community, and to the wider group of great folks who watch our show and follow our farm's progress. That's hard for me to witness, because I think I might be the only person who really sees how hard he works to accomplish all the great things that I, and others, benefit from. So I want to be perfectly clear:
Brent is Beekman.
When we both lost our jobs in 2008, we had nothing except two big mortgages. We mutually agreed that he would try to build Beekman farm into a business that could support itself. He had the business skills and temperament that could build something from nothing. And he has….and then some. The jobs he's created have benefited far more people than just ourselves.
The first town festivals? His ideas. The products? All his. The Mercantile? Him. The charity events that have raised over half a million dollars for small farms? Brent. The partnerships with Williams-Sonoma, Anthropologie, Bendels, Bloomingdales, Sterling Publishers and our other great retail relationships…all Brent.
People would be exhausted just looking at his daily calendar.
I often find myself frustrated that people sometimes give him a hard time for his drive and unrelenting perfectionism. Because many times, those who complain about him are the very people who benefit most from his efforts. Including myself.
But what's most amazing to me is that he doesn't care about any of this. He'll likely find this blog post silly. He works hard because, well, that's what he does.
What makes him different from many driven business people, however, is that he fully understands that his success – our success – can only be considered truly successful if our friends, neighbors, and community are successful as well. None of Beekman's growth came at the expense of anyone else. There aren't many companies – or people for that matter – who can say the same. I would argue till I was hoarse if one single person said that they were worse off because of what Brent has built.
For his birthday I bought him a few very practical gifts. Because that's the kind of person he is. But I'd like to get him something a little more extravagant. Something he's never asked for, and something he doesn't always get his fair share of.
I'd like to give him gratitude. I hope a few of you might feel like doing the same. If you feel moved, please leave your Happy Birthday greetings in the comment section below.
Brent….thank you. The day you were born is still the best day of my life. I may have only been three years old, and I certainly had no idea that my future best friend was coming into the world a thousand miles away. But I'm pretty sure it must have been a perfectly sunny day and that I couldn't stop smiling.
Still can't.
Happy Birthday, Beba.
xoxo, me.
Happy Birthday Brent!
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This picture was take on the very first day we stumbled into Sharon Springs on that fateful apple-picking weekend excursion.
It's Brent's birthday today. I hope you'll all wish him a happy day because he's the most deserving person of appreciation that I've ever met.
It's tough for me sometimes, because I see that the world's understanding of Brent doesn't always line up with his actual contributions – to myself, to our community, and to the wider group of great folks who watch our show and follow our farm's progress. That's hard for me to witness, because I think I might be the only person who really sees how hard he works to accomplish all the great things that I, and others, benefit from. So I want to be perfectly clear:
Brent is Beekman.
When we both lost our jobs in 2008, we had nothing except two big mortgages. We mutually agreed that he would try to build Beekman farm into a business that could support itself. He had the business skills and temperament that could build something from nothing. And he has….and then some. The jobs he's created have benefited far more people than just ourselves.
The first town festivals? His ideas. The products? All his. The Mercantile? Him. The charity events that have raised over half a million dollars for small farms? Brent. The partnerships with Williams-Sonoma, Anthropologie, Bendels, Bloomingdales, Sterling Publishers and our other great retail relationships…all Brent.
People would be exhausted just looking at his daily calendar.
I often find myself frustrated that people sometimes give him a hard time for his drive and unrelenting perfectionism. Because many times, those who complain about him are the very people who benefit most from his efforts. Including myself.
But what's most amazing to me is that he doesn't care about any of this. He'll likely find this blog post silly. He works hard because, well, that's what he does.
What makes him different from many driven business people, however, is that he fully understands that his success – our success – can only be considered truly successful if our friends, neighbors, and community are successful as well. None of Beekman's growth came at the expense of anyone else. There aren't many companies – or people for that matter – who can say the same. I would argue till I was hoarse if one single person said that they were worse off because of what Brent has built.
For his birthday I bought him a few very practical gifts. Because that's the kind of person he is. But I'd like to get him something a little more extravagant. Something he's never asked for, and something he doesn't always get his fair share of.
I'd like to give him gratitude. I hope a few of you might feel like doing the same. If you feel moved, please leave your Happy Birthday greetings in the comment section below.
Brent….thank you. The day you were born is still the best day of my life. I may have only been three years old, and I certainly had no idea that my future best friend was coming into the world a thousand miles away. But I'm pretty sure it must have been a perfectly sunny day and that I couldn't stop smiling.
Still can't.
Happy Birthday, Beba.
xoxo, me.
One Third Down
The Good Earth
I have 60 or more reasons to be optimistic.
Given that:
1. I come from a fairly healthy gene pool
2 .I know every secret to healthy aging thus far discovered
3. I apply this knowledge on a regular basis
4. Have previously declared in print that I want to live past the age of 100
5. I never lie (especially in print)
I like to believe that my life is only 1/3 over.
While people the world over seem to be mired in the mess we've collectively created (and it's a pretty big one), I've already started laying the plan for what will inevitably come—the next 2/3 of my life.
I've always been a planner, and take a little smug pride in being self-sufficient (I think this is partly related to the fact that I wasn't breast fed—thanks, mom!)
In kindergarten, my grandfather would give us a quarter each morning so that we could buy an ice cream after lunch. I knew even at the age of 5 that I did not need ice cream. What I needed was the exceptionally satisfying sound of that quarter hitting all the other coins at the bottom of my piggy bank. (Note: my grandfather made it well-known that when he was a young boy in the Depression, they never had money to buy ice cream.)
While my youth was spent doing odd jobs (baby sitting, mowing yards, taking care of sick animals), when it first became legal for me to join the workforce and pay taxes—at the age of 15 in North Carolina–I did! I bagged groceries from sun-up until sun-down every weekend, and when my check came every two weeks, I did not complain about the taxes being taken out nor did I find some sneaky way of not paying taxes at the end of the year (which seems to be a special talent of those who make more than a bag boy and of those who seek a job in government).
During the summers, I took whatever temp work could be found in the local factories. I tested hot water generators for Black & Decker, lifted heavy trays of batteries for Eveready, and packed powdered shrimp bisque into little bags for Knorr-Best Food (our family cat was especially affectionate toward me during this employment.) Incidentally, almost all the factories that I worked in have closed. When I return home, they are empty, hulking, corrugated monuments of my youth.
In high school I worked at McDonalds, and during the summer between my senior year and my freshman year in college, I worked at McDonalds 5:00am to 2:00pm and then went to a job in a factory from 3:00pm to 11:00pm.
By the start of college classes in the fall, I had saved enough money to cover my tuition and expenses. Many kids at that age are know-it-alls. I for sure knew one thing: a lifetime of working in a factory or behind the stoves at McDonalds is not all it's cracked up to be. That's a powerfully motivating lesson to learn.
You have probably guessed without me telling you that I worked my way through college. I could have asked my parents for money, but I was slightly embarrassed by the thought of it, so I didn't. I slaved for that education, and, dammit, I own it. There's a certain respect and gratitude that comes when you have to work so hard for something. In the end, you truly "get" what you paid for.
I then went on to medical school. Determined to not be saddled with a debt that would forever dictate my life, I did two things. I took out the maximum amount of federally subsidized loans available (the taxes I paid all those years covered these) and considered them to be my "emergency reserve". I deposited them in extremely safe and conservative investment vehicles (far away from the over-promising reaches of the Madoffs and Stanfords of the world), and then took a job working 20 hours a week to cover my bills. It was hard, and I was perpetually exhausted, but the week after I received the degree, I paid back all of those loans and pocketed the interest that had accumulated, perhaps the first medical student in the history of modern medicine to graduate from medical school richer than when he matriculated.
I used that money to rent my first apartment in the Spanish Harlem section of NYC, a poor yet vibrant neighborhood surrounding Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital where I was completing my post-graduate training. When my mom came to help me move in, she was scared. To this day it is still the closest thing to "the developing world" that she has ever seen. (She doesn't travel often.)
I lived in NYC on $36,000 a year. I could do this because I had no debt to pay, a nifty little fact that also enabled me to choose the specialty of medicine that I was most passionate about—geriatrics (of course this necessarily meant that I could not spend weekend nights in trendy bars, fancy restaurants, or rubbing elbows with the Hilton sisters, but these are hard choices we all have to make at some point in our lives)
After practicing medicine for several years, I decided it was time for change. I am still in awe of my colleagues who can either give so much of themselves emotionally each day without suffering consequence or have found a way to distance themselves without compromising care.
I couldn't, so I sold out. I went to business school. The only thing that (slightly) diminished the great disappointment of my family was that my first job out of business school was working with Martha Stewart, a person whose work ethic is justifiably legendary. Together we established the Center for Living at Mount Sinai, dedicated to developing the models of care that will help us meet the future demands of our aging society. We helped bring awareness to the needs of family caregivers and helped bring good, practical information about leading a healthier life to the millions of people who come to Martha eager to learn about all things involved with "living". I learned a lot from working there, too.
The global economic meltdown—which I intend to call "The Great Correction"–has temporarily thwarted my intentions of making the entire world healthier (I'm not Bill Gates after all) but has fortunately given me pause to think about the next 2/3 of my life…and to do a little planning.
I may reference what I learned in medical school, and the things I know from the world of business may make for some intriguing footnotes and sidebars, but I'm thinking the lesson that will best serve me were learned much earlier in life.
My grandparents, children of the Great Depression, would say things that probably are pertinent to the children of the Great Correction
A penny saved is a penny earned
Don't count your chickens before they hatch
Too good to be true usually is
You can't get something for nothing
Never trust to others what you can do for yourself
and
Don't forget your roots
These are all truisms that we should admonish ourselves for having forgotten. Did these emerge from a simpler time? Probably. But perhaps in this age of derivative markets, bundled mortgages, buy now, pay later and Ponzi schemes, a period of simplicity is exactly what we all need in order to get us back on the right path.
60 more years is quite a long time, and I am quite optimistic that each of those years will be better than the last
May 8, 2011
Week 8 Sipping Game
A Very Refined Sipping Game
To enhance your viewing pleasure and to make each and every episode of The Fabulous Beekman Boys as fabulous as possible, we're going to encourage the playing of a nice parlor game.
Each week, we'll post a new Beekman 1802 elixir recipe for you to use and give you a new reason to "raise your glass"—to your mouth that is.
This week's episode is about our continued efforts to bring new business opportunities to Sharon Springs, our quaint Victorian-era village and about those moments in life that are real punch to the gut. This week's cocktail is a real sucker punch. (click here for the recipe).
During this week's episode, raise your glass every time you hear us say "Victorian"
