A live read of the article "The Present" by Dr. Jeff Gardner.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/the-present

I turned fifty-seven this year. Not that there is anything remarkable about that. I am at that point in life where I no longer see the passage of time as a wondrous thing, but I don’t fear it either. I could be afraid of it; I have reason to. All of the men in my family one generation above me died by the age of sixty. My father and his two brothers lived hard-drinking, hard-driving lives, dying at ages sixty, fifty-eight, and fifty-nine. While I don’t smoke and only drink occasionally, being closer to sixty than fifty is sobering.

When I was in my thirties, during a particularly difficult time in my life . . .

A live read of the article Non-Homogenized: Musings of Milk & Other Matters, Mrs. Gina Loehr.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/non-homogenized-musings-on-milk-and-other-matters/

I'm beginning to think of myself as a milk connoisseur. Some people relish the subtle nuances of coffee drinking, or wine tasting, or beer brewing, but I prefer to spend my beverage-based energy on healthy, delicious, satisfying cow’s milk.

There are three distinct ways to consume dairy milk. Raw is the first, but it can be hard — though not impossible — to come by raw milk unless you own a cow. Then, there is pasteurized, homogenized milk (what we around here call “store milk”). And finally, there is pasteurized, non-homogenized milk, which can be found occasionally in stores, sold as “cream top.”

As a newlywed, I joined my . . .

A live read of the article Undisturbed by the author, Mrs. Gina Loehr.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/undisturbed/

For all of the technological advances in soil management, harvest productivity, and veterinary services, and all the genetic progress being made with animals and crops, there are still two factors in the life of a dairy farmer that simply cannot be controlled: weather and death.

A live read of the article Dear Google, You Are Not Homeschool by the author, Mrs. Gina Loehr.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/dear-google-you-are-not-homeschool/

As I was helping my children complete their Google-based assignments, I became more and more frustrated. The e-books and the online learning games and video tutorials were bombarding their heads with facts and their eyes with images, but nothing was shaping them holistically. Their experience was merely a series of actions that lacked the organic, human sensitivity to this particular child and this particular subject at this particular moment. It was a collection of digitized, electronic, emotionless tasks, not a means of shaping my children into better people. This virtual learning neglected virtue development — the most important part of education. And I suspect that their teachers were equally frustrated with the limits and limitations of remote education.

A live read of Mrs. Becky Greene's article, Grounded by the Landline.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/grounded-by-the-landline/

Long before our kids were old enough to use the phone, I realized it represented more than just physically calling in and out of our house; it symbolized a metaphorical connection between our family and the world. Over the years, convinced their new-fangled mobiles could serve as primary communication devices, many of my friends and family dropped their landlines to save on monthly bills. But my husband and I made an intentional decision to hang onto our old-fashioned home phone, so we didn’t inadvertently hang up on some old-fashioned ideals.

A live read of Mr. Nathan Runde's article Finding My Way Back to Reality

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/finding-my-way-back-to-reality/

This spring I built a raised vegetable garden. I built a raised vegetable garden from boards milled from an old oak tree. In fact, I built a raised vegetable garden from boards milled from an old oak tree that were planed down by my wife’s grandfather on his farm in rural Wisconsin. This raised garden has roots.

A live read of Mr. Jason Craig's article Stick the Landing: Seven Suggestions for Beginning Homesteaders.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/stick-the-landing-seven-suggestions-for-beginning-homesteaders/

Many people are finding contentment in the rebellion of homesteading. It is rebellion because it dislodges us from so many machines. By homesteading we say “no” to being a cog in a wheel. Growing food gets you out of ridiculous tax systems and a consumer-based economy at the same time. It makes you a producer. The term economy, after all, means “household management”, not “how much money we wasted consuming as consumers.”

A live read of Dr. Ryan Hanning's article, A Return To Normalcy — Parents As Primary Educators.

To read the full article, visit https://hearthandfield.com/a-return-to-normalcy/

Study after study demonstrates that children learn the most enduring lessons of life from their home, parents, and surrounding family. Despite strong evidence that parental involvement in their children’s education is a decisive factor for success, most parents underestimate their role as primary educators.  The answers to questions of origin, purpose, destiny, forgiveness, self-worth, etc. may be reinforced in the classroom, but they take root in the home.