HEARTFELT WORDS FROM HARDSCRABBLE

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

I can’t begin to thank all the people who made this event possible. From the moment we made the offer to host the get together I received nothing but encouragement, and enthusiastic support from all over this country from people we had never met before. As I lay in bed in those days after the fall, feeling like a complete failure for letting my family down, for wrecking my foot, for having to rely on my already overworked wife and children to do the things that were my responsibility, the idea to do this popped up.

Within days it became clear that everything we had been working towards- building a place in a community and sharing our experience with others- had provided us with a kind of harvest of good intentions and earnest support that we hadn’t expected. Deciding to throw this get-together was a carrot on a stick for me personally. It gave me something to shoot for that was both a motivator to recover and as we drew closer to the date, a way to offer our deepest gratitude to the kinds of people we have always tried to have in our lives; family, friends, neighbors, supporters, and the loyal readers who saw in those pieces Jim had seen fit to publish on TBP.

From our perspective it could not have gone better. Every time I turned my head there were knots of folks engaged in animated conversation, kids running with dogs, old friends chatting it up with new faces, and everyone enjoying the bounty that this piece of land has provided for us. It is with complete sincerity that I say we were honored to have everyone as guests on the farm last week. The decency, concern, fellowship, and joy that was given to us far exceeded anything we provided and it proved to me once again that what we had done ten years ago by leaving our old world behind was worth everything.

To everyone who made a contribution but were unable to attend I offer my humble thanks and the opportunity to come up next year as our guests. To all the people who trekked those hundreds and in a few cases thousands of miles to attend it was a sincere pleasure to meet you and your families, and for everyone who sent a card, offered a prayer, and gave me the strength to get back up on my feet and back to work for my family I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

America was never about it’s economic strength or it military might, those were incidentals to what was the foundation to our success as a nation, its people. We focus on the evils and shortcomings of a degenerate and corrupt Empire as it lashes out against its opponents, but we should never forget that we have something far more valuable than private jets and lavish lifestyles that the elites possess; we have each other. Good people with honorable intentions committed to doing the right thing against all odds.

It’s a power we’ve forgotten we have and this past weekend it showed up on the side of a mountain in New Hampshire and made itself known to everyone present. It was genuine, it fed us physically, it nourished us spiritually, and it gave everyone the reminder that we so desperately need in these times, that together we have something that money can’t buy, that cannot be legislated or mandated. It was an organic and natural expression of making the correct choices and in doing the right things and it showed on every face and could be heard in every voice. We have each other to trust in and that’s the kind of asset money cannot buy.

Again I say thank you to Jim for making a virtual community based on honesty, intelligence, free speech and earnest inquiry that has reached so many fine people with good intentions and by extension the authentic real life connections that allow us to share our lives with other like-minded people trying to provide for their families and live according to their conscience, wherever that takes us on this journey.

So mark your calendars- next year we celebrate the 4th of July on the farm again and this time we expect to see everyone who couldn’t make it this year.