Patrons of Husbandry – a website dedicated to the Granges located in Maine
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Our Grange is one big family. They welcome everyone. They are the heart of this community. Rebekah is an angel on earth!
Kassandra Holmes, Jonesboro Grange #357
Do you love the Grange? Can you explain what’s great about being a member? It only takes a minute to click the button and tell the world!
By Walter Boomsma, MSG Communications Director
Thanks to those who’ve sent information or requested it regarding the email from Shannon Gilmore announcing the “Grange Hall Survey.”
While no prior arrangements were made and this was not approved by the Maine State Grange, it appears to be a legitimate survey and is not, as some suspected, a phishing scam. There is little risk in sharing your opinion(s).
These graduate thesis projects are not uncommon. Any questions or concerns regarding the survey or process should be addressed to the student who has issued it.
By the way, someone (not me!) has already advised the student that “Grange” should be capitalized.
Thanks to those who’ve reported it–and congratulations! As you’ve heard me say, “Sometimes it’s smart to be suspicious!” We are seeing increases in email that should be ignored. It’s nice to get one that’s “okay!”
Seth Godin recently penned a post (Listening to organizational decline) about getting stale and fading away. He listed some of the comments one might hear as it happens. While he’s talking about “for profit” companies, it doesn’t take too much imagination to apply them to the Grange. Come to think of it, it doesn’t take too much imagination to apply them to individuals.
There might be a reason I have been having a lot of conversations recently about aging. One that I found particularly interesting was with someone twenty years younger than me. I was both amused and troubled by his perspective. I was amused by our difference in age. I was troubled by his desire to “slow down” and do less. Tempting as it was, I did not ask if he was considering getting stale and fading away. I wanted to hear a desire to do different, not less.
I confess that I’m often tempted to do less. As another friend suggests, we are playing in the fourth quarter of the game of life. That means different objectives and strategies are often appropriate. But it’s important to choose wisely. The comment that Seth offers as evidence of getting stale and fading away is, “No one will notice.” Every Grange has members who have faded away. And we have far too many Granges that have faded away.
“I’m really tired tonight, and it’s cold. I think I’ll skip the meeting. No one will notice.” We can even “upgrade” that to “Let’s cancel tonight’s meeting. It’s really cold, it might snow, and we don’t have much business. No one will notice.” Adding the justification that “no one will notice” serves as a sign that we are hearing organizational decline.
It’s always easier to do less. And it’s not too difficult to find a reason or excuse that makes sense. “No one will notice. We don’t have the money. We’re getting by. People don’t care. People aren’t interested. It’s not in the new manual…”
By command of the Worthy Master, I proclaim this Grange opened in ample form for promoting the welfare of our country and of mankind, and for advancing the interests, elevating the characters, and increasing the influence of all Patrons of Husbandry by properly transacting our business and by exemplifying our principles in Faith, in Hope, in Charity and with Fidelity.
Overseer’s Proclamation when opening a meeting.
Can it be that no one will notice if we stop doing that? The issue is not any one specific thing. There are times when it probably makes sense to cancel (or miss) a meeting. The question before us is whether or not we are an organization in decline. T.S. Eliot raised this sad question regarding the world itself in 1925 with the last line of his famous poem “The Hollow Men.”
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
T.S. Eliot
Seth concludes his post with the analogy that we are often not simply sitting in traffic; we are the traffic.” You’ve probably heard the version, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Regardless of how we express it, these are some things for us to consider as we start a new calendar year. Maybe it’s time to do some things that will get noticed. Perhaps it’s time to “…open in ample form for promoting the welfare of our country and of mankind, and for advancing the interests, elevating the characters, and increasing the influence of all Patrons of Husbandry by properly transacting our business and by exemplifying our principles in faith, in hope, in charity and with fidelity.” People will notice!
Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-seventh edition of the 2023 Subordinate Grange Manual or the most recent edition of the Pomona Grange Manual. The views and opinions expressed in “Exploring Traditions” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine and policy of the Grange. Information about the book “Exploring Traditions—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life” can be found at http://abbotvillagepress.com, on Mr. Boomsma’s Amazon Author Page, or by contacting the author.
By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director
Making it Work
How providential that I recently received this email from Larry Bailey, Master of Ocean View Grange:
FYI – The dictionaries for the Ocean View Grange “WORDS FOR THIRDS” project have been ordered. There are two third-grade classes to whom we will distribute the books. The students have always seemed excited and grateful for getting the dictionaries. I was very surprised to see that response when we first gave out the dictionaries given that we live in an electronics and internet-based world.
Larry’s email was sent to members—I was copied. Communication creates involvement and allows people to feel engaged even if they are not directly participating. As another example, we recently completed Valley Grange’s “Dictionary Day” Words for Thirds Program. One of those days received front-page coverage in a weekly newspaper. As a direct result, a woman located some distance away sought out and called our secretary, explaining how much a dictionary meant to her as a child. She also mailed a $100 donation to us to support the program. She wanted to be part of what we were doing.
Words for Thirds is a program with a huge potential impact, particularly when we think about the communication aspect. What child doesn’t enjoy a gift? One reason I strongly urge an in-school presentation is that we are delivering more than dictionaries. We are delivering interest and care for our kids. Our organization and its members care about our third graders and their learning opportunities. I love telling the story of a high school student who saw and recognized me. She approached me to share that. I admitted she had an advantage because I did not recognize her. She explained, “I just want you to know that I still have the dictionary you and the Grange gave me when I was in third grade.”
Gifts are a form of communication. The impacts of the gift and the things we do (and don’t do) are yet another form of communication. It’s trite but true that sometimes what we do shouts so loud people can’t hear what we say. One of the things to love about Words for Thirds is it shouts and does a lot of good things loudly!
â–ş FACT: We currently have sixteen Granges here in Maine participating in or interested in Words for Thirds!
Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.
You never know what your neighbor is up to.
Maine sports a lot of driveways that head off into the woods. Some for quite a distance, but even a small patch of woods disguises what lies beyond the driveway entry.Â
At Quill’s End, most of what we do is visible from the road, and more so when the critters are above our farm in our neighbor’s field. For most of the abbreviated grazing season, the draft horses have been up in that field. Folks have grown accustomed to seeing them there and now associate these fairly new additions with the farm.Â
If you have ever heard a knocking on your front door at odd hours of the night, you have your own special fears of what it could mean. If your children are out and about, a 1:30 am banging on your door puts your heart in a place where it should not dwell. If you happen to own livestock, well…it is hard to describe.
Friday night brought a rare occurrence when Benjamin was away in Vermont for meetings (ironically a board retreat for the Draft Animal Power Network) and Carolyn was away contra dancing, staying at a friend’s overnight. It also brought the rare occurrence of a 1:30 am knocking on our door for animals in the road.
I’d like to say that we are inexperienced in this regard, but I’d be lying. In our defense, though, it has not always been our animals in the road. Sometimes, wildlife in the road has warranted a late-night passerby to call the sheriff to get us out of bed. Yet, as the most visible livestock-owning farm, it just stands to reason that our door gets a knock. If the animals don’t belong to us, we are often expected to know whose they are. It is also noteworthy to mention that humans don’t see that well in the dark, or perhaps we see what we expect we should see.
After answering the door, Heather and I bundled up to head outdoors. The woman knocking said our horses were out, running down the highway. The temperature that night was in the mid-teens, and the cool night came with an amazing, clear sky that was punctured only by the headlamps we were wearing. We bundled up because we knew that we might be out awhile.Â
A man met me in the driveway after I turned the barn lights on and mentioned that he saw the horses go above the barn. I told him that was where I was headed as the horse’s paddock includes a portion of the barn and a fenced “yard” behind the barn.
I counted all three Quill’s End horses in their paddock and walked the fence line which was intact. A second man came out of our field saying he just saw the two runaway horses in the field.Â
Oh! The mystery was on. Glad our draft horses were all accounted for and had not been gallivanting, we listened to the description of the two horses that were on the loose. Spitting images of the Belgians, we were told. We ran down the list of draft horses in the surrounding area. Newly acquainted with these neighbors of ours, they immediately started calling other neighboring horse owners to find out who was missing two horses. And off they went into the dark night, game for the adventure they’d encountered, the third in their party keeping the horses in sight and in phone contact from the lower fields.
Heather and I headed indoors to gather our wits, expecting that the end of our involvement had not yet arrived. The next phone call was from the sheriff. The sheriff’s office apparently has our phone number on file for “loose critters.” They definitely should. I don’t particularly like it, but they should. Sheriff’s deputies are not trained in the breed characteristics of horses. They also are not very good-humored at that particular hour when asked if they are, I found out.
Since horses were on the loose and in our general vicinity, and frankly, not much else was going on at 1:45 am, I got bundled up again, grabbed a couple of halters, and headed down the road. The two gentlemen had already caught one horse. I parked my truck in a driveway and put a halter on this cunning saddle horse. She might go 15 hands and 900 pounds (a good deal smaller and quite different looking than our draft horses). The other one was soon apprehended as well, and you know what? I did know just where they belonged. No one would ever guess because they live half a mile down our neighbor’s driveway into the woods.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.
By Rick Grotton,
Membership Committee Director
207 582-5915
As a Membership Committee Director, it seems fitting that all of us should be “talking membership.” Columns relating to membership are presented each month. These columns are also intended to answer any membership questions you may have, so please send your questions to me at ricti@aol.com so your answers will appear in these columns. Let’s all cooperate and share what makes your Grange successful in recruiting new members, maintaining them and what your Grange does that attracts them. I will be referring to my own Grange at times to inform you what we have been doing that has been successful.
Membership does not just pertain to getting new members but is much more than that for sure. As an introduction, answer the following questions and make your own assumptions. Is your Grange prepared to accept new members? This means having an active grange, getting along with your brothers and sisters and if the community knows you exist. What does your Grange have to offer a new member? Why would they want to join? Can you explain to a prospective member about Grange and it’s history? Does your Master conduct the meeting smoothly and without incident or confusion? Do your members know the rituals and traditions that you can pass on to new members? Do you regularly meeting in one location (your hall or other place if you do not have a hall)? These are just a few questions to consider. To be prepared is a major step and should not be taken lightly.
Whether your Grange is a large group or a small one, it doesn’t matter. Membership should always be a priority in order to be able to operate efficiently.
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
By Margaret Henderson, Director
Committee on Women’s Activities
207 948-2762
It has been brought to my attention that the measurements for the clock in the wooden craft project are incorrect. They should be 12 inches wide and 15 inches in height. Please read this at your meetings so that everyone has the correct information. I know that a lot of Granges close for the winter so I will make sure to mention this again in the spring.
I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
By Brenda Dyer, MSG Community Service/FHH Director
(207) 608-9193
Happy December! There are many ways to help out the Community during this Holiday Season. Make sure you document the planning, actual service, time spent (members and nonmembers), who was involved in the project, pictures, thank you notes, etc. This is what is needed for the notebook report. Also, document on end of year report. These are two separate Community Service reports.
FH&H: Fall leaves us, and winter begins. With temperatures fluctuating and socializing increasing, please dress accordingly and be aware of the environment. It is a great time of year, but if you don’t feel well, stay home and take care of yourself. It is the season for colds, flu, Covid, and respiratory issues. Make sure you are up to date with shots.
This is also a great time to spend or connect with family and friends and make great memories!
Keep your head, hands, and feet warm and dry. This will help keep body temperature steady and keep you comfortable.
Merry Christmas & Happy 2025!
Notes from National are gleaned from an email provided by Phil Vonada, National Grange Communications Director.