Sagadahoc Pomona will have our annual Fifth Degree at Enterprise Grange #48, on Wednesday, April 29, 2025, with a potluck supper at 6:00 pm and a meeting at 7:00 pm. Candidates from other Pomonas are welcome. Please bring your entry form signed by your master or secretary. For more information, contact Marilyn Stinson at 207-737-2611 or marilynstinson41@gmail.com. Enterprise Grange is located at 15 Alexander Reed Road in Richmond, Maine.
WABI-TV5 Explains Valley Grange Blanketeering Program
Communication Shorts 3-16-2025
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Please send us your ideas and thoughts!
March Bulletin Available!
The March Bulletin deadline is now available. Submit those posts and columns now! Recent issues of the Bulletin can be found on the Program Books and Information Page in the communications section.
National Grange Contest Updates
In a recent issue of Grange Today! (see page 8), National Grange announced a number of changes to contests, including some that are dropped altogether. Directors and Chairs in Maine will be reviewing these to see what impact there might be on Maine Contests.
Degree Day, April 27, 2025
It is possible that a few flyers/posters were distributed with an incorrect start time! The correct start time is 1:00 p.m. Sorry for any inconvenience!
State Convention, October 17-18, 2025
You should know that it became necessary to change the dates for MSG State Session due to conflicting events at UMaine. Make sure your calendars are correct!
Consider this Idea!
How about a “swap meet?” These are gaining popularity–in simplest form, they are topical with an opportunity for like-minded folks to exchange excess supplies. Use your imagination: craft and sewing supplies, gardening things, music and instruments…
Think about this!
“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'”
Robin Williams
Online Directories Available 24-7
- The Directory of Granges features all Granges in the state with a contact person. Please make sure your listing is correct! Visitors to the site consult these directories often.
- The ODD Directory features all state officers, directors, and deputies with contact information.
Exploring Traditions – March, 2025
Meandering Around the Grange Way of Life
What do you want to be?
By Walter Boomsma, Guest Columnist
One of the dichotomies we see in the Grange is a sometimes disconnect between the definition of membership as found in the ritual of the Grange and the everyday life of the Grange.
I suspect that was much less true in the earlier days of the Grange when members more accurately called themselves “Patrons of Husbandry.” (Did you know there was intense resistance to adopting the term “Granger?” Many noted the Grange was a building. Patrons of Husbandry met in that building and it was therefore inaccurate to call members Grangers.)
In a sense, that argument was never resolved. As is often the case, everyday use of the words has changed. Most members now think of themselves as Grangers and would so identify. For one thing, it’s much easier to say “I’m a Granger” than “I’m a Patron of Husbandry.”
At the outset of the First Degree Ritual, the assistant steward announces to the overseer, “…these friends of ours seek initiation into the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, and desire instruction.” Nowhere in the ritual is it said, “They want to become Grangers.” It’s an interesting distinction, particularly when we note the importance of “instruction” throughout all the degrees.
The overseer responds with, “Friends, the Grange is a great fraternity, and the lessons of its ritual are expressed by the use of symbols drawn from the field, the farm, and the farm home.” An overview of the ritual compares the seasons on the farm, and it doesn’t take long to establish that joining this fraternity means being a willing worker. “…there is work for all, and the idler has no place among Patrons of Husbandry.”
The themes of instruction and work continue throughout. I suspect it was “easier” for farmers to follow and understand that. A farmer, by nature of his way of life, is a Patron of Husbandry. The teaching of the degrees is, for the most part, helping the farmer see the connection between his life as a farmer and his life as a member of society.
The lecturer has already explained, “the first and highest object of our Order is ‘to develop a higher manhood and womanhood.'” Nature (agriculture, farming) offers us a plethora of lessons or examples of how to achieve a higher personhood. While a “degree day” may seem long and arduous, it only scratches the surface of the possibilities for a Patron of Husbandry. Or a Granger.
I’m not suggesting that we debate these terms. I am suggesting that, whatever words we use, let’s not forget the simple meaning. “I joined the Grange to become a better person.”
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.
Community Service/FHH – March 2025
By Brenda Dyer, MSG Community Service/FHH Director
(207) 608-9193
Just to update you on the State Community Service Contest. Changes are being made on the State level and will be posted and sent to Granges soon.
One major change will be no notebooks and the report will be limited to 10 (ten) double sided sheets. This is to be a report of your projects answering specific questions about your project(s) – I will get that off to you by next month and mailed to the Granges.
I have included a message from the National Community Service co-directors.
Message from National
The 2025 National Grange Community Service Program is now posted on the National Grange website (nationalgrange.org).
We have found that not all PCs/Laptops/smartphones show the same format but under Community Service, you will find a page with the CS logo describing the 2025 National Grange Community Service Program.
Also included are the National Grange Community Service Report Form and a “Share Your Project’s Story” Form and Program Ideas.
In 2025, the focus of Community Service will not be a contest, but a celebration of good works. As such, there will be no judging on the National level. No notebooks are to be taken to National Convention or sent electronically prior to Convention to the community service email address.
Likewise, “Of the Year” Nominations for Fireman, Teacher and Policeman will not be judged on the National level but can be recognized on the local and State levels.
We encourage each State to receive the Subordinate Grange reports/notebooks and “Of the Year” nominations in the format that best serves your State. The option to judge or don’t judge is yours. As State Director, you have the responsibility to work with your State President and others as necessary to determine what is best for your State and get it communicated to your Subordinate Granges.
The 2025 National Grange Community Service Report Form must be completed by the State Community Service Director or State President and emailed to communityservice@grange.org
In order to receive the monetary $250 award from National, States must meet the required 25% of their total Subordinate Granges submitting reports to the State level.
The Report form must be sent to us in the current calendar year.
Please note that the hours expended for Project Sustenance, the newly launched National Grange Program, is to be included on the CS Report Form. Details for this program can be found on the Project Sustenance page on the National Grange
Any Subordinate Grange can submit a “Share Your Project’s Story” Form.
We know there are changes announced here from what some of you had been told previously and we apologize for any inconvenience. We do trust, however, that you have been making a difference in your communities and now we can finally all move forward together with the 2025 National Grange Community Service Program.
As National Co-Directors, we are committed to helping you be successful. Please contact us at communityservice@grange.org and we will try our best to assist. Best wishes.
Bonnie Mitson & Randee Farmer
NG Community Service Co-Directors
Mystic Valley Grange
Rummage, Craft, & Bake Sale
April 26, 2025 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Grange is located on Route 17 in East Dixfield next to the East Dixfield Fire Department. For more information, contact Nancy Farrington, (207) 623-0395.
Grange Today! 3-14-2025
Articles in this edition include:
- Join in the Spirit of Grange Month!
- Opinion – A Better Path: Why “Slash and Burn” Social Policy Fails Rural America
- Reach Rural Surgical Seniors
- Get On Board for an unforgettable convention
- New York Granges to present rural mental health program
- Managing Isolation & Loneliness
- Grange Store: Veteran Recognition & 4th Degree Pins
- Manson Grange Hall Celebrates Renovation Milestone
- Celebrate National Ag Day with your Grange
- Grange Heirloom for March
- Grange Member Benefit: Harvest Hosts
Click the button below to read and/or subscribe to Grange Today!
Note that all recent issues are available on the National Grange Website. To save server space, we only post the table of contents on the MSG Website.
Fraud Watch- Avoiding the cruise to nowhere
Winter is still here and many of us would do just about anything to find some warm weather. Enter the cruise scam. Many of these trips to nowhere literally pop up online as a “free” incentive or a can’t-miss deal. What they really are is an attempt to steal your information or your money.
Here are three tips for avoiding a cruise scam when shopping for your spring getaway.
- Beware of starting with a search engine: Scammers buy ads and use fake websites to appear at the top of results. Consider starting your search on trusted cruise line websites instead.
- Check the source: If you receive unsolicited cruise offers, investigate the company to verify its legitimacy, ask questions and study the fine print before booking.
- Pay with a credit card: If you’ve done your homework and are ready to make the investment, credit cards offer the strongest and most immediate fraud protection.
Be a fraud fighter! If you can spot a scam, you can stop a scam.
View from the Farm – March 2025
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.
The Floodgates Are Open
Last winter, I was fighting chronic Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme disease presents differently for each individual affected by it. I thought that the symptom of brain fog had mostly skipped me, but early this morning, there was some evidence to the contrary.
Bonnie Three birthed a beautiful healthy heifer calf. Bonnie has a Three in her name because this farm always has a Bonnie. It is a tribute to our very first cow whose name was Bonnie. So…that out of the way, Bonnie Three calved this morning. She was not, according to my notes and memory, supposed to do that until the middle of May. Because her calving date was marked as May, she has only had a very abbreviated “vacation” from milking.
The cows usually are “dried off” for two months. This allows them a rest period and to put on some weight and grow a healthy calf. While Bonnie’s calving went well and she has a healthy heifer calf, she has only had a couple of weeks off. Apparently the herd is still having symptoms of my time with Lyme disease.
Case in point? We have ten milking cows. Given a two month vacation for each cow before calving, in order to keep a steady supply of milk, we should be milking 8-ish at any given time and have a calf every month-plus. Since February third, when Pippin freshened, we have had five calves. Five cows freshening in the span of a little more than one month is not an ideal dispersal of milk flow over time for a steady supply. A correction of this glut-scarcity cycle problem will require milking some of the cows longer and keeping them open (unbred) for a longer period. The repercussions of my Lyme brain fog will stretch out in the barn for another couple of years to get this all straightened out again.
As we are now milking all ten cows at once, the floodgates are open. Milk, cream, yogurt, and cheese are all available in abundance. Our pigs won’t consider a dry meal and even the hens are partaking in skim milk to wash down theirs.
Thankfully, the symptoms of Lyme have vacated my body. Hopefully, with time and proper bull control, they will leave my farm.
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.
Membership Moments – March 2025
By Rick Grotton,
Membership Committee Director
207 582-5915
Grange month is here again which is a perfect time to boost your membership drives. Many events are happening all over the state; don’t be left behind!!! What are your plans to boost membership? Is everyone on board in your Grange on how to increase membership? Make it a contest. Challenge each member of your Grange to bring in one new member! Last year, there were a number of Granges who ended the membership year with a net gain (meaning the new members less death and demits). Let’s strive to beat the record of last year. It isn’t hard to do. Use your Grange projects to attract new members. Ask your community and various other organizations to help with the projects you have planned. For example, we advertised on social media to have the community children help make May baskets in the past, and some did show up and had a great time. We even got a few new members from our projects.
Community, cooperation and communication are the three C’s we should follow. Community is important for us to carry out our duties as Grangers. If there is no community, who will attend our suppers, craft fairs, farmers markets, etc. Then what would be our purpose? Cooperation makes the projects go smoothly and makes our Grange meetings run smoothly. We need cooperation to carry on the projects, to fill our Grange offices, to spawn ideas for future projects. Every member is unique and has their own ideas and thoughts. Every member is important, regardless of title or office. Let us all help one another and be there when needed. Not only your own Grange, but others, which is the purpose of the idea of a “sister” Grange. We would open up a new world of cooperation and learn from others as they will learn from us. Fresh ideas and new faces will give us a new perspective on how we view things on the outside and a new routine. Communication is a big deal. Everyone should be on the same page and all members be notified of events, projects, and meetings. Granges are not “social clubs” and must follow the rules of being a Grange. The social clubs are only interested in using a hall for their events and ruin the reputation of the Grange. They are subject to be shut down. Advertising is big because who will attend our events if no one knows about them. Miscommunication or no communication brings confusion, misunderstandings and bad blood. It has destroyed many Granges over the years and still does today. No one person “owns ” their Grange or is entitled to “own” a specific project. So many times we have heard or seen this happen. No good comes from it. Selfishness has no place in our Granges. We are there for a purpose. What is yours?
On April 27 at the State Grange Headquarters, a Degree Day will be held beginning at 1 pm. The first four degrees will be performed so anyone who has new members who have not seen the degrees are encouraged to attend.