Communication Shorts 7-8-2023

By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842

Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!

July Bulletin Reminder

The deadline for the July Bulletin is July 14th! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.

Questions We Get About Your Events…

We occasionally get questions about Grange events… if your event isn’t listed on the MSG website, we can’t answer them. Remember that it’s easy to list your event–use the submit tab on the site or just send an email! If do get a question we can’t answer, we’ll send ’em your way, but we recently had a question about an event at a Grange that doesn’t appear to exist!

Spreading the Word…

Remember, it’s easy to spread the word when there are posts on the MSG website. Just scroll to the bottom of the post and find the icons for some of the most popular social media platforms. Click the icon for the platform you want to share to, and technology takes care of the rest!

Do You Love the Grange?

The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!

Ideas for Granges

Host an art show! Invite local artists to set up easels and paint live during the event. Serve refreshments… have some activities available for kids?

Thought for You… REPLACE

“I really miss complaining about the cold.”

Many people in Maine

Online Directories Available 24-7

  • The ODD Directory features all state officers, directors, and deputies with contact information.
  • The Directory of Granges features all Granges in the state with a contact person. Please make sure your listing is correct!

Do You Have FOMO?

“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!

Subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website

Grange Heirloom — July 2023

Grange Heirlooms are snippets from the lessons of the Grange as taught in the Rituals and Declaration of Purposes.

Use the icons below to share this Grange Heirloom on social media and help others understand what the Grange stands for! If this heirloom has a particular meaning for you, click the “leave a comment” link at the left and share your comment with us!

For additional information and resources regarding the Heirloom Program, visit the Heirloom Resource Page on the Maine State Grange Website.

From the Deacon’s Bench – July 2023

By Clay Collins, MSG Chaplain
207 837-0564

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

Genesis 1:1-3

Sometimes it does feel like the beginning of time when God created heaven and earth, but it isn’t. We have just gone through what seems to be the wettest month ever, but we have survived, and we will continue to survive. We just have to be determined and have faith that God has not and will not forget us.

We just have to remember just who is in charge! It is NOT us. This is just one of God’s plans for us. If you want to make God chuckle, just tell Him your plans for the future!

Remember, He will not disown us and leave us stranded by the side of the road like a sack of grain. We are all His children. He loves us. So cheer up, the sun will come out again to brighten our days and lives. While we are waiting, why don’t we all look around to see if there is something we can do to brighten someone else’s life? By doing this, we will probably feel good doing it!

 Until the next time, remember, “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

Benediction: “Gracious Father of us all, help us to remember that we are all able to brighten the day for someone, if not ourselves.  Amen”

Thought for the month:

May good luck be your friend
        in whatever you do
And may trouble be always
        A stranger to you.

An Irish Blessing for Health and Prosperity

Celebrate Independence Day

The Fourth of July – also known as Independence Day or July 4th – has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941; but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolutionary War.

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted in favor of independence. Two days later, delegates from the 13 colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

The Declaration of Independence allowed Congress to seek alliances with foreign countries, and the fledgling U.S. formed its most important alliance early in 1778 with France. Without France’s support, America might well have lost the Revolutionary War.

The war waged by the American colonies against Britain, which began more than a year earlier in April 1775 at Lexington and Concord near Boston, would eventually end when British forces surrendered in Yorktown, Virginia. Yet the Declaration and America’s victory had far-reaching effects around the globe as other nations saw a small novel nation win its freedom from the greatest military force of its time.

From 1776 to today, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence with festivities ranging from fireworks, parades and concerts to more casual family gatherings and barbecues. This year’s Independence Day will be on Tuesday, July 4, 2023.

Reprinted with permission from a newsletter published by Senator Stacey Guerin, District 4.

Notes from National – June 2023

National Grange Contest deadlines are approaching!

The July issue of Good Day! magazine is coming off the press any day now (after a few delays with the printer…) The next deadline for articles, new member lists, and anything else for the magazine will be August 31, 2023.

We hope to see you “at” some of our July Events!

National Grange Heirloom Program

Grange Heirlooms are snippets from the lessons of the Grange as taught in the Ritual and Declaration of Purposes. Please share “success stories” about the use of the program with us or if you come up with other innovative ways to incorporate the Program in your Granges. Information and materials are now available on the National Grange Website.

“Notes from National” is based on a monthly email received from the National Grange Communications Department.

Lecturer’s Newsletter – Summer 2023

By Margaret Morse, Maine State Grange Lecturer
207 439-0413

Download a copy of the Lecturers’ Newsletter containing lots of program helps!

Communication Shorts 6-17-2023

By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842

Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!

June Bulletin

The June Bulletin is now available for downloading and printing! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.

Monroe Classic Grange Store

As a reminder, the Monroe Classic Grange Store is still open as an officially licensed Grange Store. They carry a wide assortment of Grange-related and branded items such as jewelry, flags, signs, awards, fundraising and promotional items, apparel, signs, and name tags.

Grange Supplies

Also, as a reminder, the National Grange Store is the place to find the supplies you use, such as treasurer’s receipts, membership cards, etc.

Open Mic at East Madison Grange

Bring your talent and friends to the East Madison Grange for an Open Mic night on the first Friday of every month at 7 PM. Refreshments are available, free to the public, but donations are appreciated. Contact hideandgopeep@gmail.com or 207 716-6441.

Do You Love the Grange?

The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!

Ideas for Granges

How about an engaging gathering for individuals with memory loss and their care partners? Potential participants are invited to enjoy an afternoon of conversation with some new and old friends and take in some music, play a game, or enjoy a different form of entertainment… lunch could be offered.

Thought for You…

“When everyone’s thinking alike, someone’s not thinking.”

General George Pattaon

Online Directories Available 24-7

  • The ODD Directory features all state officers, directors, and deputies with contact information.
  • The Directory of Granges features all Granges in the state with a contact person. Please make sure your listing is correct!

Do You Have FOMO?

“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!

Subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website

View from the Farm – June 2023

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column has changed a bit, with all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! This month’s column is written by Phil.

With all the animals out on pasture now, our “inter-chore time” is spent shoveling out barns and shelters and planting as much as we can as we can. This week the goat house and the heifer shed have been on the list along with getting all the potatoes in the ground at long last. As we clean up the last of winter in the barns, I can’t help but start to think of winter in the woodshed. It’s time to get firewood cut and split.

I’ve always maintained that a successful northerner has a short-term memory, but the reality is that the successful northerner knows winter is coming, no matter the season. Thankfully, this thought doesn’t extend to the rest of nature. It lives in the moment not knowing the moment won’t last.

Our bluebird land baron now occupies himself with feeding his brood and mostly forgets to maintain his supremacy in his domain only occasionally fighting his reflection in our truck mirrors. The cows now step out of the barn to head to a new paddock as a matter of course, rather than romping up into the next field or the wrong barn door just for kicks. The clover, vetch, and grasses soak in the sunshine and rain and store it all down, just as they were meant to.

For now, I feel pretty sure of what is to come. The peas, the greens, the new potatoes, the tomatoes, the apples…all of the work that bears fruit will please us (may we be so blessed) in its season. But the wood pile, the preserving and freezing, they call to us on cold rainy days and remind us of our roots. Life here takes a short memory, and a long trajectory.

For the growing season, we must live for the day and also plan for the year(s) ahead. Farmers live on a fulcrum thinking simultaneously of the decades ahead and how we can make the time of plenty last all year, while improving everyday functions and work for the moment. The bluebirds and the cows, the vetch, clover and grasses are following their internal rhythms. We’ll keep taking our cues from their textbook

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 given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Junior Report – June 2023

By Marilyn Stinson
207 786-2120
MSG Committee Member

Has your Grange taken in any 1+ Junior Grangers? The 1+ program from National Grange seems to be working from what we can see on Facebook and Bulletin posts, but the Community Granges aren’t sending the MSG Junior Department the information we need, and we don’t know who has joined.

We need the junior’s name, birthdate, and date joined. Also, the parent(s) or guardian(s) names, address, email, phone number, and home Grange. A statement giving permission (or not) to share photos of the child(ren) be shared on social media.

I have remained on the Junior Committee and will accept this information and forward it to our director. Please let us know so we can put the kids on our rolls and include them with information about junior activities. You can also send the information to director Betty Young.

We have exhibited Junior information at three fairs in the last few years – Pittston, Windsor, and Litchfield – earning money for the Juniors’ activities and programs. Betty is willing to share info about Juniors that others can use in their areas. Have your local kids do some crafts, show them off, and encourage others to join! Contact your local fairs, print out the information, put the pages on poster boards, and share space with the crafts, photos, paintings, etc., that the kids have done. MSG Junior Grange #17 is on Facebook, where you can see pictures of what has been exhibited.

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Exploring Traditions – June 2023

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