Neighbor News
Soule: Franklin Pierce Law Student Shows Promise as Farm Hand
How many law students does it take to round up 10 bovines?
Airbnb guest Jerry Martin offered to feed the livestock that morning, so all we had to do was climb into the truck at 6 a.m. for an eight-hour round-trip errand to Bangor, Maine. Twenty minutes away from the farm, my cell phone chimed.
“The cows are out. The gate was open, and a bunch of them are wandering around in the barnyard,” said Jerry, who had booked our farm apartment for two weeks. Jerry divides his time between his home in Middletown, Ohio, and the University of New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce School of Law in Concord, an easy commute from our farm.
His course mixes distance learning with intensive immersion sessions held four times a year, during which he engages with his classmates and professors face to face.
Willing to tackle any farm task, he fed hay to the horses, goats, lamb, and donkey twice a day during his stay. As he dumped food in their buckets, Jerry fended off our two 800-pound sows, Sparkle and Charlotte. He knew to feed the young cattle extra food and hay, and he was helpful in stripping the plastic covering from 1,000-pound round bales of hay for the cattle.
When I asked him why he was willing to help with farm chores, Jerry said, "A bonus during the immersions is that I get to experience the beauty of Concord and surrounding areas, including farm life, while staying at your beautiful farm. Where else can you get a world-class law school education and have the opportunity to feed farm animals at 6 in the morning!?"
As willing as Jerry was, I figured he'd need help rounding up the 10 delinquent bovines, so we turned around. When we got back to the farm, Jerry had already herded six of the cattle back into their paddock. Two others were in the feed bunker, munching on hay. We coaxed them back into the paddock with a bucket of cow candy – alfalfa cubes.
Find out what's happening in Concordfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Carole Soule is the co-owner of Miles Smith Farm in Loudon, N.H. She raises and sells beef, pork, lamb, eggs, and other local products. She can be reached at cas@milessmithfarm.com.
