Friday, May 22, 2020

Ep 18 Carol Leonard: Of Midwives and Bad Beavers




Carol Leonard: Of Midwives and Bad Beavers
Riding the rails of life from Woodstock to Bad Beaver Farm, Carol Leonard's life continues to unfurl in miraculous ways.

Listen here:
Carol Leonard - The Birth of Midwifery in NH Part 1

Midwives & Bad Beaver Farm - Part 2
https://feeds.podetize.com/ZI9ud5dyes.mp3 

I first heard about Carol Leonard from my Alice who described her to me as one of the most extraordinary people she had ever met. Anyone who knew Alice knows that she did not use words like iconoclast, trail-blazer, pathfinder, lightly, perhaps because she was just such a person herself, though she would have rejected the assertion by saying that she was just a "simple" person. 

Carol Leonard is a New Hampshire certified midwife, the very first in modern NH history. She is also an extraordinary writer, now based in Ellsworth, Maine, where her family roots are deeply embedded in the history there.


Carol, a "foremother of the modern midwifery movement," was the first modern-age midwife certified to practice legally in NH and has been practicing for over the last three decades. She is co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) representing all midwives in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, serving one term as President of MANA. Her work to improve maternity care in Moscow, Russia, was featured on 20/20 and was written into Congressional Record. She has delivered approximately 1,200 babies safely in their own homes and as you will hear in this podcast and one to follow, she has midwived a good friend and a New Hampshire Icon - Crow Dickenson - through his passing.

Carol is the author of the best-selling memoir, LADY'S HANDS, LION'S HEART, A MIDWIFE'S SAGA, Bad Beaver Publishing, which was awarded the Mother's Naturally award of excellence for Outstanding Book, 2008.

Carol's new book, BAD BEAVER TALES, LOVE AND LIFE ON A NEW SUSTAINABLE HOMESTEAD IN DOWNEAST MAINE, Bad Beaver Publishing is a heart-warming and often uproarious chronicle of she and her husband, Tom Lajoie's life-journey -  building their dream homestead on 400 acres of wilderness in Ellsworth. Bad Beaver is a tree farm. Together Carol and Tom are doing sustainable timber harvesting.  Tom has a saw mill and a 19th century shingle mill there. . . co-habited by somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 beaver and their respective ponds, lodges and habitat, which they argue about on a daily basis.

Recently she has teamed up with Director and producer Kyle Lamont and the very talented team at Good to Go Studios LLC of Ellsworth, Maine to collaborate on a Podcast based on Bad Beaver Tales, It is a beautifully produced Podcast doing justice to the sensitive, funny and often profound writing of Carol Leonard.


The Episode of Bad Beaver Tales included in this podcast was written by Carol Leonard and directed and produced by Kyle Lamont of Good to Go Studios in Ellsworth, Maine. GoodtoGoStudios,com

You can subscribe to Bad Beaver tales -the Podcast - at the link below and leave a review.






$9.99
Often laugh-out-loud funny and irreverent, occasionally disturbing and deeply sorrowful, LADY'S HANDS, LION'S HEART is the saga of Ms. Leonard's fated journey as a young midwife. Her story intertwines three threads: her dedication to the mothers and babies she was groomed to attend; the growing renaissance, despite formidable opposition, of the profession of midwifery in New Hampshire and then in the United States; and finally, a powerful, tragic love story.

Other Formats: Kindle , Paperback



Bad Beaver Tales: Love and Life on a New Sustainable Homestead in DownEast Maine, Volume I ~
The Cunnin' Camp (Volume 1) Paperback – March 31, 2012
by Carol Leonard  (Author)

All Carol's Books


Other Links
Wikipedia: The history and details about Mid-wifery

Midwives Alliance of North America










First Snow on a Larch Bog












Thursday, May 21, 2020

Shortcast: Wit and Wisdom of John Harrigan: Cougars, Mel Thomson and Bill Loeb




Shortcast: Wit and Wisdom of John Harrigan: Cougars, Mel Thomson and Bill Loeb
A 10 minute shortcast to share with our listeners the Wit and Wisdom of John Harrigan.



Are there cougars/Mountain lions in NH? John Harrigan has long ago stopped arguing about it. He's sure. But he does love to talk about the Mountain Lion conspiracy theories.  Join us for 10 minutes of bliss with John Harrigan.

Listen here:
https://feeds.podetize.com/ZI9ud5dyes.mp3

If you'd like to learn more about John Harrigan, listen to the NH Secrets Podcast about his lifetime achievement award from the New England Association of Newspaper Publishers and Editors. and his 57-year career in the Newspaper business.




Sunday, May 3, 2020

Trilling at the Lumberjacks - The Wit and Wisdom of John Harrigan



The Wit and Wisdom of John Harrigan

Trilling at the Lumberjacks
A NH Secrets, Legends & Lore Shortcast

Spend 5 minutes with John Harrigan as he recounts the aftermath of the last log drive on the Connecticut River in Colebrook.

Listen here:
https://feeds.podetize.com/qVMHNyIAqC.mp3

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If you'd like to learn more about John Harrigan, listen to the NH Secrets Podcast about his lifetime achievement award and his 57-year career in the Newspaper business.

https://nhsecrets.blogspot.com/2020/02/john-harrigan-inducted-into-new-england.html





Albert Camus Quote

"In the depth of winter 
I finally learned 
that there was in me 
an invincible summer."
~ Albert Camus




Monday, April 20, 2020

The Mountains He's Moved: Tom Salatiello Unsung Hero Ep 17


Unsung Heroes

Listen here:

From the Laconia Daily Sun - March 13, 2018
Tom Salatiello has served Sanbornton well for almost 40 years, elect him today

To The Daily Sun,
Tom Salatiello is ending his political retirement to run for Sanbornton selectman. No one is more qualified. For almost 40 years, Tom served the town as our state representative (five terms), as our selectman (four terms), and as our representative to the Winnisquam Regional School Board.

Never afraid to speak his mind, Tom relies on two basic principles: respect for his constituents (including the elderly and the poor) and frugality. His encyclopedic knowledge of town government is respected by Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike.
On Tuesday, March 13, please write in Tom Salatiello for Sanbornton selectman.

Stephen Tessler
Sanbornton




EPISODE 16 launches the beginning of a series sub-titled "Unsung Heroes". In this episode we meet Tom Salatiello who has served at almost every level of state and local government and been a state employee for almost 50 years at the NH Department of Health and Human Services.

Tom Salatiello and The Mountains He's Moved
Unsung Heroes
Tom Salatiello (left) with Wayne King

From going undercover as a dishwasher to  confirm allegations of abuse in a group home in northern New Hampshire, to teaching his clients and constituents how to navigate the bureaucracy, Tom Salatiello has lived a life of service to his fellow men and women.

In his first year in Seminary, in Worchester Massachusetts, Tom discovered that the life of a priest was not his calling but he knew right then that helping people would determine the course of his life. He chose social work and within a few years landed in New Hampshire at the Department of Health and Human Services.

This fall, he will begin his 49th year at HHS. At 75 years old he could have retired ten years ago. Today in the midst of a global pandemic he could be social-isolating but to Tom that would mean he could not serve the people he loves and someone else with a young family, or older parents, would need to be doing what he is doing. So he persists. Nothing seems to stop Tom Salatiello, not even pancreatic cancer that struck him nearly a decade ago and that he battles to this day.

That’s why this episode of New Hampshire Secrets, Legends and Lore brings you the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of stories called "unsung heroes" and why I begin this series with one of New Hampshire's greatest unsung heroes, Tom Salatiello of Sanbornton. 
Moonlight On the Stone House




Sometimes I think Tom Salatiello is fueled by nothing more than pure love. In a world filled with partisanship, tribalism, bickering and anger he reminds us all that we humans have so much more that unites us than divides us. Every day for Tom Salatiello is another day when he draws the circle of humanity and love wider and wider to help unite us - in spite of our differences.

If you would like to suggest someone we should recognize, go to the show notes and send me an email with your suggestions and reasons. NHSecrets.blogspot.com . There you can also contribute to this podcast if you feel moved to do that as well.

Thank you for listening we'll be back again soon with another episode of NH Secrets, Legends and Lore.





Tom, Salatiello, NH, New Hampshire, State Representative, Selectman, State Employee, School Board, Winnisquam, Sanbornton, HHS, Social Work



Sunday, February 23, 2020

John Harrigan Inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame Ep 16


John Harrigan Inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame
New England Newspaper and Press Association
New England Newspaper Hall of Fame 

John Harrigan Inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame

John Harrigan has received many honors in his storied 52-year career in journalism. In 2020 he has added one more as the New England Newspaper and Press Association named him to their New England Newspaper Hall of Fame. The Association calls him the quintessential newsman. His column "Woods, Water and Wildlife", now called "Northcountry Notebook",  has been continuously running for 37 years, one of the longest-running columns in the state of New Hampshire. In this episode of the New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore podcast, John reflects on the long arc of his career including its beginnings at the Nashua Telegraph and the New Hampshire Sunday News, the tragedy of the mass shooting, in Colebrook, by Carl Drega in 1997, that took the lives of four close friends, including the Editor of one of his newspapers. John himself was only spared because he had been called, at the last minute, to fill in for an employee who had to leave his Lancaster paper - The Coos County Democrat - due to the death of her father. Finally, he recalls a glorious day at Fenway Park with Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey watching the 1967 World Series between the Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Listen here:

Sunday, February 9, 2020

The Shakers Influence on Communal Societies Episode 15


The Shakers Influence on Communal Societies Episode 15

Listen here:

"Americans have this idea that communes were invented by hippies in the 1960s and 1970s. That could not be farther from the truth. Communal living is as American as apple pie and began in the earliest days of the Republic and even before."  Darryl Thompson, Shaker Historian.

Leaving aside discussions of whether Native American Indians were, in fact, the earliest of communal societies (they probably were) communal living among those migrating to the "New World" was a very common thing. The success of the Shakers triggered many new communal groups.

A list of American Utopian communities. [icon]. This section needs expansion. You can help by ... Skaneateles Community, New York, Society for Universal Inquiry, 1843, 1846 ... A group of egalitarian communes based on the French utopian movement, ... The first settlers dissident members of the nearby Equality Colony.



Evolving from communal societies:
Co-Housing



Contacting Darryl Thompson:  Shakersleuth@gmail.com
Darryl Thompson
PO Box 42
Gilmanton Iron Works, NH 03837
shakersleuth@gmail.com
Phone: 603-364-7356





Thursday, February 6, 2020

Historic Echos: The Shakers in the Modern World - Episode 14


Listen here:
https://feeds.podetize.com/pjmxqzL49.mp3






Only a week left to visit the extraordinary exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester "The Shakers and the Modern World" (ends Feb 16, 2020). This exhibit is one of the most beautifully crafted exhibits I have ever seen and can't recommend it more. (On display through February 16, 2020).

Most of us think of the Shakers as a quaint sect of religious believers some of whom lived in New Hampshire in the towns of Canterbury and Enfield. However, the Shakers have had an outsized influence on the modern world, from commercial washing machines to the very first seed company and the well-known and loved furniture that continues to define their influence.

In this episode, Number 14, of New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore Shaker historian and official NH Secrets historian Darryl Thompson shares some insights into the themes of Shaker life that echo down through the years.



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Links:
The Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the United States. It features European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. Wikipedia
Address150 Ash St, Manchester, NH 03104
Hours
Open ⋅ Closes 5PM


Contacting Darryl Thompson:  Shakersleuth@gmail.com
Darryl Thompson
PO Box 42
Gilmanton Iron Works, NH 03837
shakersleuth@gmail.com
Phone: 603-364-7356