Soon after Eric and Molly Glasgow arrived on the Vineyard and set to work creating Grey Barn Farm, with sons Noah and Jakie, Molly Glasgow began writing a blog titled, “The Grey Barn, a farm on Martha’s Vineyard (thegreybarnandfarm.com).”
It provides an entertaining account of the couple’s introduction to the Island and various aspects of farm life.
In her first entry, posted September 2009, Ms. Glasgow wrote: “We (my husband and I and our two kids) bought a farm on Martha’s Vineyard to run a dairy herd, make milk and cheese and butter and all manner of deliciousness … No, we have no farming experience but we have bought the most beautiful piece of property in the world (for countryside that is — it just does not get more beautiful than this. And for all you across-the-ponders it IS prettier than the English countryside — trust me).”
In April, she described artificial insemination: “I decided in all my ‘ideal farm’ brilliance that I should learn how to a.i. (that’s what they call artificial insemination) our cows. Sure, why not, we are not planning on keeping a bull, so someone has to do it. Why not me? I’m a woman; I should understand a cow, her cycles, and her ‘parts’ better than a man would. I should learn this. As I was standing ankle-deep in manure I decided that was a really dumb idea. I know now that there are some things in life that shouldn’t be repeated. My artificial insemination class is one of them. Let me just say that reading a text book and experiencing the actual act of inseminating cows are two very different things.”