Pamela Leavey

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Category: Business

Reflections: The Bailout Plan

A few weeks ago, I posted a short essay on My Grand Mid-life Crisis Adventure, which ultimately brought me and my daughter, home to live in Massachusetts, although the destination at the time, seven years ago, had been Eastport, Maine. It was the fall of 2008, the economy had tanked and I had been planning our move to Maine weeks before Wall Street had collapsed.

It felt as though there was no choice but to follow through with our move, as my personal economic situation had worsened as did the situation of so many other families living on the edge of poverty.  We took to the road with a sense of humor and deep-down inside a sense of great trepidation. This was our bailout plan, to embark on a cross-country journey and move, that would forever be affectionately known as My Grand Mid-life Crisis Adventure.

The story continues…

The Bailout Plan

There were stacks of packing boxes lined up in a 6’ x 12’ space marked off with red tape in the center of the living floor. I put another heavy 12” cubed box of books on one of the stacks and wondered if I should not try to get rid of more of my books. I swiftly tossed that thought out of the open window of my second floor apartment into the 90-degree heat and mused I would not miss that heat. It was the fall of 2008 and we were preparing for our move from Los Angeles to the Down east area of the northern coast of Maine.

The economy had been slowly sinking for the past few years, and as predicted by many who had seen the economic disaster coming, including myself, the bottom was now falling out. The timing was perfect to move from Los Angeles, where the cost of living was quite high, to coastal Maine where the cost of living was considerably lower. At least that was my frame of thought as I prepared for the 3500-mile trek across country with my 19-year-old daughter, Juliet. (more…)

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Farm Fresh and Local In the Newburyport Area

berries2As a child growing up in the rural area of Massachusetts’ Northshore, my family grew our own vegetables as so many rural families did in the 1950’s and 1960’s. There were also many small farm stands around the area, and by the time I was in high school in the early 1970’s a few of the local farms were starting to go by the wayside.

The farm policy had changed drastically during the Nixon administration thanks to Earl Butz, who was Nixon’s Secretary of the USDA. Many small farmers found it difficult to stay afloat without the subsidies they were accustomed to receiving from the federal government. The documentary King Corn, is a very informative film about how Butz’s policies shaped factory farming and growing corn as a the number one staple in processed food.

Very few working family farms remain in the Newburyport area that were working farms when I was a child. Most of the smaller farms of my childhood days are gone with the land being sold off for housing and commercial development. A few small farms continue to grow their own and sell their produce and meats at their farm-stand businesses. However, two newer, more enterprising larger farms in the area also carry other local and non-local produce and products as well as their own locally grown vegetables and fruits.

On a late spring afternoon in mid-June, I decided to take a drive along the backroads of the Newburyport area to take stock of the local farm stands and what they have to offer. Newburyport also has a vibrant Farmer’s Market on Sunday mornings at the Tannery on Water Street, but locavores in the area also rely on local farm stands for fresh vegetables and fruits in season as well as grass fed meats and free-range poultry. (more…)

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Artist Chooses Clean Design for Website

I recently completed a website for Amesbury artist Luke Lepore:

Luke Lepore
Luke Lepore

Luke was looking for a clean, simple design for his website. He wanted something that would not distract visitors to the website from his paintings. In the world of digital communication, images speak as loudly as words. Luke’s fabulous art work speaks for itself.

I setup Luke’s website with WordPress and I used the WordPress template Gridsby to create the layout. Gridsby is a great theme that is very flexible, highly responsive and has many built-in options for fonts and colors.

It was a pleasure working with Luke on his website. Contact me here about creating you new website!

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Gratitude Matters: 10 Awesome Gratitude Quotes

grapevineatmaudslayGratitude matters in every aspect of life, from your personal life to your work or business life. In fact, expressing gratitude helps us to remember that what we have plenty in our lives to be grateful for. It also helps us to remind the people in our lives that we are grateful for them as well.

Sharing our gratitude, expressing how grateful we are, is in fact a very motivational and inspirational form of communication.

Here’s proof that the inspirational expression of gratitude is an awesome from of communication using the written (or spoken) word: (more…)

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Daily Affirmations: Job Well Done

garden on main A few days ago I posted about the issues faced for a writer or in fact any creative person who is self-employed. We are our own worst critics and often when we complete a job or a project we fail to give our self recognition and reward for a job well done, as Julia Cameron notes below in her lovely affirmation from her book Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life.

Last night I completed a draft of the first of three essays for my Prior Learning Portfolio at UMass Amherst’s UWW. When complete, I hope to garner 24 credits for my prior experience which includes two small businesses, creative writing, political and news blogging and contemporary communications.

This morning, I re-mind myself… (more…)

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My Latest Web Design Project

My latest web design project is a WordPress business website for Byfield Builders, a small, locally owned, licensed construction firm located in Byfield, Massachusetts.

byfield builders ByfieldBuilders.com was created using WordPress, a robust and highly functional platform that can be easily optimized and customized for use as either a blog or a fully functional small business website, with our without a blog. (more…)

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