Jamie Resh-Kemp, RN – Farmer and Critical Care Nurse
By Admin | July 30, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Where are you from?
I grew up in Garrett County, Maryland. Currently, I live just across the Mason-Dixon Line in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Where did you go to college and what was your academic major?
My first college experience was at Garrett Community College in McHenry, Maryland. There I earned an AA degree in Agriculture Management.
Next, I attended the Western Maryland Police Academy in Hagerstown, Maryland. Most recently, I graduated from Allegheny College of Maryland in Cumberland.
There I earned an AA in Nursing.
What has been your career path from college to your current position?
With the agriculture degree, I managed a Southern States Store in Grantsville, Maryland.
During and after the police academy I worked as a sheriff’s deputy in Garrett County, Maryland.
Immediately after nursing school, I began working as a RN in the SICU/MICU at WVUH. This is my current position.
In addition to this, my family and I operate three beef farms.
How did you first get into farming?
I don’t ever remember not being involved in farming. Both sets of my grandparents were farmers, my Dad farmed on the side, and I married a farmer.
How many acres do you farm?
My husband and I have just less than 100 acres and we help my grandfather farm approximately 300 acres.
What do you grow and what type of livestock do you raise?
We raise beef cattle, hay, corn, winter wheat, oats, and sweet corn. We also have a small flock of chickens that provide eggs for our families.
Why don’t you farm full time?
I can’t afford too. There really isn’t much money in farming.
What is your take on organic farming? Do you use those principles in your operation?
Honestly, I don’t know that much about organic farming. I have seen the effects of inadequate use of pesticides and herbicides. It results in decreased yields and decreased quality.
Considering these things, I don’t know how this practice can be justified. We properly manage our crops with herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.
The production of meat without vaccines, antibiotics, or steroids seems controversial to me. Animals need vaccines to keep them healthy just like humans do. There are many common diseases that can be fatal to animals that can be prevented with a simple vaccination.
Similarly, common illnesses can be managed with appropriate antibiotics. It is not only inhumane not to provide these to animals, it also is economically poor practice. I do not use steroids in production of beef.
However, I vaccinate all of my cattle with a 7-way vaccine that prevents blackleg, malignant edema, black disease, enterotoxemia and pinkeye.
What is your take on people drinking non-pasteurized milk?
I personally drank non-pasteurized milk for years when we had a dairy farm. I never got sick from it.
However, we were very cautious about which milk made it to the collection tank. If a cow showed any sign of mastitis or infection, her milk was dumped down the drain.
Because of our practices, we received bonus payments for low bacteria counts in our milk. I’m sure that not all farms operate this way. Therefore, I would be cautious about where I purchased non-pasteurized milk.
Can you describe a typical work day?
My morning starts between 4 and 5 am. If I am working off the farm, I feed the chickens and my grandfather’s cows before heading to work.
After work, I feed my cows and chickens and check on my grandfather’s cows. After doing housework, I usually head to bed around 10 pm.
On days I am not working off the farm, mornings still begin with feeding the animals. The rest of the day involves catching up with animal care, field work, gardening, and house work. This is all dependent upon the season.
Evening feedings are done around 5pm. Work continues well into the evening. I should also add that most days I do take a little “me time.” I spend at least 1 to 2 hours exercising.
Do you receive any government farm subsidies? What is your response to the many people who think farm subsidies should be reduced or eliminated?
Our property is in the Clean and Green program. This insures that our property can not be sold for development.
This suits our wishes for our farm and it greatly reduces our taxes. People need to realize that if we do not provide for our farmers now, they will not be around to provide for us later.
Are you planning any changes in your farming practice in the upcoming year?
We are always improving the genetics of our animals through artificial insemination. We are also experimenting with different crops and practices to maximize yield and quality of our crops.
What do you like most about farming?
I enjoy seeing what I raised/grew. It’s rewarding and beautiful all at the same time.
What do you like least about farming?
Farmers are taken for granted and are not appreciated or valued. This is evident in how they are compensated for there product.
Would you encourage your children to be farmers?
If I had children I would encourage them to be involved in farming. It promotes work ethic and respect for the land and animals.
Disclosure: The interviewer has worked with Ms. Resh-Kemp in a healthcare capacity.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics: Farmers, Nurses, Police Officers | No Comments »
Mark Moskovitz – Film Director (Part 2 of 2)
By Admin | July 22, 2008 at 2:11 am
In the second part of his interview, Mark Moskovitz tells us about his passion for reading, the non-profit he started to “rescue” good but obscure books, and his collaboration with Philadelphia businessman and mayoral candidate Sam Katz on making a documentary about the City of Brotherly Love.
How many books do you own in your personal library?
Never counted. Have no clue. All I know is that they are spilling off the shelves. I cut back the last few years and actually read differently now.
Books have become very vivid to me again, like when I was teenager, so I read far fewer but each one more preciously.
Let’s see – in the “library” room there are 5 banks of 6-7 shelves floor to ceiling. If each holds thirty, that’s about a thousand or more in that room.
I have a lot history elsewhere, and another room with an entire wall shelved, and a huge built-in in the bedroom, and about 500 baseball books alone in the basement.
And, I’m working on a film about art, so there’s lots of those around now and I moved all the movie and music books into the attic where my son rehearses with a band.
What is your aim with the Lost Book Club?
I wish I had more time to do what I set out to. It is a nonprofit 501c3, so contributions are tax-deductible.
Many people have sent me books or written in suggesting books—they too have favorites that no one else seems to know about.
So, the goal would be to bring back some of these and donate to libraries or make available again. Perhaps the reader—the person who discovered the book—does the intro and a critic does an afterward, or vice-versa, much like we did in the reprint of “Stones.”
The second book we did, after The Stones of Summer (Lost Books Club, published by Barnes & Noble) was Janet Hobhouse’s The Furies (Lost Books Club, published by NYRB). It didn’t have a movie, so it’s still “lost” to a degree. But it should be read.
What are your five all time favorite books?
I can’t do this…….would be like asking about children Here’s some off the top of my head:
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Tender Is the Night, F. Scott you-know-who
Anna Karenina, Uncle Leo
The Thin Red Line, James Jones
Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut
Minor Characters, Joyce Johnson
Picasso and Dora, James Lord
V., Pynchon
Humboldt’s Gift, Bellow
The Sentimental Education, Flaubert
Chronicles, Bob Dylan
What are you reading now?
I left an Icelandic thriller called Jar City on the airplane by accident. So I started What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt.
I just finished North Toward Home by Willie Morris, and 1948 by Bernard DeVoto. After Siri’s book I want to read The Renaissance by Walter Pater.
How did you come to get matched up with Sam Katz on the proposed Philly documentary?
He called me. I worked on his commercials for Mayor (of Philadelphia) in 1999 and we have had a few chats since.
I was intrigued. I have often asked myself why I am still living here and is there such a thing as a Philadelphian.
I think the trauma of the 1964 Phillies season has stuck me here for good.
What obstacles will you have to overcome in getting it made? What is the current status of the project?
Sam has been incredible in both vision and pulling people together for this. His love of the city and for its history is the driving force and has brought hundreds of like-minded souls out of the woodwork.
This is truly great. Because those are the stories and judgments and various perspectives we need. So I know we can.
Find the content and tell the story. Getting backers—whether foundations or financial or media entities—to believe that as well is what it takes to get it made.
Where is your funding coming from for the Philly documentary?
We have been fortunate to get a grant from the Barra Foundation and other givers to leapfrog from where we are to the next step. It’s going to happen. It’s thrilling.
What is your role in the Katz project?
Making films or television is a team effort. It’s about collaboration. I’ll steer the creative process and make the production happen.
I also think, with the brainstorming of many others, a whole team of people, I’ll set the direction of how we tell the story. How a story is told is the story when it comes to narrative of this type.
Above and beyond that—being the Producer–I’ll direct some or much of it. I think we will have other collaborators involved sharing a lot of the creative credit, however.
What is the best thing about Philly that is little known and that you would like to highlight in your documentary?
Two things: how many firsts happened here even if they migrated elsewhere; and our mindset. Is there such a thing as a Philadelphian and if so, what.
That said, I hope the project scales up in a way that we make people in other cities or towns think about what community is, what cities mean to them, and how we go from here to there, wherever there may be.
Which is the best Ken Burns’ documentary?
I’ve only seen Jazz and most of Baseball, and the Brooklyn Bridge. I like the archival footage, and treasure his on-camera interviews. He gets people passionate on the subjects.
The narratives themselves I take issue with. My history of baseball and jazz, both subjects I’m obsessed with as well, would be different.
But, that’s what makes this work fun. Ten directors would make ten different films from the same script. I object a bit to his versions being somehow “definitive” of the subject.
But, I don’t think Ken would call them this. I’ve heard him more than once talk about “truth” in documentary work and he and Moore and Herzog are all valuable in discussing what works, what’s true, and what’s manipulative but still true.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics: Filmmakers | No Comments »
Mark Moskovitz – Film Director (Part 1 of 2)
By Admin | July 21, 2008 at 3:48 am
Mark Moskovitz directs political commercials and is a documentary filmmaker. His documentary film The Stone Reader was based on his search for the mysterious and little-known author Dow Mossman, author of the book Stones of Summer, which had a profound effect on him when he first read it as a young man. We recently had a chance to get his thoughts.
Where are you from?
Philadelphia. Born in Wynnefield. Moved to Penn Valley when I was 4. Lived out in Chester Springs last 25 years.
Where did you go to college and what was your academic major?
University of Pennsylvania. English.
What has been your career path from college to today?
Worked through college and graduated without any real direction. Always interested in music, worked at WXPN after graduating while holding day job and became interested in media.
Worked for a local film company as low man on totem pole, liked it, learned the craft of filmmaking and eventually became a producer, went out on my on, started directing, never looked back – well, once or twice when times were lean.
What recent political commercials have you directed?
Michael Nutter (Mayor of Philadelphia), Jeff Bingaman (US Senator, New Mexico), Ed Rendell (Governor of Pennsylvania), Steve Kagen (US Congress, Wisconsin) among many others.
What did you think of the Hillary Clinton “3 am ringing phone” commercial?
I thought it was kind of an old-fashioned hardball ad. The message was very clear. And message is what politics is often about.
It was an attempt to re-frame the debate.
This sometimes works in primaries. We did an ad in the 1984 Presidential Democratic Primary for Alan Cranston (Senator, CA) on the Nuclear Freeze. It served the purpose of re-framing the debate for a period in our favor and forced the other candidates to re-examine their national security positions.
The style of the ad – commercial quality rather than “newsy” and “informative” like many political spots try to be was an attempt to lift the importance of the spot from the clutter and get the news talking about it, which it accomplished.
What was it about Stones of Summer that provoked such a strong emotional response in you?
I have been asked this many times, and as years go by my answers keep evolving.
I think, at the heart of it, was the coming-of-age story in a time close to me and (the author) somehow nailed the inexplicable feelings I had at the time as a kid and a teenager. The feelings back then, rather than the feelings now, caught in a reflective way and just looking back now.
That’s strong stuff. Like getting flashbacks. On top of that, the excessiveness, of the stories, the characters, even the prose, is something I was attracted to as a young man in all the arts (movies, music, literature) but is not something you see much of now.
As Dow once said, the sixties ended five minutes after he finished writing the book.
Was your search for the author ultimately fulfilling to you?
Oh yes. At first, though, no. I was depressed. I couldn’t work on the film for a year. I felt I blew it. I felt that having the reality of it just killed all my imagination and drive and fun about it.
Dow himself proved to be the best of friends. We connected on so many levels, especially books – remarkable how many books we both have read and mutually loved and can discuss with enthusiasm.
So, movie aside, the friendship we have made has become a nice part of my life.
Was The Stone Reader a commercial and/or critical success?
Certainly critical. As the most independent of films, both in how it was made and distributed, it made many ten best lists for the year. The attention it received, and long-running discussion it provoked, both were things I was unprepared for.
Financially it did better than I would have ever expected, especially theatrically. In the end I wouldn’t call it a financial success but that’s not why I made it.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics: Filmmakers | No Comments »
Sean Raley – Home Inspector and BrickKickers Franchise Owner, INC
By Admin | July 18, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Sean Raley is a home inspector and owner of a BrickKickers franchise in North Central West Virginia. We recently had a chance to visit with him to get his thoughts on people’s houses.
Where are you from?
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA but grew up in Morgantown, WV
Where did you go to college and what was your academic major?
I have an A.S. degree from the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, a B.S. in Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering Technology) from Thomas Edison State College (Trenton, NJ) and an MBA from the University of Findlay, Ohio.
What has been your career path from college to your current position?
Worked in the aviation field for 14 years as an aircraft mechanic, then an aircraft inspector and finally as a manager. I started buying rental properties 10 years ago and, 6 years ago, bought my home inspection franchise. I’ve been inspecting homes ever since.
How many house inspections do you do in a day?
Typically two a day. I’ve performed over 3,000 home inspections.
How many hours a week do you work?
Well, I wish it was a lot less but about 50 hours a week.
What has been your worst moment as a house inspector? Have you ever come face to face with a rat in someone’s basement or garage?
The worst moment came when inspecting a house for a bank that was an estate. The people who owned the home were shot and killed due to a dispute with a neighbor. I went in to advise the bank on clean-up and getting the home in working order. Not a pretty sight.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone who wanted to get into the business of being a house inspector?
I started out working with an established home inspector in Pittsburgh, PA. I would start out doing that so that you are in the field and will know that you really want to do it.
Not only must you have knowledge of construction but you must be able to write good reports as well as be very customer service oriented. There is always one person during an inspection that is not happy with you- the seller, the buyer or the agent.
What are the qualifications of being a house inspector in West Virginia?
You must have a minimum of 250 field inspections, then pass the national home inspectors exam and maintain a certain number of training hours a year.
What should people look for when trying to avoid a house with asbestos in it?
Don’t buy a home built before 1978.
Do people need a house inspector when buying a newly constructed home from the builder?
Yes, I once had a brand new home in which the walls were not square, the deck was not properly constructed, the attic trusses were cut to make room for a furnace (structural issue), the jet tub leaked into the kitchen below and all of the outlets were reverse polarity (wired in reverse).
Whether new or old, and whether you use me or someone else, buying a home is a major purchase and you should have someone look it over.
When looking at a new home, look to see if good materials were used. If the materials seem cheap, it is likely that the build is cheap. There really is no short list of what to look for on a new home.
What one house inspection finding should be a deal breaker for home buyers?
Water in the basement is very common in West Virginia and can usually be fixed. A home located on top of a mine that may subject to mine subsidence should be avoided.
Generally, however, most things in a home can be fixed – even a bowed wall. It all depends on price and if the buyer really likes the home.
However, things that can’t easily be fixed are those homes that have had really cheesy additions added to them. Such homes are “cut up”, have a lot of “handy man” repairs and will not hold their value.
Also, avoid sectionals or “trailers”, as these homes also do not hold their value. With real estate, the best way to avoid getting burned is “like/kind”. Homes in a typical neighborhood with similar features will typically hold the strongest value. The old farm house with additions and “handyman” type repairs will not.
Would you recommend sellers absent during during the house inspection?
Yes indeed. The home inspection gives the buyers a second chance to view the home for approximately 2-3 hours. However, if the seller is present, the buyers will be on guard and the home inspector will wonder what the seller is hiding. Also, if the seller is present, the home inspector will ask the seller questions and they will be liable for the answers. If the seller says “I’ll fix that” to the home inspector or says “the basement stays dry” well then…….he’s on the hook.
How much has your business been hurt with the recent housing slump?
My business has not been hurt at all. It does not matter if the price of housing goes up or down. People seem to always need inspections. I actually wouldn’t mind if it would slow down a bit.
Do you plan on staying in this line of work for the rest of your career?
No, I will do this for just a few more years while I’m paying down my rental properties. I don’t want to be 50 years old climbing up on roofs or squeezing into crawlspaces.
What year was the house you live in now built? How much house remediation did you do to it?
My present home was built in 2002, so there is really not much to do. My first house was built in 1965. I put new siding on it, finished the basement and updated the kitchen.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like astronomy as a hobby – probably from my previous interest in aviation. I used to play guitar in a band and I occasionally jam with friends. On the weekends, I own a mobile disc jockey business and I perform at weddings, parties and private events . Currently, I have over 10,000 songs. It’s great fun.
Disclosure: the interviewer has been a client of the BrickKickers, Inc.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
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Topics: Agents and Inspectors, Businessman, Franchise Operators | 1 Comment »
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