Just This

The Kind of Beauty It Takes More Than Eyes to Know

Video from here.

Buy this awesome album here: Reprieve

Mounting My Soapbox on Spaceship Earth

It seems slightly comical in practice, but one of the reasons I've pursued this homesteading lifestyle is to simplify my life. I want to be in a position to not need to rely quite so much on this money-based economy and trend back towards a life where we know our neighbors' names and trade our skills with one another.
In doing so, I've been trying to think of simple things I can do myself rather than paying out my hard won cash. We started small back in the apartment with baking our own bread, which eventually morphed into growing our own tomatoes, to wanting our own chickens and goats to making my own laundry detergent. Now I'm taking it one step further. I'm going to start making all my cleaners in house, except dishwasher soap (can't find a recipe!), as they run out.
We already do laundry soap and fabric softener, but nearly everything else is being replaced by a few essential oils, lemon juice, vinegar and the magical, mystical Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Liquid Castile Soap, which is a gift straight from the heavens. If you haven't tried this stuff, you really ought to. So far we've successfully used it as a dish soap, hand soap and body soap. I've also been experimenting with it as a shampoo and, although you need to condition afterward, it seems to do that pretty well too. The stuff is pretty darn amazing, contains no SLS, and I'm pretty excited at the potential of getting rid of all the yucky chemicals under my sink. How great would it be to only have one package to dispose of instead of many? One thing to buy instead of five or six? And I get the ability to customize how it smells on a whim? Score!
Dr. Bronner's isn't paying me for this, but they are a pretty special progressive company you might like to learn about. Their policies towards the earth and their products are admiriable, as are the benefits they offer their employees, which makes them great people to add as teammates in my quest for eco-friendly and simple living. Check out their website to learn about their history, or you could try a bottle and read the million words printed on the outside too.
So today marks the beginning of a six month experiment to replace each and every cleaning agent in my house with an earth-friendly septic-safe alternative, right down to the toothpaste, without breaking the bank. Stay tuned along the way for updates on our progress and if you have a dishwasher soap recipe that works, please share!

A Little Sweat and a Dirty Hoe

You still can't really tell that we aim to grow our own food around this place from the looks of it. We've plowed three times! It's frustrating that we've only managed to put in one row of potatoes so far this year. Honestly, it feels like the instant we THINK about planting, the weather radio beeps and whirs to life with a warning or watch about one thing or another. Any plants we have in that have survived are equal parts lucky and strong for surviving hail, torrential downpours and fierce winds all within their short lifespans.
My seed starting has been a failed experiment on a grand scale, though I am by no means discouraged. I don't remember if it was Einstein or Edison but someone much more intelligent than I once penned a line about discovering ways that do not work, and I contend that I've merely been a huge success in doing THAT rather than farming. Yep. Been real busy with that around here lately.
Since there's no shame in asking for help, tonight the family and I visited a local garden center where we picked up a few seedlings (plants! pre-growed!). Tomorrow, hopefully before the 90 degree heat the weathermen call for, I'll be back at it with my dirty hoe by my side, trying to get them in before the next round of thunderstorms, which are on their way Thursday... it's a small miracle when the dry days match up with my days off. I'll take it when I can get it, even if means lots of sweating, swearing and starting over.

The Orange Triangles of Zen

At long last, the plows are finally out in force now here in Ohio. Yesterday was a near perfect day off from the-job-that-lets-me-buy-things-like-toilet-paper (thank Lydia for that description!) culminating in a goregous sunset, a new (& exciting) freelance gig, and the soft purr of the tractors pulling disc plows down my street, headed towards home after a day in the fields. This, folks, is the stuff bliss is made of, and I wouldn't have seen it if I wasn't standing still.

Too often my days off are filled with the rushing, chores and errands that keep this homestead thriving, so much so that when I find myself not needing to dash off to the grocery or pet store, I often have to actually try hard to remember that my days aren't meant to be based just on consumption, whether that's measured in time or material things. It's hard to do in a world where every waking moment is a barage of commercials, every flat surface a billboard for "progress". It's times like this, in the stillness, that we have a glorious opportunity to pause and reflect on whether we need more material things at all and what the real reasons might be behind a compulsion to shop.

I'm a victim in this game sometimes myself, teetering on that great grey line between "prepared" and "hoarding". (See my post about yarn if you've forgotten.) Though I'm pretty thrifty, I have times where there's more week left than paycheck and I drive with my fingers crossed that I have the whole red rectangle before the tank's really empty. It was so nice, then, that this week there was one more day off than usual, one day usually spent at work, that afforded me some quality time for rest, a good book, and, of course, some gardening, while still getting paid. (There are small bits of good in corporate America after all...)

I'm discovering that there's a lot of beauty right here, right where I already am, if I slow down and shut off the ads in my head long enough to really listen and look. There's reminders right here that I have all that I need. Bet you'll find it too if you can learn to see peace instead of impatience in the orange triangle on the rear of a plow.

Like my dad always says (but sometimes forgets to practice too), slow down. You'll live longer.

Long Hot Summer Days

Technically, it's a late spring heat wave, but I'll take what I can get. Maybe I can (finally) put the garden in later this week!

Works In Progress

This weekend was a working one, but a very productive one here at the SemiFarm. The coop is half up, the entire yard mowed, brush cleared for the compost bin area and the area for the herb garden has been thatched and covered up to kill off the sod. A huge thank you is due to my husband, dad, brother and nephew for their help. Small strawberries are forming back in the berry patch too. Things are beginning to come together as we gear up our little food factory. Some photos of the fruits of our labor for you to enjoy.

The beans from the little lakes, transplanted.

half a coop

two windows go in this wall

framed out windows

door will be on this front wall, yet to be built

some day soon I'll be watching hens from my porch!