Where ever you are, I'm suspecting the weather is playing tricks on you.
Here, it's been melting and warm and sunny. We were tentatively talking about spring. And then 24 hours of snow - the biggest flakes you can imagine. A friend of mine in California was making plans to deal with the drought this summer. Will there be one? Who knows really but it stands to reason given California's history. And for the last week, she's been dealing with torrential rain and yesterday, put out a call for help to deal with flooding. And ironically, she will likely still have drought. So where ever you are, whatever you're facing, just do what you realistically can and accept the rest. It's really all you can do. Alright guys, I am so sorry about the big, long gap in posting. There are a few very good reasons for it and I'll 'fess up to them now.
First is that I'm having some struggles with the site. Once again I went to my page and it couldn't be found. And then I had log in problems. Again. I almost bailed in favour of one of the many other things on my list but persisted and here I am (thank goodness!). Now I know all of you know that time is limited so when you're having those sorts of problems, it makes you reconsider your host. So far I've been really happy but it's starting to feel like a bit like the old wordpress problems. I'm not going to switch yet but believe me, I'm noticing it and doing research. Second (which is really the biggest so I probably should have started there).: I quit my job. Yes, I left the place I'd worked for almost 15 years. I feel totally liberated and a bit nervous about what's on the horizon (more about that in a sec)! Third: I'm working on my doctorate. It's way more work than I would have thought but so much fun. I am and always will be a school nerd. Learning is my happy place! Fourth:Because a doctorate isn't enough, I've been taking some online classes. Mostly art-making ones. I have always said "I can't" to the world of visual arts but not this year! I'll be posting work as I make it :) And I just did a floor loom class too. I'll write about that soon. It was an interesting experience. You know the kind Experience. I'm still processing it a bit, if I'm honest. Fifth (and biggest): My co-conspirators and I are working on the first issue of Flannelberry magazine. Like the site, it will be a blend of wholehearted and simple living with creativity. And of course, the puppy is still in puppyhood which is a pretty time and energy consuming thing when you're in the depth of winter and can't take him on a big run or hike to get that puppy energy out! And there's your update peeps. I hope 2017 has kicked off well for you. XO It's the time of year when you want to eat nourishing things. I don't know about you but my body craves good fats and protein as the days get darker. So, I got home late-ish with three massive bones from my lovely friends at the Dirty Hoe Gastro Farm and Butchery. Certified organic beef bones from happy cows who had one bad day, grown by people we know (and both buy hay from). I roasted them at 375* for probably two hours, until they smelt all golden and wonderful. And then they went into my biggest soup pot with a bunch of our well water and some organic, raw (though not for long) apple cider vinegar and simmered on the woodstove for a few hours. When I get home from the day job tonight, I'll transfer them to the big stock pot and simmer them again. Tomorrow I'll likely make them into some kind of delicious soup with soba noodles and winter veg. Ah winter comfort food! How lucky we are to be here. Well, it's that time of year again. You know the time, when we're racing towards the Winter Solstice and the mornings are getting darker and darker. Today there was a little skiff of snow making me grateful I didn't have my 90 minute (each way) commute to work. These are the days when it just seems cold out; even just looking outside from a toasty house elicits a little shiver. When there's that pearlescent quality to the sky, I find myself unstinting on extra oats for the goats and extra feed for the poultry. They're adjusting to the cold, though I notice they find it easier than the wet we've had for weeks and weeks. I find myself in a minority at this time of year. I love the stillness of the dark mornings, sitting with a cup of tea and a book, maybe while some yarn scours, other is in a warming dye pot, and still more is in a warming mordant bath. The dogs sit at my feet chewing their bones. The world is quiet and peaceful. There's space to think and just feel and consider what will come in the hours and days ahead.
As I see it, there's no stopping it. There aren't enough bright hours in the day to daylight savings time winter away. Better to just enjoy it, be grateful that you are warm and cozy, help others who aren't; pause, have a cup of tea and revel in the stillness. So, it’s the next day. Trump is the President-elect and the Republicans run everything, or soon will. I’ve thought about this all night, what’s it going to mean and where it’s going to lead us. No, I’m not an American (though I am married to one) and no, I’m not planning to move the USA. And at the end of the day, while it’s important to consider where this could go, I think it’s far more important to reflect on how we got here.
Without even getting into the whole Bernie/Hillary issue, let’s look at why people would flock to someone who built a campaign on division. The short version is: there was already so much division in the USA. This campaign didn’t cause it. It might not have helped but it can’t be called the cause. No one, once the primaries were over, was building bridges in this campaign except Trump. He reached out to the people who felt that the system didn’t represent them, he tapped into a whole cadre of voters who had never felt enfranchised, and who appreciated is approach. Whether or not what he said was factual, his approach resonated with a huge percentage of voters in key states. These were people who have been sold on the American dream but have never had it come true for them. Trump was a representation of that dream and promised them it wasn’t out of reach anymore. These were people who have felt marginalized (whether or not any of us agree, it’s where they felt they were) and finally, someone was speaking to them, hearing them, acknowledging them. And what did we do? We mocked them. We belittled them. We called them uneducated and ignorant. We held ourselves with the exact superiority that drove them out of the electoral process to begin with and we contributed heavily to the cracks that the Republican campaign was only too happy to cash in on. So to my mind, this isn’t the time for more division and more hatred. This isn’t the time to be bullying our fellow humans, complaining that they did this or that (third party voters, Trump supporters, whatever). This is the time to come together, to put down the torches, to put away the anger and the hate. Sure there’s fear but I can assure you, fighting your way through doesn’t make it go away, it just makes the darkness behind the fear grow teeth. I’m going to suggest something I never ever would have thought in a million years I’d say. Learn from the Trump campaign. Instead of continuing to shunt those folks off to the side, learn from this campaign and reach out. I think now is the time to copy the model interfaith organizations have set forth - we don’t have to share the same dogma to acknowledge our shared humanness. Mobilize, listen, build bridges, create closeness. Invite people to the table. In these times I consider my farming life - we grow the best crops and plants out of the most disgusting muck. Let’s take the mess and recycle it into something that’s beautiful and nourishing. So, I think we've talked about this before but it bears repeating, to my mind. You know how sometimes you read a blog, scroll through an Instagram feed, catch up with someone on facebook, and think "what the hell is wrong with me? I can't get half that done?" Or, "what the hell is wrong with me, I can't save/start a business/whatever" or "there's no way I can afford that/get all that done". I'm posting about this after a message I received. It was a heartfelt "please tell me your secret, I want to be farming and just can't make a go of it" kind of plea. Broke my heart a little bit because it was yet another reminder of how much social media skews our perspective of other's lives and from there, ourselves, if we let it. So let me tell you about my crazy life right now so if yours is crazy, or you can't figure out how to live off your 2 acres and ten mini goats, you won'y think something is wrong with you. First of all, we live in ten acres of forest. Love it. It's beautiful and private and restful and restorative and gives us lovely firewood to heat our home. It's also impossible to garden and live with sheep here because: trees. Why not cut them down? (I have actually been asked that). So, while we do have that to contend with dense forest (and yes, we did clear for the house and some garden) we have clay soil which is a treat. I know you don't usually read that but clay is the most mineral rich and, I have livestock with which to amend it so... I'm thrilled. I have a friend who was gardening on what seemed to be the most ideal place - open, flat, sunny, lots of water, soil looked gorgeous. But there was a high proportion of sand in it so when we had drought, she was watering multiple times per day. Yes, she had great produce but as she said "at what cost?" And they lived mostly off of what she grew so... they ended up selling and moving to somewhere more garden friendly. So, speaking of gardens... That is the unmitigated disaster that is my garden. I've convinced myself that leaving the tomatoes to fester might result in some shoots this spring (though it's rarely worked that way). And yes, there is row cover strewn about. We've had so much rain it was causing more harm than good to the plants so I threw it off and just left it there because:no time. Hopefully today I can get it cleaned up but maybe and maybe not. So, why no time? Well, I'm currently working three jobs - one of which has a 90 min commute each way. I won't be doing this over the long term and have given notice at one but yes, three. Am rebooting a small business, have the farm, this little guy: And of course, family and friends. On top of it, J is in a similar place with all of his commitments. And, I have a goat house and chicken coop in desperate need of cleaning, need to get more hay, and straw, and so on. Oh and garlic to plant and autumn seedlings to transplant. Now this is a big push for this month and isn't going to last but it's a true snapshot and hopefully, an accurate accounting so if your life is feeling a bit crazy or you're just questioning why you can't x, y, or z based on someone's Instagram feed - remember it's just the snapshot they're sharing with you. Many of us share about 1% of our life, right? So set realistic goals and work steadily towards them. That's all you can do. I know there are many things you do know about me but one of the things I haven't shared with you is my love of textiles and fibre arts. Why? I have absolutely no idea. If you follow me on Instagram (@flannelberry), you won't be surprised at all. I just realized though, that not a lot about textiles has made it onto the blog. Well, that's going to be changing. It's a huge part of who I am and what drives me. It's every bit as important as gardening and making food from scratch. I try to do everything in my power to be a good steward of the earth - which includes slow textiles. So, as they say, forewarned is forearmed. For now, here's some indigo for you to enjoy. It's harvest time. I left the garlic in too long this year. I did a better job with not watering as they were hardening off but left them in about a fortnight too long. This resulted in a lovely treasure hunt but I think I got most of them. This was a wee portion of the harvest - such fun. I'd just been away for a week at a Master Dyer's retreat (more on that later) and worried about all of my crops with the encroaching cold, especially this little beauty: I'm so excited to have a fair few proper squashes and really hope I'm able to get them to ripen. The weather has warmed a little again so... fingers crossed. Next year, tomatoes and squashes and the like are going in about a month earlier and going to be covered at the start of the season as well. Will it help? Who knows but it will be a worthy experiment. In other news... later, I think actually. I have so much going on and so many announcements but they'll have to wait. Sorry folks, there are no babies for sale at this time. Thanks to everyone who's messaged me with requests. I don't think we're going to be breeding next year. If you're still looking, do drop me a line and I'll send you in the direction of some great goat producers. The Farmer's Almanac says my region is supposed to have a particularly cold and snowy winter. Now, I'm not sure what the track record of the FA is but I do know the people around here say if the berry bushes are full, it's going to be a tough winter. This year, the mountain ash and saskatoons were as laden as I'd ever seen them and folks reported record numbers of huckleberries in the high country. Funnily enough, the temps have been dipping way down, as low as 3*C/37*F overnight. That's a low we shouldn't really get for at least a month. At least the colours are fantastic. On the one hand, this cooling trend has got some challenges (tomatoes... so... close); on the other hand, it's been great. No one in my house is a heat lover, so there's that but more so, it's kicked us into squirrel gear big time. The woodshed is filling at an all time high rate, we've got canning going like crazy, though the dehydrator's been a bit quiet (I'll have to get on that asap). And, I've actually got winter crops started early enough that we might actually get to enjoy them as the weather turns! I've got a tonne of things coming - kales, broad beans, spinach, chard, cilantro, nasturtiums, and the all important carrots: I had great success growing carrots in buckets this year. I love the idea of being able to move them into the greenhouse to overwinter, mulch them, etc. But also, I don't have the usual worries about tree roots and our rocky ground. I've been improving it and building ever up and hope to have at least one big overwintering carrot bed but these are the insurance. There was a quick bit o'harvesting. The crookneck is an old beastie. Something between a summer and winter squash. If you catch it early, it's tender and cooks up just like zucchini. As it gets older, the rind gets pretty hard and then, well, I'm not sure. But I do like how it looks. And just because they can't help themselves, there's yet another hen on yet another nest. So, there may be another crop of babies coming. And there's more news but we'll save that for later. For right now, I need to get to my dye pots! I had such great intentions of writing something pithy about the value of our work and being mindful of that on Labour Day. One of the things that's odd to me is that we're at a time when days like Labour Day are important because for many, they're a day off work, not because of what they represent. For me, the most appropriate way to spend Labour Day is working for myself. So it was a canning and planning day. Fortunately, I also have a friend with a birthday so we had supper with good friends, which was lovely. I came home, dealt with a varmint (more on that later), and baked like a mad woman. I figured since this is the first busy week as we all get our wits about us, I should get some baking in. For us, school starts the day after Labour Day and ironically, this is one of the busiest weeks I've had for a long time. I'd call that one a planning fail but it's all towards an important end goal. So, I went from garden leftovers: to a delicious chutney: And made sure broody hens had enough to eat. Spun a lot because: projects. And yes, it's overspun but it's going to be plied so that's no biggie. And during it all, I managed to participate in the conversations around #fairfiberwage. Don't know what's going on there? Let me share some links: From Laura Fry, Abby Franquemont, Mary Beth Temple, Andrea Longo, Miriam Felton, and a bunch of great conversations. Seemed pretty fitting on Labour Day. Whatever you were out there doing, I hope it was good labour. |
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
August 2017
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