Onward ho!

I read this today:

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”   

~Neil Gaiman


*deep exhale*

Let go of fear of failure.


Here's the first image I ever posted on the blog:

It was a time when ideas were becoming Truth:

There's no way of getting around change.
Life is either an adventure, or trying to hold back a wild horse. 
Success looks different than you thought it would.
Fear will be conquered.

As true then as it is today.

Still making mistakes? Always.

Onward ho!

summer resolutions

Some people start thinking about New Year's resolutions in November, or December; I've always noticed that summer brings change. Maybe it's a cycle that gets imprinted during our school years when we all get a break to go off and return as someone else. We've grown and made choices about the person we want to be without the constant reinforcement of who we are to other people. Maybe we've taken a trip...maybe it's just all the sunshine.

I read this the other day:

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

~ Harold Thurman Whitman

What a perfect summer resolution!


...I might add that a sketchbook/journal would make a perfect companion. Take a peek at Diana Trout's blog for some excellent ideas.

acknowledging success

It seems that along with the benefits of challenging myself to grow and explore, I sometimes suffer the undesired result of missing out on my own success. I'm re-posting a piece from last year just to remind myself what has been accomplished. I'm taking a moment to breathe it in and give thanks. I hope you'll take stock and enjoy a little reveling in the bantam victories today.

"O Pioneers" (after the Walt Whitman poem) was written last year while we were living in our much loved, micro-farm, row-house in the city. I was exploring my relationship with my surroundings, my connection with farming, animals and my desire to experience a hands on connection with our food and wild spaces. I realized the experiences I treasured from my childhood couldn't be recreated at nature camps or parks. If I wanted that for our family I had to honor my own values; I had to stick with it even if it seemed far-fetched... or nearly impossible.


Well, here we are on a farmette at the foot hills of the mountains. There are challenges every day and monetary quick fixes are not in the cards, but instead of making a list of all the things I want and need I'm here to shove them to the side and say, "I did it!" Time is tricky - it can twist our perception and impatience drains our gratitude, but I was there and now I'm here and thankful's what I am.


Pioneers! O Pioneers!

When I was little I loved wandering away from the house and making a little home in the woods out of branches, blankets, and whatever I could haul along in a backpack or pillow case - these are some of my favorite memories. I learned a little about the trees and plants from my parents and would gather anything I knew I could eat - bunches of dandelion, sassafras, and mulberries. I loved the feeling of having my life in my own hands - it was a thrill to imagine I had to survive on the meager offerings of the forest.

Watching my daughter make a fort with her friend the other day, I started to think about how so many of the things that bring me happiness now are not that different. I want freedom like I felt when I wandered until I found a spot that was just right and made the most of what I could find. I welcome the challenge of figuring out how much nutrition I can get from the little plot behind my house, I like the the challenge of making a small home special and brilliant and I can actually say I enjoyed all the moves to new cities, standing in an empty flat and figuring out how it could feel like home in less than eight hours. I know this connection with freedom, survival, and challenge has sculpted my life. I've given up things others have told me were important to hold on to it, and as I understand more fully what's needed from all of us, I doubt myself less everyday.

I remember reading an article with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm He was talking about the challenges of changing farming in America and how he often hears people bragging about their son or daughter who's a lawyer, or investment banker, but has never heard someone say with pride, "My son is a farmer!"

There are people who enjoy a different path to success and what this different perspective brings, we need. Hold onto that desire to be independent you felt a child, just know that real freedom might end up looking different than they told you it would.

Pioneers! O Pioneers!

no fear - tea with Kālī

At the beginning of the month I posted about an idea for the new paper-mâché series. I finished the first one today...

"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction."



Quote by Pablo Picasso

simpler living (my rasp and nippers)

The last couple weeks we've been having trouble with the Internet connection and I've been kept away from the blog. We have limited options for connection here and our first choice ended up being painfully slow....amazing being an hour from a major city! Thankfully our second choice seems to be up to snuff and I'll be able to manage the new Etsy store check in here with more ease.

Around the homestead we've prepared another garden bed employing the Lasagna method. With this method you don't have to work the soil at all, or remove existing grass. It's our first time doing it this way and if nothing else it was a fun way for the kids to help out. There's been plenty of winterizing and carrying water to frozen troughs. Luckily this grey settling in for winter was punctuated by a night of partying with old friends till the wee hours...we need some of that every now and then! Filled with cheer we're ready to continue through the winter months ahead.

Another focus around here has been learning new skills. We enjoy this effort to live closer to our food and to connect as a family through our connection to the land. I hope this choice is open to anyone who wants to explore it no matter what their financial situation - that it's not just seen as a luxury. I think there's a stirring in many of us that feels uneasy about letting the years pass saying,"I'll eventually have the time." If you're honest with yourself and keep simplicity the goal you have a good chance at making a new way now. I'm stumbling and strengthening as we take small steps to escape the work-spend-consume treadmill, it's a hard thing to unravel, but we're already enjoying time together as a family that we've never known.

There are many things we've had to address, but one thing that makes an immediate impact is cutting out paying for services whenever possible. This means mastering a few new skills. My skill for the month - learning to trim hooves. I thought I would always employ the services of a farrier, but I started to wonder if I could do it myself.

I've watched farriers at work since the age of five and I spent years reading through my Official Manual of the British Horse Society. With some more training I felt confident I could cut this bill out of our budget. Big A brought home the rasp and nippers I'd been eyeing at the Tractor Supply Co. and I'm now doing successful pony trims. Anything more complicated like shoeing or corrective work I would need help with, but for now we're set.

What new skill have you learned that has helped the family budget?

"All things are ready if our minds be so"

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." Carl Jung

Serendipity - fortuitous coincidence

Shakespeare speaks about serendipity in act 4 of Henry V "All things are ready if our minds be so"

Many scientific discoveries have been serendipity in action - Albert Hofmann and Louis Pasteur knew this to be true. I mention Scientific serendipity because understanding how it works in these cases will show you how prepared minds can make discoveries about themselves and the world around them - seemingly by chance - without any esoteric or mystical inclination. If a humming bird can find its way alone from British Columbia to Mexico, certainly we humans have been endowed with some instincts as well. How to prepare the mind to use them - that's the key.

The concept of synchronicity is now being integrated into once fixed and linear fields such as career counseling. It's become apparent we can't make the important decisions in our life without acknowledging all the levels we operate on, so whether you call it an intervention of grace, Jung's acausal connecting principle, or mother's intuition, imagining you "see the signs" isn't just a flight of fancy.

Be still

don't grasp

watch what happens