Politics. That’s a screamer for me. I’m happy you have an opinion – please, keep it to yourself. Just for the record I support neither party, registered Independent, and try to vote on issues when I vote. What’s in the political news lately? The damned Fast Track Trade agreement. I’m currently neither for nor against,…
Category: The Homestead
The gory…err glory road to downsizing ‘stuff’.
Yes, it is gory. Gut-wrenching. Painful. Overwhelming. That’s why I am taking a break to write about it instead of doing it. Heh. We squirrel away for all kinds of maybes. Maybe they won’t make (insert item of choice) any more. We stock and store because we’ve a prepper mentality so maybe there will…
At 13 degrees, don’t touch the iced tent sides!
This experience, while considered by many to be slightly insane, is very educational for me. It is an opportunity to learn while learning is optional and not mandatory, or driven by necessity. I’ve known too many people relegated to a lifestyle they didn’t anticipate with no foreknowledge, myself included. The saving grace in my sleeping…
9.10.14 Wordless Wednesday – Perspective
Dream a Little Dream With Me
Yes, it is a little play on words from the duet by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong because today I am writing about my homesteading dreams. Maybe re-re-dreams is more accurate, since I’ve already started twice and had to stop due to the death of my spouse and another time due to the pesky necessity…
Waffling, or how I love the NE ~ AND ~ TN
I confess. While I love my heart home of Tennessee, I also adore the North, particularly Maine, Vermont and Michigan. Why? I have no idea. I’ve never lived in such a place where you have to fight or submit to the weather. I’ve never even been there. But the forests I’ve seen photos of make…
Trip prepping, ‘net surfing and still not talking
While I await the final timeline on my outing in March due to work issues, my mind has turned to prep for the trip. Since this most likely will be my only vacation this year, I want to squeeze all of the good things that I can from it. So far I’ve contacted an online…
Storage, space and other mish mash
While I continue to build my homestead in my mind, there is just such a drag of time. Time usually seems to fly by these days, with 2013 passing so quickly it feels like I hardly blinked, yet, when an idea lies far out near the horizon, time seems to just sloooooooow down. It is…
Foundations of dreams, or the fiscal discipline plan
While I’ve spent the last few days flitting around the interwebs looking up fun and creative things, tonight was spent on the things that actually help bring dreams to fruition – the running of the numbers. Less exciting and exotic than the running of the bulls I’d say, but much more necessary for a successful…
Skillz, Scrounging and the Pinterest rabbit hole!
Oy. Vey. I have fallen down the Pinterest rabbit hole and may never see daylight again, lol! I have to consciously ignore the ‘suggestions’ when I Pin something from the ‘net that interests me, or I’ll be distracted by every shiny, interesting thing out there. But wow, what a wealth of ideas, color infusions, organizing…
Tiny Houses, Runaway Dreams and Excitement
I have to tell you, excitement is getting the best of me. I sneak peeks all during the day at house plans and gaze lovingly at the little parcel of land on GIS maps on and off during the work hours. My head is crammed full of designs, colors, building materials, gardens, cute hen-houses and…
My Number One…Dream
I am keeping up my commitment to write daily, but I don’t have a number one person in my life to write about, which was the prompt for today. Instead, I have a number one dream to write about. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do…
Road trips, memories and dreams
Anyone who has followed my blog for a month or more knows that homesteading, the euphemism for ‘simpler times’, is the dream that I desire to return to. It has been a few years since I lived that life, 2011 to be exact. Previously embarked on by me and my husband, it is a lifestyle…
Planning, aka ways to pass time on a rainy, gloomy day
I have forgotten how much fun planning is. Several people offered suggestions for pushing past this painful time. The most humorous suggestion was “The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else!” Errrr, funny, but definitely not my style. But now planning? Re-engaging with my dreams? That IS a…
Re-Framing, or “Reality Truly Is Your Friend.”
The Reader’s Digest that I picked up on a grocery run has a lot of fascinating content, as usual. But among the other great reads was an excerpt from Ellen Stimson’s Mud Season that truly struck me as hilarious – and also probably quite foreshadowing of the time when I return to the country on…
Passing the torch and ruminations on beauty
Beauty. There is so much beauty in the countryside that it can take my breath away. But I am a sappy, impractical person like that. I’m the one that pulls off to the side of the road simply because the sunlight is hitting a field of goldenrod just so, highlighting the variant shades of green…
Appreciation
Yesterday was just one of those days that I felt productive, satisfied and appreciative. And so I woke up today with a smile and a stretch. Sleeping on a lumpy, bumpy hot pink, third hand futon is a test for my body’s restorative powers, lol! I am so thankful for the opportunity to come back…
Time travel
If you think that time travel is not possible, then you have not kept much of your life in boxes for long periods of time as I have. Or perhaps you are not a linker of time and events to objects as I am. The activities of yesterday proved once again that simply to touch…
Reuniting, too much stuff, and bad weather
Yesterday was catch-up with the neighbors day. People here are very different from where I am currently living. They wave. They pull into your driveway if they see your car and you’ve been gone a while. They share food and mow your property when your mower breaks. They drop by on their way to…
Bittersweetness on my tongue
I. Am. Home. But it’s not home any more. It’s the shadow home, the home that would-have-been. It fits around my heart like home, but like all things, it was just temporary. It was I that made the mistake of calling it ‘my forever home.’ Nothing is forever except the time that flows past us…
Seven day commitment – roaaaaad trippin’!
One of the things I made a private agreement with self about was to write at least one post a day during this vacation. Rarely do I get to ‘vacate’ without it being related to something else, never just a vacation for fun. This time is no exception. However, I LOVE road trips! And…
Mental preparation, emotional upheaval and new life
It’s been quite a new year so far. New friends, new babies, new job, new personal growth. It is also an emotionally taxing time. Holding a tiny new baby, welcoming a new personality into the world – wow, I had forgotten how soft their skin is; how perfect the tiny fingers and fingernails; the rosebud…
On death, taxes and the promise of Spring
It’s that time of year again, tax time! The one good thing about taxes is that paying them means that I was gainfully employed last year, or at least most of it anyway. Due to the house purchase, I am not eligible for E-Filing, boo hoo. And alas, my printer ink froze during the move,…
Snowstorms and expanding personal boundaries
Whew! Made it through the record snowstorm – 9″ of the white stuff just to make life more interesting and beautiful. I am learning to be prepared, which is a new experience for me. In the city, I didn’t think at all about preparations. When we graduated to the ‘burbs, preparations were not high…
Starting to feel like home
Well, there has been a lot going on around here. Most of it consists of me learning about and trying stuff I have absolutely no clue about, which is always exciting and interesting, and usually frustrating to boot. I’ve not taken any photos here yet, mainly because it is either cold, rainy, or rainy and…
It’s open-pocketbook season at Sunflower Solace Farm!
Yep. I am here. In short, the move was less than stellar -mainly due to disorganization on my part. I only thought I was pretty much ready. Ehhh, it is what it is. But most of my stuff is here, and I owe great thanks to my oldest punkin and her buddy J. I…
Stuff, stuff and oh, some more stuff
Oh. My. Goodness. Who BUYS all of this stuff that I am having to pack? Surely not moi. Sigh. I have parted with some things over the last couple of months spent packing, but I’m having that ‘oh-no-I-may-never-have-money-again-since-I-am-a-widow-now’ reluctance to throw away anything that might come in handy at the new place. So I pack,…
Sunflower Solace Farm 