Your Body Can And Will Tell The Difference

Few days off and I am looking so forward to getting my hands in the dirt soon!  The ground outside is soft and spongy but I am old enough to know a tease when I see one!  Old Man Winter isn't finished in this neck of the woods yet I'm sure!  But the thoughts of homesteading, egg production, putting up produce, making hay while there is sun and extending the garden are sustaining I and many of my friends :)

I had a bunch of Kale left after making Kale chips with nutritional yeast flakes (Thanks to you Miss Amy J).  I really want to grow this and many other things so I am trying to plan what on earth will I do with all the extra produce - I know enough to know the garden will reward our efforts with more than we can handle in a short amount of time.  Canning is first on the list - another batch of Crisy's Pickles will be given next Holiday Season!  I'm trying to perfect salsa recipes since I believe Joe and I could most likely live on it if we had to - And it will keep well in the 'Prepper Closet'  

Pesto is one of those funny things that would have to be frozen (oils and all), but Im not much on keeping foods that way as they tend to get lost in the shuffle, shuffled to the back, and then become a mystery...Not to mention if we lost electricity I don't want to lose hours of frozen sunshine along with it!

But when I tried my hand @ this (a quick recipe found online) I knew I was onto something great!  I had EVERY ingredient on hand and ready to go!  We've switch out pasta consumption to the grain pasta and Omega 3 pastas.  My oldest son has been greatly influenced by the Vegans on the Mountain and seems to be taking control of his own health destiny - How lucky can a mom get???

Kale Pesto!

2 Cups Packed Kale Leaves (I remove the center stems)

1/2 Cup toasted Walnuts (400 degrees for 5 min in oven - Your Kitchen will smell AMAZING)

2TBSP Parmesan Cheese Grated

1 Clove of Chopped Garlic (Breathe deep here!)

2 TBSP Lemon Juice (I had a real lemon)

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Throw in food processor til almost smooth and serve over Pasta 

Oh Yes!

Kale aids in weight-loss and management of blood sugar levels, It is also an anti-inflammatory.  Kale helps the body get rid of toxins that over time can cause diseases like cancer, alzheimers and the like.

So with that in mind I am trying to go organic like never before and keep track of nutritious foods. Diet Sodas have been banished and High Fructose Corn Syrup was the next to get the heave ho...You see we truly believe your body CAN AND WILL tell the difference.  Case in point "Mom I'm not as hungry when I eat REAL food."  Funny you should call it that honey!   We  are cutting chemicals (aka poisen) and preservatives in this abode like nobody's business, which is turning out to be rather simple...Cooking like Mom and Nana did and sourcing chem-free veggies and meats- who woulda thunk it?  The secret to health where we never thought to look...

Good Energy to you and EAT SOME REAL FOOD!

The Potential of a Day

When you are searching

I was reading a book on health and wellness...that what would heal us is already here...was put here...

An Ancient Allegory...

When the world was new, the Gods on Mount Olympus enriched the Earth with the animals, the creatures of the sea, the plants, and all the living things.  After many eons of time, the Gods at last looked upon those curious humans tampering with the forests and gardens of the world.  They decided they would hide the Secret of Life until humans had grown and evolved in consciousness to the point where they would be ready for it.

The Gods on Mount Olympus argued about where the Secret of Life should be hidden.

   One said, "Let us hide it high upon the tallest mountain, they shall never find it there."

   A Goddess replied, "Humans have insatiable curiosity and ambition.  They will eventually climb the tallest mountain."

  Then another Goddess suggested, "We should hide the Secret of Life at the bottom of the deepest ocean."

  "You don't understand," said a God, "Humanity has a boundless imagination and a potent desire to explore the world.  Sooner or later they will reach even the greatest ocean depths."

   Finally, a Goddess came up with a solution, "Let us hide the Secret of Life in the last place humans would ever look.  A place they will only come to when they have exhausted all other possibilities and are finally ready."

   "And where is that?" asked the Gods.

To which the Goddess replied, "We will not hide it at all."

Good Energy to you in finding the solutions that have been there all along

The Zen in the Next Room...

The other day at work was slammin' and non-stop!  When I finally arrived home (14 hours after I had left home) I made dinner for everyone, threw in a couple of loads of laundry, and filled the dishwasher.  

Finally around 11PM I was ready to relax.  I poured a glass of wine and sat on the couch.  There was a muffled knock at the door and I was my old friend...Insomnia.

It never fails.  My body was so tired my knees actually felt like buckling, which was in direct contrast with my brain which was still running the marathon it had started when I punched into work.  But you see I was in a bit of a pickle because I had to wake up just a few short hours later AND DO IT ALL AGAIN!  I didn't really want to ingest enough coffee the next morning to move myself to palpitations, no, I had to figure out a way to calm my mind...QUICKLY.  This was a bit of a personal emergency.

Meditation did cross my mind but I know myself well enough to realize this would be like treating a forest fire as if it was a birthday candle that could be blown out.  NO.

I knew the only thing that would calm me.  It's really been the only thing that ever has.

A Zen Bath...

I lit my new Tahitian Coconut Candle 

I ran a steamy hot bath infused with a bit of chunky sea salt I keep on a rustic bookcase, yes,

 in my bathroom.  I don't know if being an Aquarian has anything to do with it, or the sneaking suspicion that I've always been a bit of an empath (soaking up energy and vibes and needing to 'bathe' them away).  But my bathroom, though run of the mill, can become a spa/zen/sanctuary in two minutes flat!  

This was a tub I created in the half bath in a camping cabin a couple of years ago.  Yes that is a large tote (at 4'11" I fit quite comfortably!)  My view was a roaring fire in a stone hearth in the middle of the night with my sons snoring in bunk beds.

People that know me very well are somewhat intrigued by my ritual of bath.  And when friends come over for the first time they look in my master bath with and inquisitive hushed manner.  My bathroom at the townhouse is a standard bath.  Nothing fancy.  A double sink. laminate counters.  A toilet.  A stall shower that badly needs a redo.  And a cast iron regular tub.  I've been known to turn a tiny bath into a bathing sanctuary and sometimes create my own bathtub (see above!)

The bookcase throws everyone, but I was my Godmother that told a story of reading in the tub that got me hooked!  My other Aunt Mary elevated a bath to an event adopting a French accent "Let's take a  Bahhhth"  It's really in the blood I think...

Chunky Sea Salt to bathe out impurities...A broken but lovely rosary drapes the glass vessel

and in the center is a little wayward chunk of amethyst, my birthstone.

Some of my amethyst collection sits on a shelf of the bookcase with a very cool celestial bracelet my son found on a visit to Lake George ($7 and it came with earrings!  The hills on the bracelet

 are sea shells...

Books I Love and grab for a few pages from time to time...You will find Coleridge-Selected Poems, 3 CookBooks, Deepak Chopra, Dream Interpretation, At Day's Close-A chronicle of Night throughout history, Farmers Almanac Home Wisdom, As a Man Thinketh-A Century Old Publication of Positive Thought, Steve Alten's The Loch, and whatever catalogs catch my fancy :)

My Lovely Lovely Pothos plant which lends a tumbling timeless feeling.  There is a broken Iron Cross I pulled out of a dumpster and painted black.  One side is longer - almost pointing the way to the practice of asymmetrical and imperfect spirituality.  From the bottom of it a handmade moon pottery ornament hangs, it was from a potter that moved back to Arizona to be near family.

I shut the lights and lit the candles and ran the water.  I soaked.  I let my thoughts and the briny water wash over me.  I was cloistered in steam and oatmeal almond scents.  The living candle light flickered over the amethyst like an ancient cave...I was transported, I was calm, I was zen, I was ready for bed, I was in my own bathroom.

Atmosphere is everything - So I've been told.

Good Energy to you and your rituals...always take care of yourself...however simple. 

Big Plans

This year we have permission to extend the garden we've been keeping at my dads!  I have had my eye on a very sunny patch roughly 12X20 next to the driveway.  I want to up the ante on my canning this year and keep track of how many pounds of produce we can take out of the dirt!  My father wants to set up a garden more toward the back of the property, which to me, is very shady.  I think the new driveway patch with raised beds and large planters will be more prolific due to the many hours of sun - he thinks not....OK...It is on senor...IT. IS. ON!

The old original patch has dappled light which seems to be very good for the cukes and some beans - the tomatoes did somewhat well last year, but I could see them reaching toward the sunniest corner - plus they whispered to me...

So this year the Sun Patch will have raised beds (easier because I refuse to pitchfork that packed earth.)  The tomatoes will have their way in the sun and I will hopefully be gifting mucho salsa @ the holidays along with more bread and butter pickles!  I will also be trying some new experiments MUHAHAHA!  They shall include, but not be limited to:

3 Sisters Planting!

I read a  book a while ago called, The Shoestring Girl by Annie Brewer, it was chock full of wonderful $ saving tips.  This is one of them!  This is the ultimate in companion planting!  The method calls for planting corn (starch) and waiting until it gets a bit tall, then plant beans (protein and nitrogen for the soil) that will climb up the corn stalk, then plant squash (flesh and seeds) which will act as a natural mulch!  Some enthusiasts call for putting a little chunk of fish in the soil to aid with the nutrients...but I live in bear country and I had scary visions of those lumbering giants pawing at the entire crop to get the fish as I look on in horror...no I will forgo the fish!  The next experiment shall be:

Potato Tower!

I have seen this in several places - a blog called one hundred dollars a month and again in the book Shoe string Girl.  There are many variations if you search images but the one that I am going to employ is simple chicken wire (or the rectangular kind) 4' high and round - edges attached to make a huge cylinder.  You can save potatoes that you have 'sprouted' in your fridge - or order seed potatoes and you plant them then cover over with hay...when the leaves start to grow you repeat and repeat and repeat until the cylinder is full.  when the leaves die off you clip the tower apart and taters will come tumbling down!!! Sounds like so much fun and I can't wait to try this with the boys!

Bean TeePee!

I did a version of this at my old house and boy do beans grow - I could eat them every day!  Unfortunately the teepee had collapsed under the weight of the grabbing vines, but it was very enchanted when It reached it's peak!  I'm going to do a smaller version and see how it goes.  If you have kids Beans are an instant gratification plant - you can watch it grow almost daily and the more you pick it seems like the more you have!

Asparagus Patch

If beans are instant gratification Asparagus is a slow growth stock...It takes a year to establish and you may be able to harvest the following year.  I don't know how true it is but I have heard that Anthropology types have been able to map out rural towns the the earth has reclaimed by the kitchen plots of asparagus - for once it takes hold it never stops.  I love mine roasted with fresh black pepper and olive oil!  This will be worth the trial if it takes :)

Container Carrots

If you have ever had fresh carrots with butter and dill you know what I am talking about!  Carrots have been a love/hate in the garden for me.  I plant.  I pray.  I see the delicate foliage of the carrot like a green apparition.  I grow excited.  Then impatient.  Then I dig one up to find the only thing that has grown is an orange oblong marble.  SIGH.  I then read an article which suggest carrots need soft dirt so a large container with softer soil is the answer - we shall see!

I am going to incorporate Heirloom seeds in the hope of saving our seeds for future planting and finally having a 'closed' system without necessary future purchases.  This would be the ultimate as far as I am concerned!  Gardening and Saving seeds is and exercise in science and hope...Never been much for science...but hope - well I dwell there daily!

Good Energy to your plot or pot of dirt!  Exercise yourself in Hope!

Missing the Flame

Woke again today to very Celtic surroundings.  The mist is thick and the air holds damp chill.  There is nothing that can remedy this in my family save a roaring blaze and hot black tea.  I feel it in my bones, the past I've never lived, the past of those before, somehow reaches from that suspended damp and infiltrates my very soul.

I want wool, I want my boots, I want tea steaming, I want my people and I want the flame.

My Nana told me a story of a manor like house where she worked in Scotland when she was young.  She was a nanny of sorts and early in the morning she was a fire-setter.  She would wake up and set the hearths to blaze to 'dry they rooms out'.  Her china blue eyes set in an old face would look beyond where we were in both place and time and she would speak on.  Even for a child I new these revealings of her life were a moment not to be disturbed-barely even by my own  breathing.  She transported me in those moments to stone walls, moors, rolling greens and fresher life.

"Aye the one wall was rocks and they would be dark and heavy, but they fire would lighten they gray" The nights chill would retreat as the fire blazed.  These moments I miss but am so grateful I had with her.  Talk to the young ones and pass on all you can, and on a chilly day it will be your words that warm their their souls.

In our fast paced world children need to know where they come from, what they are made of.

Funny as I try to live an intentional life every day and move toward an existence that seems perfect for me a hearth and a fire and a water source are always the common denominators.  I hope today finds you curled up, cozy and with people you love and if it doesn't I pray it will soon.  In the meantime hold onto your fire and carry it in your heart.

Good Energy and Wooly Warmth to you.

Misty Morn

The ghostly cloak of morning

Today I awoke to a view out my window much like this - the forest has it's own secrets and sensuality.  The snow it giving way to icy mud patches and the air is thick with cold moisture.  If I was already in my farmhouse a fire would have been set upon waking.  I have that to look forward to.

Still the townhouse is cozy.  I scooped my crazy little dog off her chair and brought her to bed with me for a while.  I parted the curtains and watched the light of day creep into the woods.  No hearth to tend so I did the next best thing - I activated some yeast added flour sugar and butter and let the dough rise.  

Today we will have an early dinner of a baked chicken some vegetables and homemade bread. My boys will help me paint their room an oceany salt water blue green. The theme is beach bum and I can't help but think it was chosen in direct rebellion against the bleak landscape of January. I too shall enjoy a rebellion of my own later...after attending Michael's first basketball game of the season, painting, cooking, and finishing the work of the day... I plan on retiring with a nice glass of dry red wine and escaping into the seed catalogs that have arrived!

In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me, there was, an invincible summer :)

Good Energy to your plans for the Days of Light!

Working a bit less!

"Life moves by pretty fast, if you don't stop to take a look 

around sometimes, you could miss it"  -Ferris Bueller

This was taken the other day from my car!  I actually had 2 days off in a row!  It's kind of funny after working 2 almost FT jobs, balls to the wall for the last year, well 2 days off in a row feels like I'm somehow cheating the system - HA!

When I posted this on my FB page someone texted me and asked if it had been airbrushed, nope!  I had to make a run to the town of newton to get weather stripping for the garage as well as a double breaker switch for a small heater to be installed in the garage (Don't ask that will be another post entirely - I am still trying to wrap my head around heating the garage, sounds like air-conditioning the deck to me but my friend Joe and my boys need to work on ATV's so we can hit the trails in spring)  So be it.

Anywho onto Newton...  I decide to take the back road from Sussex which winds past some pretty stunning scenery.  I was going to stop at the Chatterbox and grab lunch for Joe then continue on to Home Depot & Lowes.  The sky was surreal, as you can see, so I rolled the window down, glanced in the rearview, slowed to a crawl and shot this pic.  I was thinking of photoshopping the car window frame out but ended up leaving it - Cause that to me is how life happens folks!

Any major decision I've made in my adult life can be traced back to one of my Life Books (these are a series of journals/diaries/meltdowns/bitch sessions/gratitude logs and goal keepers).  Im sure my mental Tennis Match over leaving the second job took up more pages than it should have but as I simmered it all down to a reduction in thought sauce the pros and cons list of leaving that job simply read this:

CONS: Loss of small second income.  

PROS: Gain of 

More time with the boys, hanging out with them, driving them to their sports and school

More time to make them healthier food- less take out

More time to pal around with them after work without being so exhausted

More time for projects together,getting outside together

More time to talk to them before they go off on their own life

More time to hang with my father as a friend (i.e. go to movies, putter in the yard, thank him in a way for the time he gave me)

More time to see my Brother and his family

Bond with the crazy Mexican/Irish Dog Bella

A Cleaner house with time to do the projects that I love-cooking, sewing, decorating in my foraging way (read thrift junk shops)

More time for community and friends (at this writing a girls night is planned with my realestate friends a.k.a The Vagina Mafia)

Time to work on my writing projects (yes!)

More time to work on my prepper closet  --  yes i do have a modest one-im a freak like that

Time to fix up house/painting etc

More time for me and my personal health (i.e. long walks past my favorite farm)

More Yoga/ Meditating/higher thought

More time to research and try my homesteading mission 

More time to declutter my closets and my brain.

More time to explore my area and photograph it

Farmers Markets. 

Local Vendors.

Back Roads. 

And on and on this list went for about 4 pages of a college ruled notebook!  By the time I reached the somewhat finish of it my face was damp with tears, my heart swelled with gratitude, my gut excited with anticipation - and my soul felt richer than any king there ever was. 

I've still got my FT gig at the hospital - 3 12-16 hour days a week - w good benefits for the boys and I, Paid time off, extended illness bank, tuition reimbursement, a very small automatic savings account (VERY SMALL...for now), a view of the exit sign with debt repayment, a small retirement account (dont get excited I'll be able to financially swing retirement at about age 125! - all the more reason to homestead!) and well I've still got me.  The balls to the wall with so much is almost over and yet I feel like another journey is beginning...because it is.  And I know that God and my family and all those that came before me gave me the fortitude, the tenacity, and well the rocks to keep going. I sat on my bedroom floor 5 years ago terrified of my life, not equipped to handle what was in front of me.  So I got out markers and poster board and made signs of what needed to change, and a lot of it has.

Work hard and try to do the right things. Take the time to view your progress once in a while and remember to stay grateful.  Don't compare yourself to anyone else because in the end - the race is only with yourself - God Bless and btw...

WORKING A BIT LESS AND ADJUSTING MY LIFE TO DO SO IS ALREADY SO MUCH MORE!

Namaste