Summer Abundance

Entry Thrice. If you are someone who "likes" that I'm doing this, tell me what you're excited about or what stands out for you after reading. It helps feed my fuel and it's like having another pair of eyes/ears out here, which is Christmas come early for me.

PEOPLE: I'm making networking connections as abundantly as the mosquitos have been attacking my flesh. There's an amazing couple that I met through Dryden's tiny little farmers market--I went over there to pick up some organic-fed, pastured chickens to find them living off grid in a freakin' Earthship. For those of you who don't know, well, google it. There's is a passive-solar home-built house made from rammed Earthen recycled car tires. It sounds a little ugly when you read about it in words, but this place is GORGEOUS. They have no well--its all rain catchment for home and farm use (however this year thats not saying much because it randomly pours like twice a day!). Anyways if you want to check them out--Tapped Earth Farm on Facebook. There are some sick photos of their property taken with a drone.

One of Tapped Earth's pastured chickens

Also some of my friends through Primitive Pursuits live literally right up my road and are building a straw-bale house soon. I told my Grandpa that the other day... he gave me the funniest look and then made a joke about the big bad wolf. I swear people literally have no idea what I'm talking about half the time anymore.

EARTH MOMMA: She is filling my life with abundance right now. I ask, I wait, I give gratitude, I let it go, and then BAM, She delivers. Seriously my life is flowing in free materials, free help, and free love and appreciation for what I am doing here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel so connected to my purpose. I feel so connected to this place. I have to say though, I really didn't realize how country of a place I grew up in... you drive like 3 minutes South and suddenly every single house has a tractor and a backyard garden, or at least a couple million miles of corn. It makes me feel like there as so many people here I will really git round to liken'.

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WATERS: The rainstorms here are ridiculous. Back in Seattle they don't know what rain is. I swear every time my clothes on the line get just about dry, the Gods laugh and bring in the most crazy downpours you could imagine. Seriously... the moment the rain starts I make a mad dash for my clothes, but by the time they are all off the line and in the basket both the clothes on the line and on my back are soaked through. Washington is not rainy, its misty... prone to continuous dreary sprinkling (though yes the summers make it worth it).

TREES: I've fallen in love with black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). It grows prolifically across our Southern property line and most landowners hate it because it grows fast, has big ole' thorns, grows more every time you cut it, and doesn't split well for firewood. We are going to abide by one of the principles of permaculture: make problems into solutions, so that I can continue to love it, guilt free. We are going to lay a black locust hedge that will keep in livestock because of the thorns, it will grow quickly and densely enough to re-lay the hedge often and frequently cut it for firewood when it's small enough not to have to split. It is a nitrogen fixer, making the soil better for other plants while simultaneously creating awesome biomass for addition to the compost. It's also a rot-resistant wood that makes great tools and fence posts. PLUS when the wind blows, it dances more beautifully than prom night.

Black locust treeline in the background with peeled saplings
for a raspberry trellis and fence posts to the right.

Lacto-fermented snap peas.

Mmmmm...

PLANTS: Who knew I loved plants so damn much?! I certainly didn't. Turns out, they are NOT boring. They grow so fast! Its unbelievable. I have yet to try it, but I'm pretty sure if you sat for a whole day in the garden you could watch a entire pea take form. I'm already planning my garden for next year and boy get ready, I'm going to have more vegetative currency than people can handle. Seriously though, does anyone want any kale or collards?

BIRDS: Why are sounds so much harder to remember than images? It is so hard for me to learn bird calls so I'm starting simple. I've got the catbird's crazy imitation garbled song down, the nuthatch's nasally yanks, and I'm focusing on the Northern Cardinal now. How many of you can imitate a cardinal right in this moment just from your brain? That's what I'm working on.

ANIMALS: It has become a routine that I wake up in the middle of the night to intensely loud sniffing right next to my tent. The first night I woke up in a dazed panic sure my house was about to be huffed and puffed down. Shortly after the snuffling was a brief silence and then then such a loud, unexpected crunching noise I jumped clear out of my skin. It has now become a most-night ritual that a deer comes and eats fallen apples just on the other side of my tent wall. Sometimes she comes late enough in the morning that I get to watch her long white tail flick and her huge ears satelliting around for potential predators.

SKY: I am already noticing that the morning sun doesn't wake me up so early and it's actually mostly dark when I head off to bed now. The days are getting shorter and I still have SO MUCH TO DO.

BODY: So... I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my whole life and no, unfortunately not because of farmer muscle. Noticed that all my pictures are of food? I didn't until I went to upload them to show you all what I've been up to. On the plus side, every meal I'm making is nearly the best food I've ever eaten in my life and I can't stop. Is it worth getting fat? Well ummm duh.

Spiralized zucchini noodles

Frozen bananas from
Momma Whitmore

Saurkraut batch #1!

INNER TRACKING: Had my first bout of Lyme symptom relapse and it was the most amazingly scary and informative experience I've had to date about the way this disease affects me. Because getting and treating Lyme has been such a slow process for me, it has always been really difficult to tease out my emotions and reality from the way the spirochetes (the ancient Lyme aliens) affect me. I have gone through a lot of emotional swings and depression over the last couple of years, and though I wont give Lyme all the credit for that, listen to this: Coupled with joint pain, headaches, and hit-by-a-truck fatigue, I had the most intense mind chatter and emotional darkness for like two days. I sat in my upstairs bathroom one night silently crying, rocking back and forth, and telling myself I was okay and that all my life dreams weren't over. Seriously, it was so outside of my actual reality here where I wake up at 6am everyday so pumped for life. Wow. So amazing that there are beings in this world with that kind of a super-power.

For my next entry I've decided to compile a video with a bunch of short clip highlights from my life here. Hehehe. I'm excited to show you all.