I'm at my parents which means unlimited internet. Mom and Cass keep saying i'm going to get to the end of the weekend and realize that I forgot to socialize and missed it all. I did LOTS of that last night though and I'm still socializing while blogging/googling/emailing. So I think this is okay.
Most of my googling centres around my hobbies. It might be about yogurt and cheese making, gardening, chickens or (the most recent) ducks. Mom is going to hatch chickens and ducks for me in the classroom and I'm looking how to raise the ducks. What do they need and do I have the right facilities for them. I'm already getting excited about next spring and it isn't even winter yet.
In my wanderings I found this amazing website, the new agrarian. I have a lot more that I want to read in it but there is this one essay (he writes tons of essays for some reason) that I just can't get over. He's touched on so many thoughts/issues that I've been thinking about in the last little while so I want to cut and paste it here, with some of my thoughts. Its just a few paragraphs and I'd love it if you read more but here are just a few snips that i most appreciated:
(excerpt from The Halfway Homestead)
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, since we were first married, Kathy and I have planned a future in which we would buy more land where we could have big gardens, livestock, pasture, barns, a workshop, and a bigger house. At one time, we thought we would be there by now, but we are still working on it. For the time being, we have a house that is small but nice enough and an acre and a half of land, most of which is wooded, in a suburban neighborhood
...
But there are limits to what we can do in a backyard, and as the "homestead" kept getting pushed further into the future, we started growing frustrated. The problem with dreams deferred is that they can quietly become dreams forgotten: you have to keep moving toward what you want, even if by baby steps. And I felt that we were stalled.
...
After all, every homestead is a halfway homestead. No real homestead ever quite lives up to the dream; life is a compromise between ideal and necessity. We can never be or do everything we'd like — but that fact doesn't absolve us of the responsibility to try. So we try, every day, and we move forward by baby steps. And ten years, twenty years, a lifetime of baby steps adds up.
Too many of us who want change in the world envision the world we'd like to live in but never figure out how to get there from here. It is daunting to think about a divide so great, so I advise trying not to think about it. Keep the end in mind, but focus on the small things you can do rather than the big things you can't.
And so the halfway homestead is our answer to the question What can we do right here, right now? It's about putting down roots where we are, rather than holding back until we're where we think we'd like to be. It's about taking the scenic route, enjoying the ride, and holding open the possibility that we might find a better destination than the one we had in mind.
I am attracted to this website and the way this guy writes because I have similar dreams. I would love a homestead with a barn and big gardens. I am excited to go online and find so many other people out there who also have the dreams that i have. I like reading about what people have done and are doing. When he talks about the dream being further and further into the future and how that dream just seems to die off, I understand what he's saying. My dream hasn't died off but I get the small sense of urgency to do something now or else it might. That's why the chickens and the Mozz has been such a good thing for me this summer. It has really helped me start to live my homestead dreams but its also developed them and made me dream more. I love his last paragraph about the baby steps towards a dream. Not just because of homesteading dreams but dreams of goodness in life in general. Lately I have been really pushing for answers about how to be environmentally aware. I have been hearing a lot about the environmental wreck in Kenya because of Sarah's blog and my heart bleeds with hers. I feel like I not only want to do something but I HAVE to do something. Now. But how? How will what I'm doing make any any any difference? Really. Show me exactly what I can do. It frustrates me to not know. And the small steps seem frustrating themselves. But then, I read this paragraph and I think about how my dream of a good world and how if I just hold up that dream as a future goal and only focus on that I'm afraid that it might become "a dream deferred" and it might quietly die. I need to work in the small steps and do what I can right here and right now. I'll take that scenic route.
Most of my googling centres around my hobbies. It might be about yogurt and cheese making, gardening, chickens or (the most recent) ducks. Mom is going to hatch chickens and ducks for me in the classroom and I'm looking how to raise the ducks. What do they need and do I have the right facilities for them. I'm already getting excited about next spring and it isn't even winter yet.
In my wanderings I found this amazing website, the new agrarian. I have a lot more that I want to read in it but there is this one essay (he writes tons of essays for some reason) that I just can't get over. He's touched on so many thoughts/issues that I've been thinking about in the last little while so I want to cut and paste it here, with some of my thoughts. Its just a few paragraphs and I'd love it if you read more but here are just a few snips that i most appreciated:
(excerpt from The Halfway Homestead)
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, since we were first married, Kathy and I have planned a future in which we would buy more land where we could have big gardens, livestock, pasture, barns, a workshop, and a bigger house. At one time, we thought we would be there by now, but we are still working on it. For the time being, we have a house that is small but nice enough and an acre and a half of land, most of which is wooded, in a suburban neighborhood
...
But there are limits to what we can do in a backyard, and as the "homestead" kept getting pushed further into the future, we started growing frustrated. The problem with dreams deferred is that they can quietly become dreams forgotten: you have to keep moving toward what you want, even if by baby steps. And I felt that we were stalled.
...
After all, every homestead is a halfway homestead. No real homestead ever quite lives up to the dream; life is a compromise between ideal and necessity. We can never be or do everything we'd like — but that fact doesn't absolve us of the responsibility to try. So we try, every day, and we move forward by baby steps. And ten years, twenty years, a lifetime of baby steps adds up.
Too many of us who want change in the world envision the world we'd like to live in but never figure out how to get there from here. It is daunting to think about a divide so great, so I advise trying not to think about it. Keep the end in mind, but focus on the small things you can do rather than the big things you can't.
And so the halfway homestead is our answer to the question What can we do right here, right now? It's about putting down roots where we are, rather than holding back until we're where we think we'd like to be. It's about taking the scenic route, enjoying the ride, and holding open the possibility that we might find a better destination than the one we had in mind.
I am attracted to this website and the way this guy writes because I have similar dreams. I would love a homestead with a barn and big gardens. I am excited to go online and find so many other people out there who also have the dreams that i have. I like reading about what people have done and are doing. When he talks about the dream being further and further into the future and how that dream just seems to die off, I understand what he's saying. My dream hasn't died off but I get the small sense of urgency to do something now or else it might. That's why the chickens and the Mozz has been such a good thing for me this summer. It has really helped me start to live my homestead dreams but its also developed them and made me dream more. I love his last paragraph about the baby steps towards a dream. Not just because of homesteading dreams but dreams of goodness in life in general. Lately I have been really pushing for answers about how to be environmentally aware. I have been hearing a lot about the environmental wreck in Kenya because of Sarah's blog and my heart bleeds with hers. I feel like I not only want to do something but I HAVE to do something. Now. But how? How will what I'm doing make any any any difference? Really. Show me exactly what I can do. It frustrates me to not know. And the small steps seem frustrating themselves. But then, I read this paragraph and I think about how my dream of a good world and how if I just hold up that dream as a future goal and only focus on that I'm afraid that it might become "a dream deferred" and it might quietly die. I need to work in the small steps and do what I can right here and right now. I'll take that scenic route.
posted by Nicole at 1:22 p.m.
10 Comments:
it's a good journey and a great dream. keep at it!
My dear sister, you're heart is in the right spot. I believe that the biggest challenge facing the world is a must needed mind change. Where there is a will there is a way! And I can see your mind is changing and developing! It's beautiful and very encouraging for me to see and hear my sister undergoing this change!
Yeah! That all sounds great. You know, I guess I should feel more blessed that I grew up (somewhat) in your dream. We had 20 acres, dogs, cats, pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs, a duck, a rooster, a horse, an enormous garden and orchard (we never bought vegetables, especially not potatoes), and all that. I suppose now you know: after you've had fresh garden vegetables, you can never go back.
Well gardens and orchards and back to the land, ... been there all my life in thought and sometimes in deed. Trouble is when ya get a family and a mortgage, car payments and school and church, and business pressures in a world that doesn't give a damn about you, the idealisms of the former go right out the window faster than a pitch fork full of shit. The pressure just to keep will kill the spirit faster than anything on earth. And yet ... if we keep it before us .... keep taking baby steps .... allow the passion to consume us .... stay true to our Lord and think outside the old status quo box ..... spread the idea around a bit to your kids and such sort, bit by bit change does happen. Alternative values do take root. Your children grow up and ask Christ centered questions about life, and how they can make a difference. they start to raise chickens of their own, and raise people up who are hurting, and see that life is way more than the sum of what you can buy or who people think you are, and if you give them the opportunity bit by bit the cycle of apathy can be broken and great things do happen. It's a life time commitment, but God does bless the seed when we plant it and eventually after a life time of planting some of it takes hold. So keep on planting your gardens folks and eventually they'll become homesteads. Always be ready to share them with others and always be ready to help others plan their gardens ... or trees. Think I'll go out and get some chickens again
Dad, I was very moved by your comment! It spoke of honesty, integrity and of faith. Characters i hope to portray to my children as deeply as you have portrayed them to me.
ah nicole, to have the movitvation, and love! I am evnous of you and your dreams. I belive in you babe. Lots of love
Keep dreaming! You are further along today than you were last year at this time so keep it up. And please say Happy birthday to your sweetie for me!
hey nicole!
your post made me think of this blog that i often read - http://www.shempel.blogspot.com/
Sarah talks about her hatred for suburbia and she talks a lot about the agrarian stuff you mention. She's also into buying local food and all that jazz. She is also an artist and creates sculptures. Cool chick, sounds like you would mesh with some of her ideas!
good to hear your thoughts!! :)
love Coryn
Thank you, Aunts from Winnipeg. My family knows about you guys as the Winnipeg girls because of when I talk about you ladies.
Sarah Z: Thanks. you've been quite the inspiration lately. I can't wait for you to come see my homestead.
Other Sarah too: I also would like you to come and see my homestead. It's a bit of a hike from Japan but maybe you'll be back sometime. It doesn't quite have horses and the such but we're on our way to a real homestead.
Dad: Thankyou for the guidance. Sometimes I wonder if I'm copying you guys because a lot of what I'm interested in is stuff that you and mom did. But I think I just know a good time when I see it. I hope that I cultivate this message to my kids and the people around me the way that you and mom did.
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