Another One Bites the Dust

***

We really thought we’d found it this time.

And now I feel like a deflated balloon. As much as we want to pursue cooperative farming, the timing is just all wrong for us. For now, we just need to be our own little family in our own little nest with our own little garden. Regroup. For a year, maybe two or three.

Emotionally, this past week was a roller coaster and I still feel a wee off kilter. There was a fabulous dip in the American River…that was good. I was productive once we got home, and that was good, too. There were bike rides and a transmission installed (but the clutch fork broke. drat and bother.)…all in all, the goodness outweighed the one crippling sucker punch and I’m entering this new, sparkly week with fresh plans and renewed hope.

The Boy has a morning summer camp this week (his first one!) and so I am working very hard, as you can see. I intend to finish up some commission work, get started on some more goodies for Purl Jam and eat a lot of comfort food (read: hot chocolate and toast with apple butter.). One of the teenagers is also away all week, and so I may even have some quiet moments to sort out the many jumbled piles of ideas cluttering up my brainspace. So, what am I doing here?

I dunno, but I’ll pretend I’m working by letting you know I’ve brought down The Beast from the attic and we’ve been making these together:

And I might be letting go of some falklands, too. Dyepots are firing this week. Just sayin’. Oh, and the picture will take you to the shop.

Off to the quiet. Enjoy your Monday.

*** Daisies help.

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Egg Play, Wool Play and a Stern Muppet

I happened upon this by way of a dear friend, and as I was too late to sign up for class, decided to give the project a little love on my own.

I have a favorite:

This weekend was full of Dyepots and Treadling, Labyrinth Walking and Mama Cow Avoidance (why must the baby cows stand right in the middle of the hikers’ path?) and Lovely Statements Out of Nowhere like, “Mama, my hat is backwards so we can kiss.”

Dreadlocks from the Dyepot:

In other news, C has been feeling a little grumpy and broken (today it was smashing his knee with a sledge hammer). He looked in the mirror and told me he feels like some variety of “stern muppet.” Like Bert, perhaps. And now, of course, I can’t stop myself from superimposing Bert onto C and chuckling a bit to myself, but he is taking this growly and frustrated thing a bit to heart. I intend to kidnap him next weekend for some much needed family time. As in, just the three of us for a day. A whole day. No projects involving potentially dangerous tools. No interruptions and background noise. No wishing we were somewhere else. Just a day to appreciate that we have each other and how much that really means and what a comfort it is, even with our life still in boxes and so many big decisions looming, waiting…so easy, it is, to forget that we are both here, working toward the same goals, working through the same fears and that we are available to support each other. Waves, sand and stone may help bring it all in…

xo

Things to look forward to…

At the risk of sounding like a total lunatic, I’m not quite ready for Winter to be over. I adore Spring, and I need Spring, but there’s so much to be done before it actually gets here. I know the thaw this week is just a wee teaser, and it will most certainly get cold and snowy again, but hoooooooo boy the balmy temps of the past few days have lit a fire under me arse, oh yes. 

To do:

-Order SEEDS! We’re starting early this year. No sadly immature melon plants at the end of this summer, no, no and no. We have a few really good places to get some plant starts going over the next several weeks and there are zero excuses not to make it happen. Blue jade corn! Himalayan blue poppies! Amish paste tomatoes! Lemon cucumbers! 
-Bring over the hoop house C built at the end of last summer. It will be great for the outdoor plant starts when the snow melts.
-Evaluate the cabin for our first construction project…there is still no kitchen, no bathhouse, and no well for either of those things. Holy crap, we have a lot to do there! 
-Find some way to agree on how we want those things to work out…C and I seem to have some very different ideas about all of it.
-Harvest our wood pile from under the snow at the old house and bring it over here.
-The chickens! Finish building the new coop and get them over here, too!

But I’m totally preoccupied with so many
Things to look forward to:

-Putting away the woolen underwear for a long time.
-Fresh local veggies!
-Spring and summer craft shows.
-Open windows, open studio.
-Wheelbarrowing the little guy to the pond.
-Picnics at the pond!
-Picnic weather in general.
-Strawberry-picking.
-Sun-kissed skin.
-Rain.
-Watching our goats eat up the blackberry brambles.
-Watching the sheep eat sweet green grass again.
-Watching the chickens eat bugs.
-Baby ducks!
-Baby goat!
-Building at the cabin.
-Scavenging for things to build with at the cabin.
-Stacking wood in the sunshine.
-Rich soil.
-Pulling weeds.
-Walking, running, bicycling!
-Bonfires.
-Roasting marshmallows
-Reading under the shade of a tree.
-Little guy running around naked, slathered in sunblock.

I could go on forever.

This was just the cheering exercise I needed…such a long, tough week emotionally…it is so good to be reminded of the amazing things the coming days will bring. This Winter I’ve been really susceptible to the malaise and melancholy that dark, cold days can encourage. Lists are my new best friend.

So, even though this was meant to look like a Scrub Jay:

I think I need to get a bit more Spring and Summer into the dyepots…let myself create the colors my eyes are craving. Blossoms, dewy grass, mud and popsicles, lemonade and linen. Bring it on.