Acknowledging The Struggle, Part II

I'm back in Upstate after my three week excursion to Montana.  My nursing program starts in a month so I have a few weeks to finish up some odds and ends, as well as get our new Farmers' Market off and running.

Returning to my post a few weeks ago, I realize that part of the struggle that I and others face in terms of wanting to live simply and fully is that we also enjoy the perks of our modern, consumerist world.  I enjoy going out for a romantic dinner at a fancy-schmancy restaurant with my husband.  I enjoy traveling to exotic places and being pampered. Sometimes I even dream of living like royalty on a permanent basis. I am thankful that I am able to purchase a vehicle when mine dies; I'm thankful that my husband and I own an old farmhouse and several acres of land.  I'm thankful I can run out to the 24 hour supermarket if I am in dire need of some item.  I do enjoy the convenience of all of these.

So how did I get to this place where I enjoy extravagant experiences and nice "stuff"?  Are we, as humans, somehow born with a need to always want more?  Is it a completely learned behavior?  If I had never experienced any of this growing up, would I still yearn for it now?

But more importantly, is there a way to reconcile living simply with enjoying extravagance from time to time?  It sounds so oxymoron-ish to me.   I struggle with this on a daily basis.  Today, I'm satisfied with the plywood countertops and painted plywood floors of my kitchen; tomorrow I know I will want a full kitchen remodeling job so it looks like something out of Country Living.  And don't get me started on the fencing!  Our horse-tape on T-posts fencing is certainly suitable, but then I gaze longingly at the farm up the hill where they've had miles of real wood posts and high tension cable and rail fencing professionally installed.  I know, I know...I shall not covet my neighbor's fences!

Does it require a huge down-payment of time and energy (and complication) to get everything in order to ultimately live simply?  I know this is not the case because there are many, many people who just say "to hell with it" and take themselves right off the grid.  But I can't do that.  I am too tied into the system at this point in my life to cut all connections; I wouldn't feel safe or comfortable doing so.   I am therefore going to have to accept this tension and hopefully learn how to create some positive synergy from these two opposing forces.

Happy Monday everybody!

Catching Up

I can't believe that it has been over a month since my last post.  Obviously, things have been a bit busy on the farm. The poor weather conditions have not helped much.  It was the second wettest April on record in our area, which prevented us from doing much of anything outside (fencing and planting). 

First, kudos to our friend Doug who was watching the farm while we went to visit my darling husband's family.  One of our ewes gave birth while he was on call and he went above and beyond to try and save one of the two lambs.  When all was said and done, each of the new moms gave birth to twins but only had one survive.  We have four rambuctious gamboling lambs now.  Two of them are as of yet unspoken for and will be ready for processing in October (if there are any takers out there in Cyberland).

We also constructed (largely in the rain) the chicken tractor for our broilers.  The plans we followed can be found on this website.  While perusing plans for chicken tractors I was surprised at how many plans included pressure treated wood!  The plan we used actually calls for EMT (electrical metallic tubing) which is both light and sturdy.  Our final product looks pretty much the same as the one on the website, and it seems to be keeping the birds in and predators out.  However, it was somewhat frustrating to construct (did  I mention it was raining the whole time?!) as the structure wasn't entirely stable until the hardware cloth was attached.  All the birds are now out of the shed (see this post about shed usage), which is a good thing, as it was getting to smell rather ripe in there!

Sheep shearing is behind schedule as well.  Usually, we have sheared the sheep and sent them up to the pasture by now. But with the late birth and the wet weather shearing isn't scheduled to happen until mid May (just days before we get our piglets). 

The good news is that the horse did get shod, so he is ready to go (once it dries out) and there is plenty of lush green pasture for everybody. We also have asparagus coming up!  And I also managed to sew the curtains for the kitchen window (five years after moving into the house).

Next on the never ending list:  plant the peas, carrots, onions and potatoes (and actually write down the garden plan), assemble the 1979 Ashford spinning wheel I was able to find over April break and enjoy the few moments that the sun actually shines!