This year we spent $200 on a vet visit so we could put three animals in our local Agricultural Show and Fair. It was fun watching our intern showing the two little pygmy goats, with Maybelle taking a blue ribbon and Snowflake getting second. Elsie has sure learned a lot about goat handling in her time with us!
Thunder, our large boar, also won a blue ribbon while impressing everyone. He enjoyed the fair very much, catching up on his sleep, trying new foods like cotton candy, and soaking up admiration. Now his vacation is over and he is visiting other farms for breeding purposes. We are hoping for lots of cute black and spotted piglets in the spring!
This year I got a chance to go to the 9th International Herb Symposium held at Wheaton College. Always inspirational, the themes that have stuck with me concern the strength and power of elder women. Several of the presenters were in their eighties, and not many of us could keep up with them.
One Zapotec herbal healer said her grandmother lived to be 115 and had 22 children… "You American women, you get to be 50 and you are ready to sit in a corner! Menopause is not so bad… you lived through puberty, didn’t you? And you know so much more now!" and my favorite, "It doesn’t matter the color, or the smell, or the height. Each one of us deserves great respect."
This is a solstice letter, so I guess it’s okay to be a little dark. It was very necessary for me to experience being with these strong older women. I had almost started to feel overwhelmed. Several things about the state of the world have saddened and angered me this year.
A dear friend’s grandbaby was born to a short life of suffering, probably due to her dad’s military service. Don’t think the battleground is far away. It’s as close as our genes. Looking at agriculture the same is true. In general, the poisoning of the world upsets me.
On the bright side, demonstrating viable alternatives is a lot of fun. It takes endurance and effort, not like swimming upstream but more like negotiating rapids, a matter of pacing and response-ability. It was such a blessing to meet these successful old women warriors each of whom had an unmistakable twinkle in her eyes, each of whom came wreathed in green plants.
Also at the Herb Symposium, I attended an inspiring panel on Lyme disease, which of course lots of herbalists are working on – together, I might add. I am starting to experiment on myself with some of their findings. I have finally after three years, come to accept regretfully that my foot problems and gimpiness are probably chronic, lyme related, and will need to be catered to continuously. Bummer dude.
In the spirit of adaptive co-creation, I am converting my former market gardens into community gardens. My new dream, not yet tried, is to have the farmstand stocked with organic veggies by the community gardeners, with me only growing what our household needs and a little extra. Doesn’t that sound like more fun?
Really growing one’s own food is where it’s at, and I would like to encourage it wherever possible. The all-important ‘yumminess factor’ is high, too. As Alice Walker once wrote, "The taste of food is one of the most powerful messages God ever sends to human beings…"
We had our 20th annual pig roast and our 7th annual Popcorn Festival this year and both were blessed by fair weather and the presence of friends, family, and friendly strangers, along with the memories of those no longer with us. So bitter, so salty, so sweet, so rich… life.
Bless you and yours in the year to come.
LOVE,
Rebecca
