We visited a local (and gracious) farm last week to pick up the last of their basil to make pesto for you, and the farmer was lamenting August. So much work to do, so little time. Time to harvest, time to finalize projects before Winter, time to get it all done. And we feel that here, a bit (certainly not like a working farm with sheep and pigs and crops and a store!), but we also set ourselves up for a slower pace. A looking/listening/witnessing pace of nature – now we question, what does our land need before the Equinox, what preparations can we still accomplish between then and the Solstice?
There are some fences that should have had a whitewash this Summer, arbors to be built, gardens and shrubbery designed and shaped, the kitchen floor to be put in, and now that the chicken coop is done it needs painted but we are not on a tight schedule and we are not perfectionists, by choice – we choose to let some projects fail. Not because they don’t need to get done, and not because we’re inefficient or lazy, but because sometimes things need to fail in order to see a better way. Maybe it’s just not the right time (not inspired, not the right tools, not the right season) – and sometimes, we would prefer things to fail than to manage them in a way that isn’t sound with our values. We have to learn not to be so afraid of the word failure – and not so admiring of the word ‘success’. Josh would say that in particular of both of those ideas, we need to not take ourselves so seriously.
So here’s today’s to-do list:
* pick blackberries (it’s quite relaxing and lovely, and slightly compulsive)
* go to the Farmer’s Market and look for goodies to put up
* read books (I have schooltexts – Orestia and Alain Badiou, J has a Javier Marias or a Ray Bradbury to finish or he can jumpstart his new Wildcrafted Fermentation or Biochar book, D is reading ‘Here Be Monsters’ by Alan Snow, and working on a really difficult paint-by-numbers)
That’s it. That’s all that’s going on the list today. You may call it a wash but that sounds pretty amazing and productive to me. Here’s a land manatee to make you feel better:
Rock Bottom Homestead 