Harvest of Rows and Rows of Harvest

I have been knitting rows and rows of yarn using a book called Pop Knitting by Britt-Marie Christofferson.

Meanwhile all around me the colors of Autumn are filling the fields and hickory nuts are dropping from the trees.

I have had visitors to my place here in Wisconsin and I am enjoying the rural life.

There is so much for me to learn everyday as I have spent most of my life in large cities.

The horror of mountain top removal mining

Now is a moment: Momentum is building You are needed NOW

I don't usually get political here but this is a moment for some action.
We get much of our electricity from coal and the people in the coal mountains are suffering and need us.

http://ilovemountains.org/take-action-for-appalachias-water-and-future

Sketching an Irish Journey

Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland

A "fill it up yourself" empty travel journal purchased on Etsy shop: UsefulBooks

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare 

Galway Bay

I'm still going over the many experiences of a journey through 11 of Ireland's counties.

It was a family time with my two sisters and their husbands,

It was a fun time with some pubs, and good meals and a bit of the irish wit.

A place I've been wanting to see for a long time: The Burren

a quick visit to the oldest working weaving establishment:  Avoca

more later.....still sorting out the joy of it all

It was grand!

It was nice!  Pronounced: "noise"

Every Available Space

Corn is planted up close to the edge of town and often squeezed onto every inch of soil.  I am looking at the lovely grey green of it in some lights and realizing how naive I've been about my food supply, about agricultural practices in general.  My mom used to call me a dreamer, especially when there was some task at hand.  Is there a place for a dreamer in the larger scheme of things?

Every available moment is becoming more and more valuable to me.  Now I am in a place where I often can see off into the distance. Space seems much more spacious than in a big city.  At least it did until I see this corn-focused use of every available space.   I'm thinking more about light and space, about work and dreams.

I am thinking about Grandmas and knitting and stereotypes.  I am thinking about dreaming and working.

Actually I am not always thinking.  I dream.  I work.   I live.

I live trying to fill up every available space.

I am making a vest using linen stitch but currently I am back to square one, having ripped out an entire section due to an error that seemed to be spreading, could not be confined and began to take up every available space.

Pause and begin again.

Knee High, Fourth of July

In contrast to the CSA farms we also have many fields of corn, corn corn.  Its looking healthy today on the Fourth of July!

Having watched the documentary "King Corn" which is excellent, I am very aware of the challenge to our country's health in the lack of biodiversity and the reliance on large scale operations.  Meanwhile we all keep growing in many ways, often wider as well as taller.

We all hope to prosper and certainly that's my hope for all of you.  Thanks for checking out my posts.

Small Family Farm CSA

A little bit of heaven and lots of hard work

There is something about being outdoors and working at a meaningful task with healthy young people, that is truly life-giving.  Surely we all will benefit from being more aware of our food supply.  To plant and live and harvest so that even the soil is renewing itself is terrific.  What a wonderful life!

"Land is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit 

of soils, plants and animals." 

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Alamanac

What a wonderful place !    http://www.smallfamilycsa.com/

Abundance

goodness of life meant for all, not just a few

I am thinking about harvests here in Vernon County, a place that feels brimming with organic health and opportunity.

I am thinking also about my grandchildren, all american kids whose families are both Korean and Hmong.  A book just published called Eternal Harvest by Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern describes the secret war the United States was fighting in Laos between 1964 and 1973.  The reason this is crucial today is that no other country has been bombed as heavily.  The harvest and abundance of bombs even 50 years later continues to cruelly damage Laotian families.  My own grandchildren's heritage and country devastated by a  secret war.

When will we take responsibility for the abundance we've left behind even fifty years later?

http://eternalharvestthebook.com/videos/

www.smallfamilycsa.com        Summer Harvesting and my first gulps of goat milk...yum

To paint or to weave, to pull weeds or to help harvest 800 heads of lettuce, life gets busy here in the summer.

I am substituting for a friend's share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) organic farm once a week for three weeks.

It is such a contrast to the snowy cold beauty of winter.  Its all abundant life and I am learning so many new aspects of life everyday that it is hard to put into words.  

Hopefully your life is also being blessed with healthy abundance.