Love the earth and sun and the animals--(especially when it's your own)

I had to share this, a quote from Walt Whitman that my cousin posted on FB yesterday.

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men—go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families—re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body."
--from Preface to “Leaves of Grass" (1855)

As per usual Mondays leave me a little shattered.  Trying to keep up with Glenn on the weekends is tough!  Kind of silly that I cancelled my back rehab today because I strained my hamstring while deadlifting huge rocks yesterday to build our herb spiral. 

Here it is:

Captain Jack : )

So it's Tuesday now and I'm limping around horribly.  Seems like this is pretty severe.  Pretty rotten luck considering how much needs to be done around here, not to mention cleaning the house before our super awesome guest arrives Sunday night. I hope I'm a little better for my full day of spinning class on Friday at the Shepherd's Harvest festival! Or at least maybe I'll end up learning on a single treadle wheel, not a double.

The horses need their feet cleaned after the last few days of rain and mud, but I might have to ask G to do it--this hamstring just won't stand up to that.

Not sure if I'd posted this before but this is the course Glenn wanted to do.  So he's on the list for next year at least!

http://www.wholesystemsdesign.com/permaculture-design-course/

So no bees for us this year, but at least we'll have our bee-friendly garden established by then.  I guess even as a kid I had a fascination for all living things.  Here's a picture of me at Algonquin Park in Ontario, age 12. I was watching yellow jacket wasps on pop cans, wearing a stylish 1980s mesh shopping bag.  I learned to sail on that trip--Albert had towed his Laser sailboat with us out to that island where we didn't see anyone for a week.  Good proper camping!

NERDY KID ALERT

Chook palace looking good!

Venga's awesome silly daughter

Glenn tilled up way more pasture than I thought he would.  Not especially pleased about that. Hopefully I'll forgive him when the potatoes start growing.

Miss Buff and Pearl





Bad Shadow! Bad!!



This weekend G worked very hard to muck out a whole years worth of sheep bedding from the barn.  The ammonia was horrible.  He wore a respirator, which isn't easy to breath in especially since it was humid and over 21C.  When I was cutting skirts for the saplings he'd planted in the swales I was downwind while he shovelled the soiled bedding on top of them, and in a very short time I ended up with a horrible headache, despite being out in the open, with a strong wind.  My eyes were even burning! He did a great job of it--took him two days.  I felt bad for a minute for not helping him, but since I do the majority of all the animal cleaning, feeding and medicating for the year I figure this is his big contribution to the cause.  So now all the swales are protected from erosion, and the new trees are mulched heavily with what G calls "poo-trients".  He's crazy about all of that nutrient recycling stuff. : )

***

The best news of the past week though is that my friends back on Vancouver Island have just managed to turn an unpleasant situation into a great new adventure, and I'm so incredibly happy for them.  They were renting a farm for the past year while raising animals and growing veggies, and had big plans for expansion, including a CSA.  But issues with their landlord started to compound and they were not really enjoying things anymore.  The final straw was when the landlord gave them notice that they had to be out in a year! Next thing you know they are looking for a place of their own, find a perfect place already set up for animals, have an offer accepted, secured a mortgage, and they are moving in next month!!!

There's no place like home!

http://www.watercolour-artist.co.uk/farmanimalpaintings.htm