Letting my weird light shine so the other weirdos know where to find me :-)

Mar 25, 2023

First of all, let's do a little close up of the picture above. Look at Denali!

Second, today is the first Fairy House Workshop! I'm excited to meet all the new people!

I'm working on a new habit. Every morning after I drop ManChild off at school, I come back and do a neurofeedback session. This week I've started adding a "Fear and Anger Dump" before that session.

I write down, on paper, everything I'm scared of and angry about for as long as I need to—usually about a page...or three ;-) This idea comes from my Aunt Katy who started reading about Dr David Hanscom, a spinal surgeon who says if people go through this emotional journey he created, they often don't need surgery.

I always start by thinking, "I don't have anything to write." Then I put pen to paper and it out it flows. It's all stream of consciousness, no worries about punctuation or grammar. If I'm low on paper, I just write over what I've just written.

Then you tear it up and throw it away. It's surprising how therapeutic it is.

Four takeaways so far:

1. I always start off thinking there isn't anything to be angry about and then that morphs into feeling self indulgent and ridiculous.

2. I'm reminded how conditioned I am to never feel anger, let alone express it.

3. Often, after the Fear and Anger Dump comes a "it's going to be okay" feeling.

4. Also often, something interesting happens outside my office window—a strange bird appears, the heron catches a fish, an osprey or bald eagle arrives, or like this morning: a flock of starlings were swooping over the ponds. In mid air they would suddenly pair up in a little dance and then gather together in the flock again. They split in half and flew in opposite directions only to swoop around, flying towards each other and becoming one flock again. Almost like a Bridgerton dance :-). Their play made me smile. The joy of their flying dance, of being in the moment, or being aware of their bodies and movement—beautiful and joyful.

And stuff like that happens at the end of the Fear and Anger Dump.

Like a little gift from the universe.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH:

I was dragging the upper pasture early this week ("dragging" means using a chain drag to spread the horse poop around so it's not in piles anymore)

I found this beautiful butterfly on the ground.

It was alive but not moving much. I was hoping it was okay and by the time I was done, it was gone—maybe it was drying its wings?

•••

B-Rad found an interesting tree that he was thinking had burls on it. As we looked around we found more:

We had to look up "burls" to find out more:

The cause of most burls cannot be explained. They may develop as a result of insects, bacteria, fungi, or environmental injury, such as freeze damage.

We were curious about it because we saw a table in the Yellowstone show and both loved it. Something along these lines:

Wouldn't that make a pretty dining table! We're wondering if we should cut those trees down, have them cut into boards and dried for later use. We'll have my woodworking neighbor come over to see what he thinks.

•••

On Thursday I found this huge snapping turtle laying up on the dam of the pond:

I could see the track it had left when it came out of the water but its shell was dry so it had been sunning itself for a bit. It was maybe about 18 inches in diameter and when I looked up snapping turtles, I found out this one could be 100 years old. 18 inches means about 100 years. Just think of that!

•••

I've gotten in the habit of letting my four girl goats out to wander when I go out for chores. I prep all the grain and hay while they are loose and then feed them back in their barn after. It's fun to watch them trot about, sticking their noses into everything. They are super curious, like cats. I learned the hard way to feed them after their explorations—that was the day that they decided to explore the neighbor's barn. I got them back but it was a bit of struggle. Of course, that's right when the FedEx guy arrived. Imagine his surprise when he was suddenly surrounded by goats ;-)

B-Rad comes out and does chores with me off and on through the week and that's where these came from:

•••

The Pollening continues. Every outside animals has this polleny nose now:

Or outright snot. I was thisclose to posting the pic of Wynter's nose but I refrained ;-)

See the light colored line at the far edge of the pond's water?

That's a thick line of pollen floating on the water.

•••

The Polar Bear had a little spa day this week (the video at the top) and was just the happiest puppy in all of the land:

•••

The 40 year old Japanese Maple leafed out:

Next year I'll remember to take a photo earlier in the spring when it's full of pink seeds.

And of course the azaleas, they were my Mom's favorite:

•••

I worked a little more on my forest fence:

Someone sent me an email this week that said, "You seem to have many more hours in a day than the rest of us! How do you get so much done?"

I had to laugh :-) The ADHD is strong in this one lol, I start a lot but it takes a long time to finish. I have a dining room table full of branches and twigs and forest bits because I want to try a different glue (that might work on wet wood.) I have 2 paintings on my easels that I feel stuck about and haven't finished. I have a community garden swirling around in my head, I have some felting I'd like to work on but B-Rad and I are watching Yellowstone right now and are totally enthralled—can't take our eyes off it—and felting involves long, very sharp needles and the last time I had a tetanus shot was 2008.

If I were rich, I'd have staff lol. I'd have help implementing all the ideas I have in my brain about this farm. I want to build a community around my farm. It's what I did in Colorado and I miss having that group of like minded (mostly) women! So, on to the community garden idea...

If you're local, is that something you would be interested in doing? It would need some infrastructure put in place before the planting could start. Raised beds, sturdy fencing to keep the deer out. Some sort of...solar electric pump to pump water from the pond and into weep hoses in the gardens maybe? We have the space, a tractor, and two huge piles of fully composted manure to use in the beds. My wheels are turning...if yours are too, send me an email!

THE MEMES!