how time goes fast.....

Last Saturday me and Sethie and Stewart jumped in our car and headed south east to Errington to visit my family because it was my uncle's 50th Birthday ! ! I love going to their farm and Seth is completely in love with them and all their animals and all of the toyS!!! There were so many great people, lots of good food, and a blustery day that ended up nice enough to sit around the fire. I also got to see my cousin who I haven't seen in months b/c she's been working on the East Coast of the US (providence ish).... She's there for one last night, TONIGHT!, so we're heading out after work.

We've made some really great life decisions lately that will be unveiled soooooon!!! Things are falling into place. I'm so happy. XO

on farming (well, wanting to)

dreaming of farm country

i feel like right now i'm starting the transition to be a farmer. my mind is changing, my priorities are changing, the things i'm thinking about are changing and becoming new and wonderful. my sister, brie, and are doing this farm survey we made for each other. i emailed them my answers last night. some questions included:

how would you like to organize/run our farm?
how do we nourish the land and soil in a sustainable way in the long term?
what do we do if someone doesn't want to farm anymore?
what is our money maker?
who do we want to work with in the community?
where do you want the farm to be?

i'm dying for their answers back. but need to do the personal switch for myself. which will include holing up a bit more, doing more reading, working on home projects as practice for the "real thing". being a farmer and "farming" isn't something that i will do in the future, but something i need to start doing right now. build my practice and mental body of knowledge. which sadly will mean priority changes. (aka no more RDAC and no more derby, in general). Which means I've got to give this year and next season all that I have and enjoy the fuck out of it. it also means i need to get better and more disciplined at working out at home. I will also need to find a better way to get out of a M-F situation with my job. I love my job and the work I get to do, but being chained at my desk isn't working for me right now or long term (esp. since I'm here until Jan 2015). It also means that I need to stop traveling, stop spending money, and start saving (I'm still giving myself the luxury of tattoos) for a down payment or whatever I'll need (and start fixing my credit rating). I will also need to increase my income short term, support my mans in going to school so he can also then up his income, and figure out this whole home school thing for my kid. my panic about not knowing what i'm doing with my life in April is still there a little, but I feel stable because I have reminded myself that I know what I'm doing with my life, and I just need to fucking do it.

i've been infected

I just finished reading the semi-sappy and light hearted memoir, Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One's Own by Jenna Woginrich. After a long spell of not reading (coming off of a roller derby hangover), it was nice to read this over a week and to also have such an unseemingly book kind of rock my world.

In her opening she describes the insufferable feeling of barnheart:


Barnheart is that sudden overcast feeling that hits you while at work or in the middle of the grocery store checkout line. It's unequivocally knowing you want to be a farmer -- and for whatever personal circumstances -- can't be one just yet


The opening had me bawling my face out because I honestly suffer from this every. single. day. And the book also is helping me to understand what commitment becoming a farmer, having a farm, and living and working off the land is actually like. And that there's no waiting to have a farm of one's own. It's a way of life, a life commitment, and something you just do. I akin it to roller derby in my life, and am looking at farming on my own farm within the next three years. AH! Which means, 2012 is my last year for trips and glitz, and saving, seeding, growing, and selling are close by in my future. HURRAH!

wozas part 932

i want to post because i know, just know, that today is one of those days that will be looked at in my life as "the day that everything changed". i just got back from a community planning session on the regional district's agricultural plan and am going to go to the actual planning meeting next week (tonight was information gathering). tonight i had a severe consciousness shift in what matters to me the most and where i need to direct my attention: agriculture. farming, land issues, access to food, peak oil, grassroots organizing around growing, etc etc. when i finished grad school i felt like a chapter in my life was closing and tonight the deal was sealed. i'm not saying i'm not going to be a feminist anymore, ahaha, that would NEVER happen, but i think that instead of trying to get a job being a career feminist im now heading in a new direction...very interesting. trepidatious maybe, but exciting as hell. diandra the feminist farmer crafter person. LOVE IT. xo