Compromises

This morning it was -4 degrees here.  So cold that even while out to do the morning animal chores the tips of my fingers were uncomfortable for a time.    When I jumped on the back of the rubber bucket to break the ice and water splashed on my boots, ice immediately formed on my shoelaces and then trying to undo them with aching fingers after coming inside was nearly impossible. 

The wonderful part about the cold is the skating.   Friends are over.

 In between preparing lunch and snacks for everyone, tightening skates, putting wood in the wood stove, Mike and I continue to work on our business.  I wood burn and package.  Mike heads down the basement to get some hooks done.  

This life of ours is a series of compromises.  With seven children (which yes we did choose to have a large family) we need a certain level of income to support the basics - our mortgage, keep our old Suburban running, some clothing - specifically shoes as the rest I can usually find at thrift shops, and some other random bills.  But the biggest expense for us is food.  This is a topic I am passionate about - about working towards growing and raising our own and what we cannot (which is the majority but we do a little more each year) we try to buy locally and then finally organic if I can make it work financially.  

 But, I make compromises constantly.  

Keeping up with every one's needs and the needs of our business, time is sometimes at a premium.  So for example, today we had homemade chocolate cake with frosting made of local organic cream (yum!) but the hot cocoa, boxed from the general store.  I know how to make cocoa from scratch.  But I have not had the time to source and purchase the organic powdered milk, organic cocoa, etc.... 

During this holiday season when our business is busy, I will continue to make compromises because for this season snatching moments of time with each other will be more important than being caught up in making every meal from scratch or making every gift by hand.

Home for Thanksgiving

The weather kept us home for Thanksgiving.  With no central heat (the woodstove is our heat source) and very cold temperatures (the animals' water would need refreshing because of freezing), and to top it all of we woke up to 6" of fallen snow Thanksgiving morning - a trip three hour day trip to my aunt's in New Hampshire was not to be.  

Not planning on being home, we resorted to plan B - eggnog, apple pie, sorbet with gingerale, and lasagna - with just the 8 of us.

The outdoors became our playground.  

Isaac worked on my antique sewing machine and made a belt for it with duct tape - it worked!

We played games.

Drank out of wine glasses.

and 

Gave thanks.

Busy but Full

I haven't been here for nearly a week because my life has been pretty much looking like the above - busy.

I have a hard time sometimes looking at why I should be so thankful for the business instead of feeling guilty for not being the perfect mom....  I am really working hard on changing that.

A wonderful thing happened yesterday - the children ice skated on our pond - in November! So neat. 

Earlier in the fall, as I was reading through Tasha Tudor's book Through the Year, I though it odd that she had a picture of children skating for one of the November pictures...  perhaps years ago Novembers were  cold enough to skate.

I am so very thankful for this pond of ours and thankful for the gift of healthy activity for the children at a time when I am not as available as I would like to be.

Knitting and Reading

Finished another Plain Vest using bits of leftover wool yarn.  I am finishing up a Pebble Vest using a heavier worsted weight wool and size 10 needles.  The vest making is for an arts and crafts fair December 7th.

I am still reading Happy Hollow Farm, published in 1914.
Here is a quote ~
"... a plan was made for the farm.  We have stuck to that plan..... The essence of it is this:  First of all, the farm must furnish food for our own table - not in a roundabout way, mind you, but directly.  Ninety percent of the farmers in our neighborhood were supplying their tables from the store - buying canned stuff, buying flour and meal and potatoes and salt meat, buying practically everything they ate.  The only way they had of paying their store bills was by selling their corn and wheat - which they did for a considerable loss.  Only a few of the farmers knew how to put up sugar-cured ham and bacon.  Gardening seemed to be a lost art....
We intended to change that.  No matter how much of our land it would take, we meant to make the farm furnish our table directly with milk and cream and butter, the best of meat, poultry and eggs, fruits and garden stuff.  Our land must do that for us in the end; so, we argued, why not let it be done directly?  In quality and cost we could do better for ourselves in that way than if we got our food second-handed.  The largest item in the cost of living must be taken care of first, and in a way that insured the greatest possible economy."

Joining in with Ginny.

Easy Isn't the Answer

(Photographs courtesy of Isaac Gunn)

When things get so busy on our little homestead, I need to remind myself of why our family has chosen the life we lead.  I need to remember that freedom from being tied down, freedom from the rat race, and free to make our days as we choose are invaluable.  Sometimes I think that my life would be so much easier if Mike got a regular job and I didn't have to figure out how to juggle children, housework, cooking, a very busy business, homestead, and husband - oh and maybe, just maybe a little creative time thrown in for myself.  But then I just reflect back on all of the steps we have taken to get where we are now and why we chose this life.  It may very well be easier if Mike did get a "regular" job.  But you know what?  Easier is seldom ever better.  Easy rarely accomplishes goals.  Easy seldom equates living ones values.  It's hard work.

Speaking of Consuming

So just a few minutes ago, not knowing what I had posted this morning, Isaac started to figure out how many hours, days, weeks, and finally years worth of time people have spent viewing this one youtuber, Toby Games.  Isaac and Nolan have told me before about him.  What he does is film himself playing a video game.  So, people that watch his videos are watching him play a  video game.  When I first learned of this I truly could hardly believe it.  But this one youtuber is  number 13 on youtube in terms of most subscribers.

(By the way, the number one subscriber does the same thing! and from what Nolan, who is almost 18 has told me, his language and the violence of the games is really terrible.)

So what they calculated was that so far, about 30,000 years of time have been spent watching the 13th most popular subscriber.  

30,000 years watching someone play a video game!!

Now that is consuming at its worse I think. 

Producing More Than We Consume

(Isaac's green screen for his movie making.  He has figured out how to put in a different background using the screen.)

(Sarah's horse coral)

I remind myself and my children that we need to produce more than we consume.

For myself that means thoughtfully considering each purchase and learning and putting into practice new skills relating to food production and practical hand work.

I tell my older children that if all they do is view all the "neat" youtube videos they are simply consuming.  I remind them how much more fulfilling it would be to recreate some of the ideas they see or come up with some of their own and they are.

How do you balance this in your life?