The joys of June. Haying. Ellie’s first trip to Canada’s Wonderland. The birds, Cedar and Cigo. Bathroom progress. The end of school. Our solstice campout. A cottage weekend. Strawberries. Fireworks and a fair.
Here are some other things I’ve enjoyed this month.
In case it’s not clear, I fully embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). Turns out, JOMO can help your finances as well.
I read two books this month that had me looking at everyday activities differently: Revenge of the Tipping Pointby Malcolm Gladwell and Breath by James Nestor.
As we mark Canada Day (and Independence Day), I encourage you to reflect on what kind of person you are, what kind of country you want and what you can do to make that happen.
Another PSA. If you smoke, don’t throw a lit cigarette out your car window. A neighbour had a grass fire very similar to ours last week.
“Slow go the days. Fast go the years… Someday turns to right now. Right now turns to way back when. Man you better live ’em. Cause you won’t get ’em back again.”
I feel like May disappeared. When our days are full, time flies, and our days are very full right now.
Turkeys, chickens, cats, birthdays, celebrations, family, friends, a new term of teaching, renovations, mowing the grass… again. There’s a lot going on. I achieved a very high level of productivity this month.
There were also special moments that can only happen here on the farm.
Ellie and I walked out to the trillium grove and took our annual pictures with the flowers. Flipping back over our years of photos brings up so many memories. She launched her kayak on the pond for the first time. I love seeing her confidence and capability–and being able to have such a cool experience at our own property.
On the weekend, I took a moment to look around me as Ellie swung on her swing set. I’m so proud of what we’ve created and grateful that we get to experience this special place.
In between the busy-ness, here are some of the things that caught my attention this month.
“She, an autonomous human being, made a choice. My apology would, in a way, accuse her of making the wrong one. In that moment, I chose to thank her instead.” 11 powerful phrases to stop over apologizing.
The cats are here to help manage rodents in the barn (and they’re fulfilling their end of the deal already). I’d like to protect the swallows and other birds. I’m trying to figure out if one of these bibs or collars would help.
On the topic of cats, anyone have experience with compostable kitty litter? I found some at the pet store but it is expen$ive. I hate adding kitty litter to my garbage every week.
We’re going to end the month as we went through the rest of it–full speed ahead. Temperatures are supposed to warm up, and hopefully this means the birds can move to the coop. This also means coop construction will finally be done. The cats got free range of the barn last week, so we have officially moved them out of the coop (although Maple was missing yesterday and we’re pretty worried). I’m also planning to be back in our bathroom, where the renovation is well underway (I’m so excited to share an update soon).
What special moments has May held for you? Anyone else achieving high productivity levels these days? What places shaped you and how you see the world?
Today is election day in Canada. Please vote. Please do it with kindness and consideration for our planet and for the people who most need help.
This month, I’ve been collecting quotes and links about humanity and the earth. Here are some that touched me the most.
“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”
Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World by David W. Orr
A couple of these links include powerful examples of humanity’s “temporal range,” the amount of time humans have existed. The Overstory by Richard Powers (one of the best books I’ve read), includes another, which I’ve copied below. I hope you’ll read this passage and think about our place in the world and the impact we have.
“Say the planet is born at midnight and it runs for one day.
First there is nothing. Two hours are lost to lava and meteors. Life doesn’t show up until three or four a.m. Even then, it’s just the barest self-copying bits and pieces. From dawn to late morning–a million million years of branching–nothing more exists than lean simple cells.
Then there is everything. Something wild happens, not long after noon. One kind of simple cell enslaves a couple of others. Nuclei get membrances. Cells evolve organelles. What was once a solo campsite grows into a town.
The day is two-thirds done when animals and plants part ways. And still life is only single cells. Dusk falls before compound life takes hold. Every large living thing is a latecomer, showing up after dark. Nine p.m. brings jellyfish and worms. Later that hour comes the breakout–backbones, cartilage, an explosion of body forms. From one instant to the next, countless new stems and twigs in the spreading crown burst open and run.
Plants make it up on land just before ten. Then insects, who instantly take to the air. Moments later, tetrapods crawl up from the tidal muck, carrying around on their skin and in their guts whole worlds of earlier creatures. By eleven, dinosaurs have shot their bolt, leaving the mammals and birds in charge for an hour.
Somewhere in that last sixty minutes, high up in the phylogenetic canopy, life grows aware. Creatures start to speculate. Animals start teaching their children about the past and the future. Animals learn to hold rituals.
Anatomically modern man shows up four seconds before midnight. The first cave paintings appear three seconds later. And in a thousandth of a click of the second hand, life solves the mystery of DNA and starts to map the tree of life itself.
By midnight, most of the globe is converted to row crops for the care and feeding of one species. And that’s when the tree of life becomes something else again. That’s when the giant trunk starts to teeter.”
What kind of person are you? What do you care about? What is important?
This week is Earth Day. Next week is the election.
For me, these two events are linked. The way we treat each other. The way we treat our Earth. The choices we make.
I want a world where my child can live safely. Where she has clean air and water, food, equal rights and opportunities. What I want for her, I want for everyone.
Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives do not. His statements on minorities, the environment, and human rights represent a future that I do not want for my daughter. His voting record shows he repeatedly refuses to help those who need it most.
He is following a path laid by Donald Trump.
Every so often you hear people say, “If I was in Germany in the 1930s, I would have spoken up. I wouldn’t have gone along.” This is the moment to not go along. To ensure we do not put self-interest, fear, the economy ahead of human rights and the well-being of our fellow humans. This is not about taxes or tariffs. It is about how we exist in the world and who we are.
Government is flawed. However, government holds a lot of power. The officials we elect decide about drilling, pipelines, mining, logging, damming and how we treat our environment. They decide how we treat each other, particularly those who are different than us or in the minority.
It can feel like we are powerless to affect any change. Voting is one way to exercise some power.
In answering the questions at the start of this post, I think most people would say that they are kind, considerate, helpful. Now is the time to prove it. Vote with kindness and consideration. Vote to help those who need it.
March Break was always a highlight for me when I was growing up. A whole week off school. This year, it was a highlight again. Ellie and I didn’t do anything extravagant. We rested, played outside, puttered around and enjoyed the time. Ellie returned to her bike and learned to skip. The power of simple things, being together and enjoying this special place always amazes me. We had such a special week.
The highlight of the week was ordering our birds! Thank goodness the coop is close to being done.
I’ve also made progress on some other projects. The office is nearly finished, and I’ve made most of my selections for the bathroom. I’ll be sharing some updates soon.
I got to visit this special home and reconnect with some special people. Every detail was so carefully considered.
I took my Dad’s air compressor and my chop saw to a “dare to repair” workshop. The services were free, and the volunteers got both tools working again. I’m so glad to be able to reuse rather than replace.
Climate change is happening, and our homes, cities and towns are not built for this.
Canada is in an election campaign. The Conservatives are following Donald Trump in their strategy, philosophies and policies. This is not the direction I want for Canada. I encourage you to vote and vote strategically.
Book of the month is The Overstory. It was devastating and beautiful. The writing is amazing.
“But people have no idea what time is. They think it’s a line, spinning out from three seconds behind them, then vanishing just as fast into the three seconds of fog just ahead. They can’t see that time is one spreading ring wrapped around another, outward and outward until the thinnest skin of Now depends for its being on the enormous mass of everything that has already died.”
With only one day left in March, I’m looking ahead to April. This week has four (!) family birthdays. I’m also meeting with a cabinet maker who will hopefully be a good fit for our bathroom. Then there’s the coop, the office, teaching… life is full.
What was the highlight of March for you? Have you heard of repair clinics like the one I went to? I encourage you to seek them out in your area. Anyone else feeling anxious about this election? Who else is wrapping up projects? Or looking ahead to new arrivals!
Ups: Snow like we haven’t had in years (thank goodness for our farmer and his big tractors). (A little) more project progress. Ellie’s birthday.
Downs: I got sick.
February took my word of the year–care–and gave me a hard reminder that I need to take more care. I was sicker than I’ve been in a long time. Five days of chills, aches, not sleeping, and generally feeling miserable. Projects halted, the couch and I spent a lot of time together, my focus became what was absolutely necessary and going to bed early.
I of course was extremely frustrated to be so unproductive.
But I know I’ve been pushing myself for years and I need to take better care of myself. I’m hoping this illness was the wake up call I need. I’ve been slowly working my way back. I haven’t made any significant progress on the office, bathroom or coop. I’m taking twice as long to mark my students’ latest assignment. I’m going to bed about an hour earlier than usual (sometimes more). I’m still a bit frustrated at what I see as a lack of productivity, but I’m also proud of myself for making smarter choices.
Here are some of the things I’ve been up to this month.
I’m finishing off the month with a surprise adventure day for Ellie’s birthday (celebrations have been epic), lunch with a friend, a consultation for the bathroom renovation, and hopefully a return to the coop.
How has February been for you? Have you had any celebrations? Illnesses? What is your snow situation? Any documentary recommendations?
The year is off to a great start for us. The pond has been frozen this whole month, so we have been skating. It’s so special to be able to walk down the hill and go skating on our own pond. I also took Ellie skiing for the first time, and I’ve gone snowshoeing twice.
I jumped right into a few projects and have been making great progress (updates to come). Progress is always so motivating for me.
We even had a glimpse into what’s ahead for us this spring when we went to a backyard poultry workshop and got to meet some newly hatched ducklings (click through the slideshow above for fuzzy cuteness).
Life is full and fun.
Here are some other things that I noticed this month:
I love this church-inspired home. The antique furniture in the kitchen is an amazing look.
I’ve been using Floorplanner.com to map out some of this year’s home goals. It’s easy to use, free, and is a great tool to visualize my plans.
Mel Robbins is a new-to-me podcaster. Her Best of 2024 episode was full of interesting people and impactful advice. Most of all, it confirmed I’m on the right track with some of my choices.
Of the 37 books I read last year, Eve by Cat Bohannon is a standout. By page 10, I wanted everyone I know to read it. I think everyone (regardless of whether I know you or not) should read at least the introduction.
“If the story of our ancestors is about anything, it’s about survival. Hunger, and migration–the unyielding force of Death, driving us ever forward and out, into the gray line of a long horizon. That is where we came from. It drives us even now.”
How has January been for you? Where are you finding inspiration? Anyone else have a standout book from last year? Who else has been getting outside? What’s motivating you?
On a snowy Christmas Eve, as Cigo and I walked around the back field, I finally figured out my word of the year. Care.
In some ways, care is an extension of last year’s word of the year: rest. Rest is a stretch for me, and I feel like I still have a long way to go to incorporate more rest into my life. In fact, for awhile I thought rest would be 2025’s word of the year too. But I wanted something slightly different this year.
Tromping around the field, the word “careful” came to me. Not meaning to be cautious, but to be full of care. The concept immediately connected with me. As I walked on and thought of all the different parts of my life where I want to be care-full, I decided my word of the year would be care.
Part of my goals this year is to work more on caring for myself. How I treat my body in terms of work around the farm, the food I eat, the time that I sleep, the walks I go on, the rest I take.
It’s also about being careful how I spend my time, my money, my attention. Nurturing the relationships that are important to me. Giving Ellie my full attention, staying connected with friends, helping my family as I can.
It’s also care for this farm. Working on our home is important to me and a big source of joy. Having a property and a house means maintaining them. With this farm, I also want to take more steps to improve our land. In this way, I am caring for our environment and my little part of the world.
Here’s to the year ahead, a year of care. I wish you happy new year and all the best for 2025.
I try to live a life of love and joy. It isn’t always easy. All of us have things in our lives that are difficult. That makes it even more important that we work for love and joy.
I’m trying to focus on wins. It’s easy to get caught up in everything that’s not done or things that didn’t go according to plan. December has arrived, and I’m feeling behind. But as I look back over the fall, I can see the progress I’ve made, and I realize I am moving forward.
Outdoor furniture is in the barn. Eavestroughs are clean (I’m not as confident in the downspouts, but I hope they’re good enough for the winter). Septic tank is pumped. Chimney is swept (and we’ve been enjoying some lovely fires). Heat pump filter is clean. Outdoor water is off and hoses are hanging in the driveshed.
I completed my final task, chipping two piles of brush, last week. Then I moved the tractor up to the garage where it’s more convenient if we need it for snow .
My major focus for the fall was the barn: cleaning out more of Matt’s stuff and building the coop. Matt’s stuff is done. The coop, not so much. But I am aiming to get back to it between now and the end of the year, so I’m hopeful that I will see more progress soon.
I’m also starting to look ahead to some of the projects I want to do next year, and I’m very excited by what’s coming. With DIY there are always frustrations and delays. But there are also wins, whether it’s the fun of planning, the satisfaction of figuring out how to do something, or finally crossing a project off your list and enjoying the results of your work.
So today I’m celebrating the simple accomplishment of finishing my fall to-do list, and the bonus of a few more weeks to tackle a project that is important and interesting to me.
Anyone else have projects you’re trying to wrap up before the end of the year? How are you feeling about your accomplishments this year? Is your house ready for winter?
Home on 129 Acres 