Farm Friday

This time of year is quiet on the farm. Almost all of the gardens have been put to bed for the winter and what little we have left isn't enough to take to market. What we do have to offer is pork, garlic, eggs, and craft items.

One of our goats, Sharona, had triplets this week. She's had them several times before and is a great mother. We have a few more expectant mothers so I'll have more updates.

Newborns! (Photo credit: Bill)

Since I've returned to working in an office, I've needed to upgrade my wardrobe. When I made my goal to not buy any new clothes and to only shop at thrift and consignment stores, I had no plans to work outside the farm. But things changed and I needed a few new pieces of clothing. I'm happy to say I was able to get almost everything used. Here's a trailer for a 2015 movie that reinforces my commitment to avoid new clothes:

For readers who aren't aware, many of the clothes we wear are made by slaves in other countries. Although they're not "legal" slaves, they're slaves nonetheless. Human trafficking awareness is rising and I'm glad to spread the word.

We're going to the farmers' market tomorrow with our few offerings. Last week's market was closed due to the snow. And we had a nice long weekend of hunkering down and enjoying the solitude. We took a long walk by our pond when it stopped snowing and it was so interesting to see all the animal tracks and realize how much activity takes place when we're not around.

Have a great week!

Wellness Wednesday

Source

Sharing another article about the health benefits of yoga (and a reminder to self about what I should be doing):

The New York Times reports that yoga is also good for bone health - something that is increasingly important as our population ages with some even reaching the century mark. The article recommends a series of poses that take 12 minutes to complete: 

The 12 poses...were tree, triangle, warrior II, side-angle, twisted triangle, locust, bridge, supine hand-to-foot I, supine hand-to-foot II, straight-legged twist, bent-knee twist and corpse pose. Each pose was held for 30 seconds [on each side]. 

Quote for the Day

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees.

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

~Mary Oliver

Farm Friday

Just the beginning of today's storm

Since I've been working away from home full time, I haven't been good about keeping notes of significant events during the week. So I'll just include a few highlights in this week's post:

• Had our monthly sustainable living group meeting - over 20 in attendance! Topic was medicinal herbs.
• Had to go to the office one day this week. Fortunately, that will be the norm so I won't spend a lot of time commuting - especially since my office is over an hour away.
• Bought some more clothes at a new-to-me consignment shop not far from my office. (Sticking with my plan to buy only used clothes.) 
• Had our weekly farm meeting. Now that the gardens are done, the meetings are pretty short.
• Ordered seeds for our spring and summer gardens. We're going to be trying a few new varieties this year.
• Although it snowed on Sunday, it was nothing like the blizzard that started around 6:30 this morning. It's supposed to last until mid-day tomorrow. The Washington Post says to expect to stay where we are until Sunday or Monday. Being homebodies, we don't have a problem with that. (Today's farmers' market was cancelled.)

Have a great week!

Wellness Wednesday

Source

Having trouble sleeping at night? Try some of the yoga practices mentioned in this Huffington Post article.

Quote for the Day

Farm Friday

Ready for business at the winter market

Spent a good part of these last couple of weeks decluttering in both the physical and digital sense - getting rid of unnecessary paperwork; filing away what I need to keep; deleting blogs that I no longer read from my reader; cleaning out my email inboxes; etc. We also had our annual farm retreat where we go over our finances (both farm and personal), talk about what worked and what didn't, and make plans for the future. The first time we did it, we spent two days on it. This time around, we only spent part of an afternoon. Planning makes such a big difference!

We also had our first day at the new winter farmers' market which will tentatively run January through March. We had a great first day - as did other vendors we spoke to. Lots of community support. Hope that keeps up.

Now my time is filled with learning my new job! I'm excited about it but it's a big change for me. Of course, I'll still be part of the farm, just my role won't be as large. Over the last couple of years, I've streamlined a lot of the administrative and routine farm chores so it was a good time to branch out.

Due to time constraints, I probably won't be blogging as much as I have in the past. I'll have to play it by ear as I don't want to abandon the blog after all this time but I know I can't spend as much time on it as I have in the past. Will keep you posted....

Have a great week!