Warm Hearth in Winter

With the end of Summer we found ourselves ready to purchase two cords of wood for the Elmira Cooktop and there wasn't room in the driveway to have it delivered or stack it, so we worked for a couple of weekends - Rob cleared the larger logs and moved them down to where they would be split, and I worked on the pile of branches and leaves and prepared the kindling. We filled two Rubbermaid buckets with kindling to dry out, and have several more buckets worth of sticks stacked and waiting.

Piles of sticks/leaves and wood gathered during the past few months

When we were all finished with the work, there was much more room for the cords to be delivered. The buckets are filled with kindling and the rest of the wood is sorted by when it was gathered - the shed also has some wood that has been seasoning since last October's crazy storm.

sticks sorted and barrels of kindling ready / leaves in compost pile

miscellaneous piles of wood sorted

2 cords delivered and ready to be stacked

When I see this pile of wood, I find myself dreaming of sitting in the kitchen near the fire and baking for the holidays. I also feel safe and secure that we will have a warm place to be this Winter. I know that everyone does not have this security and I feel very grateful.

Grateful for our small home that is easy to heat, for the ability to purchase the wood we need, and grateful for the comfort of knowing that with a little work, we will be ready for whatever Winter has in store. I feel a little like the chipmunks and squirrels in our yard - busily gathering and preparing for the cold...

The heart of our home

Mental Sustainability

I spent four hours Sunday stripping leaves off branches and cutting branches into kindling.

Why? Because I could!

After spending week after week sitting still and not able to do anything in the yard or garden, I worked slowly, at a task that would not hurt me, at an enjoyable pace, and I discovered something about myself: this is what I could do every day.  Gardening, yard work, housekeeping, cooking, canning, all of it.  Every day.

In the past, when I thought of being sustainable – I would think of the basics: food, clothing, shelter, water, safety, etc.  When I sat for a while – I discovered that there is another aspect to sustainability that I didn’t fully understand:  Mental sustainability. There are things that are individual to each of us that we require to have a mental wellness.  For me:  the relationships around me of family, friends, neighbors, gardening and nature, contributing to a community, cultivating beauty and creativity, writing, music, seeing a value in the day to day work that I do and playing games and having fun.

For example, there is a happiness that occurs when I complete a task I enjoy:  huge stick pile + empty bucket + stripping the leaves and cutting up sticks = full bucket. Full bucket of kindling + Winter weather = fire starter for cooking and heat. The value of the small amounts of work equal a greater value in the end and result in comfort, heat and food for family and friends and a warm shelter during the storms, as well as a mental comfort and warmth that recharges me and helps me deal with the harshness that sometimes occurs in the world. There is something magical that happens around a hearth.

Another realization came to me this week.  Although there are some projects that need to be done around the house and garden, I need nothing. I was surprised to find that the mental wish list of random things has disappeared. I have enough.  I am not excluding the dream of one day owning more land and being able to have animals and a much larger garden. That is a family dream. For me, personally, I’m done. I have everything I need and, in fact, actually need less than I have.  The few things I do plan to buy in the next year are related to living with less and being sustainable. (bike, hiking shoes, some plants and gardening supplies, and books. Books to read and learn and pass on.)  In the past, when October hit, I would start the frenzy of holiday wish lists and shopping. I really love to give gifts and encourage people, but a lot of the time it seems to just add to a pile of things they already don’t have the time to use. I really enjoy giving and receiving gifts of consumable such as candles, wine, a meal, traveling together, something handmade. Something to create a memory and show another person they are remembered and loved. I am looking forward to being creative with these new ideas for the holidays this year. If we could only change our minds and habits, and instead give of ourselves and our time.

As I rode the bus to work today, I overheard a conversation between an older man and a younger mom with her child. Their discussion was about where they would be sleeping tonight. He would be behind a dumpster downtown, in a friend’s hallway, maybe a shelter, and the woman had a hotel room that she and her child were staying in for a little while to keep them off the streets.  Neither knew what they would be doing for the winter.

This conversation brought what matters most into very clear focus. The chaos of 8-5, which really means 7:15 -5:45 some days with the bus commute, traffic screaming around school buses, around corners and everything screaming around me, the pushing around of papers for 8 hours and the same chaotic trip home. Time passes quickly, without much meaning in a failing economy and goals that can’t be met.  I like my job and most of the people I work with, but at the end of the day – where is the full bucket? I am grateful to have work, when so many people don’t, but where is the cultivation of beauty and creativity?  The money I make is useful for providing for our family and things we need…but what if we just didn’t need all those things anymore? In the evenings I walk or sit in the garden and wish for a day of hard work that contributes to the world to make it better. We’re all in this together and we need each other and in the evenings I am often too tired to spend time the way I would choose. I do my best to make the experience of my job useful to the accounts I deal with and I believe that I get paid to contribute something of value to the company every day. I do this for myself, so I can look at myself in a mirror and be satisfied that – even if I am not living what I dream  – I am giving my best to this day and what I am doing now. I know now that this way is not mentally or physically sustainable for me.

However, the wind is changing, the fog is lifting, and my mind is clearer than it has ever been.

There is something in motion here that will take me to a new place. It already has begun to change me. I don’t know the exact path or where it will lead, but the direction I am facing now looks very different and it feels like home...

and home is a great place to be...

A Small Harvest

Sunday, Sunday

I woke up this morning to the sound of Rob building a fire in the wood stove and soon after, the smell of Maple and Oak burning. There is nostalgia in the smell of burning wood. It reminds me of the years of Girl Scout camp and 4-H adventures, camping with family, camping our way across the US with the youth group/singing group I belonged to in high school. And now, it is how we primarily heat and cook. There is also a basic instinctive security in knowing that we can be warm and cook and provide those things with our own hands.

I felt the pull toward the computer, on-line news, social networks, email, etc. and decided that today I was going to spend the day the way I would have before all of those things became so entrenched in my life. 

Beginning with breakfast: I cooked Swedish Pancakes  and ate them with a little grape jelly and some fruit. I am planning that next year I will be making my own jelly with the Concord Grapes that will be growing in the garden. After breakfast, I cleaned up and sat down to read Countryside Magazine. I have been reading it for years and for each year that passes, the articles and suggestions have become more relevant to changes we have been making in our home and garden.

This is the pace of the day – do a project and then rest. The balance of this approach makes it possible to get so much done without physical strain and stress. It also allows for the flexibility to change the “plan” mid course if something more interesting or useful presents itself. There are some “have to” things that need to get done today, such as eating, showering, laundry, gathering kindling, etc., but all of the rest is flexible and allows for creativity and inspiration, should it appear in the course of our work.  It also allows time to rest and enjoy the things we have completed. 

So I start the laundry, and take a shower and get ready to go on a hike. We did our Ranger walk through of some of Crow Hill – the area that was burned is evident, but already starting to green with new plants. We worked on clearing out some Oak, gathering kindling and some wood for fires for the next few days. Crow Hill is part of a conservation land – with the Greater Worcester Land Trust – and we asked and have permission to clear the trails and remove firewood (only Oak because of the Asian Longhorn Beetle). Our work to clear the trails and remove the wood, especially in such a dry Spring, helps to prevent more fires. I used two old belts to bundle up kindling and carried it back to the house. Rob carried two larger branches to cut up into firewood. It feels good to work in this way! There are blueberries growing everywhere as a result of the burning. I am looking forward to foraging in a few weeks. It makes me so happy to be in the woods .

We returned home with our gatherings and had some lunch and relaxed. 

The next task was to build the 4x8 bed that will hold Sunflowers, Corn and Squash.  We didn’t dig this one – but instead built it up with soil, cow manure and vermiculite. Once it was finished, we covered it with straw and it waits for us to plant.  We also did the daily watering from the rain barrel and looked over the plants that are growing, did a little grass mowing and trimmed the grass around the flower beds.

Measuring out the Area

Supplies - Hay, soil, cow manure, bed frames

Added Cardboard to kill grass/weeds below.

Added Hay

Soil over the hay, and vermiculite

Added cow manure and the rest of the soil

Completed Bed - Waiting for planting of Corn and Sunflowers

The day was super productive and fun! 

When it is paced in such a way, so much can be finished, 

as well as enjoyed.  

The day ended after dinner with a glass of wine and looking over what was completed. 

It is so important to work and then enjoy what you have labored for.

There are signs all over the garden of growth - the fruit trees are budding and getting leaves,

almost all of the herb seeds are sprouting in the herb spiral and soon more of the perennial plants will arrive and we will be finding homes for them.

I find myself often standing in the window - looking out over the backyard and

imagining what it will be like when the trees grown in and the vegetables grow.

What an incredible life to live...