Possibilities

This is my pathway. What will I do with it?

I can do anything I like to do; anything I feel led to do. I WILL have my farm! How will I do it? How will I pay for it? What will I produce as a money thing or will it just be a hobby farm? Hmmm...

Some ideas:

I might raise rabbits and sheep for the yarn of them. Yes, I have eaten both lamb as well as rabbit. I have even had to butcher my own rabbit. I did NOT enjoy doing so. Therefore, I do not wish to raise anything for the food of it, in that manner of speaking. Yes, I will eat the eggs from my chickens; but, I don't want to eat the animals. I prefer to see them grow old and happy on my wee farm. I DO enjoy posh yarns and I know the expense of those yarns at the yarn shops I like to visit. I think I could do that pretty easily. I know I won't make much, but if I can just make enough to live off of with my farm that would be fantastic!

My farm has to have fruit. Fruit, freshly grown, is so very wonderful! It is amazing to pick a cantaloupe and disappear with a knife into a grassy part of the yard to do nothing but eat it and enjoy the sounds of the animals and bees around me. I think I can grow enough to take some to market. That would be rewarding to know others are enjoying my hard work. I had an orchard as a child. I remember picking apples, peaches, and cherries in this wonderful little place. It was brilliant! To think of the difference in the taste of one I have picked myself vs one I have bought at the grocery store is indescribable! You will have to come get one of my fruits after I grow it!

There are a few stellar things to grow but it takes a bit of time management to get it just right. I will have to keep excellent records. Maybe I can do that as well, and it would be more of a cash crop. I will keep you posted on that one!

I am sure some of you are laughing at the thought of a single mom starting a farm of her own. Laugh. I don't really care. I have to do what's right for me. Having a farm is right for me. It will be the best thing I can do for me because it will get me outside in the fresh air with animals, trees, and work that I am not sure can be qualified as work if it is for my body and soul. Can it? Is that work? I am not sure but what it is just my personal form of yoga to hoe in the garden and in the trees and take care of animals that make me smile with their soft sounds and gentle kisses. Some might even call it joy.

Peace and Love,

Tela

My Dream

I have always wanted a farm of my own. One that provides homegrown nourishment and work for the body and soul, my body and soul. I want a farm where I can go outside and not only drink coffee and watch the trees blow in the wind, but where I can step out my door every evening to wind down with 30 minutes of yoga. I want to gather eggs from my chickens and pick apples from trees in the orchard. I want the peaceful work that comes from a farm.

I went to Tractor Supply yesterday just to see the chickens. I like to hear the chickens and smell the chickens and I wish they would have let me hold them.

Chickens are the best! They act so crazy sometimes with all of their pecking order behaviors until you realize people act that way too! We are just missing the feathers. 

I've had chickens. I loved them. They have even provided homegrown eggs for my frying pan. Let me tell you. There is no better egg than a fresh, farm egg. It is true. They are the best. The flavor is more full and robust. It would go perfectly with my Chipotle pepper sauce!

I want to pick fruit from my trees and eat it. I want to take the fruit to the farmers market and stand with other farmers trying to make a living! 

I have been cleaning up my stuff in my house and I keep finding notebooks where I wrote out different plans for having a farm. Different plans for all the animals I want. Different plans for how I can make my living off the land. I've never had the guts to go for it. I've never been man enough to just do it! My Dad says I'm too old now to try and farm. Am I? 

I think that now is the time that if I want a farm, I need to go for it! I need to write out my plan now better than ever and go for it! I need to believe in myself so very much that nothing can stop me! I CAN have a farm. I can have my dream! I don't have to wait until I really am too old to go after this dream of mine. I want my farm. 

Now, how to make my farm a reality? At the moment I live in a suburb in the city. I can have rabbits, but no chickens and definitely no goats! I had started a small farm at my parents' house at one time. I loved it! We had rabbits and chickens and a garden! We had blueberry bushes and grape vines! We had planted 2 peach trees and a fig tree. It was coming along great! The ground at their house is terrible and needs many additives to sustain goodness; but, it was getting there! We had to leave in the middle of the summer one year. We've not really gone back to it for more than just a visit. 

I am trying my best to work from home creating artwork for cards and any other artsy thing I can come up with to do. I love crafting. It is part of me. I know I wasn't given this talent for no reason. I made a card last night with chickens on it. I love it. I think it's awesome!

I also love the beach. I have been learning quilling and the bird was sitting there asking to be added to this card. Does it make sense to have a seagull with the chickens? Well, it works in my mind. The most beautiful sight I have ever seen was horses being ridden on the beach. It was breathtaking and the only picture I have of that is in my mind. It was amazing and I will never forget the sight of it. 

Animals have always soothed me. Last year when I was teaching in Savannah, GA...it was hell (That is the best way to describe it.) I was scared and prayed for my life every day I was there. On the worst days, when I would get out of my car at that awful place and pray for my safety, I'd hear a rooster crowing. I knew that it was my little sign that someone was watching out for me and I'd make it through that day. A rooster crowing became one of the sweetest sounds this country girl could hear. I needed that sound. It gave me hope.

Now, I have decided and I am committing to my dream. I WILL have my farm. I don't know yet how I will afford to move and buy my farm; but, it's happening. I am not too old to follow my dreams! I've only just begun to live and I intend to be here for a while! Look out chickens! Here I come!

Peace and Love,

Tela

My Worry about Eating Sugar

This is me now:

I have lost about 75 pounds in the last 4-5 years. I have done it by cuttng back on things like boxed stuff and store stuff. At one point I was even making all my bread that was brought into my house. We eat more vegetables and stay away from all the processed, boxed stuff in the store that I have no clue what the ingredients are. And, I know none of those ingredients could be grown in a garden. I stay away from that stuff.

Lately, I have stopped eating sugar as well. It's been 6 weeks tomorrow that I have gone without table sugar. That white stuff that used to sweeten my coffee all the time. I've kicked it out of my system. At first, I had done this for lent. It was what I gave up. Diabetes runs rampant in my family and I thought it would be something good to do.

However, it's turned into something more.

This is what I used to look like:

I was quite large! I am still fluffy! However, I am no where near what I used to be in this picture.

I say all of this because I don't think I can go back to eating sugar! I crave sugar. The things in my house with sugar in it taunts me to eat it. I have not done so. I don't think I can do it! I really do not think I can eat just a little bit of it without eating too much. I've dropped the sugar now and just maybe that's where it should stay.

My dad takes dialysis 3 times a week because he was too sweet! Ha ha ha!!! He doesn't like sitting in that chair each week waiting for his blood to get cleaned. He's 75 years old.

I have a very dear friend who is also on dialysis now in his 40s and he hates it, too! He can never stop taking dialysis without a kidney transplant and even then may have to continue dialysis.

All of this because these men could not decide to eat right and exercise and leave off the sugar! I have to continue leaving off the sugar. I have to use things like honey and natural things that don't harm my body the way the sugar does.

It makes me want to cry, but it also makes me want to shout out that I can do it! I CAN win this fight against the ticking time bomb of diabetes that runs in my family. I CAN beat this thing! I CAN win! However, I just don't think I can have that slice of cake or a cookie with my vegetables. I believe it would send me down a spiral of sugar consumption that I'd have a harder time crawling out of than I ever have. I've kicked sugar out of my system and it probably needs to stay that way.

What are your thoughts about sugar? Is sugar as bad as we think it is?

Until next time, I am after another cup of coffee...without the sugar.

Love and peace,

Tela