Get Real - Build, Make, Do

Happy Year of the Fire Horse

William and I were talking over coffee this morning about the pull technology has over the body and mind. Out here on the farm, often by necessity, real bodily adventures are required. Yes, sure, we gleefully and robotically sit in front of our phones pondering answers to questions, following our favorite content creators or triangulating the weather forecasts (!), but we also spend a lot of time with our physical bodies building, making, and doing. The farms offer much in the way of "getting real" as William calls it.

Lately, as we've been rather snowed in, I have been pulled to do little art projects. Sometimes I doodle in my art journal, sometimes I make books out of interesting papers that cross my path, and occasionally I paint. And, yes, I make cookies, soups and sourdough FOCACCIA too!

I've also been writing - journaling mostly - to unravel interesting insights and epiphanies about consciousness and self. A strange new world presented itself to me when I got my pacemaker, and for the last nearly four years, I've been riding my skeptical horse through this boggy pasture trying to make sense of new ideas coming my way. I suppose it can be explained as an awakening of sorts...a transition out of the masks society asks us to unknowingly wear and into truth.

On this path, getting real and getting creative have been demanded of me. I crave some sort of artistic outlet more than ever. I wonder if that desire is a result of cosmic energy, an unstable political world, or backlash to technology? Somehow I feel that we all need to keep both hemispheres of our brains in balance, and our creative sides may be hungering for something "real." What do you do to feed your soul? What do you do to keep it real?

IT'S MAPLE SEASON

William has the maple trees tapped and has collected three times meaning we have cooked down three batches of syrup so far this year. You can get this year's syrup in the store now. We do syrup the old-fashioned way - no plastic tubes and collection tanks in our woods. William collects by hand each pail hanging from the 350 plus taps he has going. It's a lot of work, but you are guaranteed a fresher product and our Sugar Bush isn't tangled up with plastic tubing.

The sugar shack (made from a galvanized grain bin) sits in the north driveway steaming when we're cooking, and by this coming weekend, there may be syruping in action if you happen to stop by. It's impossible to time this all right now, but we are assuming the trees will start to run again today and tomorrow, and if William can get the pails emptied from snow, by Friday (March 20th) he may be collecting sap and starting the sap boil.

Besides fresh 2026 syrup, the Farm Store is full of new cookies, two fabulously delicious and aromatic Iranian spice blends (my way of sending love to the people of Iran and protesting DT), and sourdough take-and-bake FOCACCIA. William has a chicken coop for sale ($1800) and pallets of ash firewood $80 each. If you are feeding animals (chickens, goats, sheep, horses, or cattle) and need hay, contact William. He's selling his grass/alfalfa mix hay $5 for small squares. Also available for animal feed: seed corn, sunflower seeds and rye...all self-serve in the store unless you need large quantities. Again, contact William to place orders for seed/feed, hay or firewood.

Always, sending love from farmlandia,

Sarah

PS. Thursday night on PBS Wisconsin, you can enjoy a virtual trip to the West Coast of Wisconsin and maybe even glimpse Lake View Farm by watching John McGivern's Main Streets! Here's the link for a little travel teaser.