The birth of the farm ~ FINAL CHAPTER ~ land….business trips….and finding balance

These past couple of years have been like approaching a fork in the road ~ uphill ~ on roller skates with loose trucks….let me explain.

We rented the land for two years growing chickens in chicken tractors* for meat and eggs along with a small market garden in a raised bed system back home. Although our client base was growing quite rapidly, we remained stunted by the lack of a permanent place in which to build the farm. So we just hung in limbo….until….incredibly….we were visiting Farmer Luke’s family in New Zealand in the spring of 2012 and we found out that Mrs. Ball, the landowner, had passed away after a short illness. That, in and of itself, was a truly sad moment as she and Farmer Luke had developed a very sweet relationship over the years. Clearly she felt the same way..... We were told that she had left us the rights of first refusal of 100 acres that they would sever off the main house.

BLINK….

BLINK….

BLINK. BLINK. BLINK.

what?

… noooo…

seriously?

… what?...

That’s insane.

Utterly surprised does not explain…completely humbled and honoured does not express…we could hardly take anymore beatings from destiny…WE HAD TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN… and we did. WOooooOW! OK. Deeeeeep breath.

we're going to farm about 40 acres and leave 60 acres to conservation and trails

By this time I was doing A LOT of business travel. Sometimes I’d be gone all week, 2-4 weeks of a month. UGH! There is nothing like the yearning to be back in your family’s arms ~ there is nothing like ‘kid energy’ to give you a boost. Bottomline…LOVE my work…but I’m burnt out in travel. To illustrate ~ the most epic of my trips took me 17 days and 13 flights! DO THE MATH MY FRIENDS!!! I was traveling over 75% of the time that I was away over a 17 day period. At one point I was stationed in Sioux Lookout, Ontario and I was booked to fly in and out of three small communities over a three day period in order to meet with clients. No worries right? Suuuuure…I’ll travel in November in order to avoid the snow and impending winter…AREN’T I SMART!...such foresight... such instinct..... such insight into the environment…UM. Nope! ….I soon found out that November was actually the WORST time to fly because the air was colder than the earth forcing the cloud cover lower and visibility unpredictable and poor….WHO KNEW?...apparently everyone up north but me!…. the reality of this quickly became a point of conversation and I began to learn how truly unpredictable my trip was becoming… Nonetheless, I decided to attempt the first flight into Deer Lake, a small community only accessible by air and winter road…armed with a bevy of advice such as: go to the police or nursing station if snowed in for days and be sure to take food, warm clothes and a sleeping bag…what? what!....GULP…off I went after a good 3 hour excruciating delay.

On a side note: To be honest…I know the community would never have let me go without somewhere warm to sleep and they certainly would never of let me be hungry…so other than more commitments and staying on track, I wasn’t too concerned…just more inconvenienced.

I boarded a very small propeller plane, loaded and stewarded by the pilots with only 8 passenger seats …GULP….nothing I had ever encountered before. I chose the first seat behind the pilots on the assumption that it was a ‘pretty safe bet’…ie….it was in everyone’s best interest that the pilots survive…right?...anyhoo, I quickly discovered that I could CERTAINLY do without watching the pilots…..every light…every beep...…every movement....it was all interpreted as possible insight into the plane’s demise. It became unbearable. I had to force myself not to look or listen. My stop was the first. So much stress. On a moment of relapse I quickly discovered that things WEREN’T right…. panic set in… then the barely coherent speaker announced we were moving on without landing due to low cloud cover….WHOOOOOOSH….my heart  instantly relaxed… my anxiety released… and I sat back and happily ignored the pilots for the rest of the ‘milk run’…. enjoying the views knowing that from that point on… I’d be flying my clients to me.

you can see where I went in 17 days and 13 flights ~ I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS!!!

So ya…‘I was busy’ is a bit of an understatement. Forrest was at home until she was 16 months old…that meant Farmer Luke raised our little Ms. Rea and our Mr. Fab Finn for 2 summers while he ran the farm and our family and I worked like a mad woman. THIS WAS NUTS ~ no sugar coating here folks!! For those unfamiliar with the mechanics of roller skates; your wheels are attached to trucks which attach to the boot of the skate. You need to maintain the tightening of your trucks and your wheels for optimum performance. When the trucks are loose it’s an awful feeling! You continue to skate and propel but you feel utterly helpless and completely off balance. Insert our life. We plugged and propelled along but it wasn’t pretty….nor anywhere near perfect. Semi-organized chaos maybe…but mostly moment by moment. In the end we all agreed we needed balance. So Ms. Rea went into care part-time…and WOW this was an instant release for all of us and it was one major shift which was needed in order to bring our life back into balance. Once equilibrium returned we were confident and committed to going forward with the purchase of the land and begin our future together.

THE END. a farm is born!! awwww isn't it cute :)

This final post has been brought you by…a right hook by destiny, an environmental lesson…and knowing when you need to calibrate...

….and a double yolker…..cuz it’s always a 'good time' when you get a double yolker!!!

 

*huh? See our website www.earthsharvestfarm.ca

The birth of the farm ~ PART 2 ~ friends for hire, a wake-up call….and more than just a farm was born at this house

There are moments in your life when you run smack dab into a large pile of manure and the only thing you can do is start shovelling. Well this pretty much sums up our experience building a two car garage and one bedroom guest apartment after our move. ...Cutting to the chase, we hired a ‘friend’ who ended up taking all our money leaving us with a shell of a building.

 

GULP. SHOCK. DISBELIEF. 

Besides the obvious WTF moment…we were completely crushed. Um…ya. Nice, right?! You can only imagine my self control, composure and rationality at that moment. Ahem…ya. Let me illustrate…when he came to get his equipment I forced him to wait on the road as I called for a police escort…between you and me…it was for HIS safety not mine. Deeeeep breath (still gets me going)… In the end we managed to shovel our way out with some pretty costly lessons learned ~ talk about a pile of crap! SO ya…it’s not all rainbows and roses ~ loads of lessons have been learned along the way. On a serendipitous note….we now have a space for WWOOFers to stay while they volunteer on the farm ~ SHAZAM! This space has been invaluable to the farm and our ability to host volunteering couples from all over the world participating in the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms program ~ totally amazing! It took a whole lot of strength to get through that mess…but that we did!... and in the end, without knowing, the result has benefited the farm immeasurably…again confirming, Earth’s Harvest Farm was just meant to be.

here it is...finally finished, inside and out, some 3 years later....

Of course…you can’t have a farm without a farmer…so why did Commercial Waterproofer Luke decide to go back into farming you ask? Better money? Better hours? Less labour intensive? ….clearly not….but it wasn’t planned either…..opportunity presented herself in the form of a wake-up call. An extremely 'gifted' friend of ours strongly indicated that perhaps Commercial Waterproofer Luke should hang up his hardhat and consider other options. Huh. We thanked her for the advice and went on our merry little way…with this little tickle in the back of our minds. A couple of months later Commercial Waterproofer Luke came home quite shaken after having an accident at work where a propane tank fell off the vehicle he was driving and almost hit another car. WOW! um....HEEELLLLOOO. That’s some scary stuff in a ‘compressed gas explosion’ kinda way. Everyone was OK and the event went relatively unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, but for us it was a wake-up call. Enough was enough. At that point my work was picking up tremendously and I was traveling a lot. Timing was right for Commercial Waterproofer Luke to put away his steel toes and hang at home, look after Mr. Finn and regroup. Cool. Done…...OH? what’s this?? A Self Employment Benefit Program is being offered by the province?…hmmmmm…. um. Ok….WHAT? aaaaaand it will give us a business plan in the end?.....sweeeeeeeet!…..alas A FARM IS BORN!!!

The birth of Farmer Luke was liberating, exciting, exhilarating, and undeniably perfect for us. The course gave the farm direction and reflection; it allowed us to really think about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. Deciding on a name was AWFUL…nearly as terrible as agreeing to a logo (which I’m still not entirely in love with…sigh.). Despite all that, we quickly realized our strengths and although this bull and ram may butt heads on more than one occasion, our teamwork is outstanding! In fact…just to confirm that…we decided to go for Gold and put ‘rearing a new baby’ on top of it all ~ cue: Ms. Forrest Rea…

Funnily enough we had no intention of expanding our brood until I injured myself playing roller derby. What! WHAT? That’s right…..meet my alter ego on eight wheels...Homicidal Hippie

good times...I miss derby ~ until another day...

Rideau Valley Roller Girls rocked my world for a good three years ~ well they still do…I just don’t have the time I used to have to truly dive into my derby love…Anyhoo, a dislocated fibula put me out of the game for a couple of months and in my boredom I thought it might be a good time to expand the fam….ya…that romantic eh…enter our little Forrest fairy 

… born at home 5 days after x-mas 2010 by the same midwife who assisted in the birth of Fabulous Mr. Finn…K…now we’ve got a full set ~ it’s time to get this party started!

To be continued….

This post has been brought to you by interest free & repayment free loans, destiny knocking, and re-Forrest-ation…

….and a dozen of Earth's Harvest Farm eggs soaking in the vista at Moraine Lake in the beautiful Rocky Mountains....

um ya....just going a step beyond your everyday farmer ~ it's just how we roll!!!  and I'm pretty sure the eggs enjoyed themselves....

The birth of the farm ~ PART 1 ~ “it’s time to move”…and serendipity is our Realtor

Based on the premise that Earth’s Harvest Farm was just meant to be and on the foundation that there are no coincidences…I begin our story. 

It all started when we purchased this house in 2009…prior to that we had lived on a half acre lot in a 100 year old home in the village of Osgoode, on the outskirts of ‘Greater Ottawa’. This was our first home and it was where Finsbury (a.k.a. The Fabulous Mr. Finn) entered the world.

Finsbury - one day old - obviously he too saw chickens and sheep in our future

Although it was a great community, village life just wasn’t for us ~ we needed more space and, to be honest, less peeps. So after 3 years we decided it was time to move…. Oh!…ok…cool…where? how? when? We had no real plan and we didn’t really know where we were going. I was working from home writing for legal publications and contracting to a non-profit and Farmer Luke was known as Commercial Waterproofer Luke and worked in Ottawa. For the most part we had no ties.  

ENTER SERENDIPITY…the Realtor. After putting the house on the market we spent a couple of months looking, but not finding, a place we liked…or that really spoke to us. Then one night ~ at around 11 ~ in a moment of utter discouragement I referred back to an old listing that never really attracted me… well other than the fact a friend had sent it to me (first sign). It was conditionally sold, and had been for some time, but I thought what the hell…I’ll give it a go and see if we can look anyway. I instantly emailed the real estate agent and asked for a viewing…not expecting a response until morning of course. Within minutes the agent responded saying that the conditional sale had just that moment, fallen through and yes, of course a viewing could be had. WOW SERIOUSLY???!! (second sign) My intuitive self started dancing in my belly and a smile emerged over my face ~ that’s the kinda stuff I needed to feel. Over the next few days I convinced myself the house was ours. The night before the viewing I had an extremely vivid dream wherein I was walking around in our ‘new house’ and there were wood floors that creaked. When I woke up I just knew it was our new house that I was in….I kid you not....I’m kinda like that. Anyhoo…I was totally bummed when I got up because the house we were going to see was built in the mid 90s and couldn’t possibly have creaking floors…right?... When we arrived at the house I instantly loved the property. We walked around as our Realtor struggled with the key in the front door…then she tried the back door…then back to the front…..then Luke tried….front…back…no luck...I’m now looking in the windows drooling and totally bumming out because now I’m being told we can't get in. I finally say “give ME a turn!” ~ with “I’m going to get that jar open” determination I approached the door, looked down at the key, which incidentally was baby blue with bubbles all over it (my heart was aching at this point), and with one turn of the key the door opened. THAT’S RIGHT! (third sign) The door opened to two black cats curious over the commotion yet suspicious of the intrusion…..cute kitties…um…wait…they were identical to our two black cats, Burt and Bob. YUP (fourth sign). In I walk…onto to beautiful wood floors…WHAT?....CRrrrrEeeeeAaaaaK!! (fifth and final sign…YUP this was our house!)

Of course I had already fallen in love with it on the outside and the inside didn't disappoint...so yup, this was going to be our new home…..AFTER we sold the other house. UGH ~ cue ‘worst experience ever’ ~ …..we carried the conditional offer for 4 horrible horrible horrible MONTHS. The stress was AWFUL and seemingly impenetrable. Between showings and the fear of losing our dream home…I was a mess…to say the least.

One dark moment involved me coming home to a sign posted on the telephone pole outside our house that advertised our neighbour’s open house scheduled on OUR open house date. Madness overtook me and although I am not proud of it, I feel…um…or rather…felt…justified in getting out of my car and ripping the sign down…HELL NO! YOU AREN’T STEALING OUR POTENTIAL BUYERS was screaming in my head (to be honest they had more all over the neighbourhood..I'm not that much of a saboteur)…I ran into the house in a complete frenzy, threw the sign at Luke…and burst into tears blubbering about the neighbour stealing our open house. Luke looked at me. Looked at the sign. Looked at me. Looked at the sign again…then I looked at the sign…..and realized… it was actually scheduled for the weekend AFTER our open house. Yup. I went there. I’m not proud of it. Needless to say…we still have the sign.

About two weeks later we got the house. 

to be continued....

 

This post has been brought to you by…. destiny, intuition and a moment of madness...

..and a stuffed cat in the cockpit of an Air Canada flight…

why? Because although I may be prone to fits of madness…I’m also an awesome mom who takes her kids’ stuffies on business trips and documents our adventures…meet Slinky Malinky. 

the draw of the blog ~ it's not just about facebook status updates anymore....way to EXPLODE my internal dialogue!

since facebook have you ever caught yourself thinking in 'status updates' ?? ~ by this I mean...internal dialogue that you phrase in your mind as a status update....for example: "full day of laundry, entertaining kids and food preparation ~ when all I want is a nap!"...or...."Rob Ford, Justin Bieber, Polar Vortex ~ you've got 3 sentences....pick one"....or...."cows, chickens, sheep OH MY"...these little statements were never so nicely presented in my mind prior to facebook ~ the thoughts were there of course...who doesn't have laundry to do?...but I never had to contemplate possibly 'updating' the world about laundry...in a witty, engaging kinda way....  

this just fascinates me and I've always been both amused and befuddled by it when I catch myself summarizing my movements, thoughts or day in a nice, neat, possibly witty little internal status update....with no real intention of updating my status whatsoever of course ~ weird, right?! This is an example of totally reconditioned human behaviour that has developed post-facebook ~ crazy funny little humans...HA! 

now introduce 'blogging' to this internal world of mine ~ WTF?!? Right?! My nice, neat, concise statements are now blowing into short stories, small essays or long diatribes....requiring themes, fluidity, precision beyond the parameters of a few sentences...again..WTF?!?

to blog or not to blog.....that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the endless ramblings of ones mind or to sign in to your blog and by prose end them? To blog: to post; to post perchance to engage: ah, there's the rub.

So here I sit....wondering whether or not I need to continue posting blogs of mindless attempts at finding humor in our world...or do I wait for moments to come which inspire creative expression of updates?  What is the etiquette? I've never been a reader of blogs (GASP!)....to be honest I've never had the time...but that leaves me completely naked in a VERY LARGE pool of options. There are no immediate answers only STATS to help me along this path...and between you, me and about 40 chickens, I don't know what the hell these stats mean.....

So bare, or is it bear? (one is naked and the other is an animal.. neither of which seems appropriate..) thanks google, it's 'bear'. So bear with me as I flounder my way through this new terrain. I've decided a dual approach would probably work the best ~ therefore I will resist at least 50% of the time from posting my 'thoughts' and for the most part I'll wait for interesting events to happen....maybe.

This post has been brought to you by...nagging thoughts in the night, a Shakespearean soliloquy, and social media human development at its best.....

and a confused yet euphoric chipmunk.

why? cuz....well....cuz....other than the damn human taking the picture, this is pretty much a chipmunk paradise and why shouldn't we all partake in a chipmunk paradise? Oh...cuz we aren't chipmunks. Whatev'

Till next time....don't forget to hug a farmer.


 
  

A Look Back ~ 4 a.m. musings...

4:01 a.m. to be precise.

I love this time of day...er....night..?..The house is so quiet right now but for the odd human shuffling in bed or a kitty snore....generally I am engulfed in the oh so rare, and absolutely delicious, silence of the night. My time.

Of course the reality is I'll be exhausted tomorrow but who cares it's Sunday...

This is a perfect time to look back over the past 3 seasons since Farmer Luke and, ostensibly myself, decided to jump on the 'farm train' and embark on this crazy Animal Farm adventure.

Oh wow....k....where to begin?

Farmer Luke has always been a farmer. When I met him he was in England on a 2 year dairy farm scholarship. It wasn't until he had an unfortunate experience on a dairy farm outside of Toronto that he decided to put away his gumboots and hang up his coveralls and venture into the world of construction. Flash forward 4 years, one child (meet Finn), and a wake-up call later...Farmer Luke decided to put away his work boots and hang up his hardhat and take some time to consider his path. Conveniently, my work at that time took a steady run forward and business travel became my alternate mode of transportation. Also conveniently.....Ms. Forrest Rea was germinating inside me prepping for her appearance on December 30, 2010....SO COME ON....WHY NOT START A FARM?!....right?...

That winter Farmer Luke scouted out our area for willing landowners to lease him a couple of acres to get started ~ that's when Mrs. Ball came into our lives. She was an elderly lady whose husband had purchased the land and had loved seeing it farmed. Mr. Ball had since passed and the land had not been touched in a very long time..(ahem...organic...). It had 40 acres of pasture and about 60 acres of bush. Mrs. Ball was happy to lease us the land and she was super supportive of Farmer Luke's ideas. In fact...the Ball family have been incredible supporters of us since we met them. Mrs. Ball's son Chris, holds a special place in this farm....anyhoo I'll leave that for another day....and so began our first two seasons on leased land....

k....now rather than reiterating what we did......I think it would probably be more beneficial if I highlight some of the lessons we have learned.....there certainly has been a few...

1. chicken tractors should not be used on the lawn at the house....although an incredible source of beautiful free fertilizer (remember that dry summer where water restrictions meant brown lawns everywhere...um...ya...not ours...we were still cutting a lush green lawn twice a week!)...we soon discovered that chickens like a dust bath and will dig holes in order to achieve this pleasure....now lets contemplate this as we move the chicken tractor once a day....great distributor of fertilizer right?!...ya, and potholes ALL OVER the lawn!! Our lawn, now 3 years later, is still a liability ~ I'm contemplating having a sign drawn up saying "walk at your own risk ~ owner not liable for broken ankles...blame the chickens" ~ so ya....LESSON #1 chicken tractors belong in the field.

2. maybe having a newborn, a new farm, and no maternity leave wasn't such a brilliant idea.....but hey, we all made it through...relatively unscathed....no regrets. Just throwing it out there for those that might be in the same situation...

3. OH!?....so that's why they call it the 'pecking order'!!....we found this out the hard way....Farmer Luke began with 30 laying hens....15 in each chicken tractor...these ladies were Barred Rocks and, we later found out, they are known to be 'unkind' to one another ...to put it mildly....they were just unhappy chickens no matter what we did!! It was so frustrating because no matter what, they would just pick on each other...or they would pick, or rather peck, on just one poor chicken....their bullying was just incorrigible! We tried so many things to make these ladies happy. We put CDs hanging from the top of the tractor to try and distract them away from each other. We threw in 'interesting' objects for them to 'play' with. Nope...still unhappy and pecking on each other...! So one attempt at making these ladies happy involved Farmer Luke letting them out to run, frolic, and catch bugs all over our lawn....seemed innocent enough.....um...YA NO! Within moments 30 chickens were running all over the lawn, in my flower gardens (which is a BIG no no), in the veggie gardens...everywhere....it was chicken hysteria....and quickly this mama let it be known that chickens weren't going to ruin her gardens!!! So now Farmer Luke had to catch 30 hysterical chickens and put them back into the chicken tractors....ya, easier said than done......I didn't assist because I would have simply been no help whatsoever...I'm by no means a girlie girl however, I am somewhat reluctant with the birds.....no idea why....I'm sure it will pass.. Back to Farmer Luke, 30 chickens, 2 chicken tractors and 1 mama kinda freaking out about her flowers...beyond the sheer enormity of the endeavor and the subsequent successful execution of herding 30 chickens back into the tractors, the lessons continued.....once they were finally re-contained...we sat back and realized we had screwed up their pecking order!! So now instead of happier chickens (refer back to original point about this story...i.e. improving these ladies' dispositions..) we now had REALLY pissed off chicks who may or may not know each other ~ we stood helpless on the outside of the tractor as the chickens worked it out amongst themselves..peck...peck...peck...peck... peck....at that point..'chicken whisperer'.. Farmer Luke was not. sigh.

4.....400 tomato seedlings WILL produce approximately 4000 tomatoes.....just contemplate that. 

5. NEVER deny yourself or your family the bounty of your harvest. The first season we caught ourselves restricting what we'd eat from the garden...or our freezer...or the hen house...in order to have 'product' to sell. It wasn't long that the absurdity of this notion quickly became evident and we imposed the 'US FIRST' condition on our farming and the bounty. We're not trying to be greedy...or unthoughtful...we just figure....if your farmer isn't fed and healthy then how is ANYONE going to be fed and healthy?? ...just sayin'..

6....actually....I'm going to restrict this 'LESSONS LEARNED' section to 5...because....well because it's now 5 a.m. and the romance of the silence has given way to the reality that I only have 2 hours before my day starts and I should probably get some sleep.....

This blog has been brought to you by early morning musings, decadent silence and a good ol' cuppa tea!!

...and a BIG EGG

 why?...cuz....well....cuz.. THAT'S. A. BIG. EGG.

Till next time...

don't forget to hug a farmer.

Meet the CAST of this CrAZy adventure....

in alphabetical order....

Farmer Luke
Born and raised in New Zealand ~ I found him in a pub in London, England and after a promise of a trip to a local dairy farm and a chance to throw Pooh Sticks at the famous Pooh Bridge in HartField, East Sussex, the rest is history ~ I imported him and here we are 13 years later! Farmer Luke has as much of a passion for the environment and farming as he does V8 engines ~ hey, we all have our contradictions... ~ he has never met a fish he hasn't wanted to catch and he's well known for making up random songs on any number of topics ~ he's a chatter with a heart.....and never a truer farmer have i ever met  

The Fabulous Mr. Finn
Mr. Finn, also known as Finsbury, warms EVERY heart he meets
~ this 7 year old will be the first to tell you he's a 'math guy' and a 'sensitive guy' ~ an avid reader with a penchant for video games ~ this kid is constantly teaching us how to be better people ~ he's intuitive, compassionate, intelligent and quirky ~ he wears nail polish, mix-matched socks and as much strips as possible ~ he LOVES to tell stories and he fancies himself a science guy ~ he's our negotiator, instigator and liberator ~ always out to help the underdog or to cheer you up when you are down FINN is an exceptional example of a human being and we are constantly in awe of his presence in our existence  

Ms. Forrest Rea
Our little Forrest faerie, Ms. Rea was born at home 3 years ago and is as close to being from the Earth as you can get ~ she is a burst of sunshine in any day ~ she loves to sing and dance & she nurtures anything and everything she can get her hands on ~ she will be a farmer without a doubt! She's an incredible energy that provides daily gifts of love 

Granola Girl
That's me ~ I wore hats and tie skirts in high school after I stopped powdering my face in true Robert Smith form ~ I owned a purple, green and black postal truck before I had my drivers licence ~ I lived and worked in London, England and backpacked around Europe before heading back to law school ~ I have three university degrees (two of which are in the arts) and in my next adventure I will not be using any of them..SCANDAL!...right? ~ I attend protests, traditional spiritual gatherings and I honour the Earth (are you really that surprised?!) ~ I AM GRANOLA but I'm also a stubborn Type-A opinionated lawyer who has spent the last 10 years honing her skill at arguing....just ask Farmer Luke ...HA!....but of course that's for another day and another blog....until then.... sit back and enjoy the ride     


...and all this CraZiNess is taking place on EARTH'S HARVEST FARM......

Why Blogging? Why now? Who cares?

...all very relevant questions for which I don't entirely have the answers. Nonetheless I will attempt an explanation sufficient enough for you to determine if my murmurings are part of your particular snack bracket. 


1. Why blogging?

Recently, as my workload diminishes, I have found myself aimlessly adding mundane posts to facebook in an attempt to fulfill what is really my 'blog need' ~ longer diatribes and murmurings about the comings and goings of this particular arch in the story that is my life...um...that being the transition from legal practise to small scale commercial farming. It's all law suits and pasture management ~ factum writing and seed sourcing ~ hearing dates and WWOOFer hosting ~ ultimately it's friggin' nuts! nuts because there is A LOT going on (oh did I mention a 3 year old and a 7 year old...ahem..ya.) but also because we are ACTUALLY DOING IT! ...we're taking a big bite out of life and making a difference along the way (the thought totally fills up my granola meter)....it's 'organized nuts' or 'directed chaos' if you will....there are no guarantees but we are heading into it no matter what ~ SO WHY NOT WRITE ABOUT IT???? I said to myself....I mean, in the grand scheme of things it's pretty crazy what we are doing and totally fascinating, exciting and innovative too ~ why not share our experiences.....our successes and our failures....why not share tips or simply banter about life's bumps as we plug along on our path....with that I say...why not blogging?


2. Why now?

My life is taking a swift change in direction over the next few years. For the past 10 years I have worked as a lawyer for a non-profit native rights organization that has provided me with incredible opportunities and exposure to such a rich tapestry of experiences that certainly have contributed to my 'granolaism'. I have been taught to go back to the land and what it has to offer but give back as much as we take. This experience has shaped and framed my journey for a long time now. It is time, as my colleague retires, to change my path and honour this lesson in another way. It is time to listen to my intuition, mind and body, and change direction and begin an off-grid organic sustainable farm with my partner in life Farmer Luke  ~ no matter how incredibly ridiculous it all feels it also just feels RIGHT ~ that is currently the story arch of my life ~ Earth's Harvest Farm is beginning it's first full season as a land-owning farm with big dreams! ~ this is WHY NOW ~ it's such a crazy time between raising the kids, building the farm, organizing the business and our roles within it ~ it's a friggin' roller coaster of a ride and the lessons along the way are pretty cool and totally rewarding ~ SO NOW?.. because it is the beginning.....which is a pretty good place to start. 


3. Who cares?

That's completely debatable ~ I can say I at least care ~ maybe a few friends out of interest and curiosity ~ maybe the odd WWOOFer out of nostalgia ~ but most importantly I was hoping to PUT A FACE TO THE FARMER and the farm. I want to CHRONICLE the journey of our ANIMAL FARM for those that currently support us and our future supporters. I want to give a window into the trials and tribulations of beginning, and running, an off-grid sustainable organic farm ~ this is our FIRST full season of owning the 100 acres of Earth's Harvest Farm....and we say LET THE FUN BEGIN!! ...know your farmer. know your food....  



So there you have it. I'm not going to put the blog content into a nice neat little box of summary ~ I can't preface my opinions, philosophies and recipes....it's just not possible. I can guarantee you they ALL have a granola bent to them ~ that much you can bet ;) it's just how it is....but I bet you'll learn something along the way.....I might even change your opinion about something or answer a question.....or maybe you might just go out and meet a farmer...I dare you to come along for the journey....come on...granola isn't that scary....it's not like it's quinoa!