Keep Walking
*****
Keep Walking, though there’s no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances. That’s not for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical
instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss
the ground.
~RUMI
Self Portrait Tuesday and A Response to
Refrigerator Hysteria Excitement
*****
The Material:
We used fabric paint in tubes; it was drying up and I was getting ready to pitch it when we discovered it actually had some life left.
The Method:
Head, shoulders, knees and toes. Roo did the bottom and I did the top half
(thank you, thank you very much).
The Truth:
The truth (which I neglected to reveal) is that we are getting another fridge in the next month and this 24 year old one is on it’s way OUT! Although I have let them fingerpaint on the fridge in the past (with regular fingerpaints) and it does wipe off. This is not the end of appliance art in this house.
Bonus:
In my hyper-motivated-to-save-energy research frenzy these last few weeks, I found a State program that replaces old, energy-sucking refrigerators for low-income folks. And, lucky for us, our fridge SUCKS (and we are low-income)!!! Wahoo! They came and ran a test and the beast uses 1400-1500 KW Hours per year. A new energy efficient one only uses 400 kw hours per year.
How great is that? Where there is a will, there is a way.
*****
Self-Portrait Tuesday
(April Fools Finale)
I’m just a fool.
but you knew that.
“Show Us Your Yard”
A tag by HennePenne
(with bonus rambling post below)
(this first photo was taken last summer)
The House
looking down the driveway from the house
(that is a pole barn at the bottom of the hill)
looking down at the garden from the house
LAND.
This is what we have; this land.
It is hard to say where the “yard” ends and the rest begins.
When we searched for this farm, we knew exactly what we wanted; a home away from neighbors and roads and noise.
We wanted a place that was peaceful and green and insulating where we could live and gently reap to fill our bellies and warm our hands. We wanted a place where our children could explore and dream and run and run and run.
We have little money and every part of our budget squeaks but we have found a place in which to BE.
Our children can RUN here.
******
Lately, I have been thinking about money and land and how one survives on small sums of money. We cook from scratch, we buy whole organic foods in BULK, we rarely purchase new things, we are clothed by Goodwill stores, we try and create as much of what we need (as possible). We live in a somewhat progressive state which has the closest thing to socialized medicine and programs that encourage and support (fund) reduced energy use. We keep our heat low, the lights turned off. We barter for as much as posssible. We cut our own wood. We are growing and preserving all the food we can and plan for more. We try to use what we have and leave little waste.
But taxes remain and insurance remains and the furnace breaks and vehicles break and animals get sick and the roof leaks and the house needs insulation.
It is tricky because building a chicken house costs money (even with some recycled materials) and buying fencing for sheep costs money and buying new beehives costs money and apples trees cost money and berry brambles cost money and solar and wind power cost money.
How is this done?
How does one come up with enough money to save money?
If we worked more, we would have increased funds but less time with the kids (not an option) and no time for investing our energy into these projects.
Is there an answer?
(PSSST, do you have an answer?)
do share.
(I tag, ShackintheMountains, nancygoat, simplespirit, brownievanmorrison, and Melissatulip feel free to jump in if you want to !!!)
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