2019...A Year in Reflection

CeCe

I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago.  Instead, I prefer to journey back through the year, celebrating what brought me joy and seeking understanding in the harder experiences of the year.  2019 was challenging with my 7 year cycle in numerology…a time of contemplation and creativity. A year of going inward and seeking answers to a steady stream of questions about life and finding a direction that feels right for me; becoming aware that the status quo is simply not good enough any more.  And, although I have been busy in my community, growing my farm and business, and exploring new spiritual paths, I have also created space to be introspective, releasing parts of myself that no longer serve me, and trusting my intuition to take me into my year of Harvest in 2020. Here are some of the gifts from 2019:

I began my second year working through The Invisible Garment with Connie Kaplan and have a wonderful group of inspiring women from all over the world who consistently meet and share their spiritual journey through the wonders of video communication.  This work has led me on a growing spiritual path into her Color Work and Dreaming Wisdom classes;  it will be a growing journey as I enter 2020.   It is my dream to share this empowering work with the women in my local area this year, so stay tuned.  I also completed my 3rd Degree in Reiki and am offering Reiki sessions in my home.

I continue to study herbalism and enjoy spending time with the plant devas.   Two of my favorite teachers in 2019 were  Sajah Popham from Evolutionary Herbalism and Tammi Sweet from Heartstone Center. I will continue in their studies through 2020 and will  be starting an Herbal Healing Circle to share my love of plants.  This will be a monthly meeting to learn about medicinal plants, sustainability, and medicine making.  If you are interested in plants, I hope you will join in. I will be sharing more soon in a newsletter so, if you aren’t on the list, be sure to sign up!

And, of course, animals have been and will always be the foundation of my experiences and learning in this lifetime. Many of you know that I adopted three cats in January 2019 who had never been outside of an apartment bedroom.  It has been a year of joy and tears as they have transitioned from apartment dwellers to tree climbers.  CeCe, the youngest of the three sisters had the most health challenges and after being spayed the end of June, became very ill.   The week of July 4th, we made an appointment to have her euthanized....however, because she had a temp, we opted to give her a round of antibiotics and ran multiple tests for infectious diseases that all came back negative.  She started doing better after a few days of antibiotics and is now a robust, sassy eight pound kitty. 

Sunshine

Sequoia Mountain BP Here Comes the Sun, our Nigerian Dwarf kid from California joined our farm family early Summer and has brought lots of sunshine into our lives.  She is learning to walk on a leash with me and the cats and is in training to be our farm mascot at markets and special events.  We hosted a day of goat yoga introducing our seventeen babies to twenty one people on mats...it was somewhere between a yoga class and a zoo.  We may need to rethink next year and just have an open house to introduce our kids.

Cassie after a long day in the garden.

And finally, the day before Thanksgiving, we lost our sweet Cassie Cat to old age.   Bonfires and gardening were some of her favorite activities in her nearly twenty years on our farm. Our laps are empty and her daily presence in our life is deeply missed.   Letting go of the things that bring us comfort are sometimes the hardest lessons life teaches. And, as I say goodbye to 2019 I feel the tug....letting go of what feels known and trusting that the new chapter in 2020 will bring new love, good lessons and joy.  Here’s to the Harvest!

For the Love of Good Food

Some gals like pretty clothes and painted nails...I like clean food and farming.  

It’s September already and it seems like Summer just got started.  The garden is at it’s peak and the canning cupboard and freezer are filling up.  The Spring kids are teenagers and the does are drying up and soon it will be time to breed for another season. And, as the Summer comes to a close, the June chicks, once cute and fluffy, are ready to go off to freezer camp.  They are a labor of love and one of the tasks on the farm that I have the hardest time reconciling in myself.  

Day old chicks arriving on the farm via USPS

I consider myself a “careful consumer”, one who supports my local farmers, who chooses humanely raised animals for food and one who cares for my planet’s health because I know it impacts my own. It would be easier for sure to just let someone else raise my birds but, I’m picky and want a bird who has consumed organic feed, not just non-gmo , who’s full of green grass, ate a bug or two and picked a fight to defend his girl.  I want a bird who has enjoyed sunbathing and knows he is loved while he is here.  

The caveat is that I’m invested, not only in time and resources but with my heart.  My birds are loved and we have a relationship that makes putting them in the truck and driving to the processing plant bittersweet. I eat differently because of this.  My food is not anonymous; it has a face, a heartbeat, a life and I want it to be dispatched and consumed consciously  with care and dignity.  

This same philosophy applies to the vegetables I grow and the milk and eggs my animals produce. Everything is valuable and life giving from the life that gave it.  And, I hope that by being a conscious consumer, I am contributing to the greater good for our planet.  

Enjoying their last day on the farm

A Nanny for Sunshine

Have you ever made a spur of the moment decision and then said, “what was I thinking”?  Well, that happened several weeks ago when I made a spur of the moment decision to buy a pretty little doe from California.  She was so endearing with her little brown nose that I didn’t play the tape forward to ask myself several important questions, such as: 

 Do I really want to bottle feed three times a day for 6-8 weeks when all my babies are past bottles?

 How much time do I have to integrate a new baby into my herd?

 How will I convince the herd to accept her and play nice?

The first week was pretty standard with a new baby.  She had a separate pen where everyone could smell and see one another. My husband and I spent most of the first week in the barn bonding with her.  It became pretty obvious when we started letting her out to play among the others that playing nice wasn’t going to be on the agenda.  So, the following week we spent more time in the barn with the new baby allowing her to interact safely with the other residents while they got used to her in their space.   She had barn lobby privileges with the other baby girls and played while I milked. She tagged along as I fed at the other buildings and bounced along  morning and evening as I filled water buckets. We were developing a nice routine :)

By the third week however,  the joy of being Sunshine’s goat mom was waning and I needed to find a Nanny.  I needed someone in my herd that didn’t participate in drama, someone respected by the others and someone who could teach Sunshine how to be a well behaved goat.  That someone was Madia, a 14 year old Nigerian doe we purchased in 2011. Madia was happy to take the job, especially since it included some extra grain and free choice alfalfa which she got to enjoy without any competition. 

The duo began to bond and by the fourth week, Sunshine and Madia were mingling with the rest of the herd without a lot of drama. Madia became home base when Sunshine felt threatened and needed a place of protection. As Sunshine began to feel safe, she began bumping back. It didn’t take long before the other kids began accepting her, sharing food and playing together.   

 Sunshine still thinks her humans are her goats and prefers to hang with us; but, she is learning her place in the herd.  It’s always interesting to witness herd behavior...it is not unlike our own human nature. Watching Sunshine navigate her new life with courage and trust has been an unexpected gift.  As I encounter new circumstances and meet new people,  I hope I’ll remember the importance of belonging that I’ve learned from Sunshine :) Sometimes the spur of the moment decisions are the best teachers of important life lessons.

Live, Love, And Eat Local...

I feel incredibly blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest where accessing locally grown food is so easy!  We have always been fortunate to have a little piece of land to grow most of our vegetables, herbs, some of our own meat and of course, pastured eggs.  We have a growing herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats that provide us not only with entertainment, but lovely, rich, creamy milk to drink as well as for cheese and yogurt.  We also use our milk to create lovely soaps and lotions.  So, there is not a lot we need to buy in town.  During the Summer months, we preserve and freeze our produce and are beyond blessed to have access to fresh tuna and salmon from the Oregon Coast.  

This past Summer, I decided to experience living local by shopping and eating within the season from my local farmer's market.   I live just a few miles from McMinnville, Oregon where their Summer market runs through October. So, I set out to get to know the people who bring their products to the market each week to sell.  This is not a big market so it was pretty easy in a few weeks to meet and chat with many of the vendors.  They are a unique collection of people all of who love the hustle and bustle of people coming and going and they love to talk about their farms and what they grow.  They are, for the most part, earthy people deeply connected to the health and well being of our planet and our environment.  Elliot from Wooden Mallet Farm in Yamhill raises pastured pork along with some fresh veggies, pastured chickens and eggs.  This was his first year doing the market and he was friendly and always ready to share what was happening on the farm, sharing funny stories about the new piggies playing in the fields.  Talking with Elliot gave me a sense of how disconnected most of us have become when our food no longer has a face...or, a life that's visible.  I consume differently when I know what my food's life story is/was.  

A new baby is born at Eola Crest Cattle where their beef is raised from birth to butcher.

Jennifer from Eola Crest Cattle in McMinnville, OR  raises angus beef on green pastures; this was her first year at the market as well.   Her booth was inviting and she had an iPad display with pictures from her farm and of her cows.  The pictures tell a story of animals who are loved and cared for along with mouthwatering pictures of some of the beautiful food dishes she has created from their beef.  She also creates beautiful herbed rubs to compliment her dishes which she sells as well.  It becomes evident as you engage her in conversation how woven together their lives are in raising and caring of these beautiful animals.  Theirs is a family business that started with their daughter in 4-H and turned into a love of raising Angus beef.  What makes their business different is that they own the mama cows and the babies are born and raised on their farm.  They grow the crops that feed their cattle and the flavor and quality of their meat shine. 

Quality ingredients for a healthy meal.

Beth and Erik of Even Pull Farm captured my business with their beautiful array of heirloom and unusual veggies displayed artistically and colorfully. Although not an organic farm, they use organic practices to produce their vegetables.  Both are young and enthusiastic about growing food and have integrated their products with some of the local restaurants in our community.  They are friendly and knowledgeable and always happy to chat.  I was also able to buy in bulk for canning which was a bonus!  Because of the relationship I formed with their farm, I decided to do their Winter CSA, which has not disappointed. Their CSA has provided an ample amount of winter foods that have kept us satiated all winter and given us an opportunity to try new foods and truly eat with the season.  

Beautifully displayed vegetables from Even Pull Farm at the Thursday market in McMinnville, OR

After the market closed in October, I decided to continue buying my food locally.  In addition to my Winter CSA with Even Pull Farms, I stumbled onto one of the best kept secrets in McMinnville!  The Farmer's Market at the Grange, a market that has been running for several years, tucked away on Old Sheridan Road off 99W.   It  offers year round organic produce from Dennison's Farm plus, Jennifer at Eola Crest Cattle  sells her beef there once a month through the Winter.  I also met Josh Doss from Doss Family Farms who raises pastured  Mangalista pork!  A Mangalista is a pig from Russia that is known for it's lard. After sampling a few cuts of their pork, we decided to join their meat CSA and are enjoying a nice variety of great tasting pork every month.  They have the best lard!   I had an opportunity recently to visit their farm and meet their pigs. Do you know pigs sing to their babies while they’re nursing?   I feel good consuming meat from animals who are raised humanely and live their lives outdoors on green pasture expressing their unique behaviors...being pigs, or cows or chickens.  I will no longer support a meat industry that raises animals inside warehouses or puts a mamma pig in a metal farrowing crate that doesn't allow her to love on her babies.  These warehoused animals have no quality of life....how can we expect them to have quality of flavor or nutrition?

The Market at the Grange offers a nice selection of vendors; produce, eggs, honey, pastured lamb and several other nice offerings.  I haven't missed the grocery store!  Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the way I see the World going and think I can't change it; I probably can't but, I can make changes in my own behavior that may make a difference.  The grocery store probably doesn't miss my money and that's okay because my money is making a difference to the farmers in my community and that makes a difference in our World.  I encourage you to visit a Farmer's Market, talk to a Farmer and be a change in the World.

Goats Are Like Potato Chips

When you begin researching goats,  the phrase you"ll hear  over and over is goats are herd animals and you really need two.  In the first few years we sold goats,  I would tell people this as well when they came to visit the farm and were considering adopting one of our kids.  It's always nice for them to go as pairs or groups so they have someone familiar as they transition to a new home but, the reality is that goats can make good companions to other farm animals as well.

 An article recently came through my email feed from our Vet sharing how goats and horses make great pasture partners since goats are so good at eating weeds and shrubs leaving behind all the yummy grass for the horses. Goats aren't necessarily grazers but rather enjoy browsing shrubs, small trees and love eating weeds, which is why they are so great at clearing blackberries and poison oak.

 This was the reason we originally bought our first two goats....Pedro and Amigo.  The blackberries had completely grown over the trees we had planted  several years earlier, reaching at least thirty feet up into the branches.  Every morning, I'd lead them down the road to a patch of berries and I'd chop for a while giving Pedro and Amigo an invitation to eat.  They'd spend the majority of the day cleaning up an area  and then back to the barn at the end of the day.  The three of us cleaned a lot of blackberries that Summer, freeing the trees so they would have sunlight to grow and discovering a beautiful area with a year round creek. In two year's time, we had cleared most of the blackberries and Pedro and Amigo were rehomed  to help another family clear their property.  

Gilbert the Goat

A couple years ago, a woman came looking for a bottle baby for her small boys to raise.  I gave her the "goats are herd animals" speech and she still wanted to take the little guy home and have her boys bottle feed him.  They did have other farm animals,  so off he went.  A few weeks later, I received a text with the above picture attached, apparently Gilbert the Goat had become fast friends with their old dog and was often found sleeping on the back patio with him.  How sweet is that!  

After our experience with Pedro and Amigo, I decided I wanted to raise milk goats.  I'd grown up with large dairy goats as a kid and my mom bred and milked.  Of course, I learned to milk and my mom sold milk and we bottle fed babies....often times, I considered it to be a chore, which it was!  So, with this experience, I purchased a Nigerian Dwarf doe and her wether kid.  Madia and Jack were a sweet pair and filled our days with entertainment and joy.  Jack had lots of spring in his legs and a streak of mischief and his goal in life was to be on top of everything! He was an adventurer and was never happy with the area he'd been assigned.  He was constantly on the look out for new places to explore and a fence or enclosure was an invitation to  break out.  Madia was a patient mama allowing Jack to roam and explore.  She tolerated his climbing on her and rarely missed a bite of grass in spite of his antics.  What Madia wouldn't tolerate was being milked.  I'd put the grain in her little manger and sit down on the edge of the milk stand to start milking and she'd kick, trying to prevent me from getting her lovely milk. I'd counter with a firm grip and then she'd lie down.   I tried several different tactics, including a sling to hold her up....all to no avail; so, I finally gave up.  I gave up and bought another goat!   And then, another.  

Our First Goat Madia and her kid, Captain Jack Sparrow

This was the Summer of 2010 that we began our goat adventure.  Madia  is our grandma goat now and is one of our sweetest ladies always ready to greet new people who come to visit the farm.  In the seven years since we started raising goats, many have come and gone.  Every Spring the new kids arrive entertaining us with their unique personalities and special moves while their moms provide us with creamy rich milk.  Some of our mature ladies are milk trained and then head off to new farms to provide milk and fun for another family.  Our herd has grown over the years and today, we have over fifteen does of varying ages plus our group of handsome bucks that keep us in fabulous kids.  We still enjoy everyone of these creatures as much as the first two we bought years ago.  Now when people come to the farm to purchase a goat....or two, I now tell them that goats are like potato chips, you probably won't  have just one!

How We Started

In 1998, we left behind the city life and moved onto an overgrown property in the Chahalem Valley of Newberg, Oregon.  The blackberries, left alone for years, had climbed 30 feet or more into the trees hiding a beautiful year round creek and a promise of land to be uncovered and explored.  With my  then two year old daughter in tow, we explored and became familiar with the trees, the shrubs, the wildflowers and the birds that would become intregal to the fabric of our story.  

This is a story of restoration.  Of parallels.  Of life.  Because, brokenness happens in all realms.  This property was broken, neglected, striped of everything that was of value and then some.  The wildlife had been killed and left to die in what we now call our yard and birds were scarce.  My favorite story to tell is of going fishing and not being able to find one worm, not one!  That's how striped this land was.  

So, starting with the heart of the property, our home, we began to rebuild, repair and restore what we felt this place would look like, alive.  We created a space for family, friends and our animal companions to feel safe, loved and respected; nothing fancy or pretentious, just a safe place. A cabin in the woods, a warm wood stove in the center of the home, a kitchen space open for everyone to see and smell the food being prepared, a nourished place to grow and thrive. 

 And, then it grew outward.  A barn, chickens, geese, horses, a cow and then goats. Compost, the byproduct of farm animals became the foundation of our gardens with vegetables, flowers and herbs.  With the goats, we began clearing the 30 foot high blackberries and eradicating the poison oak which grew everywhere.   We began to see a beautiful landscape emerge; the creek became visible, trails began meandering through the newly cleared forest and as time went by, new wildflowers began growing in cleared meadow spaces.  Man made dumpsites were cleaned up, shell casings and skeets from target shooting were picked up and discarded, plastic and anything that hadn't decomposed was meticulously picked up and removed from the beauty of our land.  Once again, our land became home to a plethora of wildlife,  the birds began to sing and our gardens teemed with worms.  Restoration.   

And, what I didn't know then, was that while I was tending and caring for our land, I was also tending and caring for myself and the brokenness in my own life story.  Simultaneously, tearing down the thorns, I began naming and clearing away the garbage that I'd hidden away as "over" and began creating new words for a song my heart wanted to sing.  And I manifested the words:  creative, artistic, lover of nature, shepherd, nurturer, gardener, and steward of this land I live on and love.  Parallels.

Nearly twenty years later, this is still the song of my heart.  My children are grown and are marking out their own paths, my husband is nearing retirement and I, well, I keep adding more words to my song.  I love tending my goats, walking the beautiful trails we've created and being in sync with the seasons that nourish my soul and the plants that feed and heal my body.  Living close to nature creates in me a desire to honor and respect her through my choices.  Those choices are growing my own organic, life giving food; creating clean skincare products; using plant medicine for healing and sharing my love of nature's abundance. These choices brings me great joy.   Life :)