TKG Sunday: There will Always Be Something

Learning to live alongside a crisis is essential to our journey. Our journey through this life is full of little boxes. And sometimes a box will spontaneously combust. Boom.

Aug 25, 2024

BUT we know that this happens every now and then. There will always be a looming crisis. Perfect does not exist. My need to train ourselves to keep having our good life ALONGSIDE the crisis.

You think?

Here are my notes for my newsletter today. (I thought this might amuse you)

Today take them for a walk through the corn fields.
Why can’t I write about dragons. Or faeries. Huh? Not goblins though - I have never liked the sound of goblins.
But what has my newsletter got to do with living sustainably, designing a lifestyle of minimal harm to the planet that you and I can sustain. Get back to basics.
Blink away from the distractions of the latest crisis. There will always be a crisis in our lives. Allow the crisis to unfold. Keep an eye on it. Do what you have to do but keep a good focus on the basics. Discuss what is essential to a good worthwhile life. (Worthwhile? Worthy?) Good Food. Clean Water. Clear Air. Adequate Shelter. Our people. Education.
I merely thought about buying a new bra the other day. I swear I only thought about it. I never said a word. I mean who would I have even said that to? Next thing my Instagram feed was heaving with bosom supports!
When they say keep your eye on the ball they mean BALLS plural and you are juggling them and a storm is brewing and two of the balls are going flat. Keep your eyes on the balls. The more you juggle through the storms. The better you get at it. So go ahead. Juggle.

So much right? We have so much to work out and think about and action and re-evaluate and action the changes. And on top of all that we must keep trying not to be distracted by the ghoulish, hysterical, shrieking clamour of the US election news cycle - an election for one person - just one - when it needs millions of us to manage a country, a state, a county, a road, a farm, a home. Millions of us need to be affirmed and elected and supported in what we do. One person - surely - cannot be all things to all people. All powerful. All blamed. The buck cannot stop with only one actual human. That is just silly. We cannot hand the care of our people to only one. We cannot sign over the care of our good earth to one. How can we depend on one person to care enough for our land and our mountains and our air. We have to care for those things ourselves - care for our patch of earth, ourselves. And we need to do that alongside all the media induced panic and cliff hangers and sheer din of an election year.

We have to take responsibility. Ourselves. Quietly take that power into your own hands. The buck stops with each of us. I must shoulder the burden of my own patch.

Stop the blame game. To blame another person gives away your power to that person.

Because before we assign blame (and let’s face it - we all do it - some stuff is NOT our fault, some stuff is ‘Not my Monkey’ as I am fond of saying) but before we assign blame we need to look to ourselves. For example: we all blame the big box stores for the demise of the local corner grocery store. But who drives past the corner dairy and pulls into the big box store farther down the road. Us. We do. Because it is convenient. Maybe cheaper. The box store has better marketing and a bigger selection of stuff to buy than we never even knew existed. But we have chosen not to leave some grocery money at the local store.

Then we all blame someone else when it closes.

So who is to blame for the shuttered little shops. Me. Me and millions of free thinking individuals. So yes. Elect yourself. And me. Millions of me and you. To save the local dairy from extinction. Or the polar bear. Or the moths. Or our independence.

Don’t give away your power.

Merciful heavens.

That was quite the list. Yes?

Here - take a break - A TKG Take Ten - have a Walkabout through the corn. Visit The Charlottes and FreeBee and Jude. The corn is now about ten foot high - maybe more and not as easy to walk through as a month ago when it was shorter!

The Cows

You can tell when the mornings are cool.

The cows sleep on and near their compost heap.

The Pet Pigs

FreeBee stikes a pose.

My fav shot this week.

One of my farm workers with Tima. Tima is such a good pig. She is everybodies friend. She is more than happy to accept a belly rub!

The Chickens

The chickens are so funny. When taking their evening walk the old chickens walk about for a bit then go to bed …

…but the young’ins - my layers in training - they stay out as late as they can. Boo and I have to herd them in almost every evening.

The Turkeys

Least said the better I think.

These turkeys are not what I expected. Though, just recently they have begun to gobble. You know that gobble, gobble, gobble sound. I will try to get it on a TKG Take Ten for the Tenners this week - I will try!

The PopPops

Oh my goodness. They are too sweet for words.

They have the whole field to roam now though the tiny pigs keep a weather eye on the gate just in case someone comes out of the kitchen with some food scraps.

They did escape yesterday just for a minute but squeaked and ran around my feet all the way back to their field. Then I blocked the hole. It is the first of many I am sure! Escapes that is.

The New Meat Chicks

It has begun to warm up again here in Illinois so this morning I actually turned the heat lamp off and turned an ordinary light on.

It is literally thirty degrees warmer today than it was four days ago when these chicks arrived.

The Charlottes

Hard at work with their gardening.

Or laying in the mud. There is no half way with this group!

The Ducks

The ducks have very quietly become an elegant part of the landscape.

They only really make their presence felt when I go into the barn to make up feed for the residents.

The Barn

The barn has no animals in it. The animals are all in the fields in the summer.

All summer we are preparing for winter so we are filling the barn with new hay. Hay is like air freshener in a barn. The scent of newly cut, sun dried and individually baled hay is quite divine.

I have ordered the hay fields to be mown for the rest of the summer. We have such a back log of hay that the fields can rest now. No more hay baling. Phew!

The Kitchen’s Gardens

My farm workers and I spend all summer preparing for winter. My objective is to eat 70% of home-grown food. Year round. It is easy to eat 100% from the farm in the summer as long as a person is happy to eat the same thing for weeks in a row. (In my case tomato sandwiches!). But a lot more difficult in the late winter. Our proteins and small grains are easy to grow in the fields and store in the freezer. If I have onions, garlic, potatoes, and flour, eggs, tomatoes, apple sauce and meat and herbs in the freezer or cured or dried - I know we can last the winter with minimum shopping. But all summer we prepare for winter.

And we have to eat our vegetables to avoid scurvy! 😂. So I had better put clearing out the winter glasshouse on my list!

The Fields

The corn is high and highlighted in our TKG TAKE TEN video today.

If you feel you would like to visit the farm more often pop in to thekitchensgarden.com and read every day.

Click on the image to go straight to the week day farm blog (Let me know if that works) AND …