Blogs

I knew that moving out here would bring us new challenges, that it would transform us in some way for the rest of our journey in life. But it was hard to imagine how those challenges might appear, how mundane they may be, or how complex and seemingly impossible. I'm the eternal optimist, David is the realist. This combination of perspectives lends itself to some interesting dynamics, particularly when it comes to problem-solving and identifying opportunities. I see hope long after light has been extinguished it seems, and he knows when the light's about to go out.

We're still here, but our lives have filled up significantly in the past couple of weeks - no, we're not expecting a baby.
However, I've taken up an internship and David has been preparing for OSCON and Western Washington Baha'i school, and we've been away from home for brief periods lately. Our critters are doing fine. We did lose another Rhode Island Red yesterday but we're hoping it's because of old age.

One of the things that we are trying to figure out on the farm is how to create a good windbreak. The west wind blows hard and cold almost every (other) day and the fruit trees probably get the worst of it. The previous owners shared with us their attempts at starting a windbreak, and the one that they left us is still surviving, but most of the trees are at 4-5 feet and seemed to have stalled. We need to get irrigation to them sometime this week. However it seems that there is much more to be done.

Yesterday, we made jam. It tastes good, fantastic if you ask David.

I used the recipe for strawberry jam from http://pickyourown.org. It recommended no/less-sugar pectin and almost halved the amount of sugar needed - it was still a little too sweet for us though. So my next attempt may have 3 cups of sugar at the most. I photo-documented most of the process and will post those below later today.

We are often caught up in a world which honors events, often great events. We celebrate birthdays and passings. We plan, prepare and rehearse weddings and inaugurations. We record and review videos of the first word, first step and first smile of our babies and our men on the moon. There is nothing wrong with this. It accords speciality to some of our most human capacities - the capacity to love, to express ourselves, to sacrifice and to be a unifying force. But what of those moments, the moments that lead up to these events?