"There is no greater mystery to me than the
conflict of light and dark. In the way they clash and penetrate each other,
there is the source of everything. Whether I paint a landscape, a still-life
or a portrait, within it there is always a story of light traveling through
darkness." Alexander
Volkov
"Mentha was a nymph
who because of the love Pluto bore her, was metamorphosed by a jealous
Prosperine into the plant we now call mint. Thus begins the ages-old
history of one of our most common herbs. Highly esteemed for many
centuries, the Mentha species originated in the Mediterranean regions
and has been known and used since the earliest of times. Some varieties,
slight variations of Menta spicata (our common spearmint,) came from
Egypt and the Holy Land - probably carried into northern and central
Europe by the Crusaders." By Gay Ingram
"Rather than just
taking from our own land, we can give back at the same time. We can
plant trees. Now. What are we waiting for? Trees take
longer to grow than your garden, and we all find time to dig a garden.
Yet consider this: the trees will last longer and will contribute more
to those coming after you, even add more value, both monetarily and
intrinsically, to your land than a few tomato plants." By Gin Getz
"Whatever the reason for the lamb needing to be bottle-fed to survive,
most shepherds have a strong motivation to keep these young lambs alive.
We keep sheep in order to, with hope, make money each year. We
raise meat lambs. Everything born here is destined for the meat
market, except our breeding stock and any ewe lambs that we consider
good enough to include in our herd. In order to get them to
market, they first have to survive." By Anita Gerber
"The
action begins with a pleasant looking chap in overalls tromping through
a cultivated field. He crouches down and nibbles a tidbit of mud,
announcing with satisfaction, “The soil tastes good today.” Then we see
the same chap in full female drag including pink boa, in the driver’s
perch of a giant combine. Switch to different drag, different farm
equipment, same general idea. A voice-over tells us blandly how much fun
it is to farm. Thus we are introduced to our hero in his natural
habitat." Review
and Musings by Barbara Bamberger Scott
"Dairy animals have a
saleable by-product: offspring. If you have dairy goats, then you have a
saleable crop each year, but what do you do after those kids are weaned
and you still have more milk than you can drink? You can make a lot of
cheese, or you can use some of it to raise other animals, such as dairy
calves." By Allena Jackson
Personally,
I haven't held a steady job in 30 years, but I can tell you that it was
one of the most soul-scarring experiences of my life: not only was I
expected to show up at the same time and place every morning, but I had
to stay there and pretend to be doing something for eight long hours
every day, with no consideration whatever for what I REALLY wanted to be
doing. By Neil Shelton
Not too much is written
about the American scythe and less so about this technique of scything.
What I have found in print has always been negative. Finding that
irksome, I refused to believe it, so I had to find out for myself. It
seems to me there are just too many American style scythes around and
about in old farmhouses to warrant such a bad reputation. I figured they
wouldn’t have made so many of these tools if they didn’t work. So I
bought one. By Chris Devaney
"So what to do about
this universal Call to Prep? How much is hype, how much is
true, how much is fanned by those REALLY needing to empty their warehouses
of all the stockpiled cases of MRE’s, and what is your gut feeling
reaction to the happy knowledge that we won’t have an answer till the
reality is full upon us?" By Sheri Dixon
Having accepted that
trauma, we can move on to ask ourselves what can be done to minimize our
exposure, and as luck would have it, there are a few ways to make it
easier to pay most any note off in reduced time at less expense and
without adding too great a financial burden. I'm going to show you
three."
By Neil Shelton
"There
are many reasons why people are drawn to the homesteading lifestyle;
there is the lure of living simply and sustainably off the land, the
satisfaction of eating home grown food, the possibility of a better life
quality or for the support of the green living movement. These are all
romantic ideologies and to those dreaming about the possibility of
changing their lifestyle, it is important to reexamine exactly where
their motivation lies. I had to figure out why it was that I felt the
need to homestead and what I discovered was that I had gone full
circle." by Uni Blake
