Decisions, Decisions

Springtime on the farm . . . and it never stops.  The decision making that is. For example, last week we almost planted out our lovely tomato plants.  They certainly looked like they could handle it,

big beautiful babies that they are.  But at the last minute we chose to put them in six inch plastic pots instead,

Fire Update

All is well.  That's the simplest thing I can say.  We've all adjusted reasonably to having basically no electricity.  My sweetie rerouted some wiring to allow the generator to directly power the house, but, since it is noisy and guzzles gasoline, we don't like to run it except to power the glow plug on our stove. While we bake we do all of our baking, charging of rechargeable stuff, and movie watching. The rest of the time we do all of the wonderful things we do without electricity,

Whatcha Doin'?

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I found it very easy to call people up and chat.  No agenda, nothing important going on, no reason at all; I would just chat.  I'd even call people I knew in other countries, just to chit chat.  I don't know when this became difficult for me.  It may be connected to the periods of time when I have had no phone, but I don't think so.

Regardless of when it happened, I am solidly in a "not very chatty" phase.  Don't get me wrong, I actually still love to chat, I simply no longer instigate these opportunities the way I used to.  Part of it, I am sure, has to do with busy-ness.  I do have a lot on my plate these days. At the same time though, I ploughed through a 1001 New York Times crossword puzzles book (with the aid of my hubby) in about 6 months or so.  Definitely enough time for plenty of chatting there.

So then, I blame it on not knowing how busy others are and not wanting to interrupt their busy schedules with the trivialities of my life.  It gives me an easy out, sort of.

A similar principle holds true here, on my blog.  I run out of stuff to say, because to me, it seems like I will be repeating myself, over and over again.  I mean, writing about sustainability and living on a growing farm is bound to be that way.  For example:

With a Little Help

For a long time here at the Tweedledee, we've been loners.  Part of this tendency certainly arose from a feeling that we did not belong here, but I think the larger part was born from a need to prove that we could be totally independent and still succeed.  We have gotten a lot accomplished during our time of isolation, but, at the same time, it has been a lonely accomplishment.

A year and a half ago we vowed to come out of isolation. WOW!!!  What a difference it has made.  We have new friends.  And through both the inspiration and the assistance of those wonderful folks we are advancing by leaps and bounds.  We have also been strengthening the ties between ourselves and our neighbors, and in that strengthening we have realized a generosity we had never acknowledged.

It's About Time

Spring is officially here and if you haven't started planting yet you might want to get started pretty quick.  You can do a nice job with tomatoes and such by seeding them indoors and once they come up putting them in a sunny window.  If you have something reflective to put behind them it's even better because then they won't photo-trope (lean out toward the sun) too much.

Life and Love on the Farm

Puppies!

 The whole squirming mass!

What is "A Sustainable Transition"?

A Sustainable Transition (this blog) is the story of one family (my family) and their journey out of the cash economy or wage slavery and into a life of direct work.

Wage slavery is not all that far off from chattel slavery.  In chattel slavery an individual has no rights and no freedom of movement.  All of the worker's activities are meant to enrich the owner.