Mindful Monday

To hold until full is not as good as stopping.

An oversharpened sword cannot last long.

A room filled with gold and jewels cannot be protected.

Boasting of wealth and virtue brings your demise.

After finishing the work, withdraw.

This is the Way of Heaven.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

9

Mindful Monday

The highest goodness is like water.

Water easily benefits all things without struggle.

Yet it abides in places that men hate.

Therefore it is like the Tao.

For dwelling, the Earth is good.

For the mind, depth is good.

The goodness of giving is in the timing.

The goodness of speech is in honesty.

In government, self-mastery is good.

In handling affairs, ability is good.

If you do not wrangle, you will not be blamed.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

8

Thaw

It's about 50 Degrees out there today, and tonight my sweetheart and I will move back to our own little cabin (we've been staying up in the main house through the coldest nights), hopefully for the duration.  I started preparing our first seed flats this afternoon, about a month later than I typically would, and it felt great to have my hands in soil again.  I look forward to the first little sprouts with such eagerness.

I'd post pictures of the thaw, but honestly (and I think y'all know this for yourselves) it looks kind of desolate out there.  So instead, I'll share the last lovely walk in this past week's snow.

And Again

Yesterday Afternoon

Mindful Monday

The valley spirit never dies.

It is called "the mysterious female."

The opening of the mysterious female

Is called "the root of Heaven and Earth."

Continuous, seeming to remain.

Use it without exertion.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

6

Cheesemaking Bliss

As I mentioned in my last post, I am making cheeses this winter.  I came upon the idea when looking through a rather odd cookbook that I picked up at a library book sale for 25 cents.  The author, Carla Emery, talked about cheesemaking as something that all homesteaders should do at least a bit of, and to not get to hung up on fancy-schmancy methods and details.  After all, she reasoned, people have been doing this sort of thing for centuries without the benefit of climate control and immaculate sanitation techniques.

This advice really rang true for me.  Almost nothing about my food prep areas would be considered ideal by the typical modern foodie. (Except perhaps for Sandor Katz, who seems to have a reasonably relaxed view toward sanitation.)

"So, how has it been going?" I hear you ask.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli *

It's been a rough week and a half.  Extreme weather has denied my sweet hubby and I our preferred lodgings in our half finished little cabin in the woods. The roads have impassable to anyone on earth, but my intrepid middle son (who thankfully made the long trek to pick up our milk a few days ago). The windows got beautifully frosted,

and the icicles kept growing.