Farms come in all shapes and sizes these days. You've got just as many farm genres out there as you do music genres. Hobby farms, commercial farms, and sustainable farms are probably some of the most popular farming subcultures within the greater U.S. right now. But we like to take sustainability to the next level here, and it isn't nearly as popular as it should be...yet.
Regenerative/Restorative Agriculture is largely focused on building soil rather than depleting it, increasing biodiversity, and being mindful of the best conservation practices for our particular lands and ecosystems. It's a huge shift in land management that demands we ask the question "What can I GIVE" rather than "What can I TAKE." This is a huge undertaking, but we are committed to doing our best to preserve and restore grounds that have had poor regenerative planning over the last 50 years. This means building soil through intensive rotational grazing, planting and encouraging crop diversity, no-till drilling, keeping adequate stream buffers, planting trees, and did I mention BUILDING SOIL. :-) You may be wondering, why? Why bother when life is so short?! And the answer is...we want to create a farm that is sustaining and a blessing--not a burden--to every generation after us. To leave something valuable and sustaining for our children, and give them the skills to adapt as the world changes. I'm very thankful to have help from our local USDA conservation district, as they have many of the tools and studies to help us learn and do our best to be good stewards of the 200 acres we're attempting to manage. I'm really thankful to be part of the Lewis County VSP (Voluntary Stewardship Program) which is developing strategies and resources to help farmers better manage the environmental impacts they are having. You can check out their You Tube channel HERE So far there are only two main fields we've seen big-time regenerative improvement in after 7 years of very hard work. The others...well...they're coming along ;-) And by big-time improvement, I mean:
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It has been a bit of a challenge to keep up with dryer ball orders lately. But I'm very thankful for the business! And thankful for great help from Sven. He's always there with a giant smile and a good attitude. :-)
I love this picture. But it really makes me cringe. Why? I see so much work and so many problems that need my attention. To you, most likely it just looks like a sweet photo of a father and daughter. To me, I see a pot of wilted dying flowers in the foreground and a nice crop of a terrible noxious weed that need many hours and years of pulling, spraying, and burning to eradicate. Sad but true, the farm we are caring for here in Mossyrock needs an incredible amount of TLC. It can be oh so stressful sometimes as we go about our busy days trying to pay equal attention to all the many things that are nearly crying for their lives!
This is me, remembering that all the things can't have my 100%. But that I can give 100% every day, in every area that I am able, and still enjoy the journey. Which things get what percent of our minutes each day will depend greatly on our abilities and priorities in each season of our lives, and that's SO OK. I guess for me, the fact that this picture perfectly shows how everything isn't perfect right now just means that we are real, human, and will always have many things to divide our attention between. And also, it would be easy to miss the most wonderful moments of our lives because...well...something isn't quite perfect in them. I love this picture, because I see a very busy father giving 100% to a little fluffhead who needs his attention more than she needs the weeds pulled, the flowers watered, or the grass mowed right now. I've been making this soap recipe and scent for years, but this has to be my favorite design ever with the light layers and sparkly mica outlines. So stinking pretty and now my bathroom and house smell like fall. Creamy, bubbly, spicy, sweet! I only made 100 of these, so better grab them while you can!
Cranberry Fir and Citrus "Mom, these chickens will be so proud of us when they see their new house!!!"
Nothing better than a 3 year old's perspective on an animal's thought process. She said this as we were finishing up putting a new coat of paint on one of our three little mobile coops. And it got me thinking...it's been shown that animals are quite perceptive of our moods and attitudes. And for me, little things like a new coat of paint on a structure, wearing a dress and makeup for boring chores, or a neatly organized office space do wonders for my attitude. So, perhaps they WILL notice the paint, as well as my face looking not stressed because I am not worried about their coop rotting in the winter rains. And perhaps all this combined DOES boost a chicken's morale by making them proud to live here. I have a smart little kid :-)
Here on the farm, and in a home with a toddler and a husband who works with greasy things, we know all about stains. Back when I was young and had time to worry about such things, I used a stain stick. Eventually, I got lazy and busy and old and just let stains happen. Nice shirts turned to work shirts really fast. Which was ok, because in 2020, we don't go places where other people are, right? Even before Corona...only the sheep see me most days.
But then...I happened upon a pin (thanks, Pinterest) for a home made stain stick recipe, and decided to give it a go. I wanted to use the materials I already had available for soap making, so decided to create my own recipe using soapcalc.com. LOVE THAT SITE. And they don't pay me to say so. But they should, because you'll hear about it in every soap making class I teach and probably lots of blog posts. Superfat and chemical properties that lay the groundwork for a "cleansing" bar (as opposed to a conditioning one) is a topic for another day, but soap calc explains this nicely for you if you can't wait for me to get my act together and write about it. Plug this recipe into the site, and you'll se what I mean. This bar is beyond cleansing, not something you want to be using on your hands regularly like a bar soap. Anyway... I am going to give you this creation of mine...a magical recipe for economical and eco-friendly stain removal wonderfulness. And if you decide you'd rather just buy it from me, good on you. It'll save you some time. And I have plenty to share ;-) But first, a few tips on usage: Step one: Wet your stain with hot water Step two: scrub stain with bar, let set until next wash cycle. Step three: Wash as usual. Wow. Super complicated. You'll be happy to know, this stain stick is THE BOMB for removing makeup from cloth masks. You can make a pre-soak solution by shaving off a bit of the bar and dissolving in hot water, but I like to use this directly on the makeup smudges and then hand wash. Just so you know, this recipe uses lye. And no, this stain stick does not contain lye per say because of the chemical change it undergoes when combined with coconut oil. Again, topic for another day.) All this to say, this concoction will be very alkaline when first created, and will need to sit and cure for a bit to let the pH come down. So, get going on this sooner than later my friend, and try not to spill anything on yourself for a few weeks. :-) 80 oz coconut oil 27.5 oz water 13.9 oz lye Treat this recipe just as you would a bar soap recipe and prepare yourself with all of the necessary protective gear and proper supplies such as rubber gloves, eye protection, long sleeves, vinegar in a spray bottle (to neutralize any spills) a stainless steel pot for mixing, stick blender, silicone spatula, molds, etc. Very carefully add the lye to your water, stir, and let cool until between 120-130 degrees. Warm up coconut oil to between 120-130 degrees, and combine with lye mixture, Stick blend until soap comes to a trace, pour into molds, and watch carefully for gelling/overheating. It's not bad for this to happen, as long as it doesn't become a soap volcano and overflow your molds. Do not insulate molds for this reason! Once hardened, cut into sticks (use gloves while doing this) and let cure for 3-4 weeks. If you have questions, feel free to contact me! My midwife was pretty awesome. It’s been more than three years ago now, but one of the things I learnt during that season of life stuck hard. She said that the more I try to control labor, the more painful it would be; but with a more relaxed state of mind and patiently allowing my body to work, less so. I’ve often contemplated this idea when a situation that at first wasn’t overly painful became more so with “more effort.” I’ve never struggled with hard work, for some reason it’s one of those things that comes easily to me. However, I do struggle with knowing when it’s time to quit...be it a plan, project, or human that really just needs me to walk away. It's like my suburban that needs an engine rebuild every 2 months. It's literally begging me to let it die in peace, but have I let it? NOPE! Knowing when to let go is hard, because...who wants to be a quitter!!!! I'm sure you know how HARD it can be to downsize, to walk away from something or someone, to pray, wait patiently, and let God lead. Downsizing and decreasing aren’t usually applauded in a culture where bigger is better and multiplication = success. We all think we need MORE of everything. And it is so easy to let the difficulty of a situation or endeavor that is clearly not working slow us down, or worse, debilitate us mentally, emotionally, or physically. Especially as moms, business owners, and farmers with very full plates! On a side note, it's funny how this blog was intended to showcase sheep milk soap, sheep, and regenerative farming, But I always seem to get sidetracked by the ethics of why we do what we do. Our worldview has a lot to do with how we operate here. One of my favorite quotes from Jim Elliot sums it up: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. Isn't that cool? Can you relate to this? Its so hard to understand why we do what we do unless you see the world from this perspective. If you are wondering what kind of a person would say that sort of a thing, Jim Elliot was a Christian missionary and martyr to the Waodani tribe in the jungles of Ecuador in the 1950's. And its pretty cool, we have special ties to this story since my husband's great uncle Don served on the team that recovered the bodies of the 5 missionaries who were tragically killed there. Uncle Don and his wife were also missionaries in Ecuador for many years, and he owned much of the property our family farms here in Washington today. You can read more about the incredible story HERE
Anyway, back to my original point. Labor still hurt like heck. But I like to think that the reason it was only 8 hours long instead of 20 was my good frame of mind, thanks to my lovely midwife. :-) |
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HELLOI'm Lydia. Mom to one wild barefoot fluffy headed toddler, a herd of cows, flock of sheep, a group of too many chickens and a neglected garden that against all odds, survives. Married to a wonderful husband with an equal number of titles and jobs...Dad, bro, (also as in, "bro, get over here gimme a hug") hydro-electric power plant mechanic, volunteer firefighter, fixer of all things with wheels and engines. (Ya, I'm proud of him.) Farm life, family, coffee, and Jesus make my world go round. Archives
August 2023
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