Homesteading in 2010 ~ crying over spilled wine?

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
~ Henry David Thoreau

In a previous post I mentioned there were to be new adventures ahead for this Unusual Farm Chick and her family. The unknown for 2010 has brought a wave of conflicting emotions. From excitement of new territory and beginnings, to the fear of not knowing the when or where.

The Captain is a major structure oriented, everything must be charted kinda guy. I am the color to his black and white. He cringes when I say "Sometimes you just have to wing it and let life blow you in the direction it wants instead of holding tight to the rail". What lies ahead is not as easy for him as it is for me.

We will be moving out of our current 1.16 Homestead sometime during 2010. There is no going back. The decision can not be reversed. There are other personal details I am not sharing which push this into motion. The Captain has also been on the search for a new Job which is long overdue. He realizes the security blanket he had clung to is no longer there. I guess that is the way it goes with big companies. He is well loved by the Union worker's he has managed for the past 10 years. So much so, he is the only manager who is invited(secretly-since management frowns highly upon such interactions), to their personal BBQ's and get together's. I have been told so many times what a great guy and boss The Captain is to them. He truly is a rarity.
Where will we go? What will we do? I am holding our compass towards Tennessee. Anywhere from Nashville to the Eastern border. As to what will we do... Begin a new adventure!

This throws a huge twist into our plans for the year and mapping out my goals for 2010 has not been an easy task. I mean, how do I plan a garden if I do not know where we will be? How do I make plans for animal raising without knowing when a move will be made? So I have decided it is time to come up with goals that will benefit beyond 2010 and fit into the uncertain adventure ahead.
Here is a sampling of my list:

#1. I will MASTER my seed collection into an organized system and no more messy box. I will thin out the seeds I no longer wish to grow and have a master list/book of what I will keep along with amount, date & notes on the variety.

#2. I plan to see my friends White Willow & Dirk the dud at least 1 time a month. Including a few weekend camp outs at the Pennsylvania State campground from last year.

#3. I will Hunt, Identify & harvest more wild edibles plus local medicinals. I plan to have our children be able to identify at least 8 useful wilds, Know how to harvest and utilize included.

#4.I will start work on downloading my entire blog starting back in June 2006, into a book form for a keepsake to give my children. Pictures included.

#5.I will expand my herbal concoctions to Tinctures (Mother wort is cherished here).

#6.Expand my shelves of knowledge in the subjects of herbs & homestead skills.( I have already begun a collection of my hopefuls through an amazon wish list. This way I have a master list I can check off as I order them)

#7.Spend more alone time with my Husband and laugh with my Best friend again.

#8.Work on my angle cutting issue in wood working plus learn how to make useful baskets.

#9.Make a Kick A** Cider press with The Captain so my Cider making can expand with more ease.

#10.Finish a simple Queen sized Patchwork quilt and Learn how to Tan Rabbit hides.

#11.Get those 3 rabbits of mine to produce at least 3 litters of kits (They will move with us by the way).

#12.Start Container Gardening! I can not live without a garden. The adventure ahead will not rob me of one in 2010. Where there is a will, there is a way. I have to make connections on 5 gallon buckets and keep it a bit smaller in case we are to move during the Garden season. (You do not separate a woman and her garden!)

Of course not every goal has room in just 1 year. But I give myself options in the case some goals are not able to be achieved.
Now as to my crying over spilled wine...

As I grabbed one grape wine jug- it broke! Split right in half on the plastic carrying handle which sent the jug crashing to the cement floor. A domino effect to the awaiting jugs just 2 feet away quickly ensued. The old fashioned, THICK GLASS Milk jug sent large chunks into the others which cracked their base and wine went everywhere.

I stood there staring at the mess, mouth in that DOH! form. Then...I could smell it. Oh it was so divine. The scent of fresh grapes sweetened with time and acts of beloved yeast. A scent that had thoughts of how wonderful it would have tasted. I stood there long enough that Panda came running down the stairs and said "Mom, are you O.K?". Then she saw the war zone and commented, "What smells so good?". I looked over at her, with my face still in a sad frown and said...."My wine."

She smiled that sweet empathetic smile and commented "It's O.k Mommy. We can just make more".

And ya know, she is so right! I have 6 bags of Grape juice, frozen straight from the pressing. I had intentions of them being for grape juice and summer Popsicles but a few would not hurt for a batch of Homemade wine. Sweet Panda offered to clean up the mess. MY mess! And in that moment my heart swelled with such pride over how mature and giving she has become.I quickly stopped crying over my spilled wine.

Of course I thanked her and said no, I would get it, Just let me sit down here for a bit and at least imagine what it would have tasted like. So we sat together watching the fire crackle in the wood burner as the sweet smell of grape wine dried on our basement floor.

Stay tuned! Another giveaway is in the making (I am still cleaning up from the Holiday and have not brought out the prizes from their out of reach storage).

Sweet Dreams,
~Tammie

Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world.
~Duane Elgin