Sample Sunday

Lily has leveled up. She is my new partner at booth for markets.

Today she took over grill duties. She grilled the links, checked for doneness,  cut them up (with scissors), toothpicked, and then walked around talking to folks while offering samples. That was all we discussed her doing, it was her idea.

I step away for a moment and come back to her taking money, making change, and packaging product. We have never once done formal math lessons with her, she made correct change. We had friends at neighbouring booths keeping on eye on her, so I wasn't worried, but I did not expect her to take on this part of running the booth!

Proud mama, but more important that how I feel about it.....proud of herself Lily.

 

She prefers to have her own product though. She was very clear about this on our drive home. I love doing this with her, the one on one time we get. I was sad when she fell asleep with an hour left to drive home, because she is a very lovely companion and storyteller. 

This is my Lily. Bright and effervescent, strong willed and confident. This child made me a mother and makes me earn that title every day, gladly.

I shared a story with guests to our farm yesterday that I realised I never shared here, at least not that I could find in the archive search. 2 summers ago Lily went to and was kicked out of her first 4H day camp. I was very proud of her that day.

Wait? What?

That's right.  I was proud of her.

Enthusiastic belligerence is what they informed me when I picked her up.

She was rude to the teacher, that was wrong. But Mama, she was rude to all of us telling us wrong things! Wrong things about food!
That's my girl. She stood her ground when the teacher told them to choose fat free options. Human bodies NEED fat to use vitamins. Also the term chemical shitstorm may have been used. She refused to eat the veggies and fruits from China, because that country cannot be counted on for safe gardening and not spray poison. She was/is right.

Then when the teacher told them they should eat less meat, only 3 times a week, Lily asked, You mean 3 times a day, right? Because 3 out of 21 meals? Who is this lady? The camp tried to serve a vegetarian lunch. Guess how that went? Yeah. Lily refused to eat and warned them she gets cranky without protein in a meal. Yes. She did.

Lily never backed down. Lily stands her ground. That will serve her well in life if she can polish that skill, so far she is really blooming and growing, understanding better how to politely refuse and politely educate and be a light in the world sharing what we know and live.

Shiny. My shiny Lily. She was 6 at the time.

*She did later apologise for being rude to the teacher, but never once apologised for the content of her words. I am so proud of her. How hard it is for a child to stand up to adults, in front of peers that she really wants to like and accept her, to not back down? That is a life skill. Think about it. This child, if we nurture instead of oppress, will never have the experience of regretting not saying something, of not standing up for herself. How often I sit in my car in tears and then eureka think of the perfect thing to have said, after the moment is lost. This leader, this sassy wonderful child, will not suffer like that if we are careful to keep this spark alive in her.

What do you think? Have you ever had to stand up for something you knew to be factually correct in the face of authority telling you and others something else? Under the pressure of peers?

Berries and Friends

Today was full of wonderful. I spent almost the whole day unplugged and deep in the wooded spots on my farm that have no cell signal.

Surrounded by friends, good food, laughing babies....pretty darn near a perfect day. Thank you and good night!

Berries.

Clearly, a good time was had by all. Seriously though, I made chili and bacon wrapped stuffed figs and 3 jugs of iced tea. Then people started showing up and I walked 5 miles in total today, some of it through really tall underbrush and native grasses. My feet HURT.

The day was full of good conversation and laughter and baby smiles. Nothing better in my world. Oh, and people brought me gifts! I got a new Muscovy hen named Sassy, a bag of almonds, galanga for my Thai cooking, blueberries, a pineapple cake (which I sort of shared, but not really), and Swiss chard. Lots of goodies, I know I am forgetting some! Thank you, thank you all.

Night Sounds

One of the things that I find most different about the farm from the city house is the noise at night. I am sure if I had thought about it, I would have expected it. Maybe.

In the city I had to have the windows shut and white noise going to be able to sleep. Even that caused me anxiety, could I hear if something outside was happening that I needed to call 911 for? Or could I hear if there was a break in downstairs? But if I didn't have white noise then I could hear the constant cars and street traffic, the noises of people living very lively lives at night, animals (wild and domestic), crickets, birds, dogs barking, sirens, the train, and the buzz of street lights. Fireworks, nearly year round. In the summer add what we call Mexican Polka that plays for about 72 hours straight 3 days of each week. The neighbors' television programs, volume turned up so loud, probably to drown out the outside noises. Window fans. Car stereo systems that heavily favour music with loud bass. The screeching whistle of bad breaks and boom pop rumble of failing mufflers. Good grief. Gun shots, more often than is comfortable to hear gunshots and screaming and not always followed by sirens, which is a creepy lay awake kind of moment. Yay insomnia.

The countryside is just as noisy. Different noises, but just as noisy.

Crickets, cicada, bull frogs, tree frogs, click beetles, owls, oppossums, fox barks, dog barks, raccoons, cats, and the worst....coyotes. Especially when they are near and there are lots of them running.

I can still hear the trains.

Cars still drive by, though it is a LOT less often. There are often, seasonally gunshots, though not at night. The week of 4th of July there are fireworks, but not after midnight.

Mooing. There is a lot of mooing. Especially if the bull is in the pasture. (Blushes at the thought of when I first realized why there was so much mooing......)

Did I mention bull frogs? Creaking of a not shut tight chicken house door creak banging as it swings in a dark and storm heavy breeze, a branch whapping the side of the house in the wind, breaking branches dislodging as a night critter jumps on one in a tree run and knocks a heavy one loose to break those below it as it falls.

The wind and storms are louder here. I'm not sure why.

I guess maybe I had hoped for more silence at night. The constant ringing of my ears has stopped. I thought it was a forever thing, but it stopped a week after we moved here. There are moments of complete silence though if you can catch them.....

After a heavy snow, when the night sky is clear and swept and splattered with stars, the prairies covered in a deep blanket of white. Everything, even nature, for a moment, holds its breath. Silence, like a prayer, embraces everything. Just a moment though and like magic broken, a dog barks or a sheep baas, or a car turns around the bend and makes its way down the gravel road crunching snow under rolling tires.

It is in these moments of silence that I am closest to God in prayer. More so than I ever have been in any chapel or service. Completely in awe at the utter vastness of creation and the powerful beauty of the universe.

"Amen," I break the silence with my own breathe of thankfulness and head back inside to wrangle baby giggles and read bedtime stories. These caught and released moments have begun to teach me to find the same peace in the noise too. The crickets and bull frogs become a choir for my prayers, a reminder that the music of God is not always played on organs or sung by children. The breathing rhythms of my own sleeping babies become the chords of my own music of praise, a daily meditation of thankfulness.

Grilled Farmhand Sticks

Again with the easy week night meals! This is a favourite here, very versatile.  We often are in the middle of important farm work at dinner time, losing daylight hours. This is a side affect of working day jobs and coming home to the livestock chores of 4 different kinds of animals. Chad needs something that he can eat quickly, on the go, and is nutritionally dense.

I start with what veggies I have on hand. Load the kabobs with them. Then I cube up the meat to the size of the veggies. I brush with oil, usually butter but coconut oil and lard work well and olive oil is a last resort (temps too high for olive oil and it makes it taste off).

Once oil is brushed on I generously sprinkle with seasoning of choice. Swamp Fire works well. I also like Pensey's Bicentennial and Bavarian. Your favourite seasoned salt will work, but watch the salt quantity.

Grill until the meat is as done as you like, turning a few times while it grills.

Recipe that is shown above:

Grilled Farmhand Sticks

All of these cut into 1 inch cubes more or less:
Zucchini
Sweet pepper
Baby bella mushrooms
Onion slice
Beef stew meat
Butter
Seasoning and salt

I make variations, use different seasonings, use lamb, deer meat, pork, beef.....whatever vegetable is in season. That is why they have yet to get sick of it. You can even use the butter and seasoning that drips and pools into a roux and make a cream sauce for pasta/rice/couscous/quinoa, then serve the veggie and meat on top.

Easy. Prep time is about 5-10 minutes (how fast you are at chopping things into cubes and threading on the sticks) and grill time is about 10 minutes too, but mostly hands off.

Clean up is easier. If you just have the serving platter and everyone eats off sticks there is no need for dishes. Clean up gets longer if you make the pasta version. That's why I don't usually make that- but if I have the meat thawed and the grill going and unexpected guests pop in, the pasta is a great meal expander. I love feeding our farm guests!