Vision Board 2014!



It's that time of year again!  And I have to say I passed the test with flying colors.

 

That's right, I wrote out a check today and I DID put 2014 in the date line!  Score!

 

It's also that time of year where I create my Vision Board.

 

So what is a Vision Board?  Well, it's a collage of sorts that has pictures and words that reflect what I desire for the coming year. I've been creating them every New Years Day for the past five years.  I ended up doing it today, though, because I was feeling not so good yesterday.  But it's not just something you do during New Years.  You can also do it for other times you feel you want to create something about your desires.  Birthday's, new houses, having a baby, and many many more reasons.  The possibilities are endless!

 

So how does someone approach doing a Vision Board?

 

Well, first of all I'm not going to approach this like an infomercial. 

 

With that said, here are some pictures of what I did to create Vision Board 2014!!!!

 

So, if you're like me and you collect pictures from magazines after you've read them and put them in a plastic folder to use for collages like this one, well then you're all set.  But if you're not like me then just pick up some magazines that you like.  Then cut out some pictures that you want to use.

Now, if you are like me then this is a really good idea that will work for any anal retentive people that have a bunch of magazine clippings in a huge purple folder.  If you do not fall into this category, then you can skip the next step.  Hopefully there is more than one person that falls into this category.

Finding that it took me forever to find the clippings I would want for these Vision Boards, I decided to divide them into large envelopes, which took about three days.  I didn't realize I had so many clippings.  But while I divided them I also put aside a group that I wanted to use of my Vision Board 2014! (I feel like there should be a huge echo every time I type that.)

So this afternoon, after battening down the hatches and getting a pair of coveralls for the Blizzard of 2014 (there is NO WAY I'm calling it Hercules), I started VISION BOARD 2014!!!!

Ok, I'll stop with that.  NOT!  So to start the vision board a good card stock base paper is necessary, and any size will do the trick.  Not that the size should limit you from allowing parts to go past the edge of the paper.  But I find a good, solid base is needed for the pictures to come together.  And you can put whatever clippings you would like.  Both pictures and words, or just words, or just pictures.  It's really up to you.  Allow your imagination to fly!  But I do find that starting with the larger pictures as the base and then add the smaller pictures on top to mix things up a bit.  I usually leave the words for last because they are usually the smallest and can integrate very well into a picture.  But, again, it's all up to you.  And make sure you tape some of the base pictures to the card stock and tape all the base pictures together or else you'll get all the pictures taped togethor and a separate piece of card stock.  Not that I did that my first year, but if I did I would totally give you that piece of advice.

And here it is!  My........ VISION BOARD 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has many things I'm looking forward to this year.  Our imminent move has me thinking about what I desire in a new home.  My desire to be a mother is shown with the babies in the right corner.  My desire to do more gardening and homesteading practices fill the center, as do my desire to educate myself in spiritual healing more is on the lower right corner.  Everything I hope to achieve this year, reflected in this collage.  And I may make other collages to emphasize in more detail some of these points, but overall it's great to see what will come of this Vision Board.

It's always great thing to do at the beginning of the year to put your resolutions and desires for the year in perspective.

Happy New Year everyone!

After I finished my Vision Board I worked on my new pair of coveralls to make them suitable for any farming Hobbit Princess.  Pretty snazzy!

With them and my new gloves I'm ready to face anything winter has!  Bring it on!

Happy New Year!

Or at least in two hours, and 42 minutes. For anyone living in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States.  So if you have already experienced your New Year celebrating, Happy New Year, and if you are going to celebrate much later than three hours from now, well, have fun celebrating!

Now, if you think that this is going to be a long reminiscing of all the things that have come to pass this past year and my hopes for the next year to come, well you're right.

Well it's not going to be too long.  But it is amazing how quickly a year passes.  And all the changes it brings.  Friends getting married, friends and family getting pregnant, friends having babies, friends and family moving homes, friends changing jobs, and, sadly, losing a beloved family member.  The normal cycles of life that we all experience, yet each experience opens us up to life and it's vast, well, experiences.

I have gone through many life changes during the tumulus year, from changing jobs and needing to move, to experiencing the highs and lows of trying to get pregnant, to losing loved ones, and seeing loved ones come together.  Crying my eyes out when I heard about the Boston Marathon bombings, and then crying my eyes out when everyone stood and sang the National Anthem at the Bruins after the bombings.  Waiting excitedly with millions of others when Duchess Cate gave birth to a healthy son.  And jumping up and down yelling at the top of my lungs when the Red Sox won the World Series.  About almost as exciting as winning my Fantasy Football League this year.

So I can say this from my heart, that I am so appreciative of all the memories, both sad and happy, that created the year 2013 for me.  And my hope is that 2014 will bring in many more wonderful memories, including a new home with my husband and (fingers crossed) a new addition to our family.

Happy New Year everyone! 

And here's to another incredible year full of great memories called 2014!

Merry Yule Everyone!

With the craziness that is the holiday season, it's sometimes surprising to remember that it's beginnings really is about the coming of the light.  The darkest day of the year is happening today, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

But that has alot to say about what exactly this holiday season is about.  A celebration of joy and happiness of another year over, the beginning of a new year to come, and not allowing the darkness to consume you, but rather realizing the balance that's needed to create change.

And if that's to philosophical then I guess that winter is the perfect time to party because it's cold, thereis more inclination to eat good foods and drinking alcohol to warm the body.  And, if you eat seasonally like I do, then you realize the abundance of meat and breads of this time of year coincides with harvest and meat slaughtering seasonality.

But really in the end it's one of my favorite Wiccan holidays.  And I'm going to celebrate with making cookies, eating pork, and drinking cider.  And hopefully, with our imminent move, we'll find a place where next Yule I can have a Yule log to truly bring in the Yuletide season.

Here's to the darkest night!  And to the coming light!

Blessed Be!

Baby It's COLD COLD COLD Outside!

I think the title of this post says it all.

It has been FREAKIN COLD out for the past week or so!

And we've had more snow storms in the past week than we had for the whole month of December and January combine last year.  And that's been a total of two.

But this hasn't stopped me from having to work outside, even on the coldest days. Though it has made me very thankful for warm wood stoves, hot cups of tea, and very large water heaters that allow for very long and hot showers.  But it also made me realize how to work in very cold temperatures.  It's not something that is taught very often in our climate controlled world that we live in. 

So here are five lessons that I've learned this past week about working outside in the cold, so that hopefully others will learn from the mistakes I made to learn the lessons I state here.  Does that make any sense?  No? Good!  Moving on!

1.) DO NOT SWEAT while working outside in below freezing temperatures.

I remember Les Straud favorite saying on Survivor Man "You sweat, you die."  Well maybe it's not his favorite, but it's one he often says.  And I have to say, it's totally true!  Not to say that I'm dead, but I certainly was in the early stages of hypothermia on several occasions because I decided to plow through my work, without thinking that my underclothing would get wet from the sweat.  Then, later, when I was sitting in a some what warm office, or even driving home in my warm car, I would start shivering because I was cold at the skin.  After the third time this happened I brought with me a warm sweatshirt that would warm my body back up, but really only moving around again would get my body temperature up.  But I also began to realize that I needed to slow down my movements and be conscious of how warm my body was getting.  Which then led me to my next lesson....

2.) Wear layers.

Layers are a person's best friend when they are working outside on a very cold day, especially if the day starts cold, ends up warm, and then gets cold again.  The ability to take off layers when I'm doing some of the more intense work, and then putting layers back on when you are not moving around so much.  And it's more than just layers of shirts or coats, it's also removing a hat or scarf if it's still cold but you don't want to sweat.  The cold air on the back of the neck will certainly cool you down quickly.  But you also want to be warm after, so make sure you have a scarf or warm hat or gloves to put back on.  And if it's dirtying work, like what I do, then make sure it's not something you would want to wear out on the town.  Honestly my farm outfit looks like a hippy hobo splattered themselves with mud, rolled their hat and scarf around in hay, and then made kittens walk on their shoulders to put their muddied paw prints on their coat.  Ok, I didn't make them do it, they like to stay on my shoulder while I work.  Ummmm, moving on......

3.) Take several breaks to warm up in between.

Nothing is harder than going back outside into the biting cold after warming up by a warm wood stove.  Especially if your feet get nice and toasty, and you boss makes you apple pancakes with a nice cup of tea.  Really, REALLY hard to go back outside.  But if you need to get your farm chores done, you have to do it.  And believe me, the time it takes to do farm chores in the winter is twenty times longer than it is in the summer.  At least the faucets didn't freeze this time around.  But once you're back out, and you stop feeling so warm and good, it becomes easier just to get your work done.  But that's bad too, because you don't want any appendage to get too cold either.  Especially if you don't have coveralls and are wearing long johns with jeans.  My husband was especially surprised how cold my legs were even after being in a warm car for an hour.  So, even though you will never want to step foot out of your warm house again, it's very important to stop, walk back inside, and warm yourself up.

4.) Try to work behind a wind block.

Though the air itself can be cold, it's the biting wind that truly makes you cold.  And there was nothing better than walking into the barn and being out of that wind, except warming up near the stove.  Now, the flip side, it's hard to walk about in the exposed areas even though you have to.  But the more work you can do out of the wind, the better.

And last but not least.......

5.)  Do NOT underestimate the power of hot water!

Hot water is my friend.  I feel so sorry for the people who lived in the time periods where they didn't have hot running water in their houses that would coming out of shower heads.  And I pretend to be these people all the time.  It just makes me respect it more that I have access to a wonderful water heater, and all I have to do is turn a knob and VOILA, hot water pouring down!  Isn't it great?!?!  Especially after a very cold day.  There is nothing that will get you warm again like a long, hot shower.  Even if I didn't get dirty that day, a shower has become a necessity to feel completely warm that night. 
Also a cup of tea.  I found that drinking cold water was horrible if you're trying to warm up.  It was a catch twenty-two though because dehydration is more of a problem this time of year than on the hottest days in summer.  The dry air just sucks the moisture right out of you.  But, at the same time, people don't usually think that they need to drink water during the cold days because they are not sweating.  I think that's why so many people get sick at this time of year.  So what do you do when you need to drink water but you're freezing?  Make sure that water is warm.  Nothing better than that warmth of a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate spreading through your belly.  Except a hot shower.

Now there are many other things I can add to this, like wearing the right types of clothing and footwear, don't spill water on yourself, having extra clothing if you do spill water on yourself, and have a nice cushy job in a warm office to name a few.  But then again, there is nothing prettier than a sunset in winter.  And there is nothing better than sitting your warm pjs, drinking a hot cup of tea, after a hot shower, after working in the bitter cold all day, sinking to the euphoria of warmth, then promptly falling asleep.

Did I also mention to have two or three days after working in the cold to recover?

Stepping From Darkness Into The Light

 

 

 

“When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”
― Edward Teller

 

 

This time of year is often described as the holiday season.  As the days get shorter, and the world gets colder, the holiday season brings in light and joy, getting us through the darkest days full of hope and happiness.  Yule, in fact, is a celebration of the coming of the light again, the rebirth of the sun king.  Knowing that even in the darkest times that there is always the promise of light to come.

 

Through the craziness of this time of year, I think we at times forget exactly why we celebrate the holiday's that we do.  Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Kwanzaa are all celebrations of the light, the coming of better things, that in the darkest times and moments gifts of love and happiness are still there.

 

This year, I've realized that more than anything this season.  Right now my husband and I are facing the trial of having to move.  Where?  We don't know yet.  How?  We really don't know that either.  And as each day passes, and as we get closer to our time to leave, it seems like what we seek will never come.  But then I think about all those other times that we faced hardships together.  All the times when it didn't seem like we could figure out how to get out of a situation, a solution would appear just as we had given up.  Sometimes right at the 11th hour.  But every single hardship, every "emergency", every time we felt we should panic and that things would never be solved, the answer came.  Whether it's through the help of family or friends, or a new opportunity, or even shear dumb luck we always figure it out, and always will.

 

I'm not writing this to receive sympathy or asking for help.  I'm writing this more as an epiphany that I've just had.  And it's surprising that it's taken me so long to realize it.  Of course everyone is told the true meaning of this season is being with family and friends and creating happy memories with them and giving thanks for having them in our lives.  And it's very true.  But it also has a deeper meaning.  A spiritual meaning, beyond just a "religious" connotation.  It's a focus on the idea of hope coming through the cold darkness.  A light, shining and guiding us out of the darkness.  That, no matter how much things fall apart, or how dark it gets, light always needs to shine through so that we can find our way. 

 

That light is faith.

 

In this season of hopes and dreams I know that I have my light.  And maybe that's why I'm not panicking, or getting angry, or living in great fear of the unknown.  I know that light, that faith, is all around me and there is no reason to fear.  It's in my family and friends.  It's in my cats.  It's in my wonderful husband who I love dearly.  And it's that faith that has helped us through so much in the past, and will keep helping us in the future.

 

So thank you to all my loving family and friends.  Thank you to my two wonderful fur balls.  And thank you, to the man who has always been by my side through thick and thin.  With you I can do anything.

 

And thank you for everyone who's lovingly read my ramble and appreciated it for what it is, an epiphany of light in darkness.

 

Hoping that everyone has light of faith this holiday season.



Thanks For The Roots Of Our Labor



Even though the ground has frozen, it doesn't mean there still isn't work to be done in the garden.  Or that there is still access to food from the garden.  This past weekend I got to, for the first time, get root vegetables ready for the root cellar at Coggeshall Farm Museum.

 

Now I've never had a root cellar before.  So this was all new to me.  I have grown root vegetables before.  Carrots, parsnips, beets, and turnips!  I know onions are a root veggie as well, but they certainly don't belong in a damp root cellar.  And though I was not there in the spring to start the growth of these particular root veggies, I know how time consuming they can be.  Having the right soil texture to grow straight and true.  And how parsnips seem to decide whether or not they truly want to grow from seed, or in the garden bed you plant them in.  And the great turnip saga that I have every year, and I'll update everyone on in the spring when I probably, once again, do something stupid to jeopardize the existence of my turnips only to find that they are resilient suckers and will not die because of my stupidity.  And carrots, it wasn't until this year, in a different garden, that I was able to successfully grow some excellent carrots on my own.  Only 6 years!

 

But those were other gardens and this time our parsnips did excellent, our beets did alright, our carrots were incredible, and our turnips numbered six in total.  But like anything in gardening, it could be the complete opposite next year. 



 

So Shelley, farm manager at Coggeshall Farm Museum and gardener extraordinaire, and I started in the late morning of this past Saturday, battling wind and a head cold.  At least I was battling a head cold.  They're not fun.  But the biggest battle was to come.  We had to get all the root vegetables in before dark because it was supposed to get down to the teens in temperature.  Now you're supposed to wait till the first frost happens for the root veggies before preparing them to go into the root cellar.  But a ground freeze wouldn't be good.  I guess the integrity of the vegetable.

So Shelley, pictured here, and I had our work cut out for us.  The first bed we tackled was the parsnip bed, and you can see in the baskets the fruit of our labor. 

A labor that took several hours because, unlike the beets and carrots, the parsnips didn't want to be pulled out of the ground by hand.  So a shovel and a pitchfork became our best friends as we loosened the soil and prayed we didn't cut up too many of them.  Cuts would just make them rot in the root cellar. 

Then we pulled out the beets and carrots.  By this point the warmer weather of the morning (if you call high thirties warm) was turning colder and windier and warmer hats and gloves became a necessity.  By now you must have notices that every picture has had a knife in it.  If you take a look at some of the carrots in the basket you'll notice the tops have been mostly cut off.  When you are putting up root vegetables you need to leave some of the top on, to trick the vegetable into a dormant state, without wanting it to rot.

Look at this carrot!  Please leave all lewd comments to yourselves.  I know what it looks like, to man who doesn't need to overcompensate.  I technically thought it was cool that there was three carrots in one.  But, now seeing it a second time, I can now see the other side of the carrot story.

Once the veggies were prepped and carried to the root cellar they were laid out on the ground to allow the shallow roots that grow off the sides of the root veggies themselves, sorry I don't remember the name, to die off, also causing the root veggies to grow dormant.  That way they don't continue to grow leaves or rot.  Those are the carrots in the picture above.

And those are the beets and the parsnips we picked earlier.  Again laid out on the floor to cure for a few days.  Now they only cure for a few days until they are packed in clean sand and kept for the winter, to be used as needed.  It was a really great feeling, once everything was laid out and it still was light out and we got in all the root veggies in that needed to be brought in, even though my hands were frozen and my head was fuzzy from phlegm.  It truly made me thankful for the "roots" of our labor. (Sorry for the pun.)

And, to end the post on a good note, cute kitties staying warm by the fire.

Coming Full Circle

So, even though it was rainy and cold, I went to Old Sturbridge Village today.  And I did not take the above picture today, but in spring about two years ago at Old Sturbridge Village.  Just thought I would clarify that.

I was at Sturbridge Village to do some shopping for the museum I work for now.  So technically it was a business trip.  But the nice people at the admissions booth allowed me to come in for free because I was also a fellow historical interpreter, and they realized how little one gets paid for that.  But it was also because of the love of the work that we do that also sparked this comradeship. At least I hope it is.

Now I've been to the Old Sturbridge Village many times before this.  In fact, on a famous day in July (called the 4th) in the year 1976, a very important event happened at Old Sturbridge Village.  Though everyone will think it was that famous Kennedy visit, they may be right.  But that's because they might not have known that an even more important group of people was also at Old Sturbridge Village that day. (Wow, no wonder they use OSV everywhere. So much easier.)  Yes, that's right, that very important couple that was there that day happened to be my parents, newly married just two days before and visiting during their honeymoon.  Now little did they know that this seemingly innocuous act would change the course of the life of their then unborn daughter.  Because in that day a tradition was born, one that was kept every single anniversary while I lived under their roof, and even a few after that.  The annual visit to Old Sturbridge Village. (Ok, from now on I'll use OSV).

Yes, I visited OSV every summer for as long as I could remember.  And I loved it every year.  Often times, as historical interpreters, people figure out the turning point that showed the world that we were destined to an impoverished state while dressing up as people from another time period and speaking in long, historical terms, or in funny accents. And for me going to OSV every year was that point. The point when I realized that I wanted to live in the past, for real.  This began the addiction to pretending to be on the Oregon Trail.  The hours spent reading and rereading Little House on the Prairie and every American Girl book available at that time.  Many days running around in a long green skirt and apron, surviving off acorns and a stew made from leaves and mud in the dog's water bowl.  My mom always loved that one. 

And, for one day every year, I got to run around a village that was fully immersed in the 1830's New England and totally feel like I had finally an opportunity to live in the past.  I got to walk through historic homes, smell woodsmoke, see farm animals, and run around on dirt roads pretending I was actually living there.  I have a very vivid memory of when I went to OSV in third grade.  I remember they had a pretend classroom set up and we were all pretending to have a day at school in 1830 and it made me so excited.  I was fully immersed in the past.  It was heaven for me.

But, at some point we all have to grow up.  We all have to move on, realize that we can't live in the past, really far back in the past.  Or so I thought.

So I went to college, met my husband, graduated from college, married my husband, worked at several jobs.  Completely normal for an adult in her mid-twenties.  But it was during my internship at the New Bedford Whaling Museum that I stumbled upon the Plimoth Plantation website.  And, just for giggles, I thought I would check and see if they had any offerings.  How cool would that be.  To work outside while still working in a museum.  Yeah, that was my thought process at that time.  I had been doing alot of museum research and document recording and the one thing I realized was I hated having to sit at a desk all day, inside, with stale air and bad lighting.  So the concept of doing work outside, yet still following my interest in museum work and research into preservation and material documentation.  So, I thought, why not try it out.

Needless to say, this was the beginning of a childhood dream, come back to me in my adult life.  I not only got to work outside, and do research, I got to pretend to live in the year 1627!  Fully immersed in not only the year 1627, but also with a very select group of people, the Pilgrims.  And so, everything came full circle.  I got to run around in a green petticoat (for at least one season, till it was replaced with my blue one) and make really tasty "pottages" in real cast iron pots (rather than a dog's water dish) and got paid for it!  Everything had come full circle, in a way I never had thought of.

And now, having spent six years at the Plantation, I've now moved on to another museum and another time period, Coggeshall Farm Museum and the 1790s.  Not only do I get access now to chocolate, coffee, and rum, I also get to expand my interpretation work in embracing another time period in history.  And I can still work outside!  Though to be honest working in these time periods has made me realize hot showers, air conditioning, and comfortable cotton clothing are definitely good reasons to not to truly live all the time in the past.

And that doesn't mean I'll stop there.  It seems my desire to live in historical time periods has rubbed off to my husband as well.  As we've started to visit recreations of Civil War battles, I'm beginning to see our family's future weekends, Mark going off the pretend to shoot at other people while I mind the kids dressed up in prairie dresses and civil war hats and cooking over a wood fire.  So there's another time period to add to my "I'm going to pretend to live in you but be really thankful for hot running water and toilets" work days and weekends.

But I can truly say that this all started when a newly married couple decided to go to Old Sturbridge Village on their honeymoon and decided to make it a yearly tradition.  A tradition that still made me excited even going around that village today.

It's funny how it all comes full circle.