Farmama: The Blog That Reaffirms Birch and My Dreams

I happened upon this blog while visiting one of the many I frequent on nearly a daily basis: Mom in Madison. Denise also has a food/cooking blog that I visit as well. She posted that sunflower butter cookie recipe that I'm just dying to bake, but haven't been able to due to a two-week whirlwind of adventure and fun with my sister's family who was visiting from England (more on that another time). So maybe this weekend I'll get to it, finally, not to mention all the sewing projects that were put on hold. ANYWAY, I've been delighting in Denise's blog so much that I took a look at some of her favorites and came across my personal Holy Grail of Blogs: Farmama.

Sara and her family are sustainable farmers that, as she puts it, "unschool" their four beautiful children. She crafts away with her homemade wool yarn, cans all summer long for food in the winter, shares with her neighbors, digs cold storage pits, keeps bees, and the list goes on. Her family really is living out Birch and my dream for our future (not including our dream of a small cafe/home decor shop). She received our ultimate respect when I came across the fact that they thresh their own wheat. I mean, seriously, they are fantastic!

Obviously, I don't want our fond respect to sound like psychotic obsession, so please know, Sara, that we aren't crazy people. Well, not actually crazy.

That being said, her "bookshelf" alone is worth its weight in gold. I immediately added the majority to our list of must-reads. Now, I have to admit that my fondness for blogs isn't quite shared by Birch, but when I showed him this one, he was just as excited as I was (and just as shocked when he read there that all American-made canning lids have BPA in them. Yep, that's right, people. You know your carefully homemade, organically grown pickles you've been enjoying? Slightly tainted by BPA. Awesome.) Oh, and weird coincidence: she has a son named Asher (you know, like Birch's brother).

On an unrelated note, Birch has promised me that when we own our farm, I can have kitties again. Birch is allergic and I made a very hard sacrifice in leaving my beloved cat, Embe, with my parents when he and I got married. Hopefully, the farm will happen soon enough for Embe to join us (she's nine or ten, now). We'll build a special attached room for them and let them roam about the farm. And yes, they'll be neutered and spayed. No barn kittens, for us! Well... only rescued ones. Oh man, this could get out of control.

So, Farmama, keep farming and keep blogging. You are an absolute inspiration to us and what you're doing isn't just good for yourselves but also for the world. Now everyone else, go check out her beautiful world!

Birch Sold His Car!

Birch sold his 2007 Subaru STI Limited! Six hundred dollars a month to pay off $22,000 worth of debt has now vanished from our lives and it feels amazing. Couldn’t have happened at a better time. Birch loved that car and I am so thankful to him for making the sacrifice to our family.

Apparently he had a conversation with my mom before he and I even got married where he somewhat lamented having bought it in hindsight. Both Birch and I were extremely single on December 18th, 2007 and couldn't have possibly guessed that we'd be married a mere seven months later, let alone meet the person that we'd marry the very next day, but we did and Birch's bachelor-buy would be the only real casualty to speak of. Perhaps someday I'll make it up to his bachelor-self by helping to purchase his other dream in life: a small farm to call his own.

Though it was convenient to have two cars, I think Birch quickly realized that the money that was being put into that car was creating a serious lack of funds each month. As the months wore on he drove it less and less. At first because Olive would get sick every time she was in it (my brother-in-law Asher can attest to a rather sickening incident going over the San Mateo Bridge where she vomited straight down my shirt), and then because he was biking to work everyday. I really didn’t want to be the nagging wife that forces her husband to sell his dream car, so I’m extremely grateful to Birch for coming to the decision all by himself. Come to think of it, that’s one of the reasons why I think we work so well together. For the most part, we agree on the big and the little things in our life together. When I’ve been contemplating something for a few days, say the acquisition of a bookcase, I bring it up with Birch and more often than not he responds with, “I was thinking that, too!” Or something to that effect. This makes life pretty easy, let me tell you.

It’s a little sad now that it’s gone, especially since we realized that I didn’t take any “goodbye” photos of him with it, but a huge weight is gone and we can’t stop thinking of all the things we’ve wanted to save up for but couldn’t, projects we wanted to try, camping and road trips we’ve wanted to go on, and last but certainly not least, being able to better afford this wonderful addition to our family (coming to a maternity ward near you, maybe, before, on, or after March 26th).