Hone the Vision

At one point in my life I thought I could live off the land. I thought I could grow and put by enough fruit and vegetables to have food all winter. I could buy the grain I needed and grind my own flour, bake my own bread. I could buy meat from farmers and freeze it, or raise my own meat.

Only one problem with this scenario--although I'm glad I worked as hard at it as I did--I couldn't kill animals and it was exhausting to do a large scale garden with only a shovel and a pitchfork. Oh, and husband. So, I'm grateful for the farmers. For the truckers who bring the food. I'm grateful for all those who work hard to make our food safe, to support organic gardening. I'm grateful for the folks who work harder than me to keep organic food on their tables, to use and reuse, to buy locally.

It seems like I'm very far away from the vision I had back in my early twenties. I even tried to garden on the lookout tower outside of Grangeville. I dug up some land down by the weather station, and planted who knows what. Nothing came up--we where at 6000 ft., which may have been one reason. And I had to haul the water on my back in a black bladder. But I had other successes. I baked my own bread--there was a propane tank; the forest service road made it possible for our tower to have gas--so we had a tiny stove and refrigerator. And did I saw we hauled our water from the stream. Can you imagine drinking from streams now? That was back in the early 70s, when gas cost less than a dollar per gallon.

Yes, things have changed, and I think we were right, the hippy vision back then. Live off the land, depend on community, love everyone. It was a little skewed, but vision takes work to hone. So lets continue to hone the vision. Let's make it a prioity--to live well and to love well.

Peace,

Flower