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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Touch the Earth





Where Have I Been?

Reading an amazing book. I have to tell you about See You in a Hundred Years by Logan Ward.
Thank you Urban Grace Interiors
for sharing this wonderful book on your blog! It's amazing how I keep coming across people who, like Blake and me, really have a desire to get back to our grassroots. The simple country life has it's appeal, although I don't know that I would take it as far as Logan and Heather (and son Luther) Ward did. Coming from New York City urban life, the Wards had that desire for a simpler life, and so decided, as a project, to sell their NYC life and buy a 1900s farmhouse and live as closely as possible to farm family living in 1900. See You was awesome because it allows those of us who long to touch our historical roots, long to grow, cultivate, and cook our own food, and long for the slower, more community/family oriented pace, to actaully see what it's really like: the back-breaking work, the waking up early, the stink and fowlness and living with animals and pests, etc. Not only was I informed and taught so much, but enjoyed every step, thanks to Logan's entertaining personality.
Some of their challenges: sore palms from planting, snakes, watching your organic garden be attacked by Japanese beatles, rabbits, and drought, groundhogs (who knew they were such pests!), cooking on a wood-fire stove by the light of an oil lamp, bathing in a feed trough, hitching a draft horse to a wagon, rats, milking a goat, collecting eggs, making cheese, going stir crazy in winter with no heat, constantly sweating in the summer, and the discomfort and fear of illness without a way to get to the doctor...just to name a few.




I can honestly say, pros and cons considered, that I would still buy a farm and move tommorrow. Every time we visit a farm, and I see my boys run out through the wide open space, I long for the smell of fresh air (even if it is often manure tainted), the challenges and the rewards. I will probably come running back to having my Publix less than a mile away, but it's just one of those Bucket List things for me.