Perfection

Here I am at the end of a long, but productive day. I meant to write this post earlier today but it’s mowing day and that takes up a lot of my time. I’m sure I mentioned it recently. And today’s mowing just zapped me. After mowing I came inside and took a good long nap. Then I took Anna for a walk. In the rain. Well, it wasn’t raining when we started out but as soon as we got into the woods, it just poured. But we didn’t mind! So, did I tell you that we live on about 400 acres? It’s mostly wooded and wet but the wildlife is abundant. And it’s hatching season for the grouse and woodcock. About two weeks ago on one of our walks the dogs and I put up a mama grouse and 4 of her babies. Oh boy are they fast! Two of the babies almost flew into me! But we went our separate ways and let mama gather her babies. But today was, sadly, a different story. I’m not sure if I stepped on the baby (we were way up in the woods where it’s really wet and soggy) or if baby hurt herself while being frightened, but she wasn’t really moving. And there’s not much we can do (apparently it’s illegal to have wild birds. But I’m not sure what that means. Call the local game commission? Take it to a rehab place? Do these things even exist here?). All I could do was walk away and hope for the best. I’m hoping that she was just stunned and not hurt. She didn’t look hurt but she was flopping around a bit right after we met each other.

In other news, the days have been long. Literally. It’s funny how it just sneaks up on you. All of a sudden the chickens don’t want to go to bed until well after 8PM and you look down at the clock as you are getting ready to crawl into bed and it’s almost 10PM! This girl likes to be in bed no later than 8:30! It’s such a well know fact that anyone who knows me is always saying ‘what are you doing up this late!?!’ when it’s past 8:30. I like going to bed early, getting some really good rest, and getting up early and getting things done.

What’s Going On?

Speaking of getting things done. I have some updates for you all. Sadly, the Facebook Live series will be drawing to an end after this next series. I started it way back at the beginning of Covid as a way to connect with others and teach some classes, so-to-speak. I really loved doing them, but with things opening back up, I’m able to sell at markets now and my time is getting cut short. I’ll be at my normal farm market this summer. I just got the approval and the first market is Friday! If you’re local, I hope you’ll stop by! It’s every Friday from 10AM-2PM. You can find more info here. I’m also adding some new venues to my list this year. I’m signed up for the Cutler Flea in Binghamton for July and August. This is a new venue and a new community for me (well, it’s not a new community for me, but it is for Chicken Librarian). I’m really excited. I’ve also applied to a couple of other venues and am waiting to hear back from them. You can always keep track of my comings and goings by checking my events page.

But with all this good stuff comes some not so good stuff. Nothing bad really. I just don’t have the time to devote to the facebook live sessions. I thought what I would do is pre-record some videos and then ‘release’ them on Saturday mornings. My goal would be to have that start the week after our last scheduled live session. I’ll have some guests on those videos too. They’ll be about all kinds of topics. Speaking of videos, would you mind so greatly as to go subscribe to my youtube channel? I just started it but I want to connect all my outlets. I’m trying to make everything as consistent as possible.

Speaking of. I say that a lot I know! But! Speaking of. Do you love the new blog platform? We added some new, more subtle features (I say we, but really it’s my tech guru who does these things for me. For free, I might add. She’s a good friend). I’m trying out some new blog posts. What I mean is just trying different layouts. All pics, then words. Some pics, then some words, then more pics. Some pics, some headings, some words? We’ll see. If there’s a layout that you like better, or that looks better, just let me know. I think now is the time to really play around with things and get the right ‘feeling’ that I’m looking for.

So. Those markets. They’re coming up fast and I don’t have a lot of product in stock. But thankfully I have really good friends who help me get things together. I have my tech guru working on some labels for me. And I had another friend over yesterday to help me get organized and help put stickers on things, melt beeswax, help me think through my process and set up. So this week will be filled with making. I’m really excited about it. There will be new items (pincushions, hand sanitizer) and new flavors (infused sunflower oil for the salves). I posted over on instagram yesterday about finding your talent. It’s true what I said. Sometimes it takes some of us longer to figure out what we want to do and where our talents lie. I finally figured out that I’m pretty good at a couple of things. First, photography. It’s taken me about 5 years to realize that I like my photos and my aesthetic. Second, I really like homesteading and making things. Third, I like sharing that with others. I know I could just make things for people but I really like sharing the knowledge and know-how with you all though. I know, some people will still want us to make things for them. And I’m all for that! BUT, if you want to do it yourself, I want to show you how. And I think we should have fun doing it.

Okay. I think that’s enough rambling for one day. I started this post way earlier today with the intention of writing something completely different. I don’t know what that was though…something about perfection, obviously, but I’m not sure what! It’s time for bed. Well, really, way past time for bed. There will be more opportunities to talk about perfection or any other myriad of things. For now, I’ll leave you with these:

I’ll leave you with these two recent-ish selfies. I say recent-ish because I don’t know when it was taken but it wasn’t in the last few weeks if my outfit is any indication! That is a wool shirt that I stole from the Mister. And I’m wearing a down vest. So it was colder. But anything is colder than it has been recently! The other selfie was from today. Mondays are mowing day and it just zapped me today. It wasn’t especially hot out so I don’t know why I’m so zapped. But I am. So there. It’s written all over my face.

Now I’m off to clean up and get in bed.

’til next time friends!
-k
xoxo