Garden Chats & Chainsaws
It just keeps getting better. I am at the point, in this adventure, where momentum is building and I can hardly wait …. from day to day & week to week … to see what is going to happen next. I have, so often, told my clients (I am a business and life coach) that NOT knowing is a very high state of being. In a world where we glamorize and admire knowing things it is often in a state of not knowing something which allows us to be open to learn something new, be creative and explore things. If we think we know then we will most likely not seek anything new … we will just stick with what we “know” … even if there are other options we have not only not considered but, don’t even know are options.
The Freedom Acres journey, for me, clearly lives in a world of I don’t have a clue what I am doing most of the time. It is very humbling and has me so open to learning from multiple resources constantly. I never know where the answers will come from … perhaps the person I have known for years, perhaps from a total stranger, perhaps in person, on a phone call or even from YouTube University. I am quiet. I am paying attention. I am listening. I am asking questions of humans and also my HigherSelf. The messages and resources keep showing up and one message or conversation seems to make way for the next. I am full of so much gratitude.
The well guy leads to the clearing guy and the septic guy. The septic guy leads to the permitting guy. The electrician shows up. And somehow it all leads to a fencing person and a shipping container guy. I am bouncing all around Florida and off to Tennessee and then back to Texas. The folks I find in YouTube University show up from all over the world with amazing demonstrations of ingenious and creative ways to resolve problems and barriers that face any of us turning raw land into communities, homesteads, farms and aspirations of sovereignty and freedom.
Meanwhile I get things confused (like the well is going to go in next week not this week LOL) and win a few and lose a few with the things I try. All is good. My patience is clearly having to increase and the illusion of control of anything other than myself is on the chopping block. Those are positive things to me. NOT knowing is a high state of being.
So, this past Sunday I trotted off to Freedom Acres with clear intentions in mind and the rule for myself, after last week’s lesson in taking care of myself, to leave my Super Woman syndrome at home. There were only a few things I would attend to and Loren, Freedom Acres’ gardening guru, was going to be there for a little while so I anticipated some great conversations.
The biggest task at hand was to cut up a tree that had fallen across one of my cleared paths. I brought my trustworthy little chainsaw and protective gear for the job and it looked like this: the last time I used the chainsaw the chain fell off and I replaced it … incorrectly. What this meant on Sunday was it wouldn’t saw … at all. So I sat down and took it apart again, as patiently as possible, and figured it out and put it back together correctly. Then I proceeded to saw the tree in manageable pieces so I could drag the pieces with my hands and logging hook off to the side of the path. No injuries and job done! Victory!!! Yep, I was pretty proud of myself. Don’t laugh if you are thinking that your less than teenage son could do that … to each their own … this woman crossed a new line for herself!
Loren and I had a great time. She walked the property with dowsing sticks and hunted for water. OMG, what fun. As someone who has used a pendulum for years, I don’t question that it works but it is such a head trip anyhow. My first experience with dowsing sticks proved to me that it works. I know my head was clear and I was open and that the vibration and movement of the sticks had nothing to do with me.
Watching Loren do it was amazing. There were places 3-4 feet apart that reacted totally differently. Once the wind did grab them and we called it for what it was and she kept going. Interesting enough the spot where the well guy intends to put the well showed spot on with the sticks. Loren marked off several places in the other cleared land area as that is where we will begin growing gardens and we are looking at ways to bring water to those areas … perhaps, beyond basic irrigation from the main well, we can have some shallow wells mixed with water collection stations???
Loren and I also had time to sit and talk any and every thing gardening and regenerative gardening. Back to NOT knowing … I listened, asked questions, shared what I had seen in my YouTube University searching. Loren is such a light free spirit to be around, and her passion for growing food and creating environments for the whole eco-system to hold hands in is inspiring.
We talked planning, schedules, timing, watering, growing areas, coyotes and wasabi. Yep, we know wasabi doesn’t naturally grow in the Florida climate … but it is a dream of Loren’s and then we got to talk about creating special environments for things that don’t naturally grow here. We talked about encouraging the birds and creatures we want and need on the land and discouraging what we don’t want … or at least figuring out how to co-exist with them with boundaries and with no harm to them or us (i.e.: coyotes).
Loren is so clear that growing from the land can provide everything we need from food and beverages (nut milks) to medicinal herbs to other things such as soap and skin products. My eyes and my mind kept opening up to what all is possible within various months to years worth of time.
I keep envisioning outward with her help. I got so clear that this is how I want to go out. I am not being dramatic … I am very peaceful about imagining taking this path of living into my future and going out being on this land. I am also very clear that I am blessed with being able to create this land with other women who each get to bring their creativity and wisdom to the community. To be able to create a safe space for creative women to thrive and create and that when I move onto the next adventure beyond this life time I get to leave this behind to the community to continue the legacy with. It makes so much sense to me. Clear, Intentional and Joyful work that creates a future.
Once Loren left I hung out with Gracie and played with Birdie. My relationship with Birdie, the drone, is definitely on an upswing. She glided about the property right above the trees more graceful that previous times. She is now taking off from and returning to my hand without any new hand injuries or wing/propeller injuries. We did well. Gracie has stopped barking at her too. I think Gracie has accepted her in the family for real now. I cannot say the same thing for the chainsaw however as she did not stop barking at it the whole time I was using it. That is OK, I clearly have the chainsaw as a tool still vs. a family member 🙂
Just to wrap the day up I collected up some more cans and bottles for my refuse pile and pulled down some more orange marking tapes that I no longer needed and called it a day. I loaded everything in my Miata truck (LOL) and cheerfully headed home 100 miles away … singing the whole way.
Next week is the 1st Sunday of the month so I will not be able to get to the property … I already know I will miss my weekly visit to my happy place. This will keep happening though! I am hoping the well has been drilled by the time I am back. The fencing people will meet me here then (on the 11th) so we can schedule that install. I also should be able to get the permitting going for the septic system and get the septic scheduled. Ditto for the electrician and the temporary electric pole.
Finally, I should have everything ironed out about my new dwelling as timing and costs are forcing me to return to an old plan of a shipping container dwelling and I have found the company I want to build it out for me. The off-grid solar tiny house dwelling I had been planning on as a temporary dwelling is just simply not going to have financing ready or be able to build for me in order to have me living on the land by the end of July. So I am going to skip the temporary concept and jump straight to a more permanent dwelling that I can expand on in the future. Stay tuned for lots of answers coming to a blog post and YouTube channel soon.
As I do every Sunday on the land, I have posted videos on my YouTube Channel from the visit … including the both shorter clips and a longer video of part of my conversation with Loren! Feel free to check them out by clicking HERE. Also feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂
I will be back! In the meantime … I wish you, as always, as much freedom as possible!!
