PrOduCtiVe!!

The days have been flying by in a flurry of productivity. It's been great, even though there's very little time spent on the computer. It's been mostly sunny the last week which has been wonderful - highs in the low to mid 20s (celsius) which just feels so summery around here. And then there was Solstice, of course, which was also wonderful!

I'm not sure why the ravens came to visit. They haven't come bothering the chickens again much; I guess they realized the chickens weren't going to be an easy lunch with all that wire to get through. :P At any rate, the chickens are all doing fine, too, although they aren't laying as many eggs (about 9 or 10 a day instead of the usual 14 or 15). Maybe a little too hot for them lately.

Tai chi is going great; the classes are going really well and I've had some very positive feedback, which has been much-appreciated. I attended a National workshop on the weekend and learned a lot and have noticed things opening up and just changing and more of a stillness and quietness developing when practising. I couldn't be happier as that is truly what I'm striving for...

Farming is going awesome. I am soooooo happy to be helping out - today I weeded a couple rows and then picked rocks out of a freshly plowed patch and then hand pulled weeds from beneath some peas... It was great! The other afternoon there were 4 women, all in our 30s or 40s, working in the lovely sunshine, with children playing (baby being carried, and toddlers eating strawberries or playing on the various play structures dotting the edge of the field)... it filled my feminine energy cup to overflowing. I was beaming with happiness at the positive energy we were creating and was just *so* in my happy place! I love love LOVE going to the farm. I feel like I make a tangible contribution and it is lovely to do physical labour and share in that with other people... Today I came home with some deeeeeeelicious organic strawberries and some transplants for my garden: two cherry tomato plants, a zucchini, a long english cucumber, a broccoli, a couple kale plants, and some dill, cilantro and parsley... So I spent the afternoon playing on my own garden transplanting all these lovely plants, which was equally fun.

My daughter is now sporting a bright pink half-leg cast, as of yesterday. She's doing SUPER awesome with it on - even went scootering yesterday, jumped on the trampoline today and has been running and dancing in it as well as climbing the stairs and just generally getting around just fine with it. AND she's the kind of kid who doesn't complain much about anything so even though it sometimes gets itchy, she doesn't get grumpy about it. She'll have this one for a couple weeks, then they'll re-cast (in purple, she's decided), and then once more after that (when she'll choose a red cast). Funny how she's got it all planned out.

I read two awesome books lately: The $64 Tomato by William Alexander. *LOVED* it. it was on display in the library; I'd never heard of it before and it caught my eye. It was a great book, easy to read and hilarious.

The other book was Radical Homemaking: reclaiming domesticity from a consumer culture (Shannon Hayes). *LOVED* *LOVED* *LOVED* it. Sooooooo exactly what I wanted to read. Intelligent. Well-written. Thought-provoking. Made me re-examine my life - am I truly living a life in accordance with the values I hold dear? Which is very important to me... it's the basis of my life, really. It also made me want to re-think some things in my life.... But one thing I've been thinking a lot about is the concept of a household being either a unit of consumption or a unit of production.

Today we were a unit of production... farming and bartering for some awesome plants which will feed us... and then cleaning the community hall, generating income and also giving back to the community at the same time... and going to tai chi class and furthering my own development and also learning so i can give back to my own class tomorrow... AND I didn't make any purchases today at all. FANTASTIC day in my books.