hobby farm

My Own Hobby Farm. Well – Sort of.

Posted by Barbara Techel

My Own Hobby Farm. Well- sort of.

Oh, how I think I’d love to have a hobby farm! Some chickens, goats, two donkey’s, and maybe a miniature horse. And of course, a dog or two.

My own garden would be nice too.

I made this SoulCollage® card (above) awhile back but I wasn’t exactly sure what it was about. Until I met with some other SoulCollage® facilitators online yesterday.

We each shared a card or two sharing what we thought they meant. As I talked about this card, I realized again how I’d love a hobby farm. I’ve often talked about wishing I could have chickens so I could have my own eggs, goats for my own cheese and donkeys to love.

The clock on the card I realized meant I perhaps had a little farm in another life or perhaps I will have one in a future life. I don’t know. But it’s fun to tap into this place of unknown.

And it’s fun to dream. It’s one of the things I enjoy about SoulCollage® and how your cards can speak to you through imagination and using your intuition.

And this card below I just had to make after finding an image of a donkey because of my love for these wonderful, spiritual beings.

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I thought more about a hobby farm this morning as I made an egg, fresh from a local farm where John and I are trying something new this year, having purchased a quarter share.

Yesterday’s first share of the season contained a dozen eggs, strawberries, kale, spinach and cilantro.

Thinking about my cards, taking part in buying fresh produce from Old Plank Farm, plus from our local Farmer’s Market too, I guess I have bits and pieces of my own hobby farm in a way, I thought.

And the reality is, I just wouldn’t have time for a garden or all those animals as much as I’d like them.  So for now my hobby farm consists of one special needs dachshund and a laid back English Labrador, plus my support of local farmers…

And dreaming through the making of my SoulCollage® cards. I can live with that.

Saturday I’m excited to facilitate another introductory SoulCollage® workshop – this time for a private group of six friends. I want to lead more workshops as I’m finding how much I truly enjoy sharing this process, being in community with other women, and holding the space for each of us to explore and discover the many sides to who we are.

So yup, a real hobby farm shall have to wait. And perhaps it may yet happen in this lifetime somewhere down the road. Will see.

But for now, I’m happy and content — and in a place of so much more clarity than I’ve been in a long time. And it feels so good. So good.

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In a Former Life I Think I was a Farmer and a Homesteader.

Posted by Barbara Techel

indexI’m really beginning to wonder and ponder, that I may have been a farmer in another life. Maybe you didn’t expect me to say this. I sometimes wonder what goes on inside of this head of mine too, wondering where in the world these thoughts come from?

Right now I’m reading Cold Antler Farm-A memoir of Growing Food and Celebrating Life on a Scrappy Six-Acre Homestead by Jenna Woginrich. I’ve also read two of her other books, One-Woman Farm: My Life Shared with Sheep, Pigs, Chickens, Goats, and a Fine Fiddle and Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One’s Own. I’m thoroughly enjoying her new book as much as I loved her last two.

Last night as I was reading Cold Antler Farm this is when the thought came to me that I may have been a farmer in a different life, just like Jenna. I love that she calls herself a farmer, as well as, a true homesteader. She owns the titles beautifully. Maybe that is part of my attraction to her.

She is in her early 30s and there is no question when you read about her life on her small farm that she is a woman determined, committed, and strong in the skin she was born in.

But I also know it is the animals I’m attracted to. The two working horses, the goats, the sheep, the pigs, geese, rabbits, bees, and her border collie, Gibson. If her brood included donkey’s, a Labrador, and a dachshund, I just might have to build a tiny home right on her property and live there!

Her descriptions of her gardens and her daily chores calms me for some reason. Maybe it is in the routine and solitude that I like of Jenna’s life. But I can say what I wouldn’t like is being a true farmer in the sense of having to dock new born lamb tails, send pigs to slaughter, and the muck and slop of spring thaw. I’m also very allergic to hay and since many of the animals need that to eat and bed down in, well, I’m afraid I’d have an inhaler permanently attached to my mouth for my asthma.

Pondering all this I think perhaps I’d still love a hobby farm with two miniature donkey’s, some chickens, and a goat or two. Maybe this will be in my next life.  I hope by that time I’ve either let go of the asthma I have or they make allergy free hay.

But for now I live as a farmer and homesteader through the writing of Jenna as she celebrates and embraces life to the fullest on her scrappy farm. And dream of wearing dresses and perwinkle rain boots while brushing my donkey’s, milking my goats, and gathering eggs from my chicken’s on the little hobby farm in the next realm of my life.