Monday, April 20, 2009

hobby farm heartache.


I anticipate the arrival of a few magazines every month; Style At Home, What's Cooking, Canadian Gardener, and last but NOT least, Hobby Farms. I know that I've blogged about homesteading before, but since receiving my last Hobby Farms magazine in the mail this past week I feel as though I've been going through some ol' hobby farm heartache. Bizarre, I know.
When I open up the mailbox and see my nicely packaged brand-spankin' new magazine sitting there I get excited...possibly a bit too excited (I did a happy dance last time). I love everything about this magazine because I get to read about people who are actually doing what I dream of doing. I get to read about sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, donkeys, alpacas...all things that I want to have on my farm one day. One particularly good read in this months issue was all about Blossom-end Rot, which all of my lovely tomatoes suffered from during our last growing season. I learnt what the rot was, what the cause was, and how it could be treated and fixed. Very beneficial if you ask me.
After I finished reading this months issue of Hobby Farms I curled up on my bed and felt like crying...I felt as though my heart actually hurt. When James came upstairs he noticed something was wrong and I began (again) explaining my dream and how I would love for our family to live on a homestead. I want my children to grow up taking care of animals and working the earth. I want them to understand what hard work is. I don't want them growing up like cushy suburban kids who get a Blackberry for their fifth birthday and experience 'life' through their Wii. I feel like my dream is so counter-cultural that I often loose touch of it...or I just push it so far back into my mind because it feels so far away. When I read through the pages of my magazine all of what I hope and dream comes flooding out...oi. So I'm left with hobby farm heartache and I have no idea what to do about it.

3 comments:

Jordan said...

I feel for you guys. That's such a great dream you have, and I think you could totally do it. Don't get discouraged if it's countercultural -- those kind of dreams are the only ones worth having.

It's great that as parents you guys have your priorities straight. I completely agree with what you said about kids growing up in suburbia these days. I seriously worry about the future of our society when I think about how so many kids are raised.

I look forward to one day visiting you and your family on your homestead. I can picture James wearing overalls with one strap missing. Giddy-up.

joyce said...

what a gorgeous dream.
What a heartfelt post.

believe.

JuliaD said...

one thing i've noticed over the last year is how awful kids are getting. just awful in general. i mean, here i was for 12 days in england with all these 13 year olds. we'd go down to the beach, to the ocean, and the boys would all be lined up on benches...PLAYING WITH THEIR NINTENDO DS AND WHATEVER OTHER KIND OF CRAP THEY HAVE. and we were in london and girls were COMPLAINING OF BOREDOM. IN LONDON!!!!!!!!! i woulda given my eye teeth to go to london without my parents at the age of 13! nothing impresses, inspires, or awes young people today. they have it all anyways. so so so sad. that's why once i've got some experience teaching i wanna go somewhere in africa to work there.... we'll see...

one great quote...

"whenever i get gloomy with the state of the world, i think of the arrivals gate at heathrow airport. general opinion makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, i don't see that. seems to me that love is everywhere. often it's not articularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there. fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. when the planes hit the twin towers, i have reason to believe that none of the calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love. if you look for it, i've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." -Love Actually