Absolutely no simple living happening here! This is a place for rumination, cultivation, curation, and creativity in pursuit of the complex, organic, authentic, dirty, imperfect, layered, rich, lush life!
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Reinvention
Our landscape is littered with signs of metamorphosis. The chicken run is like a slaughter site with so many molted feathers scattered about. Half of our hens look like they were plucked alive. Soon, though, those heritage poultry will be beautifully re-feathered in time for winter. And for a few months, our flock of majestic…
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Snake Warnings and Cicero
One of my favorite parts of our rustic homestead is a woodland trail that winds steeply to the uppermost limit of our property. Over the past 8 years of walking it, I’ve crossed paths with many snakes there. Like polite strangers, we note each others’ presence and continue on our separate ways. Recently, I had…
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Embrace Change, Adapt, Grow
Those three ideas in the title of this post are pretty much the heart and art of living well today. They are also the focus of Issue 4 of Epicurean Living. For any newcomers, Epicurean Living is a free PDF magazine I create about philosophy, gardening, homesteading, creativity, and ecology. You can open and read,…
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For Better Health…Do this one thing!
I imagine some of you clicked on this wondering what I was going to try to sell you. Well, sorry to disappoint, but I’m all about doing stuff yourself and not having to spend money to live well. The thing I want to sell you is a simple idea that I know will make you…
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The One Thing Every Gardener Needs
Let me offer you the most important piece of advice I know to help you enhance your garden, your skills as a gardener, and your pleasure in having a garden. Create a comfortable place to sit in the garden and plant yourself there as often as you can. Increase Subliminal Learning If you don’t linger…
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Environmental Awakening
Waking up has always been a slow process for me. Even after a good night of sleep, I stumble out of bed, dress, make my way to the chicken coop to let those lovelies out, and go make tea. Then I drink half the cup before I feel coordinated and mentally alert. Once I get…
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Abundance Begins
Our first real garden harvest of the growing season is the abundant and lush beauty that washes over our landscape in May. This feast for the senses nourishes us just as much as the fruit and calorie-dense staple crops that come later on. What’s most amazing to me is that before I began homesteading, I…
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Make Thyme
Bad pun, I know. But today, I have thyme and lots of it! Plus, it’s Easter Sunday and sunny. What better way to use my thyme than to reap an abundant harvest. I know the thyme is right because the sun is warming the tiny but potent leaves. Their savory, citrusy, spicy aroma is noticeable…
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Happy National Gardening Day!
I have friends who celebrate all the various national and world such and such days. They treat them as an opportunity to reflect on something different each day. I’m not in the habit of doing that, but today I want to share a few that I’m paying attention to. Like today, it’s Maundy Thursday, which…