In the words of that little Poltergeist girl...

     I'm Baaaaacccckkkk!

     Hardly the silent, sensitive way I entered this new year, but high on my list of New Year's resolutions was "Resume the Blog" ~ And so, I am. Here's announcing that it's back.
     First, may I begin with my sincere (and kinda overwhelmed) thanks to those of you I discovered had been following it. As I've mentioned in prior posts, my original intention in starting a blog in the first place had nothing to do with keeping score or upping my following. Rather, it had everything to do with sharing what I'm learning as I go, for the sake of saving time.
     For starters, I don't know what I'm doing. I've been learning from day one, but since more and more people seem to be resonating to such things as home grown veggies and sustainable living and simplifying their lives and novel new concepts like tiny houses and (fill in the blank), I get a lot of questions. (Namely: WHY are YOU doing this, Evins? Answer: Well...it started out as a cookbook idea--a project I decided to research first hand, which meant "Grow it yourself, which turned into Farmer Thurman showing me the old fashion way, which turned into "to be organic, you gotta have critters that poop," which turned into cute goats, which turned into Pyrenees to protect the goats, which turned into... You get the gist. And if you haven't noticed, I never got that 3rd cookbook on the press, why? Because despite those enticing magazines at your grocer's check out, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HOBBY FARM~ (So if you're thinking of this as a hobby, let me dispel that little myth right now.)
     So to those of you curious or pondering the same, I was more than happy to share, yes, the fun and fulfilling elements of my first hand, neophyte, investigative approach to things...but also the "Whoops...Didn't quite think that one through" moments of which there are many. (Actually, most of them...If I stop to add them up.)
     Bottom line, I love the farm. I love gardening. I love my goats, my pups...I love this life. But attempting to manage all of these things with the hope of doing any one of them reasonably well (not to mention, run a book company to pay for said "experiments") well, it left something to be desired.
     So end of the last season, (August always finding me exhausted and usually in the hospital for some stress related weak link that gives way), I once again found myself steeped in stress. My mother faced a critical surgery and needed care taking; my own health was weakening. (Exhaustion will do that to you.  No vacation in 4 whole years, will do that to you. If I wasn't going to logically recalibrate my energy expenditures, my body was going to do it for me, and I could hear it asking, "Could we please hit pause and review?")
     Answer was: yes. Experience in life is only as good as our ability to reflect upon it once it's happened, and for me that came with some very serious soul searching as to what parts of this we keep, and what parts of this we say "Nice experiment; I think I'll leave that to the pros."
     So I enter this year, having taken the time I felt I needed to regroup, re-organize and re-prioritize a few things (starting with my own health, and that of my mother, who came through things with flying colors...Thank you God, and thanks to those of you who prayed)...In other words, those pesky little events that otherwise culminate in "Life" ...Complete with the lessons that will slow your jets down for you if you keep adding layers to the stack cake you're baking in your own little kitchen there.
     I enter this year, and this blog in particular, with more questions than answers...More uncertainties than ever before, and yet more hope. I still feel strongly that interests in such things as sustainable living, clearing our lives of clutter, making more space for what matters and using that space efficiently (i.e. tiny homes are on my research radar this year...Love that Tiny Home Nation, but what I want to see is where these folks are in 10 years...Did they last? Are their marriages are still in tact? Are they tired of living in a cute closet on wheels or did they really use all they'd saved to experience life more fully? Again, uncertain, but hopeful.) I feel strongly our interests in these things are happening for a reason...that I'm not the only one asking "How do I slow this train down?" and I'm not the only one wondering "How did it get this crazed in the first place?"
     Seems everyone I talk to these day (be they Thurmans, be they corporate execs, be they entrepreneurs) are dealing in some aspect of the same. Something's going on here. We've got more luxuries, more technology, more access to information, more HELP by way of things to save us time, and yet no one seems to have any spare time to show for it. (How'd that happen? Or are we using these things improperly, after all, every phone, pad and gizmo comes with an instruction booklet, but none comes with the booklet to warn you how having all this nifty new gear might one day affect your sanity.)
     So that's me. That's where my mind goes when I'm not blogging...(I'm still writing mind you, just silently, in a journal long hand, but to give you a clue, that's where my mind has been.)  I enter this year still searching for answers on how to prepare the proper soil, but more than getting beneath my garden's soil, I want to dig beneath the surface of my own life's dirt to see what root rot may've set in when I wasn't looking.)
     So if you're curious (or just grateful someone decided to be the self-appointed guinea pig here), bookmark me. I got halfway done with a new website that will allow you to ask for a notice with each new blog, but until I get the other half done, just bookmark it. I'll be here most everyday, Lord willing.
     And get ready for the pictures. Got goat babies due just any day. Rosebud (Rosey's daughter) had a litter of pups smack dab in the middle of my mom's surgical ordeal, so THAT was a high and low kinda roller coaster...Life on the farm is far from laid back, but there's a lot to keep you smiling (if not downright laughing)...And still, there's plenty to make you think (and feel...and ask).
     So...here's to a brand new year, with some brand new resolutions, starting with "More silence...More meditating... More intentional focus to life's little decisions, that eventually account for the big ones...More sharing of what matters most (assuming you find it...to me-- this one's the biggie. If we could each but figure this one out, why wouldn't this be a swell place to live? )
     Here's to the journey. As my friend Richard Bach once wrote,

          "Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished:

                                                                                                        if you're alive, it isn't." 

(From Illusions...My favorite book. Ever. If you haven't read it, I can't recommend it highly enough. Bach is my kinda author, my kinda thinker...but that's another blog for another day.)

     So Happy New Year, kindred spirits and kind-hearted souls...

     Be happy.  
                            It's New.  
                                                 You're Here.