Hiatus from Art and a little Grumpy

I thought I should sit down a write a bit of a piece today. Good day to do it because I don't really have a whole lot else to do, or rather that I CAN do. What I mean by that is, I'm usually so darn busy running around taking care of "this and that" that I just don't have the time. Today I have the time because I'm sick. Can't run around doing my normal "this and that" routine very easily. Even though I'm sick I still can't...well, sit still. Ugh. Somebody from my past gene pool imparted the "ants in the pants" gene I guess.



I just wanted to sort of start out with the fact that I'm on a bit of a hiatus from art. Not that I really wanted to per se, but it just ended up turning out that way. I have not created a new piece of art for about 2 years now. Maybe it's even been three years. I'm losing count. I used to be amazingly prolific, usually painting upwards of 2-6 finished paintings a day. For at least a decade or so. Time is beginning to melt together and scream by me. Or perhaps it's swept me into it's time warp. I don't know how to explain it, but I certainly can't think of a way to explain the fact that I've gone for so long without painting anything new. Other than being terrifically busy of course.



We started a little ranch/farm out of necessity back in 2008 (ok, wow...it's been almost three years since a new painting has been created. Woah.) When the gas prices got so high we just got killed by it because we live so far away from everything. Income didn't go up to compensate and we decided we were never going to be caught like that again. So we started a bit of a self sufficiency thing due to that. We got goats, chickens and rabbits as well as really beefing up our garden. Turning that into a serious en devour instead of a hobby thing. We also started vermicomposting out of the need to help with getting rid of all the manure we started to accumulate. Composting worms are a viable source of income eventually too, so there is that. But wow did we need a little something to help with all that rabbit poo.



So fast forward to now and perhaps you might see why it's been a while since I've painted. I've learned a lot of new things along the way. How to milk goats, how to take care of goats in general. How to raise and process rabbits. How to raise and care for chickens. How to make sure we utilize all of this into a nice little sustainable area of land for our health and benefit and not rely on the grocery store any more. A whole lot of fun and a whole heck of a lot of work. I've learned how to make my own cheese, my own dog food (for my 4 German Shepherds and 2 little pipsqueak dogs) A whole myriad of new tracks to trace and follow and learn.



In the back of my mind I always thought about my art. Some days were more painful than others in not creating. I still keep a whole lot of materials "at the ready" for when I need to do paint...but it seems there is always something in the way, like a rabbit cage sitting on the kitchen table. Or my studio having been taken over by tools and canned goods. I really want to get back to it and am feeling a bit more stubborn about it right now. Maybe it's the winter weather. Which up here in WA usually means a whole heck of a lot of rain and just cold enough to be not fun to work in. And mud. *sigh* Whatever the reason, I'm getting more and more feisty about whipping out my stuff and getting to creating again, if only for a while.



This has been just a bit of a chatter and babble...mostly to myself. Just working through the reasons why and where to go from here. And wishing, wishing my headache would go away so I can think straight and maybe even start a small scale painting while I sit here and feel sorry for myself. LOL! I almost never feel sorry for myself, for long anyway. Always pull myself up by the bootstraps and start forging ahead again. But writing helps. Cruising around in my art groups to see all the new work and creativity still going strong helps too.



Never lose sight of who you are.



Till next time...

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling

Food safety bill invokes Codex harmonization and grants FDA authority to police food safety of foreign nations

Food safety bill invokes Codex harmonization and grants FDA authority to police food safety of foreign nations

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays? What??

The whole argument is getting ridiculous.

This whole thing is about Christmas, period. The retailers all know it and have been working on "marketing" at us for at least 70 plus years. Ok. So it's Christmas. Say Merry Christmas, that is after all what it is. This whole thing has blown up because it's about the advertisers targeting for this time of year. Do they target their marketing at Ramadan? No. Kwanzaa? Not really. Hanukkah? A bit more but only because we are by and large a Judeo Christian society.

Those other religions have their times, relatively unmolested as it pertains to what and when they celebrate. So why should the Christians have to "share" their religion or have it co opted just because of the marketing thing? Because really, that is what it has all come down to. If everyone wants a fair shot then lets not take the Christian aspect out of it by saying something other than Merry Christmas, or worse, trying to make it "less" somehow by including everyone into the mix. Let's instead let everyone have their own time AT their own times and leave well enough alone. Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Solstice, Hanukkah and Christmas.

This is getting really silly. I love the fact it's Christmas, say Merry Christmas...and guess what!? I'm not Christian. And wow, I'm not the least bit offended by it. I think it a beautiful time and fully respect the Christian worship of this time. Let's find something else to worry about. Like how the heck we are going to get out of this economic mess the government has gotten us into over the course of 50 years while we were worrying over whether or not to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Sheesh.

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Living Outside the Dialectic: An open letter to all members of local Tea Parties...

I have found an article that is one of the most enlightening pieces I have ever read. It answers so many issues and questions. I highly recommend this. Long read, well worth it. Our very liberty depends on understanding.

Living Outside the Dialectic: An open letter to all members of local Tea Parties...: "An open letter to all members of local Tea Parties from the co-founder of the Anti Communitarian League Every policy the Tea Party has prot..."

Protect Local Food Sources - Call Your Senators Now!

Please go to the link below and check out the information on how to get in touch with your Senators. If they will listen of course. Sheesh, they are ALL too damn busy trying to save their hides.

Anyway. Onward.

We HAVE to stop this bill! If we do not, then we will have even more restrictions on our liberties, the least of which is choice in healthier and SAFER foods direct from the smaller farmers and ranchers. That big egg recall, remember it? Huge death farms for chickens, and hugely unhealthy. Think the FDA checked em out like they were supposed to? What the hell do we fund such a sham bureaucratic outfit for?? Well, because of that farce, this damn bill may go forward and be passed.

PLEASE check out the link and look into this. Bad news coming down the pike from the federal government taking over even more of our lives. No more buying jelly from the little farmers market. No more buying local honey for your allergies. No more anything if these bastards get away with this.

This is not about public safety, it's about control by the lobbyists for big agriculture squeezing out the little guy because they don't like the competition. Too many farmers markets, too many people waking up to the fact we have been being poisoned by all the chemicals and antibiotics in the food chain for the last 50-60 years. Look at how far removed we have become from our food? 3-5 generations ago the farms and the ranches have been being abondoned. We have so few of them left! Lets not let the feds take them all away from us.

WAKE UP!!!!

Protect Local Food Sources - Call Your Senators Now!


Thanks!

"Cute" Animals as Food

"Rabbits and Guinea Pigs! Are you serious!! No way!! You mean old beastie you!" (or worse names, just check out some of the comment posts to me from my husbands sister Lori on rabbits, but anyway...) We happen to have a meat rabbitry, not the Guinea Pigs. They are national favorites in Peru though, right along with their potatoes. Uh oh, better boycott them!

Yeah, right. Whatever.

I have to talk a bit about people who are SO freaked out over this concept of raising small animals for meat. I have to point a few things out.

Our ancestors did not survive as vegetarians. They survived and thrived as omnivores. Hunter/gatherers definitely did not do without in the "meat as protein" department. Those who made farming their mainstay still had to have sources of protein in meat in order to survive a variety of natural occurrences (such as winter, or winter after a drought and crops failed etc) Whatever, the farmers still ate meat as well.

So while in our age of information vegans have learned how best to survive without meat as protein, more power to them if that is what they choose to do. I don't yell and scream at them and accuse them of being plant killers. I mean seriously. Plants are very important now aren't they? They provide Oxygen and consume Carbon Dioxide. Pretty important stuff there.

Anyway, some vegans choose it for conscientious reasons, some for health...whatever the reason, fine...for them. But I will say, it is very difficult to grow your own food if you don't have the land. I mean ALL the food. What to do if the food grid fails? Have enough land to support yourself with just vegan fair, for a year? Probably not. Anyway, I digress a bit.

The problem I have is anyone getting seriously fussy with anyone who raises rabbits for meat (as well as goats for milk and meat and chickens) The garden part seems to be fine because hey, that's normal. The goats too (mostly) But rabbits??? Egads! Chickens even, that seems fine with most but let me tell you...those chickens are 10 times brighter than the real prey animal, rabbit. And there have been stories of silly people asking "Where do you get your eggs" Uh...from my chickens. "Really!? I get mine from the store!"

Or the gal who was buying farm fresh eggs and loving it until she found out the farmers wife washed them by hand before selling them. Because they come out of the "vent" Which is also the poop spot (different chutes, but still) She freaked out and went to back to buying them from the store. Uh...those eggs also come out of the vent and they wash them too I reckon, one hopes. Same thing...I'm digressing again, sorry.

Our western culture is horrified by the thought of cute critters because we must not get our hands dirty (those who are meat eaters even freak out over this because it's not normal, not from the *gasp* GROCERY STORE!? EGADS!) or we get TOTALLY freaked by the thought of eating Peter Cottontail. We as a society are and have been WAAY too removed from our food. Weird, isn't it? And eeekk!! What about all those eggs!? They might have been chickens! Cute little fuzzy chickens! Sorry...I'm running into digression again. Can't be helped.

I'm going to venture a big guess here and think that even those who settled this country from Europe didn't let that pesky little problem of Peter Cottontail get in their way of survival, let alone the natives who were here already. I'll just bet they hadn't had all that cute Easter Marketing. Or rather, being marketed AT - like how we constantly are in this lovely information age.

I could get started on the big agri "farms/ranches" and how they are ruining the food supplies for us all, omnivores and vegans alike...but I'd better stop digressing. I'll be addressing that another time. But in the meantime, I know what is going into these rabbits and chickens and goats. And what is not...like hormones, antibiotics, etc. My animals are all in healthy large cages and yards and have nesting materials with lots of room to stretch, not tiny little cages with no room to move or in huge broods where they can't move. And when they are cleaned after slaughter they are not sitting in their own feces and blood for hours while "being chilled" - Yep, that's what they do with chickens. Gotta get mass production out there for those masses...even the "organic" chicken.

Just some thoughts for the day. Still more to come as it pertains to my husbands sister. I need to get some of my home grown herbs ready for more cheese. Yeah, that would be cheese from my goats.

I think some people thrive on anger, hatred and bitterness, don't you? Why do they act that way otherwise? More thoughts later.

As Hank Williams sings "Mind your own business, then you won't be minding mine."