A Farmer's Life for Me.

I came across this article today:

There is a movement in the United States today, wide-spread, and very far reaching in its consequences. People are seeking after a freer, healthier, happier life. They are tired of the noise and dirt, bad air and crowds of the cities and are turning longing eyes toward the green slopes, wooded hills, pure running water and health giving breezes of the country.

True, isn't it? Guess what? It was published 100 years ago in the Missouri Ruralist by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Isn't that awesome but really sad too that we are still facing the same things to a degree.

I feel like there must always be a movement of people who want to get back to their roots. Back to "simpler" living that really is not simpler because it takes more work but because it's less stress. I have several friends who many who think of as "well off" that have a plan to move to the simpler way. A couple of them have switched from "city living" to "country living" and have acreage and are in a way learning to live off the land. In fact Wade and I have a dream (a hope that it will come to fruition) to have a small farm in the next 10 years.

In the meantime I am trying to help the family eat the benefit of a farm by buying organic vegetable and growing a plant or two on my own. I never thought I would jump on that bandwagon but with an open mind I finally looked into the research of all the chemicals and pesticides that are put on the produce we buy and what it does to our body. My friend, Brandy, has a good blog post about this, "What's the big deal with consuming some pesticides???" <- I had to add three question marks like her. LOL (Picking on ya there, Brandy!) There is something I just came across yesterday that is going to help us eat clean in the coming year. I learned about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA for short, also called Farm Shares). Here is a link to find out more and find a farm in your area. There was a farm I "liked" on Facebook that enlightening me on this opportunity. What you do is join in an agreement with a farm that offers Farm Shares paying an amount (anywhere from $250 to $600 depending on the farm, what they offer, what "package" you pick, etc) and during the months the produce comes in (June through October for most farms in our area) you get to have the fresh, organic vegetables without the work. Some farms offer chickens, eggs, honey, jams, goat cheese and even fresh-baked bread to add to your package at an additional cost.

Back to Laura Ingalls Wilder or as she signed her articles, Mrs. A. J. Wilder, she wrote an article (August 15, 1922) on how many families have given their farms names. (Even ours is referred to as "Triple F" by some because of Wade's three brothers.) She stated that families used to have family mottos as a custom expressing maybe a strong character trait the family possessed or stood for. She, of course, writes it more poetically:

Why not have a family motto expressing something for which we, as a family, stand?
Such a motto would be a help in keeping the family up to standard by giving the members a cause for pride in it and what it represents; it might even be a help in raising the standard of family life and honor.
If the motto of a family were, "My word is my bond," do you not think the children of that family would be proud to keep their word and feel disgraced if they failed to do so?
Suppose the motto were, "Ever ready," would not the members of that family try to be on the alert for whatever came?
Perhaps it would be possible to cure a family weakness by choosing a motto representing its opposite as an ideal for the family to strive toward. We might keep our choice a family secret until we have proven ourselves and could face the world with it. Tho, in these days, we would not put the motto upon our shield as did the knights of old, but we could use it in many ways. If carried only in our hearts, it would draw the family closer together.

I love that idea. It must be the romantic in me and loving the way of how life used to be. What would our motto be? What about yours?