Waiting

January is a suspended month.  The poets describe the month as forlorn, though Hal Borland quips that “there are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter.  One is the January thaw.  The other is the seed catalogues.” This year we’re actually, oddly, waiting for winter, which seems reluctant to even start. [...]

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Unexpected

Gardeners like to plan things. Despite the wild appearance of some gardens (ahem), and the tendency of plants to have their own ideas, we’re an orderly lot. We plant things in neat rows, or square foot grids. We weigh and measure, label and stack. We plan our days, and color-code our calendars. We map our [...]

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On Moving

In my adult life I’ve moved seven times; two of those as a family with a child. Averaged out, that’s once every three years! Ugh. No wonder I despise the process so much. Each time I move, I dislike it more and more. (I say as I’m breaking from unpacking.) It seems as though we’ve [...]

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Hi there…

Why hello! I am Emily’s husband, Jeremy.  You might’ve seen pictures of me doing various farmy type stuff.  I like to be very supportive towards any and all of Emily’s flora and fauna vices.  I love animals and I like to eat vegetables, but I’m really whiny when it comes to physical labor. I’m really [...]

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Spending time

Leisure as a civic pursuit is old– even ancient archeological sites reveal public parks, sports arenas, and performance venues. Closer to modern times, reducing the wage commitment for working people was a huge, important and vital fight in reclaiming human dignity from the excesses of the industrial revolution. For so-called working families, the work didn’t [...]

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May Planner – Redux

So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we wanted to share some general guidelines of what to plan for on a monthly basis. Whether you’re a gardener, a beekeeper, a forager, or you keep animals, hopefully our monthly guides will help you plan ahead for [...]

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February Planner

  So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we here at NDiN wanted to share some general guidelines of what to plan for on a monthly basis. Whether you’re a gardener, a beekeeper, a forager, or you keep animals, hopefully our monthly guides will help you [...]

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Stuff and More Stuff

  I’ve never been one to celebrate New Year’s as a way to make life changes. I’m a firm believer that those changes can come at any time and shouldn’t be put off until the first of next year. That being the case, I find it thoroughly ironic that since I’ve returned home from the holiday celebrations [...]

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August Planner

So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we wanted to share some general guidelines of what to plan for on a monthly basis. Whether you’re a gardener, a beekeeper, a forager, or you keep animals, hopefully our monthly guides will help you plan ahead for [...]

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When Life Gets to be Too Much

As I sat down to write this post I was thinking about how busy I am this time of year. With all the gardening, harvesting, preserving, cooking, baking, cleaning, blogging, deadlines, and of course work, it can start to feel a little overwhelming. I sometimes wonder how I keep up (as do my readers). I [...]

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