LIFE=ART

This morning I read a really fantastic blog post by Todd Henry, author of The Accidental Creative.
I have his book on the "To Read" pile, but in the meantime have been following his blog.

The post was called "The Urgency of Treating Life as Art".

This post TOTALLY ties in with our Mission Statement for the farm!

Please, please take a few minutes and go read it.

My favorite part of the post....

"I have determined that this year – the year in which I’m writing my 2nd book, growing two businesses, living in airports, and working to be the father, friend, and husband I must be – I will be treating my life more like the work of art it is.

Here are a few ways I’ll be doing that:

1. Slow down. I am not a pinball, bouncing from thing to thing. Life is not mine for consumption, it’s mine for experience. Experiences are only real if they are internalized through reflection. I will slow down this year, even in the midst of my busyness.
2. Synthesize. Great artists are synthesizers. They notice. They take in their environment and weave things together to make them more beautiful. I want to traffic in beauty this year, not pragmatics. I want to take the time to be thematic.
3. Energize. I aspire to bring more energy into every event, meeting, and encounter than I take away. I want others to feel energized by my presence, not drained. Even when I see my own energy level diminishing, I aspire to pour whatever I have into that moment.
4. Immerse. I want to be present – deeply, truly present – in my work, with my family, in my thoughts. My writing. My relationships. My serving. I want to be…here…now. Always.

Art is not perfect. It is not ideal. It is not comfortable. It challenges, provokes, stands for itself. There isn’t always a rationalization for its ineffable value. Yet, it stands."

This is exactly what our goal is, helping people find more time to savor life.  Soon we will be holding events and workshops to provide the inspiration to make big (or small) changes in your lifestyle. A place to share and grow.

Mr. Henry ends his post with this...

"Friends, treat your life as art. Spend yourself wisely. Whatever path you are on, walk it well. Live, make, love with conviction."

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Welcome Straw, Stick & Brick

We did it-- the pigs are here.

They are equally cute and nasty.

Stinky, slurpy, grunty, fuzzy babies.

For now they are living in the garden area, with the hoop house for shelter and an electric fence to traipse around in. Once they are bigger they are moving up to the woods where Paul is clearing several acres for planned apple orchard. There they can forage around and pigerate the ground up for us.

So here is a special welcome to Straw, Stick and Brick.

get it?

Alton and His Friends

Our yard rabbit, Alton Brown, loves his chickens.

When we let the hens out to run and play,
 he gets very excited and runs in circles around them.

Eve compiled this cute and hilarious short video of him and his friends.

Song credit~ "Life's a Happy Song" The Muppets (Original Soundtrack) 2011 Walt Disney Records

Video © 2012 Eve Hanlin~

TUTORIAL~ Toilet Paper Tube Flower (By Eve)

I am one of those people (of many) who spend WAY too much time playing around in all the amazing craft ideas on Pinterest. I once came across a picture of a "Toilet Paper Tube Flower" and decided to put together this little recreation for you. Inspired by Corabelle. Found via Pinterest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Supplies:

                                         ~A Grand Collection of Empty Toilet Paper Tubes

                                                (11 for one large flower)

                                         ~Hot Glue Gun

                                         ~Paper Cutter (Or Scissors, Ruler and Pencil)

                                         ~One Or Two Wonderfully Helpful Cats to Keep You Company

The whole process overall doesn't take too long. The first thing you're going to want to do is plug in your good ol' hot glue gun. The hot glue works very well for this project, it hold together well and you don't half to wait for any drying. You just have to spend some time removing the "spider webs"(as I call them).

First, (if this hasn't already been done) give the toilet paper tube a nice flattening.

Cut the (4 inch) tube into three 1 1/2 inch pieces.

Ezmaralda approves.

Cut those pieces in half again (to 3/4 inch pieces). This just so happens to be the length of the metal strip on the paper cutter, which came in handy. If you are using a scissors and ruler, just mark off every 3/4 inch with a pencil and just hack the thing up in one step.

You can make a whole pile of these (it takes 11 tubes to make the largest flower), or cut as you go.

Place a dab of glue on the side, a bit down from the "point" of the tube (see pic) and stick two together.

I call this the "double petal" shape. You will be using it a lot.

Keep connecting petals until you have a flower of eight.

This is your first layer flower! This is a pretty nice flower in itself. You can use smaller ones like this instead of (or with) the larger ones. They're a lot of fun.

For the next layer, use single petals all around. Put glue on both sides of the petal instead of just one.

And stick between the petals of the last row! All the way around.

Ez and Precious supervised. 

I must have been doing a satisfactory job, because they didn't give me too much trouble.

THE SECOND ROW COMPLETE!

Now take a "double petal" and put glue on three sides.

And stick in the space between the last petal row.

THIRD ROW DONE!

For the FINAL ROW take some more "double petals" 

and put both in between the last row petals, and the spaces in between.

Almost there...

Here it is!

Hang it up with simply a thumb tack or add a string a hang it from the ceiling (or in a window!).

Hope you have fun making and enjoying these!

Alton and his chickens...

Last spring we decided to let our rabbits go free. They were pitiful in their hutch, and not being snuggly love bunnies, we could not find them a home where they would not be harvested for their meat or hide.

So we decided to let them live their life feral and free...
Coriander (not shown here) made it a few months and disappeared. Either he wandered so far he did not find his way back, or nature got him.
Alton, on the other hand, snuggled right in by digging a comfortable tunnel in the barn... and spent most of his days by the compost pile, munching away....

Then he found the chickens...

He now lives with them, in their fenced area that we move around.

He eats their food and sleeps in their tree with them.

When I call the hens for snacks, he comes running right along with them, and I have seen him playing run-in-circles with one of the young hens, where they take turns running in circles around one another.

It's so odd.

We love you, Alton Brown.

Peculiar Snow at Peculiar Ambitions~

Rooster, chicken and dog prints on the deck stairs...

It's been a weird few weeks. Not that there are ever any normal weeks here...
Last week we had some snow! Personally, I am not a fan of the white stuff. Moving from PA to the Pacific Northwest was a nice change for me. In PA we got s.n.o.w... cold stuff that stuck around for months. Here, it snows and is pretty much gone in a few days.

Last week the snow dabbled around a bit for a few days, then wham! We woke on Wed. to 9 inches!
We live in a pocket between mountain ranges in the north part of Clark County, WA. Vancouver (south of us) had a wee bit of not much, but we were STUCK. Trees and poles down over the roads and NO ELECTRIC. Now I am a country girl for sure, but NOT a pioneer. I like my modern conveniences.... plus we are on a well, so no electric= no running water. bah!

Here are some shots of our days, which were spent frolicking in the snow, knitting and managing around the no electricity thing.... and a few of life before the storm.

Life as it is...

(click any image to view a larger version)

Snow fall and the pond...

Across the orchard...

Snow dog eating snowman's (named Baxter) arm.

Cold chicken snuggles.

Purple hair Ann...

This is a week or so before the snow storm, the sun was shining through large rain drops on the pond. 

It looked like fairy lights!

Eve was digging up 2 kajillion iris bulbs from the old, old flower bed next to the house.

As she unearthed them, worms popped out. 

Ro the hen was right there the entire time and manically grabbed the worms as they showed.

Spoiled chicken.

This is Roger, our new dude. He is so handsome (sigh).

Named after the rooster in Disney's Robin Hood. (voiced by country singer Roger Miller)

You can watch him sing here.

This is our reigning dude, Salatin. 

Named after farm guru Joel Salatin (Paul is a huge fan)

This is what happens each time I go outside.

Because I am the bringer of the cookies. The Scooby snacks.

I love this, that they come running. 

If I cannot have dancers like Lady Gaga, 

then I will settle for a flock of chickens following me around. 

~ Reenie

Putting it Out There...

It's time. Time to put it "Out There." (gulp!)
Anyone who knows us has heard us talk and talk about our "dream farm".
A magical place where we can all gather and learn and grow and push each other out of our boxes.
Paul and I have talked about this since we met, over 17(?!) years ago... a dream a long time in the making and planning, and here we are! (we moved here in Oct. 2010 and have been cleaning up and planning ever since!)
This is the year it will begin to come together, and you have the opportunity to WATCH, right here, on this special blog. The barn has plans to be renovated (oh my, what a project!) into a classroom/studio space. It is very excited about this. (grin)

Once that is going, the class/ workshop schedule will start falling into place. In the meantime, watch for an online shop (coming soon!) and the beginnings of a cidery/winery! (I know, YUM).

view of our very old (almost 100 yrs!) orchard...

I recently enrolled in a very special online course, designed to take a new approach to running a business.

Called Hello Soul, Hello Business!
This class came at the exact perfect time.
Here is my class intro post, which sums it all up perfectly...

Hello!
My name is Reenie and I am SO excited to be part of this amazing experience! I gotta say, I am equally excited and scared…
BUT– it all goes together… like a roller coaster ride! If it isn’t scary, what’s the point?
Anyway— I am a mom, artist, designer, knitter, art journaler, painter, beekeeper, chicken lady and a crazy person!
We (me, my two girls and my man) live on our dream farm in Battle Ground, WA, just a bit north of Portland, OR.
This past year I closed my online yarn shop/boutique (MaterialWhirled) that I ran from home for over six years… a really hard decision to end my store and go for some important lifestyle changes.
THIS year is the start of our family dream… our dream farm, a place to hold classes and retreats and workshops and events and a winery and store and, and….?
We are so very excited about it all and this class came at the exact perfect time, right smack in the middle of the transition and decision making stages.
YAY for divine guidance, eh>? Providing just what we need at the exact time we need it…

That said, please come visit my blogs… there are two, one for my personal antics and one for our FARM, called “Peculiar Ambitions”.
Links below…
I really, truly look forward to meeting everyone and being a part of this very important revolution.
Anyone local to me? Find me please… would love to put faces to names…
Reenie Hanlin
Me~ http://www.ReenieHanlin.com
Facebook~ http://www.facebook.com/ReenieHanlin
Farm blog~ http://www.PeculiarAmbitions.com

our greenhouse

Well, now it's "out there",  for all to know our intentions and dreams... this post was written with a lot of tears and "oh, crap", here we go! READY?????

Come join the FUN (RSS link on the right) and follow our antics through this exciting time!

We are so excited to meet you and to share our magical place with you~!

XO

Reenie, Paul, Eve and Ann (and the dogs, cats, chickens and rabbit).