Tag Archives: urban garden

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle

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When we first moved out here to rural Ontario, we struggled with getting up early for the school bus. We’re night hawks and that early morning pick up was tough. It continues to be tough, but we are getting used to it. However, once we were up so early… we seemed to have a lot more time. I noticed even after morning coffee and scrolling, I still set about my day with good measures of time. Be that as it may, I continue to struggle with all the things I want to see accomplished. The days are getting longer and there seems to be more daylight, but, man, there never seems to be enough time. I have been meaning to unpack the last few boxes hidden in the basement. I want to tackle some DIY projects. My seeds need to get in some soil in order to be ready for garden planting. Chicks are coming… have to organize bunnies and prep the coop. Even now that I am not working again, there still never seems to be enough time.

Bill Watterson quote from Mary Mott Writes

Now don’t go getting all “holier than thou” and tell me if I prioritized my time… or if I got off social media… or that I’d get done what is important to me… Perhaps all these things are true. I am also trying to be sensitive to my family who prioritizes people instead of tasks. I have to be social they say. Visit. Build relationships. Self care? How about personal hygiene? Housework? Did you know that the average person will spend almost 750 days doing dishes in their lifetime. Our dishwasher is currently dead. I am sure we are going to up that number. We have kids and creatures and gardens and a house; extended family. Church. Community. We live a fifteen minute drive from anything. If I could save time in a bottle… I’d be rich and have more time for … well … time for more.

Ecclesiastes tells us “there is a time for everything…” and we recognize that this is true, but, if you’re like me, you don’t quite understand the time-shift continuum, and often wonder how we fit everything in to our days without getting a bit funky smelling. I found a deep sentiment to explain it:

“When scripture declares that for everything there is a season, this means that the various circumstances we go through in life are not by incident, but orchestrated or allowed by God with great purpose and intentionality.”

biblestudytools.com

We often talk about “seasons” of life. Chunks of reality when it’s understandable that this or that will take up your time. Retirement. Parenthood. Adolescence. We recently took to tapping our forest for sap. Maple syrup making has a very distinct “season”. The conditions must be just right for the sap to flow. Then the process requires filtering, boiling, refining… all at certain temperatures. As with most things in life, to find the “sweet spot” requires time. I heard that perhaps maple syrup making is more of an “art” than “science”. What happens if you don’t measure temperature to exactly 219 degrees (or whatever…) What happens if we don’t collect when the weather is just right? How do we predict the weather accurately anyway? Our syrup won’t work out, I suspect. If it does, our yield won’t be as good. Nature is always a gamble. That’s why the internet is full of “tips and tricks” on homesteading.

We recently set out to try tapping.

Still, let’s go back to that quote. Only God can see our timelines. We can only see a little “blip” in our reality. We are but dust. We only see specific incidents. Google photos and Facebook remind us of “memories” from this day or that day. Compare it to now, “X” years later. Have we changed? Matured? How many friends have died or left or come in to your lives since then? Technology. Politics. War. The price of groceries. Our physical body and space. Change is constant. Time cannot be saved in a bottle.

God sees the bigger picture. He sees our life as a whole. He orchestrated it. As a whole. As a whole with great purpose and intentionality. If I could plan out my life exactly, or set my kids lives on a piece of cardstock, things would look oh so different. If my mother could have set my life on a piece of index card, I wonder what I would have looked like. God has done just that. He knew us before we were born. He has a plan. He also had a plan, and it was thought through and orchestrated brilliantly. He is working with the dips and divets and dives of nature, allowing for art versus science. Yet His yield is perfection.

His yield is Perfect.

Oh beloveds, is this encouraging to you? I hope it is. Perhaps you are in a season where you simply can’t see a way out. Perhaps you are struggling with not enough time. Perhaps there is too much time to fester in your own self doubts. Perhaps you desperately want to use your time wisely but it is just difficult. Society tells you do this, that, the other thing, and you can’t see the forest for the trees. You’re feeling the time crunch of a season in life. God’s got this. There is a time for everything under the sun. Our little speck of dust has meaning, purpose and intention in God’s agenda book. As for me, I gotta go collect some tree sap. Then maybe a nap, or shave my armpits. Maybe tackle the dishes. Be blessed, my beloveds.

I was Inspired by the Trees

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I was inspired last week. I came up with a great idea and got excited about it. Today, I am not so sure. Story of my life. This is our first spring on #itsnotta farm and I’ve already ordered my seeds for this year’s garden. I can handle that. What else happens in Canadian spring? Maple syrup. Nothing more Canadian than the sticky, sweet sap of a sugar maple wrapped up in a glass bottle with a custom sticker on it, right?! I was inspired last week. The previous owner left buckets and spigots and assured us there were trees in our forest patch. We went looking the other day. We have maples, yes, but do you think we know the first thing about gathering sap and tapping trees?! Google on the hubby’s phone and wikihow didn’t help much either. It’s early February. Days are warm and nights are cool. ”They” say the sap is running. Whoever “they” are. ”They” aren’t helping.

Photo by Matt Barnard on Pexels.com

I was inspired last week. I put out a plea to a local Facebook group for sap mentoring. I sent an email. I inspired someone else in the group to try syrup again this year! I have yet to have help. There’s still time, I tell myself. Just drill a few holes. Spend hours in front of a fire, boiling down sap (that apparently lines the walls in a gooey condensation). Use up firewood and propane. The results will be worth it. It can’t be that hard. I’m still inspired. 

Did you know that trees defy gravity? Huge, round maples, towering out of the ground in multilayered trunks and limbs cannot move, but they do defy gravity. Without boring ya’ll with the science behind tree sap, just know that due to a bunch of root pressure, certain temperatures, and the need for leaf food from root nourishment… sugary sap flows UP. Against the grain. Trees fight gravity and win. (If you really want to know all the gory, science-y details, here’s a good article to read: Maple Syrup Mechanics).

I am always amazed at how God has designed nature to defy the odds and win. Nature in its simplest form declares the Glory of God. Wholly and uniquely. Creativity in the max. I’m still inspired. Hands that flung stars into space, also created the mighty ant who carries up to 50 times its own body weight. Furthermore, so much of that creation was given to us to enjoy! The fruits of the vine. The sugars of the tree. The sun on our faces. The colours of the sky. We should all be inspired.

The crew has been learning to adjust to a new culture here. Things are slower. Things are both good and bad. Things are certainly different. We don’t know anyone. We have no roots here. We have very little history with the people we have met, and we are still trying to maneuver our way around without the comforts of “home”. Some days it feels like we are trying to defy the laws of gravity. Pushing upward in an attempt to feed our souls. Trying to fit in but not really knowing where we belong. We want the sweetness of real friendship but it’s just out of reach. Thus far. Like the maple trees, we need the right conditions to “get things flowing” so to speak. We have to keep trying. We have to be patient and kind and understanding. We hope that those around us do the same for us. 

If there is one thing we can learn from God’s creation it is that we can do hard things. We can be inspired to push onwards and upwards. A friend used to tell me that she could only love certain people because of an “extraterrestrial force”. She meant that only God could give her that unearthly dose of love for that person… she didn’t have it in her own heart. She couldn’t do it on her own. Inspiring. 

I’m still hoping we will tap some trees in our little woods. I’m still hoping we will not be disappointed in the effort and get a few bottles of syrup. I hope we will try to do hard things and be rewarded for our efforts. Because the results are sweet, aren’t they? I’m hoping we get some response to our cries for help. Maybe we have to bite the bullet and just drill a few holes and see what happens. That’s what Youtube is for, right? I’ll keep you posted on that adventure.

Photo by Marta Wave on Pexels.com

As to the rest — pray with us that we take inspiration from the trees and do hard things. We know God grants us the ability to do so. We must continue to plug on through the cold winter season, knowing that soon the spring will come and new life begins to literally flow in our veins. Then we will reap the sweet reward of our labours and enjoy the taste of lasting friendships and new beginnings. I am inspired once more.  

Roots

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Happy New Year, my beloveds! Wow, so much has changed in the last twelve months, and here we are at the beginning of another collection of twelve. Like most people, I try and take the new year as an excuse to reflect, recollect and do a little introspective digging. Instead of resolutions, if you’ve been following along on the blog, you’ll know, that I have chosen a word of the year for the last few years. My word for 2023 was “magic”. It was chosen with the intent of adding a little pizzazz to celebrations. To include decorations, fun, festivity, and go a little “over the top” for friends and family on a more consistent basis. I failed miserably.

Although quite a bit of “magic” happened in 2023: our son got married, we bought a new property, we moved to a new place, some kids flew the coop, and we all had to adjust. There was certainly little time for adding anything extra to moments… I was barely holding on to the bare minimum requirements! As I look back, yeah, I don’t think my magic mantra was adequately applied to the year, as I had hoped. And so I acknowledge that and move on (which is what we do when we reflect, recollect and delve into your persona, right?)

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

So here we are in the middle throws of January already, and another collection of months lie before us, with the possibilities of a new word of the year. Wanna hear it? Drum roll. ”Roots”.

Roots is the word I have chosen for myself for 2024. It’s a complex word, really, with the full definition almost a page long… roots as in part of a plant, roots as an origin, a base, a support, the core of something, or to root about and dig into deeper. What image does it conjure up for you when you hear “roots”? Can you see how it could apply to you in the coming year? (I’d love to hear about it… contact me!)

I got a “sprout” kit for Christmas from the hubby. Essentially it’s a bunch of stacking trays in which to germinate seeds… for eating. Those “microgreens” that appear in all the healthy eating commercials. (I since have learned that microgreens and sprouts are technically different things, but I digress). When a seed germinates, the seed opens up and “sprouts” first… shortly after, the roots appear. The roots are stronger and thicker and provide a support for the plant. It nourishes it and branches out to seek water and food. I’m sure you all are familiar with tree roots and how they support the tree. 

photo via Heartlight

The Mitton crew has moved into a new place. We are just now beginning to meet some new people. Friendships are developing at school, work, and our new church. These are people who are still “sprouts” to us. Tiny friendships full of potential and nutrients, but no support or root development yet. It takes time for roots to grow. I heard somewhere it takes events, or shared experiences to create a history with another person. A root, if you will, that stems growth between the two of you. We have yet to develop those here. Perhaps in 2024, we will.

I’m excited about our big garden space at Itsnotta farm. It was too late to plant when we moved in, so I’ve been dreaming about it. What growth will take place? Will we fail miserably at certain things? Likely. Yet, this is the way we grow figuratively, too! We try, we dream, we reach for the sun, and turn our little heads toward the light and put down strong roots to stabilize and secure us. We seek nutrient rich sources that help us grow and flourish.

What does it mean for me this year? Maybe it means rooting around into things a little. Maybe we will have to dig a little deeper to get to the heart of our relationships. Maybe try things a little differently. Who knows? Eleven and a half months are left before us to get to the “root” of 2024. Won’t you join me on the journey?!