Dear Blog Reader,

I think this is the first time in quite awhile that I haven't told the previous year not to let the door hit its ass on its way out. 2010 wasn't too bad, maybe it was even good. More good than bad happened for our family, by a long shot. There's so much I want to say in this post, but my brain just isn't fitting itself properly around it. When all else fails, try a silly metaphor, right? So, I'd like to summarize this year with the following photo:

Let's allow this humble bobbin of homespun to represent a lot of what has gone on in our home this year. Please, allow me to elaborate.

Well, first, it's just awesome. The fiber is from a little local dyer named Dyeabolical Yarns in St. Louis, near where my mom lives. When I saw this colorway my heart totally melted and I sent my mom one of those "PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE CAN I HAVE THIS FOR CHRISTMAS PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE?!?!" emails. The colorway is called "Little Bo Peep". Sounds like me, right? *snort* But it is awesome. I haven't even plied it yet. I'm calling it my "Yearlong Yarn" since I started it on Dec. 30, 2010, and finished it on Jan. 1, 2011 (at 1:30am).

Anyway, I digress. First, I should refer folks to my post on spinning and my own personal mental state, and point out that I am still happily spinning away. So there's that.

Also, this represents my new job, which I've prattled on and on about elsewhere. A lot of my job is about fiberwork, since we have alpacas, and hence, a sea worth of alpaca fiber. So my homespun often reminds me of my day job, and since my day job is so awesome, that's okay. Some folks here will remember than in January 2009 we were finishing up 9 months of unemployment, and were quite literally one month away from "Uh... I don't know what to do now, actually." I got this job in the middle of that month, and I cried when I accepted. The job has provided monetary and mental stability, which is worth more than a King's ransom. Considering I work for the Sisters of Providence, I cannot help but at least consider that there was a Providential hand in all of this....

The homespun also represents our family's ability to remain true to our values of homemaking and homecare. This is somewhat because my salary is decent, but also because our lifestyle is much more frugal than most, and because I have a husband that is willing to buck accepted social norms in order to stay home and learn how to manage our household, which is not easy. I am more blessed than I have any reason to deserve to have a husband like Brian. Not just blessed--straight up lucky. Becoming a homemaker is hard for a woman in our society, but at least it's still socially acceptable. A man as a homemaker is becoming more common, but still isn't considered appropriate. It is so bizarre to me how much we have devalued the most important of careers--home & family care, teaching, farming. It's insane. But screw society. Having one adult at home, at least part time (by preference, full time) has always been important to us, and we're lucky to be able to keep to this value, no matter what anyone else thinks. Oh, and ginseng. Never underestimate the value of ginseng in a family with depressed individuals--seriously.

And also on the homemaking front, let's not forget the chickens, and our expanding ability to be more self-reliant. Now, we don't delude ourselves that we'll be able to become fully self-sufficient on our little under-1/10-acre lot, and frankly I don't even think that this is desirable. I would vastly prefer working together with my neighbors to create a more self-reliant neighborhood, and working with local businesses to create a more self-reliant community. But we can live as much of the values as we can, and get better and better about it as we go. We can be one of the families that helps others see how a different, slower, lower-energy life could look, and that really it's pretty cool. AND, to that end, we will hopefully be scheduling an Urban Chicken Open House this spring! Woo-hoo! (My husband said it was okay--really!)

One of the frustrating things this year has been the relative lack of progress on starting our local foods co-op. We continue to grow in membership, but we are not bringing in the investments and member loans we need to really get off the ground. But we have an amazing team of leaders who, somehow, remain dedicated to this, and a membership that is being patient and forgiving and, hopefully, will soon begin to really step up and make our store a reality.

There's just so much else to say, but no way I could fit it all in here. I didn't even come close to finishing the "To Do 2010" list, since most of 2010 was spent adjusting to our new lifestyle. But hope springs eternal (as my boss loves to say), so I will rename that list "To Do 2011" and maybe even add a few things to it. I've got posts rolling around in my head already for the upcoming year. I hope you'll stick around, and share your wisdom with me whenever you can. Y'all have been invaluable to me, and I wish each of you the best of New Years, with prosperity and happiness in everything you do.

Sincerely,
Robyn

Why my spinning is nothing more than an indulgence

I've taken up a new hobby, yarn spinning. I have to admit, I'm very infatuated with this so far. I've borrowed a wheel from a friend in exchange for giving her knitting lessons. (Okay, two quick points: first, who in the world has an extra spinning wheel? And second, who has an extra spinning wheel who doesn't know how to knit?! I couldn't make this stuff up.) Anyway, so I've spun up a couple of bats worth of fiber, and I must say that, so far, I believe it is identifiably yarn. Probably overtwisted, and I have not yet attempted to "set the twist"--an arcane process by which I repeatedly dunk my handspun into hot water, apparently until it confesses that it is a witch, and then beat it repeatedly until it recants. I will also be attempting to "ply" this yarn, which means twisting it together with another batch of yarn in ways that I'm sure would make Rick Warren squirm. This comes before the Witch Trials.

For all that, I really love the process of spinning. It reminds me in a way of nursing a baby. "Um, it does?" you say, "Er, perhaps you're doing it wrong?" Bear with me, this makes sense. The health benefits of nursing cannot be overstated, although no doubt many people have tried, but there's another benefit to it that gets overlooked--the psychological benefit of just sitting with your newborn and feeding her. I don't care how expert a nurser one is, for the first few weeks after delivery it is all but impossible to nurse a baby and do anything else--even read a book. And you know what? That is A-Okay by me. In fact, I think that's one of the sneakier successes of our evolution--forcing new mothers to just sit and be with her new baby, letting her body heal and the bond between herself and the baby develop. Nursing a newborn is a very demanding task--both parties are often learning what they're doing, and newborns are somewhat lacking in coordination. Your focus must be almost all on the task at hand.

And so with spinning. You cannot "spin and X" in my (incredibly limited) experience. Okay, maybe you can spin and watch TV, but really, that's about it. If the other diversion besides spinning is not simply shoveling entertainment straight into your gob with no additional effort on your part (like TV), then you just can't do it while spinning. Both hands are needed, and at least one foot. All of these parts have to be doing different tasks (holding the batting, drafting the batting out, and "treadling" the wheel--spinning it with the foot peddle). It's sort of like a more complicated version of patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. And the batting has to be drafted out properly--you actually have to be looking at it (or at least, I actually have to be looking at it). Your focus is very pulled in to the vortex of the spinning wheel, the rhythmic repetitive motion of treadle-treadle-treadle, pinch-pull-slide-pinch-pull-slide... It's calming, it's meditative, and it involves your whole being, top to bottom, brain to foot.

Sadly, what it does not do in any significant sense is further my adaptation goals. "Hunh?! But it's like the most back-to-earth, no-power, *gasp gasp* anything that you can do!" True, it is, and I've no doubt that when power becomes scarce, I'll be glad that it's something I can do without electricity (although only during the daylight). But if I'm being honest, in my current adaptation trajectory, it really isn't very practical. I mean, for one thing, I don't own any sheep, alpacas, mohair or angora rabbits, or any other spin-worthy hair-producing animals (except, possibly, my husband). From whence do I plan to getteth my batting, my grease wool, my hanks of fiber? Because while there are plenty of alpacas in this area (middle-midwest, go figure?), you'd better believe that their owners all have their own wheels. My services will not be immediately called upon in times of economic and/or energy hardship to spin wool for anyone. I won't be able to barter this skill for much, because this skill isn't worth much in my area. We have plentiful stocks of yarn around, and frankly, plentiful stocks of clothes too. No one will need handspun wool, they'll need to learn how to cook lentils! Maybe, many many years from now, knowing how to handspin will be a real boon to my family, but for now, and in the immediate future? Not so much.

So why am I doing it? Because it's fun! Because it's a delightful, meditative, low-energy activity that I feel good about doing. I like what I make, even if it won't save my family--so what? Balance in all things. Many, maybe even most, of what I do during the day is ultimately aimed at trying to adjust our lives to a new future. But not everything. And in fairness, there is a sense in which it will be helpful to have more no-power things to do in the future, so it's not like it's off the charts on the adaptation scale. It's an indulgence that I'm enjoying, but one that should be kept in perspective. It's not gonna keep my family in clothes or food in the future.

Now, on to installing the kitty door and learning to use my jigsaw! Updates on the new-heating regimen forthcoming.