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If you don’t personally know me, then this post is going to seem a little odd, mostly because if you read this blog you may have been under the impression that I’ve always loved gardening, and the myriad other tasks related to homesteading, even at the level we’re doing it, but you’d be wrong. Despite my acknowledging that I view at least some of these tasks as activity of veneration for my gods, I view all of them as chores, necessary activities that come with the lifestyle we’ve chosen here. We all have tasks like that, whether it’s as mundane as taking our the trash or not so mundane as driving your chosen livestock to the slaughter-house and taking delivery of a bunch of processed meat products. We also all have priorities for all the things that can take up time in our day like our jobs, families, friends, television, and yes, those chores.

One of the activities that is rather high on my priority list is using my computer to maintain websites, write blogs, and design new graphics and embroideries to sell, and read the news. I've always equated "working" with sitting in front of my computer. My computer has been a close friend of mine for decades, ever since I first sat down in front of the blinking cursor of the family Commodore 64 all those years ago. I've not ever been without a computer since then, and since about 1991, I’ve never been without access to some form of “internet” or “email”, even if they were FIDO and bulletin boards at the start. I’ve seen the potential benefits of being able to earn a living with my computer almost from the start, it’s a very powerful tool. Today, however, I was faced with a brand new experience, one that I did not ever foresee being part of who I am. Today, I wanted to be outside, doing all the labor, sweating, lifting, moving. and all the rest of it. instead of being in front of the computer writing, designing or anything else. So I went outside.

Many contemporary Pagans use some form of the Wheel of the Year to mark the Sabbats, the eight times of ritual celebration usually determined by the sun's procession, and the general seasons we experience. At least, that's what I was always led to believe during much of my training with different groups and traditions. Solstice and equinox mark the quarters of the wheel, and the midpoint between covers the "cross quarters". The odd thing is that we rarely actually do what we're saying we're doing here.

When I want optimum yield from my garden, I feed the soil with composted vegetable matter, old manure and yummy organic fertilizers.

When I am hungry, I make myself something healthy and/or delicious because I know this machine doesn’t run without fuel.

Living on our Pagan homestead, one of the things I've come to appreciate more than ever before is the changing of the seasons, and witnessing it on such an intimate level. I've only been able to discover this deeper exposure to it since our "Exodus". Well, it's no secret that the seasons are changing now that we're half way through August. The days are getting shorter, but what I notice more is that the morning shadows cover my gardens later each week. Also, some plants are beginning to die back, after having served their purpose and finally giving into the brutal drought we're experiencing.

It's been a few years since I left "the world of work" and embarked upon this journey with my wife. So many friends tried to talk us out of it, and some even stopped calling or coming by; many called us crazy, some called us brave. I guess it's not every day someone you know announces they're going to leave a good paying job, and the city, along with all its amenities, and move hundreds of miles away to start living a simpler life involving growing their own food, self-employment and getting back in touch with nature and their gods. Now that I think back, it was a crazy thing to do, but that's exactly what my wife and did.