Perfect life? Ahem.

Last week, the whole family picked U-pick raspberries at Cascadian Farm. As we gorged ourselves on the sweet berries while also managing to put a few in the bucket, surrounded by gorgeous mountain views and our laughing children, Steve mused, “I wonder if the people who read your blog think we have a picture perfect life”. I almost choked on a raspberry, laughing.Us, perfect?  I have wondered the same thing though. Do you read about our sweet farming life and do you look at all my beautiful pictures, thinking our life is perfect?

The Sahlin's are posing with our harvest

The reward for picking pounds and pounds of raspberries in the heat

The view from our ice cream eating spot at Cascadian Farm

I asked Steve, “What would you want my readers to know instead?” He answered, “Tell them about the dog poop on the carpet every morning.” (Yes, it's true. Our old dog Pluto is having problems at the moment, and every morning we wake up to dog puke or dog poop quietly stewing on the carpet.) He also said, “Tell them about mucking out the stinky goat barn.”

So you see, our lives aren't all sunshine and playing at the beach, smelling beautiful flowers, and petting little baby goats and chickies. Many mornings, I stumble out of bed into dog poop. Many days, I swear at the laundry that multiplies exponentially while I sleep. I am often too tired to do dishes in the evening, and then I wake up to an awful mess first thing in the morning. I don't even want to tell you about the times when I turn into a psycho with PMS, and how the sound of Steve chewing his dinner the wrong way makes me want to stab him with a fork. Then there are the days when Steve comes home from work, and I meet him at the door crying, because Eva's three year old behavior makes me want to take the credit card and fly to Mexico. Alone.

Where you see pictures of my beautiful roses and my vegetable garden, there was a lot of blood and sweat going on behind the scenes. Where you see pictures of thriving pigs, there were days spent schlepping feed to them in the pouring rain twice a day, and them biting a hole through my boot in return. Where you see cute little baby goats, there was a long night spent in the barn, agonizing about a difficult birth with stillborn goats.

But here's the thing: Writing my blog and taking pictures for it makes me put my life in perspective. It makes me step back a bit, looking at my life objectively, and realizing how damn good it is. Sharing my life with you in this way is like therapy for me, kind of like knitting. It calms down my hyper, production oriented self, and makes me focus on the beauty in my life, taking stock of what's real.

So let me show you the beauty of my life this week, knowing full well that it is not perfect, although it may look like it.

We received 63 little chicks in the mail to be raised as broilers.  We participated in two different birthday parties for our friends' kids.  And we ate a lot of food from our garden.  I spun yarn under the cherry tree, while being bombarded with cherries falling down.

Eva greeting a chick after drinking her blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry goat milk yogurt smoothie.

Eva's best friend Vija celebrating her birthday with us,  Look at these gorgeous (gluten free) cupcakes, decorated with freshly picked huckleberries and rose petals from the garden.

Lots of fun at a birthday party for the neighbors' grand kids.  Every kid gets a present so nobody feels left out.  Eva got a princess dress!

Garlic scapes - the garlic bulbs are almost ready to harvest

The blueberries will ripen soon

Borage growing by the squash

Larkspur and nasturtiums growing by the beets

Eva eating nasturtiums

A squash blossom waiting to do its thing

If you liked the last sun hat I knitted, and you want one for yourself, you can get it here in my Etsy shop.  This one is cream colored and turned out lovely.

Junuary = January in June, waterfalls, and clam digging

It's Junuary here in the Pacific Northwest. No, “Junuary” is not a typo: It's June, but it feels like January... rainy, dark, gloomy, when people drink more coffee (or in my case, eat more chocolate) than usual, trying to get their spirits up. April fooled us with summer weather – we swam in the pond two months ago, stored away our winter sweaters, gave winter the finger. Now, I feel like wanting to light the wood stove because I am cold, and my bones feel damp.

The only day of semi-sunshine was last Saturday, and since Steve had been working non-stop, and I also hadn't seen my sons for a week because of Gramma camp, I dragged us all out on a hike to bond as a family. The boys were pouting at first, because they missed their friends and were completely sleep deprived, but after ten minutes of hiking to the sound of waterfalls, they perked up to their usual delightful selves. I chose a hike famous for its waterfalls and old growth forest. Spending the day immersed in this kind of beauty and immersed in the company of my tribe felt refreshing for all of us.

Eva looks like she has a halo.  The ones of you who know her will laugh at that...

See the spiderweb?

Never ending fun: stacking rocks, and then trying to knock them down by throwing smaller rocks at them.  It's a boy thing.

A few days ago, the male members of our family went clam digging. This expression is a fitting metaphor, I think, because clams and geoducks (pronounced gooeyducks) look like... well... you know... a male member...

When Steve dug geoducks a couple of years ago for the first time ever, and came back with several buckets filled with what looked like giant elephant penises, I just about fainted. I told him then in no uncertain terms that there was NO WAY I would eat these things, no matter how expensive geoducks are in China. There, they sell for as much as $150 per pound. But here, in this sandy, filthy bucket, proudly presented to me by my husband, who had spent hours digging and pulling them out via hard physical labor... $150 per pound be damned, I would not touch these things. Only after Steve had cleaned them, rinsed them and pulled the skin off (shall I tell you about their resemblance to condoms?), did I look up a recipe for clam chowder. After all, Steve had made a huge effort hunting and gathering these bizarre offerings. The least I could do was to honor his manly demonstration of being a provider and cook these things up. The clam chowder turned out delicious.

Talking about providing food: My garden is producing a lot of food right now. Every morning, I harvest a big bowl full of spinach, swiss chard and kale for our breakfast. I then go over to the duck pen, collect their eggs, and scramble them into the greens. No wonder my immune system has been so great lately with all these vitamins and antioxidants! The kids are eager to help harvest our abundant peas.

This is the entrance to the veggie garden.  Blooming clematis and climbing roses.

One last piece of shameless self promotion. I am not very good at marketing my products and services. I am told that I offer great things, but how to get the word out there, and where to sell them? (Let me know if you have any suggestions.) So for now, I will show you my newest offering here, since so many of you commented on the pictures of me wearing my hand knit sun hat. I knit another one and now offer it for sale in my Etsy store here.