More Filbert-Processing, Taking a Step Back, Run Warm or Run Cold? Blogging Pace

Hi everyone - Happy October! First day that we're not in '30 days of self-love' - but let's keep it coming.

I showed the filbert (aka hazelnut) cracking setup yesterday - will share the next stage in the process today.

Today was the first since we've been here that the sun hasn't come out. I'm freezing! Disappointed. Meanwhile, Phil and his mom, who are too hot if it's over 60 degrees, are breathing sighs of relief. 

Do you run hot or cold? Do you have a partner who runs at a very different temperature? Leaving Alaska always reminds me of how uncomfortable Phil is when it's warm. 

I also have found myself sucked into the busy-ness of being on a farm at harvest-time. And still doing my regular work on the computer. Yesterday, I was feeling sick to my stomach all day too, and by the time I got home from doing my internet stuff, I was fried and barely coherent! Obviously, I'd forgotten to ask myself that important question, "What are you going to do to rest today?" This tells me that I need to slow down, take a step back, take more down time, and just let things go.

Here we are at the dining room table, with a bucket of nuts that have been through the cracker. We spread them out on the table...

Pick through them, discard wormy ones,

And end up with a beautiful bowl of nuts to dry, and a whole bunch of worms, shells, etc, that will be burned in the woodstove.

And yes, I am wearing my jacket in the house. Phil's mom likes it _cool_ and it really never gets warm in there. I'm very happy to be there, but I have to be warm!

I have blogged every day for over a month now, and it's time to re-evaluate. It was a great commitment for the 30 days of self love experience. But I think that in general, just for me, every day might be slightly to high a frequency. I am a writer, and it's so important to me to have time for my deep creative writing projects. I'm so busy with everything else, and sometimes I think that if I didn't blog every single day, but four or five times a week instead, I'd be more likely to make the time to do my own writing, which is essential to my sanity!

Plus, I've been pushing myself too hard and need to take a step back. So, I am not promising I _won't_ post tomorrow - still so many farm photos and stories to share - but I'm not going to insist to myself that I must do so. Once I'm working at the computer, it's so easy to multitask and fill up every second for too long until I'm fried, and I need to take a step back from that too. Any sound advice?

love to all.

30th Day of Self-Love Reflections - Worth - Where Now - More from the Farm

Happy Thursday everyone! Running a little late here but reveling in the bright colors of sunshine and of the food around here! After I wrote my post yesterday, I had this for lunch:

They look like olives, but they're purple tomatillos from the farm, with a big tomato, some avo slices, some kimchee I bought at the co-op, and a shaking of oil/vinegar/vegan parmesan from their condiments bar. It was yummy!

Today, my tummy's feeling sick, though. All day. Not sure what it is - I sure miss my green smoothies. I guess tomatoes have been my staple since I got here, and I'm not sure how well I do with them. I didn't eat much today, drank a lot of water. Brought some of these made-at-home-pre-trip no- (or very low) sugar bars with me when I came to town to work - (a picture from home):

I want to share the rest of the filbert-cracking story. Oh, btw, for those who aren't familiar with it: filberts are a cultivated variety of hazelnuts! So it's nothing that exotic really.

First, a few words on Self-Love. This is day 30! I really hope that I'll continue to be able to bring the question "am I being loving to myself?" to mind so fluently for many more days after this. It has felt a bit like a marathon, blogging every single day, sometimes not doing my own writing because I was doing this 30-day commitment, but the 'marathon' has also been a wonderful inculcation. It has definitely encouraged me to keep this at the front of my mind.

During these posts, I have focused on appreciating what I have, how gifted I am, but have also not been able to duck away from acknowledging the ways in which I undermine myself or am not loving toward myself. It's not always a pretty picture, but it certainly repays acknowledgement. I'm especially heartened by how these 30 days of reflections have brought self-love closer to the front of my mind, reminded me to embody it whenever I can, for the best of myself and of everyone else.

Going forth, I can't say it better than Tina: "Live so you may love yourself. And then love yourself more, so you may live more." To which I would add: "And so that you can love others truly and authentically, and as your best self."

More words on this to come in future posts, no doubt.

For now, I'll share some more about the filberts/hazelnuts.

When I got home from town yesterday, I headed out to the filbert orchard:

There are filberts all over the ground, making the gray jays and raccoons very happy!

I picked a bucketful (which doesn't happen as fast as you can say that! It's quite time-consuming and back-breaking) and took it into the basement, where the next stage of processing takes place.  You can see uncracked filberts on the left, and a box of cracked-open filberts on the ground:

You fill the hopper with filberts, plug it into the electricity...

and the roller in the cracker squashes them as they come out the other end. Sometimes it gets a bit slow, and then you can adjust it with a wrench (tricky, turn off first!) or just tamp with an old drumstick

And then, you take them all upstairs and sit around picking the nuts out of the shells, rejecting the worm-eaten ones, setting the worms to race, etc...