bits

non sequitur photo

Prairie Collective, another of my favorite stores in SF is now carrying From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens. and Rare Device restocked them. thank you dear SF store owners Annabelle and Giselle!

currently i'm reading The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball. it's making me want to escape to a farm. somehow i'm able to read about all the trials of farming (about the blood and guts, the extremely taxing and intense manual labor, the cold, the time suck, the death, the pain, the vast practical and particular skills/knowledge required, the unpredictability and instability, the neverendingness, the fact that it's mostly outside {while i'm a homebody}, the fact that one doesn't make money doing it, and on and on) and i'm still able to romanticize it. only because i've never done it. i don't even garden for goodness sake. of course it's that draw of community and closeness to the land and animals and food, the physicality (as opposed to the disembodiment of sitting in front of the computer all day). the sense of rootedness and home. the purpose felt in improving land and contributing to the health of a place.

Kimball and her husband, first generation farmers, are clearly both optimistic, strong, smart, clever, generous and open, and they're good improvisers and really brave people who have a lot of faith. i'm only halfway done, but i can tell you already that the book is inspiring and funny. (there's an auction scene that had me chuckling at many points.) the many unexpected and specific details in Kimball's descriptions of her experiences make the book especially engaging.