Community Work Day: Preparing the Ground of Health

The expression: “many hands make light work” felt very real during our May Community Work Day at Full Bloom.  I love the experience being together in the garden on these beautiful spring days on the Farm.  There is a bubbling quality to the environment, to the garden that finds its way into our relationships, into our interactions. “Working” in the garden as a community or a family is something so a part of what it means to be human and it has become very rare in modern society, to the detriment of our ecology both inner and outer.  At Full Bloom we are becoming aware of how medicinal it is for our spirits to spend time together outside in the garden, in the forest.  So simple, and practically free.

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As we open Full Bloom to others for healing for inspiration and for learning it becomes increasingly important to not lose track of these simple activities that form the ground of our health as a community.

“Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.” ~Author Unknown

 

Full Bloom got Sheep!

We recently welcomed in some new members to the Full Bloom Community:  8 wonderful sheep.  These sweet animals will be moving through the central area mowing the abundant grass that grows abundantly on the land.  Through just doing what they were born to do (graze) they will be saving us many hours of mowing and weekwacking.

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Full Bloom Sheep on the front lawn of the Farmhouse

There is some sweet joy, some sense of being connected to all the countless generations of farmers who have “sheparded”.  We will be growing our flock over the years as we learn how to best take care of the animals and to integrate them into the landscape.  My goal is to eventually limit mechanical mowing to a bare minimum as it reduces our fossil fuel use and is better for the land to be grazed.

All I know is its more pleasant to hear “Baaaaaa” then the sound of a 2 stroke engine.

 

“Agriculture must mediate between nature and the human community, with ties and obligations in both directions. To farm well requires an elaborate courtesy toward all creatures, animate and inanimate.”  Wendell Berry