Nina Surya

This year's babies ; three lambs! The eldest, an ewe is here with the mama's. The twin brothers have found new, happy homes.

Dareios Alexandre wrote:Thanks Nina. Yes the northwest coast of Spain is at the top of my list. I have been thinking about France as well. What do you think about the Atlantic Coast, anywhere between Brittany and Hendaye? Are properties more expensive there? Also, what about the bureaucracy in France? Here in Greece it's really bad, and I've heard France is known for having a lot of rules and regulations on what you can and can't do with your land, etc. Is this true, and if so, is France still worth considering?

Hi Dareios,

I'm sorry I have no experience with the Atlantic coast of France.
I'd say France is the inventor of bureaucracy! The machinery LOVES paper, copies, hierarchy etc.
The rules about what you can/cannot do with your land are quite straightforward: land is divided in "agriculture" and "building" land, probably more categories, but when searching for our place I came across only those two categories.

I'd say look into the culture of a land. Does it resonate with you? Give it a go - a vacation or a longer stay if possible (renting first?).

The rules and regulations are unfortunately present all over the world, only different from country to country.
And I have to say, while France is a bureaucratic land, a lot of folks in the countryside are quite decisive about doing what they want with their property and land, regardless of the rules... The revolution-spirit is still strong here. So next to the "official imago" of a country, always also look into the culture of the nation as well.
Good luck!

Dareios Alexandre wrote:
1. I prefer a mild climate...mild winters above freezing , mild summers, with precipitation throughout the year.

2. I have Canadian and EU citizenship, so am looking in these two areas specifically.

3. I eat a plant based diet and want to focus mainly on fruit growing, with food forests, so the climate needs to be at least zone 8 or higher to support a wide range of fruit species.

4. I'm looking for min. 5 acres, close to water and trees, ideally with some elevation, in a rural area but with good access to at least one small city.

Hi Dareios,
Welcome to Permies!
Greetings from the southern tip of the departement Cher in France.
I don´t know if there's a place that fits your criteria - perhaps the Finisterra (end of the pilgrims route to Santiago de Compostela) in NW Spain? I know it rains relatively much there.

Here where I live we have a microclimate with zone 8a-8b.
We've had mild winters with 1-3 days of freezing temperatures. Last year was very rainy and relatively cool, this year has been dry and hot. I find it difficult to say what's "normal" with the weather patterns we're having.
But: we're at 300+ meters elevation, there's lots of water around in the form of natural lakes and ponds, and in our own garden all kinds of fruit have been growing for a loooooooong time, judging by the old orchard (we've been here only for 2,5 years now); grapes, peaches, apples, pears, cherries, plums and I planted a fig tree and an almond tree that are thriving. There are also hazelnuts and walnuts. The soil is mainly clay, with patches of sandy soil in the surrounding areas where the Romans used to plant their vineyards - it's an old and still-going-strong wine region as well here around Chateaumeillant (18370).
Prices are relatively low for France, because it's "in the middle of nowhere", with bigger cities at comfortable distances to do the shopping etc. at.

What an interesting thread!

I'm a spiritual mentor, meaning I help clair-sensory people to better understand, use and enhance their unique gifts.
I also do remote energy healing and energy clearing work.

Shameless self-promotion: you'll find more about the mentoring here and about the healing here .

Maieshe Ljin wrote:This is interesting, and different from magic I have encountered previously.

I read about the practitioner making an intense focusing or prayer upon the sigil. Is that what you do?

Thanks, Maieshe, for the conversation!
I'm not a big fan of rules or guidelines, when possible I prefer to go by intuition.
So what happened here was, the sigil kind of came to me, through increasingly louder signs, until I couldn't ignore it any longer.
I didn't ignore it on purpose either, I was just busy with my daily things when the sigil creation asked for my attention.

The "intense focusing or prayer"-part would be the affirmation the whole thing begins with.
It takes some time to get the wording right, and as compact as possible.
I like it with as few consonants as possible - that saves time and trouble in the sigil creation phase.

I have to say, the longer I walk on this Earth (I'm now 50), the less patience I have with needlessly complex practices.
I like my magic strong, efficient and without frills :)  ...oh, and beautiful, in order to 'colour in' the energy according to my taste - optimistic, positive and with a smooth flow!

Timothy Norton wrote:My roommate in college was a double major in both the Japanese language as well as religion.

Due to this, he spent quite a bit of time learning kanji. Part of his learning involved recreating the characters as well as learning the history behind them.

Some of the writings he made looked like art pieces. While the symbol holds a certain meaning, so did the individual brush strokes in a way.

In other words, there is some depth that can be appreciated on many levels. Your sigils feel like a similar experience.

Thank you!
There's an affirmation, made up of two short (poetic) sentences.
Then all the wovels are 'discarded'. Then every consonant that appears in the wish is used only once in the sigil. The rest is up to the artist.
So, for instance, this sigil has the consonants B, F, G, L, M, N,  P, R, S, T and W arranged within it.

I'm also making use of the little knowledge I have of handwriting and how a person's character/mannerisms can be deciphered from their handwriting.
One can reverse-engineer that and consciously alter one's own handwriting to better our manners.
For instance, I used to be quite daydreamy. To bring myself down to earth, I made a conscious effort to bring my handwriting ON the line - before, it used to float above the line. Sigil magic doesn't make use of a line, but has other tweaks

I have some background in calligraphy, and appreciate the 'negative space', or the emptiness around the mark that has been made.
That might be the connection between this sigil and the kanji characters. Plus, as every artist knows, different directions in 'movement' (vertical, horizontal, diagonal and in which direction) and weight have their energetic character.

So THIS is actually the art and craft behind the 'magick'!

As a teenager I used to do these things just for fun. I learned quickly to reserve it for serious matters only.

Yes, I guess what I'm aiming at is to open a discussion that has been frowned upon for too long.
After my initial post I thought 'duh! I should have mentioned biodynamic farming in my post!'.

The intuitive / energetic (/magickal) realm is right there, all the time if we just want to slow down enough to look deeper.

I know not everyone likes to talk about these matters, but ...I don't like to talk about tractor engines, for instance, and others do.

I'd really love to share stories about how people perhaps include the unseen into their daily(ish) lives.

Hello fellow Permies!

I hope I'm not flying in from a too weird of an angle...but, do you guys do any magick at all?
What I mean is not the performance-on-the-stage kind of magic, but the old ways (and perhaps new), private, real kind of magick.
For me it resides somewhere between art, craft and energywork.

I've discovered sigil magick, and have used it exactly two times in my life now.
The first time just short of three years ago - and right after that my whole life changed. For the better

In a wave of intuitive inspiration I just made my second sigil.

Maieshe Ljin wrote:I
...
So my understanding of sheep and goats, thinking out loud:

Goats tend to be friendly and like exploring whereas sheep…appear to be xenophobic and neophobic.
Both goats and sheep may break out and eat trees, vegetables, and anything else edible, with goats tending towards browsing, and sheep towards grazing.
Goats are less disease prone, sheep more. (My shepherd friend has had some nightmare sheep epidemics.) I am sort of an herbalist.
Some goats have usable fiber. On the other hand, most sheep have usable fiber.
...

Hi Maieshe,
I was looking for grassmowers in animal shape, and first landed kunekune pigs (ERROR, they turned the whole pasture into a ploughed potatofield without the taters, but friendly and great like dogs, but in pig form).
Then Ouessant sheep, because they are 1. small 2.robust = not prone to disease and 3. eat grass, right?
Wrong. Well, they DO eat grass, but I might just as well have gotten goats, because they ALSO eat the bark of my fruit trees, the leaves of any tree they can reach and ... basically anything from the plant kingdom, it seems. They've grazed my fenced-off potatofield (jumped over the fence) and dug up the potatoes with their tiny hooves. Clever things.
They do have nice fleece. And they are super curious and friendly. An ewe that was born here last year actually loves cuddles and scratching behind her ears.
Now I'm inspired to do research on milk sheep...Maybe I could add 1 milk sheep to my flock of 3 Ouessant ewes in the future? (and borrow a Ouessant ram)
Future=over 1 year or more.
Let us know what you decide on!

Thank you all for your input!

Thomas, that is a great idea with the anti-jumping wire&ribbons on higher poles!

I realise in hindsight that fotos are helpful in order to describe the situation.
Our place is 3000m2 in total, and the pasture for the sheep only recently "got invaded" by horsey, who normally would be in the pasture of our neighbors together with his buddy, the donkey, but our horse had some health issues and has been recovering at home.

Our place is an old orchard, so most of the fruit trees are mature, high and some are partially dying of old age.
I've planted a some new trees, they are safe from the beasties behind fencing...for now. If we'd allow grazing all over the place, we'd need to fence those trees in as well. On the pasture I've used wire fencing, but the ram (relocated now) rammed the fencing with poles and all against the trees. The tree trunks are safe from the sheep thanks to the wire fence.  However, the horse reaches much higher than the sheep. At the moment I'm letting things happen as 'natural pruning', but for the next season things need to change.

I'm now thinking perhaps triangular plank fence around each tree - that's a lot of triangles, but then they could roam around I guess. Do chime in with your thoughts, creative thinking is very welcome!

What you see in the photos, taken from our roof terrace, is from left to right the L- or U-shaped sheep pasture with a greenhouse in it (and a pond needing more plants, but sheep). The  sheep pasture extends behind the middle part, right up to the back right corner of the property (orientation as in photos).

In the middle is the fenced-in vegetable garden and to the right is actually a path leading to the back of the property, lined with more fruit trees.
The sheep are at the back of the pasture when I took the photos, so 'in hiding'.

The sheep (& the horse every now and then) graze in the pasture. It has been hot and dry for about two months now.
The chicken can roam everywhere except in the vegetable garden.

So the "Paradise Homestead" situation for us would be:  vegetable garden, greenhouse and fruit trees are off limits for the animals. For the rest they could roam and mingle as they please.