Judith Browning

To work in the world lovingly
means that we are defining
what we will be for,
rather than reacting to
what we are against.

Christina Baldwin
(Writer, spiritual teacher)

We've always lived where a pry bar was a necessity for breaking new ground...for removing rocks at least.  I think a good one might hold up to your strength?

I'm confused as to whether you are trying to dig rocks, tree roots or rhubarb roots as you mention in your last post? maybe all of them?

I think that once the tines bend the first time the metal becomes more pliable and bends easier and easier.

re reading your first post I see you are talking about digging up plant roots.
This is in the forest?

thank you all so much for all of the great suggestions!

I needed that laugh today Tereza!

Jay, those would work and I'm imagining nicely painted in some eye catching colors and just happens my artist cousin is coming to visit in a few weeks.....

nice one Ben!

thank you for such thoughtful posts Nynke!

It is such a weird dilema.

To better describe, we have almost an acre here and it is fenced all around for the past several years.
When we first moved here 10 years ago, the closest neighbor across the street thought he could keep mowing here as he had been while the house was empty....that was the biggest challenge, feelings hurt and was the main reason for the fence (and also fencing out dogs of course).

The front fence is 12' back from the middle of the street...that is the city's verge that they are happy to let us maintain as we like as long as no trees grow there to interfere with the underground water pipes.

The back of the property borders a branch to a creek so no neighbors there and it is fenced..

One side is alley although it is a dead end...our neighbor on that side parks a vehicle in the alley and the city has right of way to a sewer line that runs along the alley.
Our fence on that edge sits back 6' from our actual border but there is shrubbery along the border  and I'm adding more to make it more secure....that mowing was only a problem when someone came and mowed for her to help her out...and did not communicate to her before hand.

the last edge is also a dead end city alley way ending at the branch although since there are no utilities under the back half we mow that, sometimes with a bagger and sometimes let it grow tall and scythe.
We are able to keep a rope across the part we mow but even that has not been enough sometimes.

I think what's at odds here with what I think of as obsessive mowing is that some like to see the grass short all at once so mow as fast as possible as short as possible to meet that criteria...also, some, not all, see that green stuff as the enemy and not a source of garden fertilizer.

I suppose it's good for me to have to work through this to try to understand a bigger picture...I sometimes wonder what would happen if I walked into someones yard and began planting garlic? or sowed flowers? or maybe planted some trees and shrubs that might satisfy my sense of aesthetics?

We are getting better at meeting each situation as it happens though and maybe changing some views along the way.

Vulnerability is not a weakness, a passing indisposition,
or something we can arrange to do without.
Vulnerability is not a choice.
Vulnerability is the underlying, ever-present,
and abiding undercurrent of our natural state.
To run from vulnerability is to run from the essence of our nature.
The attempt to be invulnerable is the vain attempt to become
something we are not, and most especially,
to close off our understanding of the grief of others.
More seriously, in refusing our vulnerability,
we refuse the help needed at every turn of our existence
and immobilize the essential title and conversational foundations of our identity.

David Whyte

I like my pie subscription, not only for the pie perks but also to feel like I'm supporting a movement that is making a slow but sure difference in the world.
Permies is the only forum I parcipate in and have learned so much in the time I've been here.
I love to hear especially of younger generations giving a homesteading lifestyle a go...lightens my world view.....

sweet!
maybe a bluebell?
I haven't seen one in awhile to remember the flower shape.

It is always hard to believe that the courageous step is so close to us,
that it is closer than we ever could imagine, that in fact, we already know what it is,
and that the step is simpler, more radical than we had thought: which is why
we so often prefer the story to be more elaborate, our identities clouded by fear,
the horizon safely in the distance, the essay longer than it needs to be
and the answer safely in the realm of impossibility.

David Whyte
Consolations - Revised edition: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

I've been reading novels mostly from Arkansas's digital library which is surprisingly good.
several Donna Leon (recommended up thread a ways)over the winter.
just finished Louise Penny's most recent 'the Black Wolf'
and a few other mysteries at random....some very good, some not so good so I let them go unfinished.

Elaine Ingram's 'compost tea manual'
and
Shantyboat, a river way of life by Harlan Hubbard
both as PDF so no rush to return them.

Sometimes, you need the ocean light,
and colors you’ve never seen before
painted through an evening sky.

Sometimes you need your God
to be a simple invitation
not a telling word of wisdom.

Sometimes you need only the first shyness
that comes from being shown things
far beyond your understanding,

so that you can fly and become free
by being still and by being still here.

And then there are times you want to be
brought to ground by touch
and touch alone.

To know those arms around you
and to make your home in the world
just by being wanted.

To see eyes looking back at you,
as eyes should see you at last,

seeing you, as you always wanted to be seen,
seeing you, as you yourself
had always wanted to see the world.

David Whyte
Pilgrim