Category Archives: Uncategorized

Lovely. Wonderful.

Goodness gracious,  it has been a long time. Who knows..I may get out my idea list and soldier on to a nice long run like I did a few years back.  Just remember that I have not taken any grammar, phonics, syntax, spelling or what not classes since we last met.

As we continue to mosey down this road of farm life  many  emotions come to mind that will make me feel better if I share.  I feel the need to vent in an effort to stay  sane.    Doing the same thing  over and over again expecting  different results.   Would be insanity.

That would be me.

Living on this farm forces me to face my fears on a daily basis.  And I keep going back for more against my better judgement.

Every single time I walk in the woods with our crazy Gracie Coonhound, I fear that I will get caught in the crossfire with she and a wild critter.  I become tangled in a triangle of fury with Gracie and coyotes.  Or deer.  Or opossum.  Or snakes.   Kinda on a regular basis.

Our season has just transitioned from calm and safe to  woolly , furry and deadly.   Winter, for me, is a sigh and a breath of rest.  I can see where I am walking in the woods and the bare trees allow me a better view of what is ahead.  The snakes have kindly gone to where I dare not venture.   That makes me feel emotionally healthy.

I need to share.  Thank you.

I am frightened.

This Spring has brought me the knowledge of  Big Blue who lives directly outside my front door.   How on God’s green earth can I live like this?  Instead of running inside like I shoulda and woulda a few years back, I go to the back porch and bring two rocking chairs to the front porch and park myself about 6 ft. from his perch?  Really?  Did I just do that?

This afternoon, Mr. Shady  called me from our garden and announced that a  glob the size of a basketball was stuck to a branch of my apple tree in the orchard.  I drove down with my camera and got within scary close range to a glob ( swarm)  of bees so that I could capture a photo for the eyes of the curious. What?

If I had my wits about me at all or if I knew myself at all I should be locked in the meat locker in the  basement.   If I had one.  Instead I wake up daily in this woolly, furry and deadly season, wrap my body from head to toe in white cloth so that the ticks wont suck me dry and put one foot in front of the other and out the door I go.  On guard.   Someone has to milk those chickens.  Did I mention I have Lyme Disease?

For you who know me, you are probably asking why,  sweet Karen, why?  I don’t know why.  I cannot imagine living another way.  Maybe I need things messy.  Maybe I need things uncertain. Maybe I need things unpredictable.   Maybe I want to be so  immersed in the willy nillyness of God’s creation that I  am willing to live among the scary and the woolly.  Who knows. It’s easy to  get my head around it when I realize that many people live with bigger snakes than I.  Bigger bears than I.  Bigger tigers than I.  Bigger problems than I.  That puts things in perspective.  Thank Goodness.

I am thrilled to be here.  Thanks for letting me speak some words.

Peace,

Karen

I read somewhere recently that the evolution of  punctuation in the English language is  “evolveing” into something dfferent and we may just do away with commas.  And the period is gone haywire.  Like in my title.  For someone who doesn’t have mature writing skills, comma, this sits fine with me.

And…….. well……. hello there.

I live.

It has been 14 months since my last visit to The Shieling.  As I recall, I paused because of a life time big mosaic project I was working on.  I was overwhelmed.  I completed that project in August and have contemplated picking my blog back up ever since.  I am humbled by the requests to begin again.  Thank you very much for your votes of confidence.   Even from English majors for goodness sakes.

LIfe has certainly happened in the last 14 months for you and me.  It is amazing.  And life involves the good, the bad and the ugly.

I will try to give you a quick wrap.

1. Little Roger Brown, June, and Ruthie, our baby 2-year-old goats, went to live at a friend’s house.  We still have the two mommies.  You might recall the Roger Brown video a few short days after he was born.  We have new animals and their shenanigans. All for a near future post.

2.  Holy cow.  I finished my project.  My mind (and my body) totally atrophied over the 16 months. Truly it did.  Imagine standing in one place for a year and a half putting a tiny puzzle together.    But I still think that it was a huge blessing to have been a part of such a great project.

3.  Can you travel too much?  I did this year.  I think I was experiencing some serious withdrawal from setting up house here for several years.  Saw amazing people, places and things. And was very excited about touring 4 major national art museums in the US of A.  Wow.  The inspiration was astounding.  Not sure what to do with it.  The last trip we went on though, I felt a pang of homesickness as we were loading the car to GO on the trip.  That tells me it is high time for a very quiet year home making babies….of the animal sort.   Traveling is a privilege and not to be taken for granted.  Easy does it for me going forward.

4. One travel detail especially worth noting….We traveled to Italy last Christmas.  We took all the kids and had a BALL.   Time with the special people in my life is the best and most important thing I can do with my time.

Chat with Pope Francis on Christmas morning.

Amalfi Coast

Important points of view to note.

5.  I started a Bible study in my home for the first time since we moved down here into these here hills.  Feels REALLY good to be back in the Word on a routine basis.

6.   We finished the last “phase” of our farm/retreat build out.  We turned the stall space  of our barn into a retreat lodge for family/friend gatherings.  And to lend it out to folks wanting a space to hold retreats.

The Shieling Retreat Lodge

It has been very busy here since the “grand opening”.  LOVE  seeing people come and renew the Spirit within them.

So many good things.  We have nothing to complain about.  We have so much love in our family. And  friendships that leave me in awe.

But it is not without trials, challenges and sometimes some down right tragic life events. This year has held a few of those too.

This year my family has been feeling the ache of cancer.  It is hard and I am aware that it touches all of us any more.  We are getting good results with treatment and we continue to pray for health.

This year my family lost my 26-year-old nephew and his 2-year-old son to a house fire.  The thought  is unfathomable to me.  It just begs for one word. Why?    After nine months I had difficulty knowing for sure that Jim was not going to be the first to drive up our drive for the Christmas gathering as he always does/did.  Do we ever really understand death?  Especially when it takes the lives of 2 people who had so much life to live?

The fire was caused by pinched electric cords.  ugh.  As we might…..look for a blessing in incomprehensible situations…..The blessing here is that Jim was able to donate 4 of his organs and saved the life of 4 people.  Wow.   Jim and Baby Andy are in Heaven.  That is a blessing to me.  Anyone getting to spend eternity in heaven is one lucky guy.

And that is life.  The good.  The bad.  The ugly.

We gear up for another year.  I cannot imagine what it will hold.  I just pray that whatever it holds for each one of us,  we  choose to hold the hand  of God and let Him guide us as we meander the forest of life. Cause there are some boogeymans out there.

Peace,

Karen

From the birds and the bees, of course.

I am sure you have noticed the flurry of activity out and about these past few weeks.   It is amazing all that I notice when I have camera in hand.  I suppose when I have an intention of capturing the miracles, I take in more.    The baby birds are blowing my little mind.  We have all these little miniature birdies flying around.  Cardinals.  Blue Jays.  Finches.  Bluebirds.  Color flying about.  The story I watched unfold the other day was amusing.  Two young cardinals at the feeder.  Where are they born anyway?  We have cozy bird houses for the Bluebirds.  Where are these little fellas cracking open?

Love, love these beauties.   Then along comes a young Blue Jay.   Some what intimidating to the Cardinals.  Blue Jays can be nasty.  I saw an unbelievable sight last year before I  got shutter happy.  On about three to four limbs out my window, I counted no less than 10 very young Blue Jays all together.   It was crazy.  Birdie, Birdie,  where does your nest lie?

The Cardinals moved back a little,  but felt comfortable with their new friend sharing.  THEN, the hoodlums arrived.

Our Guinea hens always spoil the fun.  I was just changing my lens to a zoom to really get close to the birds when these guys show up.    Shame on them.

I waited.  One of the Cardinals waited.

Grew tired of waiting and went about my schooling. We headed down to the apple orchard.   We means me and my four-legged goons that are joined at my hip.

Our apple trees are 5 years old and we have never had a bloom on them, which means no apples thus far.  This year?

The area was swarming with bees.  I hear that is a great sign.  Pollination.  Yeah.  That would mean that we will have the opportunity to grow and kill our apples this year.  Research tells me there is no such thing as an organic apple from Indiana.  And we ain’t spraying.  So, will we be enjoying crunchy flavors this summer and fall?  To be determined.

Bee in flight

Total miracle to me.  

We ventured back up to the Shieling, checked on the Bluebird boxes.  3 have bluebird activity.  1 has mice activity.   One box had very very hungry babies calling to Mama.

Busy learning day.  Lots of livin’ going on.  And I’m sure if I looked harder,  I would see all the exciting snake living going on but I choose not to look down often unless I got my high-powered boots on.

Have a super day.

God bless,

Karen

Art is as different as the individual.

When we think of mosaics,  we think of  table tops, mirror frames.  Or at the opposite end of the spectrum, we think of the beautiful mosaics on the ceilings of the cathedrals in Europe.  I, of course, wouldn’t know anything about the cathedrals since I have never touched the soil of that wonderful continent.   But my curiosity is itching more by the day.   The art of mosaic is an art form  dating back to 3000 BC.   The materials used are widely varied but in the far-reaching history, tiles and glass were the most commonly used.

My fascination with mosaics began by studying the Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi.  He modernized mosaics in the late 19th- 1920’s.  He incorporated mosaic into many of his designs giving them a modern and funky twist.

Tallest church in the world designed and constructed by Gaudi until his death in 1926. It is still under construction. Mosaic is used in many areas of the church including the top of each spire.

Mosaics have become an important part of my work in the past 7 or 8 years.  I have attended the National Mosaic Conference 3 or 4 times in the last 10 years, with the last one being a few weeks ago.  There are mosaic artists from all over the world that attend and the work that is displayed is stunning.  Please enjoy the selected few from the exhibit.

Kate Jessup

Sophie Drouin

Rachel Sager-Lynch

Ilana Shafir

Yulia Hanansen

Eileen Gay

Marian Shapiro

Jo Braun

Gerry Lavery

Lynn Chinn

The sky is the limit in creative design AND materials used in mosaics.  It is a wonderful medium that anyone can find enjoyment in.

Glad you stopped by.

God bless,

Karen

I had a discussion with someone the last few days about the comment I made on the last post about reflecting upon what my pastor had said comparing the Boston tragedy to  the number of souls lost to abortions.   This person felt that I had taken a hard left turn and it was wrong.   This person was right.  If I wanted to speak about the  number of babies lost to abortions, then I should have made  a separate post and not made a comparison or used the Boston bombing a platform to dive.  It diminished the magnitude of the tragedy at hand.    It came across as insensitive and  uncaring.  Which is totally not true.  I  care deeply and grieve heavily for the people involved in last weeks bombing.  Including the perpetrators.

The comment my pastor made  struck me and just stayed with me.  Right or wrong, I shared it.  I am not a political person.  I don’t understand politics as I should.  My comments weren’t targeted for pro-choicers, pro- lifers, rights or lefts.  My concern was the mere number of babies that we lose and no matter where we stand politically, no one wants to hear or have to feel the reality of it.  I was/ am feeling the reality of it.   It affects all of us no matter where we stand.

My heart feels heavy for not mourning the death and the injured  within the context of my blog appropriately.   A “hard left turn” is not ever my intention.  But it came out that way at least to one person.  And for that, I am greatly sorry.

God bless,

Karen