FINDING YOUR VOICE.
Writers often search and struggle for many years to find a voice. This can be an elusive and discouraging process. But I think what gets overlooked in pursuit of "a voice" is what a voice is actually made of.A voice isn't just you in text form. A voice is a combination of experience and education, which is an important point. Writers spend a lot of time searching to hear themselves in their writing, when it is really something that is constructed––birthed even––not found. Finding your voice isn't a thing. Through observation, education and hard work one's voice is made.It starts with borrowing. As a young writer you inhabit Hemingway. You become Fitzgerald. Ditto Faulkner, Twain, Thompson, Saramago.You have your Kerouac stage––we all do. And that's okay. It is part of the pursuit. You take from them what you need to express yourself and leave the rest for others.All the while, you write. You determine what works and does not work for what you're hoping to say. Consciously or unconsciously, you take what you've borrowed from other writers and watch it become you.And you read. A lot. You study the immaculate sentence structure of Don DeLillo and Barbara Kingsolver. You admire Franzen's ability to create humans you feel like you know (and often loathe). Feast on Wendell Berry. Digest with Pollan. And you read your own work aloud to hear what it may sound like in the head of another reader.Then finally, your writing will relax because you accept that you will never find your voice, because your voice isn't hiding. It's living––you've had it all along. It, like soil, just needs your attention to be productive. You will see it, and feed it, and it will grow, but you will never possess it any more than you will possess a garden. It's too alive, too complex, too competitive. Instead, you participate in its creation, cultivate it and hope it does well for you. Work on it, enjoy the process, and it will reward you.Then later, you will begin to farm. And you will translate what you've learned about finding your voice to farming. You will borrow from other farmers––Elliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier, Gene Logsdon, Joel Salatin, Masanobu Fukuoka, Egyptians, Mayans, Incas, Italians, French, Native Americans, Permies, Natural wine makers, and Bugtussle Farm. What applies to you will stick. What doesn't, and doesn't work for your farm, will be left behind. You will read––a lot––and you will work. One day, you will find your farming voice and you will chase it wherever it takes you. That could be permaculture. That could be grain farming. That could part of each or none of either. Because your voice is a living thing. And once it's born, it never stops moving––never, that is, if you don't.-Jesse.
LANGUAGE ARTS.
Further has become very fond of my keyboard and iPad. It's rather maddening. And it's also completely my fault. Since he was young I've let him play with the portable keyboard because he loves to turn the caps lock light on and off (I mean, who doesn't?). Now, however, he's bigger and stronger and just as content to slam the keyboard with his fists, or summon poor Siri on the iPad by holding down the screen button.Am I sad that he's playing with this device so early? A little, yeah. But this is unavoidable to some extent. This device is an important tool for me––one of the only ways this blog exists, in fact––so there's no real way around it for the time being: Further will not own one until he's much older, but he will grow up around this device.At the same time, I like to think he will see how we use it and want to imitate. That is, I hope, whether he wants to be a writer or not, that he will make writing part of his life, or at least––like his papa––part of his routine. And there are other reasons I'm okay with it.We've been teaching Further some (very rudimentary) sign language since he was born. And it has actually been rather effective. He knows the sign for typing, and he'll show it to me when he wants to type, which makes my heart leap a bit. He also has learned the sign for "rain", "again", "more", and his favorite, "milk." Now, they all kind of look the same, but he uses them at the right times, which is a good start. We're communicating, and it blows my mind every time he waves his little hands and asks to type. So naturally, even though it's not the best thing for this valuable piece of equipment, I set him on my lap and watch him slam my keyboard and think, "Man, isn't language something?"- Jesse.
POWER STRUGGLES.
I do the majority of my writing––for this blog, for my book, for the poetry I promise to never force you to read––on an iPad I received as an extremely generous gift a couple years ago. I'm not a gadget guy by any means, but this device, with its exceptional battery power, has been an incomparable tool here on the farm where we don't have electricity. I love my typewriter and notebooks, but with this device, I can write a post (like this one) at home, and upload it to the blog quickly, saving us on the (very valuable) amount of time we have to spend away from the farm. Though even with the respectable battery life, this device still needs charging.As I write this, our truck sits in the shop getting the battery checked (among other non-related fixes). Our car battery is starting to show signs of exhaustion as well. Essentially, we have worn our car batteries down charging our phones and this writing tool, using our vehicles as giant, gas-eating generators. Like it or not, if I want to continue powering this device, I have to face the fact that this device needs power.Since the building of our cabin, electricity has been extremely, perhaps even surprisingly, low on our list of amenities. But it is not within our holistic goals to rely upon, and ultimately waste, loads of batteries either––be they for flashlights, cars, radios or otherwise. For that matter, we truly love the blog and love keeping it up and have no intention of letting up any time soon, but––whether we're talking the wasted car batteries or the time and gas required to take us to town to keep it up every week––we've got to make it sustainable also.Ultimately, our issues with energy have got us thinking a lot more about alternative energy systems––thermal, wind, solar, human––and have perhaps moved electricity up the list a little. We have no intention of hooking into the grid, but we are definitely growing increasingly interested in the idea of employing the wind that hammers our house, the heat that we lose to the sky through our stovepipe, our bodies, the sun or some combination of the four to help us with our literal power struggles, and to utilize these renewable resources to their full potential. There's way too much free energy floating around out there for us, or anyone else, to be at a lack of it.- Jesse.
IDEA FARMING.
Yesterday on the blog we announced that I wrote a book, and I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has purchased it so far or who plans to at the fair. At a time when all our farm has to sell is our ideas––be it the t-shirts or the book––we're greatly appreciative of the support. You're helping to plant our farm, so thank you.Hannah and I will be moving onto the farm in a week. For keeps. I've been really excited about this fact, but knew it meant I would not have much access to electricity––or free time––over the next six months or so. Not enough to finish editing an entire book. So I decided to divide and conquer, starting with the first third––Book One––which is available now through print copy (and hopefully digital soon). Book Two will be available in the fall, completed when I can steal some time and sleep from myself, and Book Three will be ready the following winter. The books are practically complete now, they just need extensive editing which, for Book One, was graciously provided by Erin Breeding of The Breedings. It would not be the same book without her guidance (thank you, Erin!).I would also like to add how inspired I've been lately by the self-publishing world which, just five or so years ago, would have probably been a pretty hilarious thing to say. But now the quality is great, and the options limitless. For writers like me who write books about how natural wine introduced them to vegetable farming, which suddenly turns into a love story, it just makes sense. Especially when the writer then decides they want to release it in three parts. Self-publishing is just more flexible in that way.Thank you again for you support––you all are amazing. If you have any questions about the book, please let me know!- Jesse.