I believe... in wonder women.
Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 6:17PM 
The kids and I made this out of a matchbox a couple years ago.
I'll make this short and sweet; I'm not going to argue that being a Mom is any harder than being a Dad. It's all hard work and it comes with it sweet rewards. Mostly, I am just really appreciative of the wonderful Wonder Women who have influenced me and continue to keep me laughing and smiling.
A shout out to two Wonder Women, Kim and Michelle, who sat with me for two days at our yard sale and made me laugh. We looked at each other's boobs (ok just mine), and told each other some secrets and (of course) talked about our kids incessantly. We enjoyed having fake conversations with some our ruder patrons: "Why don't you want to buy the BLACK Groovy Girl?"... "you'd like to buy that Lilly Pulitzer dress for a quarter?... hmmm... I thing I'd rather rip up the dress and eat it in front of you."
Remember, not all Moms are the women who pushed us out. Some of them don't even have kids of their own. For instance, I have three "Moms" and even though I adore #2, I won't exchange calls with any of them. No big deal, we're just not that close. But today I called Scott's Aunt Joann and I owe another call to my Aunt Annie. Aunt Joann doesn't have kids but for 17 years she has loved our family unconditionally. She always remembers birthdays and always has some kind and practical words when we need them. She's like a Mom to me and Mr. Meathead and a Grandmother to my kids. My Aunt Annie, well she's a character just like me. She has been "mothering" me for 15 years now and I adore her. My best Mom was my Grandmother. She died two days before Piper was born and gave Pipey her personality and blue eyes. On Mother's Day I miss her so much, a golf ball swells up in my throat just thinking about her.
Happy Mother's Day to all my sweet friends and family. And thier friends, and their friends...
Mother's Day, Yard Sales in rant, sweet stories 
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Annie’s Essay/ Love ya Stacey
My faith, like many others, has shifted from faith that is within, to faith in dollars.
If I have enough money in the bank, or gold in my pouch,
I feel secure.
It’s time to shift that thinking.
Faith can be in something else, something we are given as a species, our own ingenuity, and the fact that over the years that our species has been around, we have found ways to propagate and even sometimes thrive.
When humans found themselves on the savannahs of Africa, they used what was there, to build a lifestyle that fed and sheltered them
The Reed People of Iraq based their entire existence on the marshes they have lived in for millennium, it is their currency.
As long as outside, heinous influences, (those who would destroy indigenous and other communities of people who have lived close to the ground for ages) don’t interfere with their small Community and it’s resources, they can and did Thrive.
I have to remind myself that I am connected to the same humans that found ways to grow, share, and preserve food, even in areas that have severe winters and appear to be inhospitable to food production.
We created tools, when we needed them, from rocks and sticks.
We figured out that Fire was useful, and how to make it a tool.
I have to remind myself that I can and should have faith in human ingenuity, based in natural resources that we can replenish!
We have ingenuity in our genes, we simply need to figure out that motivates the ingenuity, is it money, (excessive profit), or a future that will last longer than one or two more generations? Should we be thinking about only this and the next generation, or many more than that?
Can we think that far ahead?
Is that built in to our DNA?, Or, is the need to procreate only built to affect the next generation, and maybe the one after that?
I guess, that Faith can play a role here too,
That I could have Faith that there will be many more generations that will benefit from my good behavior in being a good steward to their future planet, that may be more relevant than leaving them a financial nest-egg. I can have faith that if they do have a way to enlist others by sharing their nest eggs, (meat, money, gold, tools, knowledge, skills), that they will use their ingenuity and behave in a way that is GOOD.
I have to have faith that that will happen, and demonstrate, as best I can what is important.
I, personally, can’t teach, I can show you things, demonstrate, in context, what I mean, even draw a picture, and then maybe get that down on paper for future use by others who watched the demonstration. I can share what I know, borrowed and learned from those who have come before me. I may occasionally have a new twist on an old idea, but it is all built on wisdom from before.
In that vein, I have spent the last 40 years gathering wisdom from many places about how to live gently on this planet, how to provide myself and a few other nearby with food, shelter, and the basic essentials we need to live a healthy and relatively comfortable life.
We all need much less than we think we need, and I am constantly noticing what I DON”T need, it is a way of reducing what I have to scramble to get.
Food is a basic need; we can find, gather and grow what we need nearby if we try.
I have been part of building community of people who grow and eat for a very long time, and along the way have helped build several more communities that can function without me, so that I can move on and help build another.
I spent 20 years in a small town in the Catskill Mountains, Bovina, NY, learning and
gathering wisdom, building a business (Annie’s) that helped local growers produce and sell their products, along with mine. I went on to run a non-profit called CADE, the Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship, helping farms diversify (again).
I have, since then helped build and create an identity for many farms, and am looking forward to getting back to BOVINA where I can fill my own shelves with my version of a 401-K, jars of canned produce, dried foods that were gathered in season, and a nice big woodpile. My sense of security comes from knowing I can stay warm, have something to eat, and be able to share time with others of like mind when I want to.
Rebuilding Community creates a sense of security.
I am amused by the many stories of people who eat and live locally for one year, why not keep it up?
Communities of people who come together can further the Mission we embrace by encouraging others to live, work, eat, share, locally, & regionally.
We are meant to dwell where we eat, it is what our species needs, so let’s keep up the good work, in Italy, and everywhere else in the world too.
landgirls
annie f.
Amen to that, sister! Sometimes the best "moms" around are the ones who aren't moms at all. Unconditional love and support at its very best.