Two days ago, I dared to leave my homestead to spend the night at a friend's house. One night... Just one night I gave myself some time to stop working on this. I came back to find cows had entered the garden.
They stormed in leaving a trail of fallen plants, stomped sprouts, as well as lots and lots of shit.
The saddest part is that they ravaged most of the kale/brussel/cabbage flowers that were pretty much near the point of seeding. Those seeds were my biggest project as they would be adapted to this land and weather. I wanted to distribute them to other people, as well as allow them to find their place in this ecosystem.
See how the amount of flowers was greatly reduced? Al least some managed to stay on their feet.
Most of the radishes were pulled from the ground and left there. Cows have a very strange way of acting as they tear plants apart without even eating them. The flowers I mentioned before were also just cut off and left on the ground.
Baby lettuces just torn out, pure senseless destruction.
When I arrived to see this it was raining, to add dramatism to the scene you know. It was a devastating sight and the first thought was just to kill myself. That all my work was for nothing, that I was a fool for thinking it was possible to live in a different way, that everything was meant to be destroyed. But it doesn't help to take away one's life because... reincarnation. So I thought of just leaving and to stop worrying about stuff, "have nothing, lose nothing", was an appealing suggestion.
After the whole depressive moment I started fixing what could be fixed, and realized that much had survived the attack. Much had been lost, but much had survived. So it was the question to myself: "will you focus on the losses or on what remains?" And of course the better choice was to see all that still could be saved and cared for.
I picked up all the torn radishes, flowers, and leaves and brought them in. I selected the bigger radishes to save them for salad and all the small ones, along with flowers and leaves went to making ferments.
To make the ferments I just put them in jars with salt and water. Then I put some stones on the top to weight down the plant material so that it doesn't float on top of the water and start to rot.
The bigger stems of the plants went back into the soil as sometimes they can root again and breed new plants. The plants that already had seedpods I left hanging where they could receive sunlight and perhaps complete their process.
Despite how painful this episode was, I still believe in this. Perhaps not in the naive way it is pictured everywhere. I've no doubt there will be more challenges. It should be illustrated how much work this all means, not just the pretty peaceful images shown everywhere. Doing this is just as hard and demanding as any path in life. The good thing is that those bright peaceful days do exist from time to time, and they are worth all the struggle.
After all, resilience is a necessary feat to develop no matter which way you go. Challenges are for everyone and it will always be a matter of how you decide to confront them.
These are troubled times all over the planet, with many floods and other natural disasters. No doubt it our doing as we've upset the balance with our actions. I truly hope we can wake up before it's too late. Start improving our relationship with nature and each other.
Have a good day!