On the introspection of summer and the word wild.

It’s a calm time of the year. There is always a small pause between haying and harvest. It’s a time to breath in the hot air of summer and relish in the pause between busy and play in the river. The sheep are out to graze and farm chores are at a minimum. August is a busy month with harvest, county fair, and preparing for the coming winter. But mid-July? The epitome of the dog days of summer. This gives me quiet space to let the existential part of my brain roam and wonder.

wild wisdom wool morning sheep time — Morning time with the sheep.

Wild is a word that has been with me for many years and through many incarnations of my internet presence. But wild words don’t always flow for me, or sometimes they flow but then fill me with imposter syndrome because other words are more wild, somehow more beautiful, than mine. I will feel wild, but then remember I am a school bus driver (yes, that rumor is actually true). I feel wild but then remember that my hair is (usually) combed. I know from outside optics our farm is located in the middle of nowhere, yet for us it’s the middle of somewhere. Maybe feral is a better word.

regenerative field notes sheep grazing — Happy grazing Mossygoat sheep as viewed from our neighbor’s hay farm. Do you see the smiley face?

I strongly considered putting my writing on Substack this week. This would give me the freedom to talk about what I would like to without feeling constrained that I have to be on topic. These field notes are born from that. Mossygoat Farm was reinvented to Wild Wisdom Wool Pellet Co. to represent the fundamental changes we have gone through. But change is not insular as we have changed as people as well. We are the farm and we are real humans writing real words without AI. Wild Wisdom Wool Pellet Co. is not a brand, we are not an aesthetic, we are real people with real sheep, and our product has real results. I want to rely on the word real. This week I got scammed with buying an AI pattern on Etsy and thankfully I figured it out before I cut the fabric but the whole process was very disheartening. I actually didn’t know that AI patterns with an official Etsy scam yet here we are. This is combined with my ongoing and ever continuing frustration with how fake and curated Instagram has become. I don’t think Substack is the answer.

wild wisdom wool pellet co sheep with spots — The Cuteness with his cuteness spilling out to the other side of the fence.

These field notes will be a way for people to connect with us as real people. We are not just a website with another product for sale. We live the values the preach. We also are more than just sheep and our farm. I want to publish field notes weekly, but I know I will never be able to uphold to that because life is busy sometimes. I will put what I have been musing about (today it’s the word wild), as well as what we have been up to and what nature is doing in our little corner of the world. And, of course, pictures from the farm and our life and I want to note that we never use filters or photoshop.

I will ponder more on the word wild in the future but in the meantime, the wild plums are ready for harvest and I leave you with this question, if a wild plum is planted in an orchard, is it still wild?

Time to make plum jelly. :)