To accompany their recent Hart of Dixie inspired Sage Words, The Farmer and Princess Nikita decided to follow their instincts and team their homemade crumbly, chocolatey, delectable  Kiwi treat (don’t any of you Aussies try claiming this one) afghans with something of a party favourite in these here parts: a packet of rashuns. Apparently, this made the “colours pop”…and they were on special when they made their traditional pre-Sage dash to the supermarket for supplies.

Happily, this following of instincts had no consequences other than spawning a new Homestead law making it a mandatory pairing henceforth. Horrendously coloured and additive heavy they may be, but they are also the perfect salty accompaniment to a chocolate and butter heavy morsel or three. And don’t they look pretty together on our posh cake plate?!

Taking a chance; following your instincts; going with your gut. General round-the-table, crumb scattering, coffee/hot chocolate slurping conversation agreed that this sort of behaviour is not that difficult. Once you’re in touch with your intuition, all it takes is a little fine tuning to work out just what course you’re plotting and why you’re changing course in the first place…and you’re away. The tricky bit is accepting any consequences as part of the ride. 

Take our current Homestead family viewing for an example. We have a practise of spending that post dinner, pre Farmer-heading-off-to-work hour in companionable TV watching. Sadly, the Great British Bake Off archives are only available to us Monday to Friday leaving the weekend a baron wasteland. There’s only so many Tinkerbell movies (somehow Tinks appeals to every Homesteader) you can watch before desperation sets in which goes a way to explaining our discovery (thanks On Demand) of Hart of Dixie. We find it funny, entertaining, and we care about the characters. Often morning coffee break is spent pondering the latest Zoe/Wade/Levon/Lemon/George/etc drama but their bed-hopping ways have led to some interesting dinnertime question and answer sessions. But hey, if the consequence of happy hour en famille is yet more conversation, who’s going to complain!

Choosing this Homesteading lifestyle comes with a veritable plethora of repercussions. To close that permaculture circle just a crack more the decision was made to become goat herds. 

Goats are awesome. They are intelligent and funny, they munch through a great many things that would otherwise wallow in the worm farm for millennia, turning it into amazing plant food, and their milk and the resultant cheese is a delicacy you just can’t buy here.

But to get the milk the goats must have babies, a yearly hoo-hah that has featured often in these missives. Getting rid of the kids is always a worry and this years gorgeous blokes relocation proved to be a huge undertaking. The first gentleman, when D(eparture) Day arrived, disappeared in the figurative puff of smoke and a literal unresponsive cell phone number. The second buyers had a goat-excluding family crisis they took a week to tell us of, and the third had their decision overturned by their spouse. Hooray for Alice and Vinnie from the West Coast who drove three hours to load Geraldine’s last ever kids into the back of their blanket and duvet stuffed Toyota sedan. This consequence may have been avoided by insisting on a sizeable deposit when interest was expressed, but then the kids wouldn’t have ended up exactly where they were meant to be: hanging out with the sort of people that drive three hours each way to add them to their menagerie.

Animals also get sick. That’s one big, heart wrenching consequence of having them in your life. Geraldine has been off-colour for a while now and the reason became obvious just as the first sale fell over. An internal abscess in the right side of her udder finally burst, both relieving her pain and ending her years as Primary Homestead Milk Supply in one gory but easily remedied (Thanks Steve the Vet) moment.

We have in place a No Passengers on the Homestead ruling. Pah! Geraldine will continue residency as paddock matriarch. We’re following our instincts, caught up in the moment. The consequences will be dealt with as they unfold.