First Steps...

Hi Folks.  Here we are, making our first post!  It's a little hard to know where to begin, but let's jump in.  A couple years ago, we started a blog to document the development of our small farm, "First Steps Farm."  We realized that rather than simply writing about the farm operations, we wanted to write about the whole lifestyle we are creating around the farm and for our family.  So, this blog is called "First Steps Farm Life."

This blog is basically a journal for us to post all our little steps along the path to a beautiful life and culture for our family.  The idea of "Creating Conscious Culture" is a common theme throughout, and we explain what we mean by this in more detail here.

Although the explanation on the "Conscious Culture" page can sound a bit heavy and heady, we actually intend this blog to be a source of lightness, fun, beauty, inspiration, excitement, positive energy etc... It is not intended to be a dogmatic platform, even if we do occasionally step up on the box to voice an opinion.  We just want to share what we are doing to create a beautiful culture in our own home and community, and since a good thing always becomes better when shared, we want to share it with all who are interested.  If it is truly beautiful, beauty speaks for itself, and we know that others will see it, appreciate it, and want to take part in it.  But we also realize beauty has as many faces as there are people in the world, and although we certainly don't accept an "anything goes" mentality, we make it a goal to stay open to infinite beautiful variations, many of which we can't even imagine.

We will be posting on a variety of topics, all areas of intense love and interest to us. You can expect to see posts on the following topics:

• Food, cooking, and culinary traditions
• Organic Farming, especially small-scale commercial farming as a profession and vocation
• Development of our own farm, First Steps Farm
• Folk music
• Folk Dance, group dancing
• Community, festivals
• Living with the rhythms of nature
• Simple recipes, innovative home kitchen management, Small house living
• Nutrition and healthy diet and lifestyle
• Education, particularly homeschooling
• Family, kids and parenting
• Homemaking and homesteading skills
• Holiday customs and traditions
• How our faith informs our lives
• Environmental stewardship
• Beautiful home decor
• Literature
• Great quotes from good books
• Natural child birth and babies
• Home Gardening
• Raising animals at home
• Beauty as a force for good in the world
• Postive psychology and relationships
• Business as a regenerative force in society
• Cultural and philosophical reflections
• And anything else we happen to be interested in!!