WE NEED SOME STINKIN' BADGES

If any of you are fans of Mary Jane's Farm magazine, you are probably already familiar with her Farmgirl Sisterhood. But, did you know that Sisters can even earn Merit Badges? For those of you who aren't familiar, the Sisterhood is not a group of women who own farms, though some of them do. It's about having the farmgirl spirit, regardless of where you live, and could just as easily be called the Good Life Sisterhood. It's a group of women who, like me, may have gone through life feeling terribly out of step with our consumer culture, but who have finally found the company of many like-minded, can-do-spirited women.

Once you have joined the Sisterhood, you can begin to connect with others on their forum, and if you choose to, you can begin to earn Merit Badges. Badges come in all different categories - Kitchen, Craft and Needlework, Going Green, Gardening - you name it, there's a badge for it, and each badge has different levels of expertise. Once you complete the steps for a specific badge, you send in a photo of your project (I believe) and they send you the artwork for your specific octagonal-shaped badge, which you can then ink or embroider, and connect to form a pillow or quilt, or apply to a tote bag, apron or jacket - whatever your little heart desires.

Reading through their list of badge titles, such as Connecting Growers & Eaters, Farmgirl Gratitude, Farmgirl Shutterbugs, Homespun Christmas, Know Your Food, Self-Sufficiency, Grow Where You're Planted, and Backyard Farmer, got me to thinkin', about all the many things I have done and ways in which I have grown since moving here to the Hill Country. Sometimes it seems overwhelming, thinking of all I have yet to learn, and I fear I'm just not progressing fast enough. But, once I started making a list of some of the baby steps I have already taken, well, I was quite overcome! Here are a few of the things I came up with:

• Learning to cook from scratch, using real food.
• Helping to form The Bountiful Sprout, which connects growers and eaters.
• Trying new foods, like kohlrabi, kale, and arugula.
• Making my Christmas presents for the last two years.
• Learning to take decent photos for my blog.
• Learning to draw enough to do my little To-Do Lists, and being brave enough to put them out there for all the world to see.
• Learning to knit.
• Installing our water catchment system, and taking the steps necessary to make it last through summer dry spells.
• Making my own laundry soap for the past year.
• Using less plastic in my kitchen, and more repurposed glassware.
• Growing some of our food.
• Learning what's in season when, and grown or produced in this general vicinity.
• Going to the library more, and buying new books less.
• Going on a hunt for wild morel mushrooms when they were in season.
• Making gnocchi from scratch, pickling okra, and freezing fresh peaches when they were in season.
• Enlisting the aid of Fly Lady to help me conquer the CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) in my home.

What about you? Won't you please share with us one or two of the baby steps you have taken in your quest for The Good Life, so that we can award ourselves with honorary merit badges?