I like projects—all kinds, it seems. As a child, I made up projects related to nature, pets, and reading. These included treasure hunts, raising butterflies, neighborhood pet “shows,” hunting salamanders, or raising orphaned squirrels and raccoons.
I used this creative itch during my teaching career to inspire my students to integrate their interests to improve reading comprehension and math skills.
When I retired from teaching in May 2010, on my 57th birthday, my husband and I purchased eleven acres of rural land in Elberton, Georgia. Jon opened a locksmith shop, and I began a farm—Broad River Pastures, named for the land and its placement near the Broad River. I wanted to raise heritage breeds of animals for meat, eggs, fur, wool, and breeding stock. The fantastic thing is, we did just that! Each day was a new adventure. However, after eight years of constant work and increasingly challenging weather extremes, I was 65 years old. I was slowly losing my sense of smell, struggling with math, finding my words, and experiencing other changes that increased my anxiety. I sensed that I would not continue farming without breaking down my mind and body. I needed to be closer to medical care and to begin practicing self-care.
Of course, the creative projects didn’t stop. To start, we had improvements to make in a one-owner home built in 1990. We changed flooring in multiple rooms, painted walls, added kitchen countertops, rearranged cabinets, bought new appliances, encapsulated the crawlspace, and removed some menacing trees. We brought our farm refrigerators and freezers because they were filled with over 300 pounds of Guinea Hog pork and lard.
What is a Guinea Hog? That is a long story—my first autumn in town, the fall of 2018, I wrote down everything I had learned about the breed for five years and recorded many interviews. I self-published it in March, 2019 in paperback, hardcover, and e-Book formats. For the next year, I worked on my public speaking skills, did some book reading events, and was a frequent podcast guest. What a project that became, and led me to four years of part-time research and writing contracts with The Livestock Conservancy.
For all of December, I’m offering my last few paperback copies of Saving the Guinea Hogs: The Recovery of an American Homestead Breed, for only $18 with free shipping as long as supplies last. Email me at guineahogbooks.com with your address and tell me how you’d like it autographed. I’ll send you an invoice via PayPal. For more information about the book, check out my book trailer.
Thank you for reading Intentional Wisdom and for supporting my writing work. I appreciate it more than you could know.
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