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So this journey into accepting my disability and trying to get the adaptive tech I need to continue farming has been difficult, enlightening, and LOOOOONNNNGGG. I'm not done yet, but thanks to community, I'm well on my way. The gofundme campaign was really successful, and I've got a lot of humble gratitude for the people that keep believing in me and this vision for the Farm.

Usually can't haul a hay bale that far worth a lick without a ton of pain, so being able to move that way, even as my arms get used to the impact, was pretty incredible.

Here for Universally Accessible Farming and all it takes to try and keep trying to implement that here on the land. If yr interested in the kind of wheelchair I'm currently using across uneven surfaces, grass and dirt -- see here. Still trying to figure out how to climb and incline well.

All part of the journey.

KX

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Grasshoppers and filling udders. "Bagging up" I've learned is the term. Better than "fisting" as related to skinning the hide. 🤦🏾

This here is our breeding herd back in early July, right before giving birth.

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Friendly reminder that:

Young people can have arthritis too.

There are hundreds of life long conditions and diseases out there that are typically diagnosed between 12 and 30.

There is a vast difference between being tired and having chronic fatigue.

Just because you can’t tell that someone is unwell from looking at them, doesn’t mean that you should assume that they are ok.

Many chronic illnesses are life long, and incurable. Many of them are potentially fatal.

If you have a disease like Lupus, on good days you still feel like you have a bad flu, 24/7.

Many of the medications used to treat chronic conditions have side effects that can really affect someone’s self esteem - like extreme weight gain, skin changes and hair loss.

Most chronic illnesses have very little awareness - its unlikely that you’ve heard of Sjogren’s Syndrome, Scleroderma, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.

However these diseases can cause symptoms as varied as joint pain, fatigue, constant nausea, kidney failure, pneumonia, photo sensitivity, full body rashes, paralysis, strokes etc.

So please remember that invisible illnesses exist too :)

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"Lean on My Body" by Lil Nas X

So I haven't even begun to dig into an analysis of this song as deeply as I would like to.

This first verse and chorus are epic.

Heavy family connection emphasis which is promoting a different narrative for queers who are coded as and often are separate from their families of origin.

Militant queer, fuck turning the other cheek.

And then a religious aspect harkening back to the Black church with "Lord" and "Amen".

Watching Lil Nas X grow up has been an excellent decade or so.

KX

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HARVESTING SCAPES!

Mid to late June saw our first garlic scapes. Last year, I didn't realize that trimming the scapes encouraged larger bulb growth. Even though i was able to seed from our own garlic, we did not get the yield that we could have gotten.

This year, we hope to see a better harvest, and last year weren't too bad. If this year proves successful enough to produce for us, close community AND the store, we'll be able to treat garlic as a specialty crop in our area.

garlic head,

KX

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sometimes, i make beats.

on occasion, i get to make full trax with vocals and all.

working towards the space to create.

KX

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also "is it chickens laying, roosters fighting, chickens mating, or chickens dying?"

in my neighborhood it's not only "was that a gunshot or a firework" but also "is that my chickens making those horrible noises or the neighbors"

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This is Aio. Aio is a wether that has secured himself as a pet goat where all others have failed. He's not meat. He's not a breeder. He's a nerdy dog with horns.

His dam produces exclusively human oriented sweet goats. We are hoping for a doe out of Pinchi (his mama) when available!

He's also arguably the healthiest animal in our herd. Never shows signs of illness and our buck and does like him so good company for separation purposes. Also a good intro for first timers to handle goats. He stands on the stanchion so well for hoof care. Titan also raises super attached creatures. Aio is our outdoor Penguin lol.

Appreciating the little joys,

KX

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We have been honing our salvage game for sometime now and this has got to be one of the most immediately functional pieces that we've been able to add to the land, for free, from the side of the road.

This beautiful desktop piece had no legs and is only missing one drawer. Titan built in the legs with painstaking measurements, and I decked it out with all of our DIY Veterinary supplies. Because honestly, buying needles and supplements and medicines on yr own dime is a hell of a lot cheaper than a veterinary visit to the farm. And cheaper than losing livestock. Though we do want to try to have a vet visit happen at least once a year if not quarterly.

The craftsman turning barstool work chair we got for $10 at a neighbor's yard sale the first year we moved here. They're flying trump signs now...I haven't been back to a yard sale there since. However, the chair has let me perch and be versatile when I've been on my feet for too long. (Also, the wheelchair is on its way!)

Anyway, super excited about the barn office, veterinary office, and the ISO section is included in here as well.

Feeling a bit more capable, day by day,

KX

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Haven't checked all the links here yet, but solid resource.

We are abolitionists here at Ezili's Respite. My husband has always been far more involved, given his work background in his 20s, and my cousin has been incarcerated since we were about 18. As a Black, crip, queer, transman, my fear of going to prison or getting arrested makes me extremely risk averse; and I've been privileged enough in my life to avoid some of that. Not all of it though. I often feel helpless to affect this system.

Farming and creation of safer space on land for people to avoid, escape, find refuge and sanctuary from constant state-sanctioned violence that often places the most vulnerable of us in the position to be incarcerated, is the only way I know how to impact change.

Glad to have some pathways to continue this work,

KX

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Dope resource shared with me by a fellow goatherd in our sphere.

So, Penguin is far from being a livestock guardian dog (LGD). He's part pittie and some bird hunting dog mix. He's not great at the outdoors either cause he's basically hairless. I love him, but this is not his job lmao.

Nonetheless, the goat's instincts are helping us out as they are not afraid of him, but also not tryna go outside of the boundaries we create when he's with us.

Looking forward to training a LGD with the right drive,

KX

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RIP Andromeda. This guy kicked our asses into fucking gear. We had just finished the office with an isolation space when he came down with scours. Still unclear the issue, maybe coccidiosis which we are now treating in the rest of the herd.

We have goat minerals with some baking soda on the side in case of bloat, we have emergency 911 thick liquid and we have a little bluelyte electrolyte water (goaterade!) I've been in full veterinary mode since he got sick.

He didn't make it, but he taught us a lot.

The goatherd who gave us Andromeda helped us get his body to a hot compost heap in the neighborhood after they helped us skin him. We weren't sure about how he got sick so we were cautious about the meat. We're in the process of preserving his hide now.

No sooner than we handled Dromeda's situation, a little rescue we'd taken in also got sick. Poundcake had always been sickly and she'd been passed over three times on other farms.

This is one of the last pictures of Poundcake I've got. RIP girl.

So, because the day before, we had just learned how to skin and save a hide, we were able to stay up all night after she passed, processing the meat at home.

She's a mini-nubian / boer cross. Boers tend to be a good meat breed and so far she hasn't disappointed. My salvaged off the side of the road charcoal grill/smoker. We've also done leg of goat in a crockpot with white beans and our bucket grown golden oyster mushrooms.

The loss of these two provided us with new protocols, the skills to give sub1 and IM shots to someone other than a guy on testosterone lol, and a lot of meat. I'll miss them.

Below the break, you'll find a few more graphic photos of the butchering process.

I was pleasantly surprised that the bowie I've been carrying around for 8 years is a perfect hunting knife for skinning and cleaning. I do want something sharper for when we actually have to stun and dispatch.

We have been holding off on slaughter because we didn't feel like we had a space. We still haven't quite figured that part out, especially how to fully honor the ritual engagement with the process, but we made due with our garage and the skills taught to us in chicken butchering. We really want to find a way to not just be feeding ourselves this goat, but also others in our community.

We did a thorough investigation of what may have happened to Poundcake and my takeaways were an enlarged liver, enlarged heart, potentially lung issues (pneumonia?) and maybe a miscarriage. The intestines also look a little necrotic? Being able to see the rumen and ribcage was enlightening.

We've been healthy, well-taught, and well-fed by her so gratitude,

Moving forward, carrying the memory and lessons,

KX

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So prepping garden beds is one of the physical farming activities that took me off my feet mid-June (along with trying to deep clean the barn) and something that I would like to continue doing. I'm pretty good with a hoe.

I wear leggings in the summer to keep my muscles warm and to avoid the painful neuropathy that comes for me with bug bites. I discovered this summer that suspenders help to keep pressure off my sciatic nerve -- still getting used to the fit.

Titan does a lot of the bed prep since it takes up a fair amount of my spoons, and because we're doing everything by hand.

We repurposed a cheap greenhouse that we used as a shelter during our Chicken Processing Workshop to try and get Okra-growing conditions. A wind storm knocked that out but it was fun to see how we could have terraced beds within the greenhouse. Hopefully we can secure something that can stand up to the storms on our little hill.

Until then, we'll keep slow and steady, right-sizing as we go along.

KX

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It's St. John's Wort and Yarrow season!

What a delight to be in peak st. johns wort and yarrow flowering season. These medicines have held. us. down., both in body oil and tincture form. St. Johns wort is a potent antiviral and antidepressant. Yarrow is a dependable healer of all assortment of bruises, cuts, aches, and pains. Combined, they're a mighty force.

We have been lovingly observing these plants and harvesting limited amounts from areas where they are growing abundantly and seem pleased to have a haircut. Both plants have been growing strong on the land here season after season. The pollinators are verrrryyy pleased.

Check out the deep red medicine from the st. Johns wort tincture we made last season.... the body oil (olive oil base) has a similar color.

This year, we are experimenting with an alcohol free (vegetable glycerin) tincture, as well as a tincture made with a local 90 proof gin made with local juniper berries and honey we believe will provide additional medicinal benefits.

Excited to tend (and be tended by) these plants and provide this medicine to our community.

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Needed to see this given my developing need for a wheelchair.

"Pride month is over"

WRONG! Your pride month is over! Me and all the other disabled queers are having pride month two: disability edition

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This is a brilliant resource for being on the land, hiking and camping.

Helpful things I've saved over the years

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First mushroom flush from the skill share event we hosted in May. Golden oysters!! Looks like they appreciated the recent heat wave.

It was so much fun bringing these to Khonsu and seeing his joy and excitement today. 💛

Mushrooms are a key food source we are cultivating here at Ezili's Respite. Looking forward to sharing the abundance!