Can't fit it into a box, Can't label it, Can't trademark it.

    I  don't like labels or the labeling of people,life never fits into one box. I don't believe in living inside of a box either,how dull and constricting. And after 321 blog postings about my life it looks like summing up what we do into a neat paragraph is just not possible.
   When I started writing my blog I gave it and us the label of  Urban/ Suburban Homesteading/Homesteaders,it did not feel quiet right putting a label on our way of life but I did it.Why did I do it then? I did it so other like minded people out there in the world could find us, like a little beacon softly shinning, calling quietly "We are over here. Come visit us for a while.Let's share what we know.Let's learn how to do this together." So I could say "Oh dang,don't do this" like I wrote about waaay back in early blogging days about the failing of our Hay Bale Garden Beds.
   I can actually remember realizing that there are other people out there in the world doing what we do and that this movement was called "Urban Homesteading" Wow,I thought that was kind of cool.No one was doing it exactly the same way but we were all doing it under our own terms,just like my forefathers did.
   But underneath the sticky glue label of my life style lives the heart of things, I am simply living the standard my Grandparents and Parents set for me a long while ago. Be self sufficient, make,build, create,feed the hungry,be a steward of our home The Earth and think for yourself. You can't trademark my family culture or my moral beliefs,they are to complex to sum up in a paragraph written upon a legal document.As everyone knows each family is unique just like the DNA that courses through our blood lines.
  I have written in the past that we are not living this life to be part of a movement or trend,that it is simply how we live and I still stand tall next to that.I don't have to live with a label stuck to my lapel.I can support the need to end this trademark issue because well...it is ridiculous.Ridiculous like a temper tantrum, loud,offensive and short lived.But as parents know playing into a temper tantrum only  makes it worse,one needs to wait and look for a really clear shot so you can be swift and just.
  Here at Hrafinstaad we have and use a saying "Don't choose a side,Be a side."  What dose that mean? It means we are over here doing our thing,join in if you want,add something to what is going on but leave your hang ups,baggage and B.S at the door.So that is where you find us, at Hrafinstaad doing what ever we are currently doing,living by a long standing moral code and waiting to see the clear shot at swift justice.
 
   I started this post with the hopes to get it out by last Mondays call to Urban Homesteaders to blog about their lives and since being late is my current trend I got it out late.But I did do it. And until there is something really pressing this is my last posting about the trademark issue.
  Today is a Snow Day,no work or school. I have lived in the Portland area all of my life and have never seen it snow this late into the winter,so glad I have not planted any of my earliest seeds yet. I am baking today,partly because I was already planning on it and it will make the house nice and cozy. I am baking a carrot cake that I have been craving for the last week and since we are out of bread that will be baked as well.

Rois