More than one way to slice a carrot

Tonight, Willa and I were cooking dinner. Duck stir fry to be exact. Willa was cooking and I was doing some of the slicing.

We discovered she slices her carrots differently than I do. She learned how to slice carrots from a Chinese cookbook and from watching a Chinese cook. I learned from a Japanese Hawaiian. The object was the same--to get those nice diagonal slices without slicing your hand. But we did it two different ways.

That's part of community life, discovering that you do something differently, but it comes out just as nice.

Mostly, though, it's about being allowed to do it your way, and trusted with the result.

On another note, winter is coming, but fall sure has been nice. It was a lovely day today. Clear sky with a few wispy high clouds. Bright sunlight and no wind to lend warmth to afternoon. We were outside most of the afternoon. How beautiful it was.

This year we are much better set up for winter than we were last year. We have more hay stored, we have our grain storage in a better place and we have fewer steps to take to get our chores done. Better lighting as well and a shorter hose--so we don't have to walk so far to drain it. Like we did last year.

There are fewer weeds than last year and the new western pasture didn't turn into a muddy mess during this last rainstorm. Which is what the eastern pasture used to do. So the horses are more comfortable and that makes them happier.

All that work we've done for the last year has paid off. And once again we are reminded.

Little by little you cross the ocean.