A week of hummingbird diet (low fiber, low fat, frequent small feedings) plus imodium has given me a new lease on life. I'd forgotten what it was like to be able to think straight!

A trip to the gastroenterologist has confirmed that I'm on the right track. If I can keep my current regularity while weaning myself off the imodium, I can slowly ease myself back onto my beloved vegetables over the next few weeks.

That said, I'm not planning on diving right back into the daily grind. As Mark points out, the beauty of an independent homesteading lifestyle is that you can change your schedule to give your body the rest it needs.

Biological causes aside, I strongly believe I brought this entire episode on myself by getting stressed out this summer and then pushing through farm and business tasks that could jolly well have waited until I healed.

Yes, the farm won't be as perfect if I keep to my current schedule of only working half time (and not even that if my bowels complain). But what's the point of living on a perfect homestead if I'm too sick to enjoy it? Hopefully I won't forget this important lesson when my dreams get bigger than my muscles and I'm once again tempted to take on too much.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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