Thursday, October 18, 2007

Out of the Eyrie

I am Mixie, the owner, founder, and head artisan at Raw Dog Leather. I seek a better life than an endless loop of salary and debt, of meaningless work to collect a paycheck. I seek a life where I make my living with my hands and my head and my heart, my ambition and perseverance. A life lived outdoors and at home, instead of in the office.
With a lot of luck, sweat, and the love, support, and unfathomable patience of my husband and partner in all things, we are working towards the following goals.

Self-employment. I decided a long time ago that working for other people was not going to work out for me. Staff meetings and management bureaucracy give me hives. So do busywork and clocking-in and nine-to-five, Monday-through-Friday schedules.

Physical fitness born of a life lived outdoors, of physical labor, of working livestock, and running forest trails and stalking wild things, and not of running endless, mindless hours on a treadmill in a gym.

Home-raised foods. Tying into the goal of sustainable self-employment, we hope to do some small-scale farming, raising 100% pastured heritage breeds of livestock and an organic kitchen garden as well as raw dairy products. We wish to work our land with horse-power on the hoof, instead of horsepower in a tractor. We wish to take responsibility for the lives that feed our own and to stop supporting industrial livestock and dairy production.

Home-raised children. We feel that the human population of our planet is quickly nearing maximum capacity, and that the raising of children should be a very carefully and thoughtfully made choice, that raising children is the most sacred undertaking of our lives. We recognize the necessity for dual family incomes and working parents, and we do not in any way belittle or look down upon parents who work outside the home. That being said, we choose to set the goal of self-employment at home as a benchmark for beginning our family.

Every day is a new adventure, and these are the adventures of a lifetime.
Life is beautiful. Look up sometimes.

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