It's funny, this homesteading life. When you decide to do this, before you leave the city, you have these images in your head of tranquility, and peaceful gardens, and pure quiet as you sit listening to only the sounds that nature makes. You have food in abundance, and time as well. Little birdies land on your finger, small animals trail at your heels, and suddenly you can sing really well. Your little country home is tidy and adorable, and filled with the smells of freshly baked bread and homemade pies. Life is serene, beautiful, and oh-so-carefree.
And then spring comes.
Babies, everywhere. Adrenaline, in over-drive. Sleep, grabbed when you just can't keep your eyelids in the open position anymore. Baby goats, baby sheep, baby dogs, baby whatever-you-have, even baby plants that need your care RIGHT NOW. And don't forget the other spring chores; cleaning the barn, cleaning the coop, making repairs to things that suffered in the ice and snow, building new enclosures and fences, maintaining existing gardens as well as cleaning out the old ones and building new ones, making sure the machines that you use (or in my case the machines that someone else uses; one look from me and a machine refuses to go), catch and release all animals for spring de-worming, de-miting, general de-lousing, shearing and grooming, hoof trimming, and after all of that is done you have time to peruse the list of things you WANT to get done.
Cooking? Maybe tomorrow. Cleaning? Let's just say we believe in the Cleaning Fairy.
When I have time to write, there is nothing going on. When there is something happening every day, I don't have time to write!!
I am taking tons of photos and trying to keep notes, so that when I do get to sit for a while, I will be able to write story after story to fill you in on what is happening here, how we are doing it, and the things we are learning on a daily basis. Two and a half years in, and we are still feeling like we have no idea what we are doing. And honestly, some days I wonder if we really CAN live this way, or if we are just dreamy morons who saw a pretty photo in a country life magazine one day and thought "I can do that!!".
We will not give up, and in a couple of months we will feel proud, as things go through the season of growth and into the season of production. We will have time to watch the fireflies, and cook with produce grown by our own hands. We will have time to sit on the porch with family, and tell stories of our new, sometimes chaotic life. A life that is serene, and beautiful, and not so carefree. And I wouldn't go back to the city if you paid me.
And then spring comes.
Babies, everywhere. Adrenaline, in over-drive. Sleep, grabbed when you just can't keep your eyelids in the open position anymore. Baby goats, baby sheep, baby dogs, baby whatever-you-have, even baby plants that need your care RIGHT NOW. And don't forget the other spring chores; cleaning the barn, cleaning the coop, making repairs to things that suffered in the ice and snow, building new enclosures and fences, maintaining existing gardens as well as cleaning out the old ones and building new ones, making sure the machines that you use (or in my case the machines that someone else uses; one look from me and a machine refuses to go), catch and release all animals for spring de-worming, de-miting, general de-lousing, shearing and grooming, hoof trimming, and after all of that is done you have time to peruse the list of things you WANT to get done.
Cooking? Maybe tomorrow. Cleaning? Let's just say we believe in the Cleaning Fairy.
When I have time to write, there is nothing going on. When there is something happening every day, I don't have time to write!!
I am taking tons of photos and trying to keep notes, so that when I do get to sit for a while, I will be able to write story after story to fill you in on what is happening here, how we are doing it, and the things we are learning on a daily basis. Two and a half years in, and we are still feeling like we have no idea what we are doing. And honestly, some days I wonder if we really CAN live this way, or if we are just dreamy morons who saw a pretty photo in a country life magazine one day and thought "I can do that!!".
We will not give up, and in a couple of months we will feel proud, as things go through the season of growth and into the season of production. We will have time to watch the fireflies, and cook with produce grown by our own hands. We will have time to sit on the porch with family, and tell stories of our new, sometimes chaotic life. A life that is serene, and beautiful, and not so carefree. And I wouldn't go back to the city if you paid me.
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