I spent the summer farming as much as possible, playing hooky from my consulting practice, limiting my volunteer work, squeezing out my writing, and ignoring my housekeeping. It was my fourth summer as the sole farmer on the farm. Finally I felt I perfected every mission critical task and process. I was gung ho to manage [...]
I harvested the last of the asparagus in my former vegetable garden before I turned the cows into the south pasture for the second time this season. It has been a three week streak of me doing farm work in every available hour, and I am feeling smug about my accomplishments. So many seasons past I [...]
I am trying to go with the flow. I thought it would improve my technique to know the origin of the phrase. According to UrbanDictionary.com “go with the flow” was first known to be used by Marcus Aurelius who ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180. I remember my Grandma Best, a lifetime school [...]
A snow storm from the midwest and a rain storm from the Atlantic collided over the farm during the night, and this morning it’s a complete white out. There was no sunrise, just a cross-fade from black to murky grey to silent white. I started morning chores early because the cows and the goats were [...]
The farm is my lava lamp, always in mesmerizing motion. The chickens swish from one side of the yard to another, across the snow, looking for food, hiding from the hawks. The cows and the goats circle the hay feeder, wander over to the water trough, take a lick of salt, head-butt each other, and [...]
Winter is coming. It’s not here yet, but she’s knocking at the door. I have the thermostat in the house set at 60. The upstairs rooms are closed for the season. The heat up there is turned off. I have moved my office to the table in front of the windows beside the wood-burning stove. [...]
When we started farming, one of the things Chet and I realized was how repetitious our life had become. We always wrote notes to ourselves. But on the farm, we found ourselves writing the same notes over and over again. So eventually we wrote permanent notes and kept them handy in the kitchen where they [...]
This morning I found Beatrice, our barn cat, sleeping on top of the pile of last year’s hay in the hay loft. I had to climb up to see her because she was reluctant to climb down with her hurt leg. She purred in my lap and I was so glad to comfort her. I [...]