Monday, January 9, 2012

Putting the farm to bed

Everyone on the farm is put to bed except the farmers. The wood stove in the yurt has been loaded with the evenings wood and the oil lamps lit. The goats have been milked and now lay piled on a bed of hay just outside the barn. The sheep are shut up safely in the upper barn and the chickens sit quietly on their roost in the hen house. The pullets are in their house down for the night and the cows are in the east pasture eating off the round bale of hay I put out on Friday, or was that Thursday? I can just see their black silhouettes against the low giant orange moon. Back in the distance I see three llama heads rising out of the pasture like serpents out of  black waters. The farm is quiet now. Everyone is fed, everyone is safe. Exhale.

I wouldn't go so far to say it was a bad day. I would say it was a good day but I'm under the weather so I'm not seeing things as I normally would. These things happen occasionally, the seasons cold. It's hard not to feel sorry for myself when I feel this way but then after a minute its just ridiculous and I just accept I have a cold so just shut up I love you, drink some tea and later you can lie in bed and read and indulge in the 80 degrees your able to get the stove a cranking if you so wish. and I do. This is a true luxury that comes with cutting and heating with your own wood. When we used a propane heater we kept it at a chilly 63. Nice when your dead asleep actually preferably, but sometimes I want to feel like I'm in a warm bath. That's just me.

My little brush with self pity happened at chore time when a tired me got her foot stuck in the electronet fence while tending to the chickens. I tripped, I fell, hit my knee on the chicken water can that I was filling landed on my face, there were broken eggs and happy chickens willing to clean up and me tired, frustrated and just not wanting to feel the pain in my knee and shin. So I cried. Cried good too. and for a while. Its funny crying, you get hurt you might cry a little maybe, but usually if you do its cause other stuff is going on. Well once I started crying I found that I had all sorts of things to cry about. Starving children, abandon animals, war, and how could I serve others when I cant even serve myself so on, you get the point. But then the tears stopped I limped to the house, washed the saved eggs and wished for a cold beer.

This is just what happened. Now the farm is quiet the moon is so incredibly bright. I've got a shiner on my knee I'll need to ice but I'm off to the warm yurt where I'll bask in the soft glow and eat a healing soup, a huge glass of ice cold water, three vit C tablets 3 advil, read and fall into a deep restful slumber.