full tilt boogie!

Well the shits just hit the fan. What I mean to say is the farm is back to a full run. All but three does have kidded. Right  now we have nine bottle babies, sold four last week. The garden is also a major part of my life now and I'm struggling with flea beetles who are taking out tender broccoli rabe, the boc choi and basically anything with a leaf. So that's been a bit of a set back. We are going to have a great crop of potatoes and on Saturday five of us put out 450 tomato plants.  I'm reminded what a struggle spring is. I love fall and winter growing in Oklahoma. Temperatures fluctuate less, there is just less weather if that makes any sense.

Yesterday afternoon after all the rain we had, the field was so hot and humid. I was struggling with my seeder, one of the does who kidded last was screaming non stop (we had separated the kids the night before) the dogs were barking at any and every little thing and I was also going on very little sleep. One of the down falls of yurt living is you hear everything. I mean there is one inch of fabric and vinyl separating us from the great out doors. Which is fine most of the time, but a screaming goat and pouring rain was a recipe for sleeplessness. But about three O'clock in the afternoon as I bent down for the umpteenth time to adjust the seeder i just came down on my knees. If I was the praying kind I would have prayed  for God to please remove me from this mess. Instead I felt sorry for myself leaned my head against the seeder and remembered back when my life was easy. A 55- 60 hour work week at the restaurant, a steady paycheck, vacations, TV, cable, dinners out, yup that's what I left behind so I could make food come out of the dirt. I didn't cry at least, I just remembered. and thought, I wish I would have realized how easy I had it.

Well I couldn't stay in that place for long, to many things needed my attention. Corn and beans must get planted today and babies will need to be fed soon. So I walked back to the house grabbed my I pod and turned on Tibetan Singing bowls and started mindfully breathing while I planted. It took a good 20 minutes of this to get to a place where I didn't want to pull my hair out or put anyone in "the pot". Evening animal chores went smoothly and I was significantly calmer. Then I looked at the radar, Linda was concerned about storms, so we moved our trucks to safe places and decided to sleep in the cabin so we could at least get some sleep. Well that didn't happen ,so I'm on another day of tired. No major storms or tornado, just rain and the dogs who did not appreciate the little slumber party were having. A nap is in my near future.

Today I continue in earnest mindful breathing, trying not to get overwhelmed with all the work that needs to be done, mostly just keeping things in perspective. A calf was born unexpectedly several days ago.  It would appear that our cows were bred when we bought them. So that's pretty cool. So now we have baby cows.
Life is so good it hurts.