I realize a lot of my posts lately are centered around how difficult it has been to stay on top of the garden or keep up with the chickens or find a way to move the cows out to pasture. I’d be lying if I told you that running the farm while working a full-time job quarantined at home, taking care of an infant and keeping up with multiple old gigs wasn’t overwhelming. Are you kidding me? I’m in the deep end.
That being said – the farm really isn’t all that bad, it’s just hard work. Look at this big picture, for example. It’s stunning. The sun sets over our backyard and it looks exactly like something out of a dreamy RomCom. We essentially live in a park – and it’s gorgeous. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.
But look toward the right side of the shot…under the tree. See the side-by-side? That’s there because I had just spent the evening trimming trees. By hand. With trimmers. Have you ever considered who maintains the parks you love to be in? Who spends hours mowing and planting and trimming and primping them to perfection for your enjoyment?
Well, if you own the park – it’s you. That’s us.
I love and enjoy much about what is around us here. That doesn’t make it easy, it just makes it worth it.
One of the most rewarding things that’s happened lately has been to prepare dinner for Isai tonight. He has green beans and edamame from our very own garden. We grew these. We planted them. We watered them. We might have weeded them at one point, maybe. But we grew them, picked them and cooked them.
I’m so, so grateful he’ll have this experience growing up here. I’m so grateful he’ll know real food, organic food and how it comes into existence. I’m so grateful that he will have the survival skills and innate ability to do exactly this for himself and his family someday.
Maybe he’ll reinvent the way it’s done. Maybe he’ll make the process better and stronger. And – with any luck – easier.