Beauty & the Beast

Our Second week on the farm...

Here is a picture of the beauty

and then... the beast

And this is why you wear boots on a farm!  

It rained all day on Monday and when we woke up on Tuesday there was a beautiful, light snowfall that covered all the mud.  

The snow lasted until about 1:00 p.m. and then the mud came back.  But there were still chores to do.  

Alyce is feeding the ducks & chickens!  They do seem to be very hungry.

By 1:00 the snow was gone and we took a walk up the driveway.  There are lots of bogs & streams that run through the property along the driveway.  

Some informative information from the web in case you did not know what a bog is:

A bog is a mire that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens. (wikipedia)

And I had no idea that beavers were the size of dogs.  There are many beaver dams throughout the waterways that move through on either side of the driveway and in the large pond.  They have orange teeth, big claws on their front feet and big web feet in the back.  I read that beavers are second to humans in changing the landscape.  And because Beavers prefer to dam streams in shallow valleys, it becomes a problem for us.  

Needless to say I am learning all sorts of information I never needed to know!  Zac asked if I was afraid of snakes -  that issue of the blog will be coming out in the spring I would imagine!

Telling Time by Rooster and Cream on Top of the Milk

When I was little, I would spend a lot of the summer staying on my Grandma Mouton's farm.  No matter what time I would wake up, she was already awake, sitting on the back porch drinking her coffee.  So I asked her, "grandma, why are you always awake so early?".  She responded..."because the older you get, the more you want to see things."  It made sense at the time, but no  - not really.
Now the age of my Grandmother, I know that wasn't a true answer! - you just don't sleep the way you use to.  I find myself waking up too early and know it isn't time for coffee yet.  Enter the roosters!

So the two roosters here crow two times a morning - 4:30 a.m. & 5:45a.m.   Now I know that if I am awake and hear the first crow, I need to stay in bed - no coffee time yet!  If I fall asleep by some miracle after that and wake up because of the second crow; I know I don't have that much time before the grandkids awake and need to get up for quiet coffee time.  And this leads to the next topic - Cream on top of the milk.

OK...Alyce and I have found that we are no longer have digestive problems when we eat meat or drink milk!!  My son cooks 3 means a day and meat is always in some form.  All the food he prepares is organic and the meat is grass fed vs corn fed.  Evidently, this makes a big difference for Alyce and I.  Our systems must have been reacting to the corn, chemicals, etc in the store-bought meat.  And the cream on the top of the milk doesn't cause me to clear my throat the entire time I am drinking coffee. And....we seem to have a lot more energy with the combination of healthy food and lots of movement in the form of HARD WORK!!  And it has only been 1 week.!!

One week! Oh... and the ducks head out to the pond single file at precisely 8:20 a.m.!

I know it seems I am exaggerating, but these are my thoughts at the end of a day.  We will see how things progress as a week turns into a month.  Because I like to include pictures... here is Alyce on a tractor.

Swept up into the flow - learning a lesson in patience

There is rhythm moving through these days.  There are chickens, duck & children to feed, fences to be mended and built, schooling for 3 different ages and all sorts of learning that has to be done to prepare for the tomorrows.  I am taking small engine repair classes in February along with beekeeping classes.  Alyce is reading building books to prepare for all the building that will be going on.  Elijah, the 7 year old and I are learning guitar.  And finally, there has to be time for morning and evening hugs, book readings and answering lots of questions!

Everything that is done, has lots of help associated with it.   Normally, I would just 'get it done' and be done with it.  But, for instance, yesterday I had my pliers & screwdriver to remove the old rivits on the fence post.  Whereever one goes, so goes 3 children - "let me help".  And because this is a teaching and learning place for us all - PATIENCE is required.  But here is the funny part.  I was struggling with removing the rivits, and Elijah the 7 year old, gets his little hammer and pulls one out immediately!  I, on the other hand, was using several tools - other than a hammer - with no success. Once I started using the large screwdriver and hammer, the job was much easier.  Then, Camille, the 4 year old kept wanting to help also.  So I gave her the large screwdriver.  And don't you know, she actually pulled out 3 of them.  Then Charlie got his own hammer.

What did I learn today???  That when I don't have time limits, I can slow down.  I can take the time...there is no rush.  Truly, I say to myself  "stop" slow down and let the children help.

Our First Night

863. When You are Old

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,.....

William Butler Yeats. b. 1865

Exodus 3 New International Version (NIV)

Moses and the Burning Bush

Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.  

Sacred and holy would imply an experience of heightened awareness of a time & space.  A space that evokes one to stop, look and listen and to take off ones sandals and become aware.  A stopping of the busyness that takes over our lives and we no longer see, hear or smell where we are.  This farm is a holy place, a sacred place where pilgrims have traveled to stop, look and listen again to the earth.  To push aside the frantic pace of life where one looses the capacity to see a sunrise, or hear the birds or...to smell the earth.  The earth is a sacred and holy place and Moses needed a burning bush to get his attention from all his busyness of leading his people out of Egypt.  

We loose our connections sometimes.  We loose our connections to each other and to our surroundings.  And because we sometimes loose our capacity to feel, touch and smell our spouses, our children, our families & friends; a sacred place is a reminder - a bookmark so to speak - to return to God in the midst of the burning bush and to take notice...

Pond behind the barn

January 17th Departure & Arrival Day 1

Day 1

Leaving Atlanta and heading out 7:45 a.m.

It seemed as if the earth was beckoning us with that magnificent sunrise.  We both couldn't believe we were actually leaving, not only Atlanta, but our lives.   It has been along year of many stressful events that weighed us down and now, if felt as if we were emerging from a long tunnel of darkness into that magnificent sunrise.  

And then we were in the mountains of Virginia

4:30 p.m. Arrival!!!