Friday, May 3, 2013

What do you see?

I took this picture yesterday and as I looked at it evoked a lot of thoughts.

The first thoughts were of all the work that needed to be done now that it is early May.
1. Finish tilling the garden.
2. Seed things like beans, corn, squash.
3. Put up all the fences that we use to support tomatoes and peppers.  Unfortunately you can't see all the livestock panels that I use for that because they are hidden in the TALL grass.
4. Cut bamboo for bean trellises.
5. Mow the TALL grass, remembering to move the panels so I don't run over them which also reminds me my mower battery is kaput so I need a new one.
6. Change the oil in my ATV since the "change oil" light came on.
7. Get the the fencing put up that is peeking out of that tall grass in the foreground.  Fortunately I am hiring someone to do that this year.  We just cannot handle those 330-foot rolls on the steep hills anymore.
8.  Start spreading the two huge piles of mulch that are in the garden around the broccoli and onions.
9. String the electric fence around the garden now that the livestock panel-chicken wire barricade is up except it needs a few more finishing touches like attaching it firmly to the posts.
10.  Clean the scrap lumber (from our old house that we remodeled) out of the barn loft so it can be used for hay storage now that I have a larger goat herd.  Create an opening for a hay elevator and find a hay elevator.

As I gazed at the photo a bit longer I also saw something else.
1. The sweet shrub and lilac are blooming near the house and I inhale the lilac's sweet scent as I pass near it throughout the day.
2. The lovely pale shades of green of the trees as they leaf out contrasting with the dark green of the grass.
3.  All the great strolls in the woods I have taken these last couple of weeks watching spring unfold.
4. All the work that has been completed already this spring (the garden fence comes to mind the most).
5. My tractor.  I love my tractor.  It hauls things I cannot carry, it mows my meadows and brush where I don't want brush to grow, and it tills our garden. My tractor also reminds me of my 50th birthday with family and friends.  It was my present from my husband.
6. Most of all I see that this is our farm that we have worked so hard to build over the last 16 years or so and the satisfication I feel knowing that when we provide for it and it provides for us.

4 comments:

  1. It's good to stop and smell the lilacs every once in a while.

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  2. So true, you need to step back every now and then and appreciate what you've done. You have a lovely farm there Shelley!

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  3. Your farm is beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

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