Life has been hopping here on the Farm lately. Monday
we loaded up a couple of cows, and Kent and Hattie
took them to the sale barn. They came home with one
replacement heifer. Next week we're going to try and
sell another two and buy a few more.
That will leave only the Big Bull to be sold. We have
to strategize very carefully to figure out how to get
big boy himself into the trailer and keep all of us
alive at the same time. We are just not set up with
all the pens and chutes that the larger farmers have.
You would think that living on these pastoral acres, as
we do, life would go along, well you know, pastorally.
It just doesn't. From the time the alarm goes off at
5:30am until 11:00 or 12:00 midnight it is rush and
work and fluster and frustration and, well I think you
get the picture. We just don't do a lot of sitting
on the porch in rocking chairs watching the cars drive
by. I wish we would. But there are moments when the
beauty of our surroundings and the wonder of the farm
hit hard. They make memories that last forever.
I had one of those moments yesterday. I was watering
the cows and decided to just stand there and watch the
water fill the troughs. Usually I run in and set the
timer and see how much I can accomplish in the few
minutes between switching the hose from one trough to
the next.
It had been a gorgeous day. One of those lovely 70
degree days that we always get once or twice in February.
The sky was mostly sunny, but clouds were moving in and
it began to lightning far away. Then it began to rain
and I just stepped under a pine tree to stay dry and
watched and listened to the falling rain. It was magical.
After I went in it started to rain in earnest and we had
a hail storm. It lasted for maybe 10 minutes and the
hail was the size of peas.
Then later after dinner there was a louder and longer hail
storm. This time the hail was almost as big as golf balls.
It was exciting!
And even later, after I took my sister home, I got out of
the car and glory-be I heard music. At least it sounded like
music to me. Peepers. At last. And even with the windows
shut I could hear them. It was like rain in the desert. It
was like chocolate cake after a wonderful meal. It was like
seeing someone you loved after being separated for months.
It was glorious!
7 comments:
Suggestion on getting the bull in the trailer. Have the Man of God jump on his back and ride him in. Tell him to trust in the Lord.
That is some incredible hail! We just don't get hail that size over here...
Hmmm...I always wanted to live on a farm, but sounds like there is some actual work involved! heehee
Oh you are making me excited for spring/summer, as if I needed another reason to want school to be over with.
Good advice Steve...maybe I'll let YOU tell the Man of God to do that!
your tail, or tale, of getting the animals loaded triggered a hearing memory, the song from Anne of Avonlea, as Anne & Diana chase Dolly through Mrs. Lind's field!
As for the hail, I've always gotten sick and / or fainted at the first sight of a green sky, ever since my childhood days in Iowa, with the softball sized hail. (does it turn green before hail where you are?)
This is a lovely, lovley post. Beautifully written. The only thing I can say is save it! Thanks for sharing your delightful experience of living in the country. I would not know how it is otherwise. Have a blessed weekend, Laurie.
Leftcoast-it does sometimes turn green before a hailstorm. But it didn't that day. It was just cloudy and really not even very windy.
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