adventure?

As I collected the photos for the “after the family left” blog, I wondered if the whole farm life thing was getting boring.  I mean, we plant in the ugly garden, some stuff grows, some stuff (a lot of stuff) doesn’t.  We have goats, they are really cute, but it’s hard to show that in a photo.  We will surely be running fence FOREVER, and that has surely lost its luster for me.  Trimming hooves – routine now

I do love watching the whole thing take shape, and like seeing how far these city farmers have come in the last year or so – but, I was having a hard time getting inspired to write.  Then – well, the unexpected . . .

Candice and I worked hard this morning cleaning the boys stall.  I’m pretty sure that is the STINKIEST stall I have ever been in – EVER!  It was finally overcast enough that barn work didn’t seem too daunting.  80 degrees just seemed so much better for that task than 96.  So we worked and managed to get 2/3rds of the yuck out of the barn before it started pouring the rain.

Currently, there is one riding lawnmower with a cart behind sitting full of stink in the alleyway of the barn.  The stall is clean, but the barn still reeks!  The goats are pretty sure we have left all of that stuff there for them to entertain themselves by playing an incessant game of “king of the hill”.  It’s not like they were going outside anyway in the deluge.

So satisfied with our progress and hard work, Candice and I headed down the hill – not minding the pouring rain one bit.  We were headed in to shower anyway.

That was at 1:15.  By 1:30 I had showered and was laying down to rest while Candice showered off the barn life and took her normal form of beautiful, citified, teenager.  It was raining, but we were welcoming that rain!  By 2pm when we ready to head out the door, the yard looked like this:

I was relieved to find the bridge still intact 20 minutes later when we were able to drive across and make our meeting time a little bit late.  We were a little surprised by the amount of water that came crashing through Curvy Creek Farm, but once the water went down, we went on about our day – getting the city girl to some off-the-farm friends!

After a second round of pounding rain, Farmer man came home to this:

So, whatever else we had planned for the next few weeks – the main plan NOW has to be getting the bridge to the barn rebuilt.  David, thankfully, can jump the divide and care for the goats.  I think we have some ideas for a temporary foot bridge.  But, the lawnmower full of stink really needs to get out of the barn and up to the garden.  That’s not going to happen for a bit.  Oh, the challenges of farm life!

We have had some brighter spots to our last few weeks.  I have enjoyed being able to watch from a safe distance as the grandkids played around and acted crazy with Farmer man.

I have had a handful of peas out of the garden, there are a few more tomato plants than I thought, we have squash growing nicely, some things are actually growing and Farmer man ran the weedeater for me so I could find what I planted on purpose.

I have even eaten Romaine lettuce and spinach fresh off the plants in the porch planters.

There always seem to be blessings tucked in between the challenges.  Little things that remind me that God loves me even when life gets a little bit too adventurous.  I had the opportunity to chat with a neighbor as we watched the water running down the road.  She too had been a suburban girl that was introduced to farming a little later in her life.  Her insight – “You learn, you get used to it – I love it now”.  Now to get ready for those calves that are to be arriving per truck any day now!