An Update from the Farm

I haven’t written anything in a while. Perhaps you noticed.

It isn’t just with you. I haven’t written anything in my personal life either. I think perhaps I needed time to simply dwell within my own new existence. I needed to live my life without reporting on it or shaping it for the ears of others.

Perhaps I did not yet have the words for this life I now live, one that feels in some ways like a completely different life from the one I had before.

But this morning I woke up with joy and gratitude and decided it was time for an update.

It was time to let you know about this little life on the farm.

Perhaps the most jarring change in my life is that my body has started to adjust to farmer time, which I despise. I wake up at 6:30am thinking I have slept in, while the spirit of my 20s groans with frustration that I can no longer seem to sleep until 9am. 

We have just planted alfalfa on the field next to our house, so I am greatly anticipating a true change of scenery from my windows! I have not been a fan of the field of dirt that has been there since I moved in, but must be understanding of soil health and crop rotation, even if I don’t like it. Soon there will be a field of green with little purple flowers and my soul will find even more peace in my surroundings.

I did survive the chicken massacre of 2020, along with 4 of my 16 baby chicks. A family of raccoons invaded the coop in the dark of night and bit off the heads of my sweet babies, leaving just their limp bodies for me to find when I went to check on them in the morning. I joke about it now, but for this previously traumatized body, I lost my mind a bit when I found them. Sweet Jeff was the rock who held me while I wept for my sweet tiny chickens and he alone cleaned out the coop and buried them for me (imagine, a farmer burying baby chicks in a box in a grave for his wife. If you know anything about farmers, you know that is true love!). I was emotionally exhausted that day and still fear my farm animals dying, but I am also learning that life is not always dire and depressing.

The bright side of that story is that our farm dog (not Gidget) killed a few of the raccoons that night (sweet vengeance!!) and my four remaining young chickens are doing great. Cinderella and George are wary of the new chicken gang in town, but they are learning to adjust.

We have planted a vegetable garden that specializes in tiny harvests. It isn’t on purpose. In fact, we are just really bad at gardening. 

We got some tiny potatoes, one onion, five almonds, and a LOT of zucchini. One thing we can grow is squash. I love working with the dirt and planting and eating our own harvest. It is weirdly centering to sit in a bunch of cow manure and plant tiny carrot plants. That is another great improvement. I handle cow manure without complaint and kill bugs like its my job. I really have become quite the pioneer out here!

Marriage to Jeff is a dream. I am not lying when I say it is so easy. We have the normal growing pains of learning to live together, communicate, and understand each other’s needs, but compared to my last experience, marriage to Jeff is sweet heaven. He is my soulmate and I have never been treated so kindly in all of my life.

I suppose all of this is to say, that I am doing wonderfully. I still get cranky sometimes that we live in New Mexico (my least favorite state), but I am so grateful for the homestead that Jeff has built and cultivated, for our local friends that we love and cherish, and for a life of safety and peace. 

What a storm my life was for a while there. What a beautiful calm it is now.

And perhaps this is the beginning of a new season of writing. I hope you will join me. It may not be as full of exciting ups and downs, sorrows and triumphs as it was before. But it will be good, I can guarantee that. It will be good. 

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