I've been here 4 days short of a month. These are the things I've learned or am in the process of learning.
1. To be aware of which way a knife closes.
2. To be aware of what a plant looks like when it needs more water.
3. How to hoe a long long trench even when I think I can't.
4. To always reach under the chicken coop, even in the dark, because for some strange reason the two silky chickens ALWAYS want to sleep there instead of in the coop.
5. I can stick a goat's leg between my calf and knee while I milk and she'll stop fighting--but it wont stop her from putting her leg in the milk bucket anyway.
6. It is possible to put in too much alfalfa amendment for lettuce.
7. Which goats are getting how much alfalfa hay or grass hay or grain and for what reasons.
8. If Emilio screeching because he is hungry or just pissed.
9. What does one do with so much free time that I simply feel stumped.
10. I can problem-solve irrigation problems.
11. I can build a fence.
12. I can (and do) make lots of mistakes,
13. I learn more slowly than I think I do sometimes.
14. I don't know if I'd like farming for the rest of my life, but I know I love it a lot sometimes and those moments are really really good.
15. Even though I'm not good at being alone for 20 hours at a time, I can still love the silence if I'm outside.
16. Wind is fascinating.
17. Dusk is a long long process and I think it's lovely.
18. I'm finally understanding a lifestyle that is built around the sunrises, sunsets, and seasons...not times necessarily.
19.To pay attention, because things grow sneakily, slow and fast and if you aren't watching you miss it (this goes for both vegetables and weeds).
20. I don't know if I'm in great shape anymore (no yoga and no climbing) but I sure can milk a goat from any angle, pull and push huge bales of alfalfa, and shovel wheelbarrows full of manure and cart it all around the property.
21. I like to run if it is with Kea and we are by ourselves. I'm 13 again and I'm a girl and she is my dog and we are free.
22. Power tools are intimidating but fun.
23. I really like some country music.
In one month's time so much can change. I have beaten up, dry and cut up hands and fingers; my arms are darker and stronger. I wear the same clothes almost every day, and I go to bed at 10pm every night. I am learning things I never thought I could or would, and gaining the confidence to teach myself to do all sorts of things I don't think I'm ready for, like being kinder to myself.
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1 comments:
Papa would be proud of you. Even though he could not stay on the farm after he went into the Navy, he always had a small garden when I was growing up. He always worked out in the yard when he came home from the office. I think there was something about growing things that he could not get away from.
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