February 2010-I’m on all fours trying to crawl in the bottom of the decrepid, rusty green feeder wagon. Howling giggling and cattle munching fills the winter air. Tom’s amused and hands me his coveted knife. He reaches through the cattle panel and somehow my fingertips clasp the tool. Tingles are pulsing in my toes as [...]
February ‘10-My husband Tom and our son Hawken were feeding the Billie Goat. On our lower farm, the milkhouse serves as a hotel over the chilly winter months. A long haired Sammy cat and 1 pristine white 17 year old goat reside together within the walls of a vacated milkhouse.
I offered to Tom that I’d [...]
Jan. ‘10-Trap Shack Showroom is warmed with the heater that’s been blasting all day for us. It’s end of 2009 inventory time. It’s a carefully selected time to count the remaining trapping and coon hunting supplies. Hawken busied himself digging in the waxed dirt with a shovel. An hour later-we had a large part of [...]
Jan. 13, ‘10-It’s been the usual lively days @ Welcome Home Farm. Tom carefully set two cage traps to catch the opossum that was after the poultry. He baited it with Greg’s Great Coon Bait. Tom was successful and captured the animal. Let’s just say he didn’t get over to get the animal out of the cage [...]
Jan. 2nd, ‘10-My hubby Doc Tom has described how invariably the front end of a snowstorm produces a weather system that causes cattle to calve. A client of Tom’s had a small herd of cattle nestled @ the bottom of a steep hill. I’d heard the story many times of how he slid sideways down [...]
Dec. 31, ‘09-It’s 5 AM and 7 degrees above zero. I peer intently @ the blue moon bouncing beams in the morning chill. It’s a thrill to marvel @ the cosmic dance and the chance to enhance my stance in life. It’s a vision and working from the end point forward. Settling into a deep [...]
Dec. 29, ‘09-Frozen stillness slaps my skin as I step out onto the porch in the early morning. I dare to glance @ the thermometer and it rudely displays -3 degrees. I steal a glance through my half face mask and then it happens. I savor stars all sparkly strung through the sky like Christmas [...]
Dec. 19, ‘09-Snow is piling up and swirling around the early morning hours. I’m busting a path to get the lower gate open un-chained. Jasper is incessantly baaing @ me. He’s a moving snow sheep and has ice around his eyes. I feel tears sting my eyes and I promise him a dry bed. He’s [...]
Dec. 16, ‘09-I step outside and am struck by the contrast of a hot pink garden flamingo propped up on the canary yellow porch wall and the snow draped across it’s back. It’s bitterly cold and @ 5 AM it’s a jolt to my system. Hot pink 1/2 face mask, forest green down feather jacket [...]
Dec. 14, ‘09-I greet the day with zest and plug first the artificial Christmas tree in. A bell ornament dingles as I fumble with no lights on @ 5 AM. I stumble on Hawken’s police tow truck that he hooked up to the tree last night. He’s loaded the truck with assorted round decorative balls. [...]