I remember before we bought our farm property, I was talking with a friend who had recently made the move from the city to the country. She was telling me all the things that she enjoyed about her new country life, then as an afterthought she added "but it's not the life for everyone." I think she knew that we were also considering making the move to the country, but she didn't want to overglamorize the farm life because it's not always easy and it does come with some sacrifices. I already had visions of a huge garden and all the chickens that I could add to the flock if we moved to the country, so that last part fell on deaf ears and in a couple of years we had started our new life here.
This spring and summer on the farm have been two of the best in recent memory, and I'm continually grateful that we bought this property in our early 40's when we had a little more energy and could spend all day working on projects barely stopping to take a break for lunch. We were able to put in a lot of the infrastructure in the early years, leaving us with more time now to not work quite so hard and to try to take life a little easier (although if you know us, you know that's not always easy for us to do)! After the house build last year there were still a couple of final projects that we finished up this year. The first was to build a new back deck under the large covered porch roof, and we've been enjoying the new outdoor space all summer. The other project, which we hired a contractor for, was having a concrete path put in between the back of the house and the hobby studio because that's always such a muddy walk in the winter. There was a moment of panic after my adventurous little chicken, Peggy Sue, made the most adorable footprints in the wet cement, but unfortunately the process of exposing the aggregate finish quickly washed them away after I had decided I liked the look of them!
The garden was filled with lots of beauty this summer and a few fun surprises. The dahlias that I left in the ground over the winter flowered earlier than ever and quite abundantly this year. I've been enjoying bouquets in the kitchen for months, and they are not done yet. I grew my first ever decent looking carrots, which may not sound that exciting to you unless you've ever tried growing them yourself in less than ideal soil conditions, I'm counting it as quite a victory. I like to try something new in the garden each year just for fun, and this year I tried tromboncino squash, and boy am I glad I did. They can grow to over three feet long, and these crazy long squash have given me so many smiles when I check on them every day. You can practically see them getting longer overnight! The tomatoes had a stand out year, and in addition to enjoying them fresh in every way imaginable, I've also been busily roasting them to freeze for enjoying over the winter.
In the midst of the constant improvement projects and daily chores, I also made it a point this summer to prioritize taking a few days off from the farm for some much needed relaxation. We took a train trip to Glacier National Park, which I have wanted to visit for the longest time. We saw a moose foraging in a mountain lake less than100 feet from us which was truly a bucket list sighting for me. The scenery is gorgeous and the park is filled with dramatic mountain views, waterfalls, beautiful blue lakes and rivers, alpine wildflowers, and we also saw mountain goats and bighorn sheep. I could easily do a whole blog about it, but since I'm not a travel blogger I'll leave that to the experts.
We also had some sadness on the farm as I lost my favorite rooster, Rocky. I'm not sure what the cause of his passing was, but I could tell something was wrong and I'm glad that I was able to spend a long afternoon with him before he passed in the night. Even after all of these years, each loss is difficult for me because each of these feathered souls has a special way of making me smile. I miss my morning routine with Rocky, him running up to me to do his little courtship dance as I arrived in the turkey yard with breakfast. With each loss comes a reminder to appreciate each day because the things we love can be fleeting. One of the things that I love most about the farm life is that even on a sad day, there are also many little moments to make me smile, and they all add up to make farm life the best life for me.
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