Monday, April 30, 2012

Normal is starting to come back

It's been a year now since we moved to the farm. Are all the boxes unpacked? Have we found everything yet? Have we sorted what we have unpacked and 'pitched' everything we don't need and should not have even moved? No, no, no, and probably no to many other things, too.

However, however, just last week a few things got done for the first time since we moved that made us feel rather settled in and well........back to normal. :)

We made waffles for lunch. So simple! My husband just said "wow, this is great". Waffles just seem to take so much time to make (even using my home-made waffle mix) that even though I knew where the waffle griddle was placed after being unpacked a year ago, I just had not taken the time until last week.

I finally sorted all the seeds I have collected and been saving for the past several years! Woohoo - seriously - doing this was a big deal as it meant that we might actually have time to plant and take care of our family garden this year. Sorting this huge box that was a messy hodge-podge of packages, envelopes, ziploc bags, jars, etc, had been put on the back burner for the past 3 years as we focused on getting the garlic crop at the farm up and running, repairing the house at the farm, finally moving to the farm, getting our other house ready to sell and sold !!, both sons were married, oh and I am sure there is more, much more of life that just meant that seed box was pushed to the back of the priorities. I have 35 types of heirloom bean seeds in addition to multiple kale varieties and lots of cool vegetables.

I cooked all the dried beans from my seed box that had no labels (why did I save them?? who can say......) and added some to our left-over risotto for tonight's dinner.

I started making my own bean sprouts again, using mung beans.

Tomorrow I might even make some bread, which we also have not done since we bought the farm in 2009. Making bread was very normal for us. The house will smell delicious. Next up we'll be getting back to also making our own yogurt. I think we might wait until next winter to take the time to make our own pasta again, but I did look longingly at our pasta maker today.

To balance, even out-run, all the 'no's', there are beginning to be lots of 'yes's', too!

And new things?

  • We have bluebird babies (a 'bucket list' item for me!), 
  • we've seen the large old Blanding's turtle ambling through our farm again this year, 
  • our 'blue hawk' or 'red-tailed blue jay' is back again this year - this blue jay's imitation of a red-tail hawk is perfect and his typical call - he takes his self-appointed job as 'town crier' very seriously
  • we have one female wild turkey that has adopted our farm, even taking a dust bath right in front of us!
  • we have thousands of tadpoles in our new pond, 
  • we've seen great blue heron tracks in the pond, 
  • I found one witch hazel shrub way back on the property where I have been removing invasive garlic mustard and also one currant vine growing in a nurse log in our woods, 
  • one trillium that I transplanted from our old home last year has survived the 'all you can eat deer buffet', and transplanted wood poppies, columbine, spiderwort, hostas, and some daylilies have also survived
  • 5 of our 8 transplanted rhubarb plants survived, 
  • all 8 baby spruce trees moved from our old home survived (they still need to find their permanent home)
  • we're almost done with the pond and drainage tile work, which means we are almost ready to put up our purple martin house near the pond (too late for successful attraction/nesting this year, but it will be up!)
  • we have finally installed the trickle irrigation system for our garlic fields - that only took 3 years of working through priorities, practicalities, and logistics :)
  • we are finally ready to get a teeny, tiny section of our landscaping done, which will be the section right outside of our bedroom window, so it will be the first thing I see and enjoy in the morning
  • Our farm website is up and functional and almost done, at www.dyerfamilyorganicfarm.com. I will then be ready to totally focus on finishing up the consolidation of my own new website and blogs. 
The list of what we are doing (or need to do) is still so long that it is good to focus for a day and a night on what feels normal, what feels good, what we have accomplished, what we are enjoying. :)

Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD


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