Currently, on a typical Monday and Wednesday, I drop off the boys at school, work like mad for six hours, pick up the boys from school, and we go do any after school sports or errands, before heading back to the farm. Then... it's homework, making dinner, baths and getting the boys ready for school the next day. Once they are in bed, I'm back at my computer working for a few more hours until Farmer J gets home around 10 from teaching all day in the big city. These are long days, I won't lie. But... as the boys get older, these days are getting easier and easier (with the exception of helping JJ with his math homework.)
But some days, like last Wednesday, I thought it is mad that Farmer J and I both have full-time jobs, while trying to sustain and build our farm to what we dream it can be, as we raise our boys! A beginning farm is time and money intensive. And our "real jobs" provide us with a predictable income, stability, peace of mind, a retirement, as well as life and health insurance- so we gratefully work. And for the most part, things "work" out pretty well.
And then it's last Wednesday, and I'm tired from my mad dash of work and staying up late the night before (knowing full well tonight will be another late night) and parenting alone while J is working. And the boys are tired and hungry from a full day at school, followed by a trip to the grocery store, for groceries needed for the next day's school lunches and breakfast. Finally, we pull into our driveway, already slightly dreading the unloading of the bags of groceries and coats and backpacks when we see...
At first, all I can do is stop myself from crying, screaming or laughing hysterically. But then I take a deep breath, say a silent prayer for patience (and that no animal is dead, lost or near the highway) and try and come up with a plan. The boys are freaking out because they are afraid of the ram on the loose, and rightfully so. We have, appropriately, put in their very impressionable minds, the importance of staying away from the 200 pound, testosterone poisoned animal, that likes to 'ram' any person who comes near his flock of ewes.
I firmly tell them to wait in the car until I have the ram on his lease, in the pasture. And as I hear myself telling them that, I'm trying to figure out how I will get ahold of the ram's collar without him ramming me. He's rammed me before, when he was only a few feet away, and that hurt. I didn't want to imagine the damage he could do when he got a running start.
I opened my car door slightly, called "treat time," which resulted in the whole herd running toward our car, and used my car door as a metal shield until I could get Duncan close enough to grab his collar. Success. I had his collar. But now what? Duncan is a 200 pound animal and I weigh just a bit more than 1/2 of his total weight. Who do you think will win when push comes to shove?
I firmly tell them to wait in the car until I have the ram on his lease, in the pasture. And as I hear myself telling them that, I'm trying to figure out how I will get ahold of the ram's collar without him ramming me. He's rammed me before, when he was only a few feet away, and that hurt. I didn't want to imagine the damage he could do when he got a running start.
I opened my car door slightly, called "treat time," which resulted in the whole herd running toward our car, and used my car door as a metal shield until I could get Duncan close enough to grab his collar. Success. I had his collar. But now what? Duncan is a 200 pound animal and I weigh just a bit more than 1/2 of his total weight. Who do you think will win when push comes to shove?
I then gave them a good helping of grain to keep them busy and reinforce why they should stay in their pasture!
Next, while I'm thinking about the frozen groceries melting in my trunk with our recent unseasonably warm weather and how my new cute work boots must be full of poo, grass, mud and hay, we went looking at the pasture fencing to see where the ruminants escaped. And we had to do this fast, before they filled up on grain and decided the grass IS greener on the other side (because it is not grass at all but a corn field full of delicious field corn right from the husk).
JJ found the spot quickly and I did what I could to mend the fence, without any tools or gloves or strong, Farmer J calloused hands.
My dear friend Sarah gave me a copy of "Anne of Green Gables." I'm now reading, "Anne of Avonlea." When I went to bed, later than I had hoped, I thought of a scene in my book when Anne's cow escaped into her neighbor's field and all the trouble that caused!
Me, a modern day "Anne"! Which reminds me, we need to name our farm- "Anne" had a beautiful way of naming her favorite places with fun, imaginative names! But that is another post, for another day!
As all days do, this busy one came to a peaceful end. Thankfully, the groceries didn't melt, my boots cleaned up easily, JJ didn't have too much homework and the boys went to bed better than most nights...dreaming of escaping sheep and a runaway ram!
And eventually, I found my bed, tired but thankful for our own farm, our animals (safely in their pasture), farmer J home safely from work, two healthy and happy boys asleep in their beds and the chance to live this crazy life all over again tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment