First Day of Spring

As Spring descends upon the farm, this beautiful weather brings friends and family to visit. As the cold and wet winter seems to naturally discourage folks from a farm visit, it's the warm sunshine and mild temperatures that coax people out of their homes and into the world. 

Sharing Is Caring

There's so many farm animals that really enjoy and love visitors. And who also seem to enjoy being in community with one another. 

The Odd Couple always loves some love and pets.

* And as a side note: Wilbur's surgery went wonderfully and he's all healed up from his recent neutering. He's a little love bug, for sure.

The Goat and Pig Pen has been a big hit and the sharing of this space has been a luxury for us all. First, it allows both the pigs and goats to roam somewhat freely while having both safe and dry separate sleeping spaces, and the best reason of all.......this situationship remains an easy and effective way to control the weight of 2 types of farm animals that love to eat too much (talking to you piggies and goaties). It's unfortunate, but both goats (and sheep) can overeat to a dangerous point. And pigs can get too huge from overeating. So over all, the sharing of this space has been a blessing for us all. And my truly favorite part about it is that the goats (yes you, CoCo) can no longer terrorize the Tack Room's feed supplies. It just makes all our lives so much easier. Wait, let me continue though. With these 5 sweeties communing together, just feeding Maggie, Wilbur, Baby, CoCo and Pearl is so much simpler - as is true for keeping their water(s) stocked and filled easily. And as much as I want them to roam the pastures freely, it's just not practical nor seemingly the right thing to do - at least at this time. Plus, the fact that none of them can eat the chicken food has drastically decreased the amount of chicken feed I now buy. Cha Ching.

You're the prettiest girl, Pearl

Loco CoCo

Farm Boy

It's true, Brooks is a big fan of a rescue vehicle. A construction vehicle. And quite frankly, most any vehicle. He's had his construction site setup in the barn for awhile now and used it regularly.

Initial construction site in barn

Yet, now the construction site has moved
outside the barn to a muddier venue. 

Nevermind the huge turkey lurking.

There's no doubt that Brooks loves a wet and muddy construction site to play with his construction trucks. 

But I wanted to take a minute to talk about the farm side of him. This 3 year old has the capacity to go to the barn and feed all the animals appropriately, fill the waters and understands the inner workings of who-needs-what in the barn. He collects eggs with steady and soft hands, laying them gently in the egg basket. And is an expert raker of cleaning the barn floor almost like it's an instinctual process born genetically inside him. I often tell Lauren, when I step off the curb, just ask Brooks what to do with all the farm animals. He'll know. 

Cool, a baby snake

"Can I tear it open and look at the inside?"

This boy. When he came upon a baby snake (recently deceased) he's quick to not only pick it up but also to decide what next to do with it. After a discussion of options, he made the final decision to throw it to the chickens and let them eat it. And he did just that. As soon as he threw that snake in the middle of a chicken group, it was merely seconds before the chickens had torn it up and eaten it completely. As Brooks watched, I thought about all the therapy I'll be paying for when he's older. Certainly this will scar him. But no. He watched, and then turned and said, okay, let's go rake in the barn now. And he never looked back. He just thought it was really cool. Maybe I won't be paying for therapy. At least not for him anyway. 

And then, we have the opportunity for some cow-time now and again as we sometimes get to feed the neighbors cows which he loves and is far too comfortable doing. Yet, we learn fun facts from Farmer Ed like the fact that cows have no upper teeth. 

Not bothered one bit that their head is 
as big as most of him.

We do practice cow safety.
As he knows no fear until we
instill it into him. 

Ed and Gina are our sweet friends that own the land (west) next door which is pasture land for their cows. And sometimes, when Ed gets the tractor out, Brooks is the recipient of a tractor ride. 

Never enough farming to be had

Our little farm boy is merely a portion of who this sweet boy really is. To give you an idea of who Brooks is, let me share with you a picture from his school. Can you guess which is Brooks?

Yep, that's my boy

Happy to say

I'm happy to report that overall, everyone on the farm is doing well including our farm boy. And little sister, Olive is growing by leaps and bounds and turns 9 months old soon. 

Yes, Charlotte is still as wild and crazy as usual.

Love my broken pups ❣

Yet her and Sugar are forming a slow bonding process, mostly in the car seat.

We have some new neighbors on the east side.........

The most beautiful cows 

I couldn't ask for a more picturesque cow

The chickens are laying more eggs now than I've ever had happen on the daily.

Don't be a Pecky Becky

My cancer treatments are getting back on track. Work is going great. Everyone in the house is working except for the tiny human beans. I'm dreaming of what a house with just me inside might look like. Being independently owned and operated as my current status feels like a boss. Granted, this newfound change in my relationship status does not come without grief and I won't kid myself otherwise. As I've learned grieving is part of this journey I'm on - and I shall honor it as such. I walk with it, I cry with it and it's un-fightable. The more I allow myself to feel every feeling I have, the more healing takes place. For me, grief is :

love with no where to go anymore 💔

And as I take in all my happiness and abundance of joy, I also embrace the elements of the hard feelings as well. Nobody ever said it'd be easy. Everything I've wanted is sitting on the other side of fear. And we all know fear is a liar. So as I'm strapped in on a rollercoaster I hand-picked myself, I'm doing both hands-in-the-air-like-you-just-don't-care and also at times, hanging on tight with white knuckles. Fortunately, I am surrounded by love, light and peace and a seatbelt of determination. And as Brooke said it best: Protect your peace at all costs. I think about that Brooke...... All. The. Time.  

And with all this goodness around us, we are blessed to have Easter coming up - and family over. And kiddos who will be hunting for Easter eggs and real eggs. And sharing our stories of life and love with each other. It's one of my favorite things to do. 

Little Lolo back in the day 🥰
Happy Easter to you and your family!

Be cool being you,

Cyndi