A Slice of Our Life and Farm
Good morning!
We’ve been going ninety to nothing with summer now fully upon us. It’s dizzying to consider that the days only get shorter from here.
The last few days, along with a whole gamut of projects and my usual responsibilities, I’ve been scheming up some exciting mini-documentaries for my new YouTube channel. We spent most of yesterday filming a tour of the Orchard—where first fruits have set on the trees, grass is still green and pungent from all the recent rain, and the grapes are turning juicy and deep purple.
Can’t wait to show you these videos, so stay tuned, and subscribe if you haven’t already!
Now, for the first time in 18 months, I just couldn’t find the time or energy to write anything worth sending as a dedicated newsletter. So I turned to my wife, Helen. She wrote the following a few weeks back, and I think you’ll enjoy it:)
I’ve been privileged to live all my life at Brazos de Dios, our farm with green, tree-lined fields bordering the Brazos River. Since I married and moved out of my parents’ home, my husband Isaac and I have a small homestead on the edge of our community farm, near the Aquila Creek. Our home is surrounded by the fields and animals on the farm.
There are tranquil moments like you would expect on a farm, for instance, this week when I let my two year old, Lucas, toddle around with me as I planted my garden. Deep yellow rays from the setting sun and shadows from the trees crisscrossed the grass surrounding us, as with my guidance, he placed the fragile transplants into the garden bed with his chubby little hands.
He chattered about how “natos” (tomatoes) are going to grow from the fuzzy green plants we placed in the holes. When the last plant was patted into its new home, he jubilantly sang out to them, “Happy birthday to you!”
There are also more humorous moments, like when a friend drove up with some hog panels and a trailer hitched to her car as we were tending the garden. She was coming to collect Bertha, a grunting pig which our neighbor children had persuaded their parents to bring to their homestead, which borders ours. We were informed by our neighbor, Mark, that the pig effectively ate anything in sight, except for plastic. She also nosed her way out of her pen upon occasion to get into the trash.
Whether her removal from Mark’s garden area was due to her trash services or not, I have not been told. But when our friend came to collect her with several young boys, there was a sudden charge of boys and pig in every direction and a high pitched squealing. Bertha seemed to have mastered the art of waddling at what looked like 25 mph, and the little boys were leaping, darting and tripping in every direction, yelling like Indians and trying to catch her. I failed to see how the rodeo ended, due to the fact I was trying to ensure my son’s safety in the sudden stampede. I do know that Bertha eventually was driven away, contentedly munching on scraps. Hopefully she is behaving well in her new home.
Other masters of escape artistry are the herd of 30 or so goats contentedly grazing in my backyard. At random intervals, they suddenly become less content with the finest grass in the county and break out with a thumping of many hooves into my yard to give my bushes and fruit trees another pruning. To their credit, this only happens approximately once every week or two, and the rest of the time, they keep the weeds down effectively in the back yard. Their two guard dogs always get out too, gracefully loping along beside them, thrilled for the chance to see some new scenery.
We have other semi-frequent visitors to our yard from the farm fields surrounding, which gratefully help to keep our lives from growing dull. On a number of occasions, I have been surprised in the middle of a sunny afternoon to hear a loud thunderstorm brewing. But upon further inspection, discovered that the cause of the noise was an entire herd of giant draft horses, thundering through the grass in front of my door.
Other times, it might be some cows finding new pasture in my watered yard, or perhaps some chickens or guineas which have wandered over to help pick the blackberries. But whoever the visitors are, we shoo them off with a smile, glad to be entertained by such lively guests, if they do cause us a bit of trouble from time to time.
Best of all are our many neighbors, which cheerfully show up at all hours to usher the goats back into their pen, gently prod the cows back home, or are there with a smile for any other job, big or small.
So, if you ever need a little more interest in your life, we and our farm friends can help you find some. 😊 ~Helen
Helen never seeks the limelight, but she’s quite talented at many things, including music (piano, singing, songwriting), calligraphy, and cooking. I’ve encouraged her to share more, and just now set her up on Instagram. Consider following along if you enjoyed this piece:)
The boys are growing up so fast…!