You have to slog through the mud before you can get to the meadow. That's my proverb for the day. The snow and ice have to melt, the ground has to thaw, the rains must come down to wash it all away.
On days like this, it's best not to look outside too hard. Everything seems, well, dirty.
Neglected. Not yet ready to rebuild. We need this thorough washing. Followed by days and days of sunshine. It will come. You cannot be impatient, it will come.
We're not impatient.
On the third day of cheeper plus rooster freedom, the pack once more marches almost immediately to the garage.
The kitties watch.
Chickens come, chickens go: Dance and Jacket are learning that this is the new normal.
The girls introduce Happy to their favorite spots. The driveway. The walk up to the farmhouse door. And today, the guy stays with them.
(They have another companion: Stop Sign has basically moved to the barn, sleeping under the roost and entering the coop freely to drink the cheeper water. Too, she shares the caught mice with the cheepers. Watching Henny run around with a mouse in her beak was.... interesting!)
I'm still attentive to all this animal movement. I watch, I go out occasionally to visit with the garage kitties, with the flock too (the goal is to show Happy that I'm on his side -- friend, not foe). I try to sweep up paths to speed up the cleaning process, but honestly, it's best to leave it all to the rains for now. Outdoor work will come. Just not today.
The afternoon is a sweet reminder of how much I adore my grandkids. (Yes, yes, I know that I'm not unique in this!) I'm taking off tomorrow afternoon and as always, leaving behind these three babes is hard. Still, to borrow from a book that Snowdrop likes -- this is my Necessary Journey. For all the reasons I've written about here already.
But all that is for tomorrow. Today, I have my usual Wednesday afternoon with the little girl. First at the farmhouse...
... then at Storybook Ballet.
Evening: fill up the refrigerator with Ed favorites for the week ahead, check on the animals, give a second's thought to the trip ahead (as always, I have squeezed in getting ready for travel into these last weeks so that by now, all I have to do is print out the boarding pass), sit back on our still spiffy newish used couch and exhale.
On days like this, it's best not to look outside too hard. Everything seems, well, dirty.
Neglected. Not yet ready to rebuild. We need this thorough washing. Followed by days and days of sunshine. It will come. You cannot be impatient, it will come.
We're not impatient.
On the third day of cheeper plus rooster freedom, the pack once more marches almost immediately to the garage.
The kitties watch.
Chickens come, chickens go: Dance and Jacket are learning that this is the new normal.
The girls introduce Happy to their favorite spots. The driveway. The walk up to the farmhouse door. And today, the guy stays with them.
(They have another companion: Stop Sign has basically moved to the barn, sleeping under the roost and entering the coop freely to drink the cheeper water. Too, she shares the caught mice with the cheepers. Watching Henny run around with a mouse in her beak was.... interesting!)
I'm still attentive to all this animal movement. I watch, I go out occasionally to visit with the garage kitties, with the flock too (the goal is to show Happy that I'm on his side -- friend, not foe). I try to sweep up paths to speed up the cleaning process, but honestly, it's best to leave it all to the rains for now. Outdoor work will come. Just not today.
The afternoon is a sweet reminder of how much I adore my grandkids. (Yes, yes, I know that I'm not unique in this!) I'm taking off tomorrow afternoon and as always, leaving behind these three babes is hard. Still, to borrow from a book that Snowdrop likes -- this is my Necessary Journey. For all the reasons I've written about here already.
But all that is for tomorrow. Today, I have my usual Wednesday afternoon with the little girl. First at the farmhouse...
... then at Storybook Ballet.
Evening: fill up the refrigerator with Ed favorites for the week ahead, check on the animals, give a second's thought to the trip ahead (as always, I have squeezed in getting ready for travel into these last weeks so that by now, all I have to do is print out the boarding pass), sit back on our still spiffy newish used couch and exhale.
