week 10: forward

this week on the little dream farm

Dear Friend,

Let us begin today by taking a nice, big, deep, full, life-giving breath.

Pull it in real big until the air fills your lungs and way down deep into your belly. Pause for a moment here.
Now let it release…nice and slow and easy on the way out, letting that big full breath go completely.

I think we can agree it is time.

Let us now Spring Forward into a new season…into new light…into planting new little dreams, tending to them, and seeing what grows of them.

Last night before bed we set our clocks forward, me with giddy and giggly glee.

The middle of this last week marked The Great Melt here on the farm, and all around us. The snow and ice and the weight of winter melted away over a few-days stretch.

Sure, we may still get some more winter temps and snow…but spring finally feels so close.

As I stood outside in my mud-covered chore boots I paused to listen to the water trickling and flowing and rushing all around me. It was coming most loudly from the stream that runs down our western hills and then off our farm, down into the valley.

I thought about all the worries I’ve been carrying and the way they’ve each felt like weights upon my chest since just before Christmastime.

I closed my eyes, the wind still chilly on my face, and pictured myself setting each one down into the water on its own little boat so the running water could carry them away.

It doesn’t mean that everything is magically or automatically better. But those things were getting far too heavy, and so I’ve decided I need to set them down in order to make room for more good things to come flowing in.

Maybe today you’d like to take a few minutes to close your eyes and picture that stream.

Is there something or some things you’ve been carrying that feel far too heavy?

Go on, if you’d like. Place it, or them, on a tiny little boat and gently send it on its way.

Maybe it’s not so much about letting it all go completely, but carrying it differently by choosing not to hold it so closely.

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A few things from me…

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1. This is sure to make you smile

   Happened to catch this wildly precious moment between Buist and Black and White Kitty as they spooned in front of the fire for hours and hours the other day. Look at her paw on his paw. Look at how gently he’s grooming her. Look at how she reaches for him. Look at how she then looks at me with her bliss-filled eyes. These two have such a special friendship. This made me smile so big. I bet it makes you smile, too.

2. Took Me for a test drive

   Chris was out of town this week for work so it was Single Farm Mom duty for me! I got to take myself for a test drive and see how I felt doing the regular daily chores…feeding cats, scooping litter boxes, feeding the hens, getting hay for the donkeys, scooping poop, and filling and carrying their water buckets.

   

   Buist the caretaker who would come and lay with me when I’d elevate my feet and put heat on my back.

   
   It’s been 2.5 months since I woke up in a world of pain in my mid-back and later found out I had four bulging thoracic discs, and I am so relieved to say that I am finally starting to turn a corner. Back in a bra…which seriously feels like such a huge accomplishment after how horribly painful it was just a few weeks ago. I am sleeping without pain. I am moving around with better tolerance throughout the day. I can do more of my daily tasks like cleaning and cooking, still with pain but nowhere near the degree before.
   

   I told my physical therapist this week that I’ve finally felt enough relief that I feel the hope that I will heal. She still doesn’t want me doing a whole lot and thankfully this time of year made it easy to take it easy. But I finally can see the possibility that I can come back even stronger than before. There is now a light, and every day I am continuing to move towards it.

3. Something to look forward to: the cattle to come back to the LDF

   We really needed a win here on the farm and I am overjoyed to share with you that we recently got just that—a win.

   
   This year, we’re partnering back up with the farmer who ran his cattle on our land and hayed our fields. I won’t get into the story of how or why—maybe one day—but for now we’re just basking in the wonderful news. It’s great for their farm and it’s great for our farm and I’m really proud of how it all came together.

   
   So, here’s to something to look forward to. The LDF has a totally different feeling when the cattle are here on the land. The perimeter fences get put up. A corral made of panels gets built for them at the front of the farm. The farmer will load them onto a trailer and drive them up here two trips, and from May to November they’ll spend their summer grazing the hallowed grounds of the LDF.

   littledreamfarm

   

   A post shared by @littledreamfarm

   
   The tears are welling up in my eyes just picturing it. I love having them here. They make this farm feel like a farm. Also, the pastures will be hayed sometime in late May or early June for first cutting and then again before September for second cutting.

   
   And so…the LDF will serve this season as a working farm, and my shoulders have made their way up to my ears as my eyes close just thinking of the joy of it.

   
   Of course, we’ll bring you along for all of it.

   
   Click on that Instagram Reel above to watch the video of the cattle running down our hills while I called to them. That was back in 2021…still one of my most favorite memories of life here on the farm.

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What I’m currently learning.

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