week 22: getting ahead?

this week on the little dream farm

Can I just tell you how much I’ve loved and enjoy sitting down each Saturday night to write the weekly Farm Note to you?

I only wish I’d thought to begin it the moment we moved to the farm so that our first year…all the many firsts here on the farm…were also chronicled here each week.

Whenever I go back to the beginning of our farm’s Instagram account or look through the archived Instagram Stories, the memories come flooding in. Gosh, that first year was filled with so many precious moments.

I received a lot of lovely comments and personal emails and text messages regarding last week’s Farm Note. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you can read week 21 here for reference to my comments that follow.

To you, the wonderful person reading these words—Thank You for being the kind of person who creates and holds the kind of space that makes being “vulnerable” feel like talking with an old friend. You couldn’t possibly know this, but you’ve helped me become a better version of myself, a more compassionate and considerate and honest version of me, simply through receiving the things we share—both the highs and the lows—with so much love and grace.

From where Chris and I sit, it seems we’ve gathered the most special group of people in this little corner of the Internet, and I’m blown away weekly by your kindness. So—thank you for being you, and for being here.

Last year Dominic ate all the buds off this lilac bush in front of the Big Barn so it never flowered. This year it came back for quite the show!

I felt better after sending out last week’s Farm Note—lighter. It’s important for me to share that this farm is everything we dreamed of and more, and that it also has its fair share of challenges…that sometimes we feel unsure about what direction to take or what’s next or that we wonder if we’re looking at things from every possible angle, or if we’re missing a piece of the puzzle altogether.

If it felt like last week’s Note was left open ended that’s because it is…it’s an ongoing conversation, an evolving journey…something we’re figuring out as we go and sharing what we learn with you along the way. So I guess you could say, to be continued.

Speaking of what we’re learning…we’re learning that we’re getting a real handle on our process for getting established for the growing season!

Last year it felt like we were constantly behind—behind on weeding, behind on mowing, behind on care and upkeep, and everywhere I looked it was like something was needing to be done that wasn’t.

My energy was nearly nonexistent all last season—so finding out in the fall that my thyroid was out of whack really helped to put all the pieces together as to why I just couldn’t seemingly get myself to want to do much of anything.

I started a protocol with a holistic practitioner at the start of this year and I’m really proud and pleased that my numbers are all trending hugely in the right direction and I’m feeling a lot better.

Whereas in modern Western medicine there’s a pill for everything (and Levothyroxine for the thyroid), I believe deeply that healing ourselves begins with finding and addressing the root cause, which in my case was all gut-related, and then using whole food, the right blends of herbs and supplements, and ensuring adequate sleep, reduction of inflammation, hydration, and movement to heal.

The body is amazingly resilient, and when given the right conditions to thrive, it will. With this faith in my own, I was seeing really good results just three months into this protocol, and now six months in I’m feeling so much more myself again. As with anything good in life, healing takes time, so my eyes are set on the long game.

The promise I made to myself is that I will not push myself on the farm this year for the sake of my health. So some things are taking a backseat simply because I’m not willing to push to do them. And I’m building in quite a bit more rest, lower impact movement, and some key nutritional changes that I know are making all the difference.

Chris and I also sat down and, as you likely expect from us by now, made a checklist of the baseline things that need to be done on a rhythm this season to keep up with the things we care about maintaining in the way we care about maintaining them.

In addition to our regular and routine chores and caring for the animals, this list includes a weeding, watering, fertilizing, mowing, string trimming, and a maintenance routine.

As always, I just simply have to tell Chris the things I want to happen, and as is his specialty, he comes up with a super practical plan for us and then keeps us on track to get it done.

Truly, if you ever needed someone to run a program, systems, or to implement a strategy from start to end, Chris is your guy. I’ve never met anyone who thinks like him, or who can organize and systematize things the way he does, or who has the follow-through to do what he says he’s going to do when he says he’ll do it. It’s really impressive, and it’s what has allowed us to accomplish so much in such a short time and to stay organized and not lose our minds while doing it!

So we had a full week of what felt like…dare I say…getting ahead for the season—getting a jumpstart on our weekly tasks, and we feel like we’re in a really good place this year, like we’ve got a good, sound rhythm going. Part of it is being more intimately familiar with what we’re doing. The other part of it is being committed to getting organized about getting it done.

We lucked out and had the most gorgeous day in Montreal!

For this week’s Weekend Adventure we hopped in the car and zoomed up to Canada for a day in Montreal—several hours in the car each way, but most of the day spent walking around one of our favorite cities to date. Fun fact: the very first vacation Chris and I ever took as a couple was to Montreal, now almost ten years ago this fall. It was fun to walk around the city and talk about how much has changed…with the city, and with us, since then.

By the time you’re reading this, we’ll be several cups of coffee deep and out in the Big Barn hauling boxes of dahlia tubers out to the Dahlia Patch where I’ll be spending the day sorting and planting tubers. I imagine it’ll take me most of Sunday to get it all done, but we’re looking forward to having everything that needs planting on the farm finally all in the ground.

Once the Dahlia Patch is planted, we’ve earned ourselves some rest, and we have no other heavy lifts on our list until we have to load hay in September. So now it’s all just regular upkeep until then!

I’ll leave it here this week and we hope you enjoy your Sunday while we’re out hanging in the Dahlia Patch—check out our IG Stories throughout the week where I’ll share more of the behind the scenes of getting the Patch planted out and how our fruit and veggie garden is coming along!

Oh yeah, and if you want more adorable Furmer moments, donkey snuggles, and laughs from the hens, there’s plenty of that to go around, too. See you on the ‘Gram this week and we’ll catch you right back here next Sunday. Same time, same place, same favorite corner of the Internet.

Love yas!

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1. These are the white leather sneakers I spent all day walking around Montreal in this weekend. I always opt for white sneakers, because I think they make your legs look both longer and leaner, and I choose leather because it is so easy to keep them clean. Each weekend, before we go somewhere, I simply take a few wetted paper towels and wipe them down all over. It keeps them fresh, white, and looking new even months into wearing them. For this pair, I like to grab a pair of white athletic laces and replace the patterned ones the shoes come with. But you can’t beat the price and they are so comfortable!

2. I wore this t-shirt to Montreal as well and it’s the perfect summer tee to go with just about anything—jeans, shorts, even tucked into a pretty floral skirt. I have this tee in white, black, and tan, and you’ll see me in them all summer long!

3. In search of an everyday mens or women’s watch? This is the one I have and this is the one Chris has, both by Daniel Wellington. They’re a very reasonable price point and if you’re in need of a nice gift for yourself or someone in your life, these certainly hit the mark.

4. These are the sunglasses I currently wear everywhere for everything and my favorite feature is how they fold up into a nice little case so they don’t take up a whole lot of room. They have such a flattering fit and come in a few styles.

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