What a wonderful glorious day here today. the sun is shining,the boys and I have chores done, coffee is perking on the wood range and we are getting ready to cook breakfast. We are still getting caught up in the yard preparing for winter. An annual ritual that occurs here every year and normally ends with snow covering what doesn't get finished. Nothing to worry about the spring melt will be here soon enough to remind us that it hasn't gone anywhere.
The homestead can be a very busy place with seasons of not seeming to have enough time to get things done, but in general the most important things get done and the other things get mostly done as I say it. The homestead also has its more relaxed season where things slow down and we can take some time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The days seem a little lazier since the cow is no longer in milk. Have I mentioned I don't have any cream for my coffee and that I have to go get some now?
Yes there are also the seasons of; why don't I have two milk cows? Well I suppose that's because we can't even begin to drink all the milk our Dazy produces since most of our brood has grown and gotten on with their lives. Oh yes they are still home or should I say still around some of the time.
Yes they do grow up and get on with their own lives, and we old homesteaders need to learn that we have to cut back some and adjust to fewer around. I have learned that it is much easier said than done. For the past few years I have said it's time to plant a smaller garden, and every spring get out there and work the ground and end up with a garden as big as it has always been. Oh well another year of plenty of canning and giving away.
I did however cut back on our livestock, I only keep our milk cow and her calf, no more Bulls. But I miss him around it was allot easier to get Dazy bred when all I had to do was put her out in the fence with the bull. But with cutting back because of my cancer this past year I also cut back on my hay fields. That's right, not enough hay to keep the bull. I'll get that sorted out and then I'll work on cutting back in the other areas.
I have found that cutting back happens in the same way we grew, a little at a time and as you can handle it. Oh handling it physically is the easy part, it's handling it emotionally that is rough. We used to keep five cows, now we have two. Going to the barn in the morning and evening is strange now, I have three less friends to say good morning and good night to. But I am finding the two I do have seem more excited when I come in than they used to, maybe they are enjoying getting more attention. So I guess there is a trade off. I'll get this cutting back thing down I'm sure, I'll even figure out how to make the garden a little smaller in time.
But please understand, I haven't aged out yet, not by a long shot. But I sure am happy I didn't wait until I could afford to homestead before I started to homestead. We started out younger when we still had the energy for that kind of work. Now that we are getting older and the kids are grown, everything is still in place for us to continue homesteading, but in a smaller way and maybe a little slower pace.
Yes the homestead will slow down Kelly and I will slow down which they tell me comes with age, (But I haven't time for that I still have work to do.) My hope is with the slowing down on things the time has truly come for me to teach and share what we have learned. It is my desire to pass what I have learned on to not only my children, but to others looking for a better life. Yes folks there is a better life than what the world has been offering us.
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