Satisfactions

   There are large projects we all undertake, which, when completed, provide great satisfaction - whether we did the job ourselves, or facilitated its completion.  For example:  re-roofing our house.  It had to be done.  We were the lucky winners in the game of homeowner's roulette who HAD to  put a completely new roof on.  There were three layers of shingles on this place, including the original cedar shingles from 1920.  We know the date, because when he was stripping the house, our roofer found a shingle with the original builder's writing on it, including the date of his work.   For nearly two weeks we had this loveliness to look at, before it was complete.

    There are other, simpler things that I am finding to be small gifts.  Yesterday we broke down the temporary pen in the barn, where we were holding the ewe we were not breeding this year.  The hay that she had used as bedding, etc, was fairly compact, even though it was just over a month of her staying there.  The act of cleaning that out and spreading it on the garden area, and seeing the barn returned to more order is one of the little gifts of farming.  There is so much we cannot control, but these little things we can, and there is satisfaction.  

Temporary holding pen for Rosie - baling twine has so many uses!

     It seems we have made it a habit of doing holiday walks on the farm. That is when we are all relieved, temporarily, of our responsibilities to jobs, school, and "have tos" and we can just be.  The day or two after Christmas was warm, and sunny, and after chores, we all took a ramble through the fields to the high pasture, then into Fangorn Forest, and the day was perfect.  I found some lichen patches to experiment with - making a leaf envelope to carry it home in.  

The dogs got a nice romp in, and we were all able to soak up some sunshine, so rare here in the winter.

the "Gate Photo" a new tradition!

 There were moments of doing nothing - just sitting, warmed in the sunshine, not worrying about whether there would be burrs in our sweaters, or ticks on the dogs. This is one of the greatest "little" satisfactions.  The ability to let go of the worrying, the concerns, the stress, and just BE.