“Life is just a lot of everyday adventures.” Carol Ryrie Brink
Yesterday Bear and I saw storm clouds building and went outside to get the goats into their pen before the rain came. Unfortunately, the goats also sensed the storm coming and decided the best thing to do would be to hide under our house. All thirty of them. So under I went, hobbling along ridiculously like a crab wearing rubber boots, trying neither to fall over laughing or klonk my head on the floor beams. I shooed and waved my whip most awkwardly while Bear stood outside and hollered encouragement and finally, finally the goats moved on out. We got them to their pen in time for them to beat the storm, but not us. Within seconds we were thoroughly, utterly drenched. We laughed and shook our heads and sloshed our way back to the house where we dried off and Bear made us cuppas.
Such was one of our everyday adventures on the farm.
We never know what’s going to happen each day. Our goals are loosey-goosey at best, for just as soon as we make plans, animals or weather toss a monkey wrench into them while cackling gleefully.
I grin as I look back at my rose-colored views of farm life when I arrived here three years ago. I envisioned a cute, tidy house set in a pristine farm yard where darling animals fed happily and gardens and orchards grew lavishly.
Sometimes those things actually happen. And when they do we look at each other in wonder and amazement.
Because most of the time it’s a mix of beauty and mayhem.
Amidst the flower-filled meadow are old cars we keep meaning to haul to the dump, but never seem to get around to. Our cute little house is cute and little, but it’s also a bit of a disaster during those times when you have to dash into the house with muddy boots on, or stack projects up in tottering piles because your “free afternoon” has suddenly turned into “get the goats out of the neighbors yard before they eat anything!” or “quick, make a newborn duck pen because two mums’ eggs just hatched and we have eighteen babies to look after!” While the animals are adorable, they’re also a pain in the neck! It’s rather like having a farm full of furry toddlers who get into absolutely everything and have no concept of why you’re perturbed with them. And the gardens and orchards are wonderful when they aren’t withered by drought, drowned by floods, or eaten by goats, mice, possums, kangaroos, or all of the above.
I wouldn’t trade this madcap life for anything, but it isn’t easy, and anyone who says it is, is clearly trying to sell you a farm.
I do love it, though. Yep, even when I have to replant my garden for the fifth time in 12 months, when we grieve the loss of animals who die for no apparent reason, and when my dreams of a tidy home aren’t anywhere near coming to fruition.
I love it because it’s ours. Because everywhere we look is something we’ve done, something we dreamed about, worked towards, and made happen through our own toil, ingenuity, and careful saving. I’ve learned a lot about patience living here, about celebrating every little thing because the big things take so long to come to pass. I’ve made peace with the unfinishedness, the undoneness, the may-never-be-completedness, and I can even look at the old cars with love.
So today I celebrate our everyday adventures: laughing in the rain with my sodden hubby, a mama goat about to give birth any minute, a tidy (for at least the next five minutes) house.
What everyday adventure are you celebrating today? xo
a tidy house is not a home! I love rainstorms that cool everything down 🙂
You made me laugh, @tandysinclair:disqus 🙂 If that is the case, then I definitely have a home. 🙂 The rain is falling as I write. So thankful!
I must say it is an envious life Krista. My everyday 9 – 5 struggle does not sound nearly as filled with laughter or the satisfaction of looking around me at something I have built with my own two hands. Our goals are the same to be happy and fulfilled and you have achieved this with spades in your new homeland.
“happy and fulfilled” – yes that IS our common goal, isn’t it, Val? Sometimes it’s such a struggle, but so worth it. XO
Oh my Gosh, a bunch of furry toddlers (i.e. farm animals) running around! I have enough trouble chasing one wild toddler around my house! In all seriousness, it sounds beautiful, and my goals in my work, creative, and family life are pretty much the same: Do what I can to create the life I want while accepting and even enjoying the one I have.
You’ve summed it up beautifully, Bess. 🙂 That’s just what I’m doing too. 🙂 Wishing you a fabulous day with your wild toddler. 🙂
What everyday adventure am I celebrating today? Well…counseling session this morning, encouraging my sick-at-home girl to keep up with the knitting, brainstorming ideas for the up-coming craft sale we will be a part of, trying our hand at home-made lemonade sorbet (perhaps it will be good enough to sell?), digging through the freezer to discover almost-year-old frozen ground chicken and wondering if it will be edible for supper tonight, taking the lovely needy Java for a walk in the rain (wait, what, rain? In January…in Winterpeg? Yup!), wishing for the sun to come out as its been so terribly long and I feel my joy and peace slowly being sucked away by the daily gloom, hoping and praying that my depression isn’t returning, trying to not-so-frantically do everything in my power to stay well…
That is very funny about 30 goats hiding under your house and you being like a crab trying to herd them. I’m glad you got them into their pen. I’ve been caught out in storms too. It happened recently when I was walking my little guy home from school and the heavens opened. There was no point trying to find shelter or even run – we were due for a drenching regardless. We came home and headed to the bathrooms and had warm showers xx
This evening I followed a trail of exuberant giggles to the bathroom only to find my one-year-old ecstatically dunking her sock in her potty – I had forgotten to empty it. Thankfully, it only contained a wee piddle… and the floor needed a mop at any rate 😉 Other more celebratory adventures included supermarket tulips and witnessing my other daughter finally cracking the BFG, and loving it (like I’d been telling her she would). Lovely post!
Lovely photo Krista. You are a wonderful photographer. I have two stories to share about everyday fun. Today I vacuumed and mopped while the temperature was 36 degrees and a roast meal was in the oven. I was in my bathers and when I finished I went into the back yard, put the hose on fine spray and pointed it up to the sky – my own private shower. Then I thoroughly drenched myself and sat in a chair in the shade. Delicious! We went swimming on Australia Day at Paradise Waterhole and I had my coffee poured (not too hot) and was busy sitting down on my haunches on a sloping rock under a scrubby tree when I lost my balance and fell backwards tipping my coffee all over me. It was funny because there were a LOT OF PEOPLE there and I am positive those nearby saw me. Of course I collapsed into giggles and then had to have another swim. All good!
Gorgeous picture Krista, can I use it as my desktop image for work? Something inspiring about it. Love your story, I feel like I was on the goat herding adventure with you guys, although I cant imagine 30 goats under the house. LOL!
Today, I am celebrating cracking through a good 40 emails that have been clogging my inbox and later this eve, it will be playing my first game of baseball for 2015 with my mates. 🙂
Such a perfect description of life – if the truth were to be told by most. I have visions of the perfect house, perfect garden, of course, with that image comes one of a wildly popular blog read by hundreds, and a book in the making and of course, I am always thin and tall. Such is the life of dreams. Reality is usually more chaotic, certainly not as successful nor beautiful – but isn’t everyday, just a treasure!?