It’s been so long since I’ve posted!
It’s that quiet time of year…the harvest is over. The gardens, asleep.
We were given some corn shocks by Wheeler Library when they took them down to begin decorating for Christmas. From them we salvaged 2 burlap sacks of corn to give the chickens and lots of corn husks for crafts.
The girls got creative making wreathes from the husks and a coat hanger – embellished with a few natural bits of color harvested from around the property.
It’s that “apple” time of year – cider, crisps, pies, and of course…dumplings!
And right on the tails of the end of the harvest are the first snows…
The girls aren’t sure what to do with themselves with their pasture covered.
For the lambs, this was their first significant snowfall. If they only knew – this was just like back in the “old country!”
Bruna walks over, looking for a handout. “What happened to our grass?!”
Missy isn’t sure if she likes this or not…
Guadalupe is peeking at me through the hay feeder. They’ve finally all resigned themselves to the fact that grazing is over for the year and gee, maybe this hay stuff isn’t so bad!
Chesta looks warm enough. She just keeps shaking the snow off her wooly coat from time to time, unphased…
Her mother, Fatima, looking for a handout…
Good old Millie – in her 11th year. Snow is old hat to her…
Boomer’s looking a bit frosty. He just wants a scratch on the nose…
Yes, it’s a quiet, slower time of year. We nurture the animals and enjoy their company. Shorter hours of daylight bring us inside…together as a family…earlier.
It is Advent – a time of waiting. A peaceful, wonderful time. Children anticipate the giving and receiving of gifts. Outside, sleds replace bicycles and make great carriers for firewood or hay bales. Wet mittens, coats and boots, a sleeping dog, and warm family times surround the blazing hearth, a centerpiece now, recently brought back to life after many months of being completely ignored.
This is a time of rest on the farm that we embrace, and yet we wouldn’t trade the busier times of the year for the world!
It’s all a way of life – the agrarian way – with it’s own beautiful, perfectly timed rhythm.
As we know that new life awaits the springtime under this layer of snow, we wait with open hearts for the celebration of the birth of Our Lord.
Morning Star Meadows Farm 