farm days

Tim has been happier than a pig in mud the past few days since his new John Deere tractor was delivered. I laughed at him when he drove an hour up to the dealership the day before to pat it and get the manuals, but in 3 days he has mowed 17 acres and is headed back up to the farm today to work on clearing the field edges. If left alone the poplars and wild cherry saplings will slowly creep into the fields making them smaller year by year. After years of thinking every tree is good and necessary for the world's health, I now realize that nature will turn our beautiful and useful cleared land into forest if we don't work hard to beat it back. I can clear out about 50 feet of saplings, dead limbs, and brush in the 3 hours of work time I am allotted before mommy duty makes me take the little ones back to town. At this rate it will take me 200 days to clear all the edges, not including time to do something with the detrius.

Now there are certainly fun things to do this summer like hunt for beach glass at low tide, ferry Will and Mary to summer camp in a few weeks, and picnic at the lobster pound for supper. But we are farmers now and Tim and I are enthusiasically jumping into our country adventure with both feet. It will take us the rest of our lives to develop this farm into our dream with a beautiful butter yellow house and garage, a barn and machine shed, a chicken coop, fences, a pond, a cross country ski trail through the woods, and a huge fruit and vegetable garden. God willing we will get to sit on our porch in rocking chairs looking out over our laborful bounty and holding hands in the twilight each evening.