Friday, November 29, 2013

Bits & Pieces Part 7, winter pictures of the farm & thoughts

 
Hello everyone!
 
I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving that live in the U.S.A.  We had a fairly large meal as my husband wanted me to cook after a year of not having me here to cook for him.  this year we have gotten rain here in Athol, Massachusetts & the little amount of snow we had last week has gone.  so the last few days I have been thinking of snow & how wonderful the pastures looked at the farm with it been snow covered so thought I would share the few I took last winter.
 
Disregard the stamp time/dates on the pictures, I had a cheap camera & could never figure out how to fix the time/date on it.  these were taken between Dec 2012 & March 2013.
 
Winter Moon &  sky
 
I loved being able to see the moon from the trailer so got a few shots of the wonderful sky & moon just before the sun went down.
 
 
 
Long part of the Milking barn
 
Love the big round bales of hay that turned white with the snow on top of them
 

 

The area where the cows came through each day to go get milked, such a beautiful mountain area


This was my favorite tree on the farm as it reminded me of Ghana West Africa, something about its shape reminded me of the trees in Koforidua, the village I was at in Ghana.

If I looked to the right from my trailer steps this is the view I had of the old barn up on the hill.
 

Einstein decided to go out & check the snow in Nov 2012, Needless to say he didn't stay out long as the winds were blowing & it was freezing.
 
I wonder how long it will be before I stop thinking of the farm each day.  I keep thinking of what I would be doing there, instead of being here typing on the computer & listening to the TV my husband is watching.  I am sure since its dark now I would be sitting at the kitchen table either writing letters to the MJ hens or reading.  Plus trying to keep the wood stove going but not to the point of driving us all out of the trailer.  The farm has at least 6 inches of snow now, so I am sure its cold there so I am sure I wouldn't have water & doing the melting of snow for me & the kids part of the time.  I know last year it took until December for the pipes to freeze completely up where all the water had to be snow collection & Wood stove melted then filtered into bottles, jugs & 5 gallon buckets. 
 
I may have only been there a year but I honestly miss the simple-ness of it.  Yes, I had to do some jobs to get things like water but I liked doing it.  I never thought having no running water or a toilet that flushes as something bad.  Being a resourceful woman I knew that I could deal with any problem that came along.  There were times I wanted to cry, but never did I think of throwing in the towel & quitting. 
 
Here things are just too easy that I feel no challenge like I did at the farm.  plus I know with winter coming its not like I can go out & mess in the yard & do something I think is really important.  I have a great home with a lot of the modern materials & so on, its a good house built in 1920 with 9 inch thick cement block walls, a chimney we have my 1936 wood burning cook stove in & a warm non freezing bathroom...lol.......So I am thankful for all of this but I do miss the challenge I had at the farm.
 
I have been what some would call dirt poor & then moved up to middle class over the years.  Right now with Thomas back in school, our income is back on the poverty line yet I am not one bit upset over that.  Over the years I have always been thrifty (cheap) so I know no matter how tough it gets we (I) will be fine.  I think soon I will have to take a few of the skills I learned at the farm & use them here to get us through the tough times. 
 
I do know now that I do better without all the things my husband has to have; TV, telephone, computer.  I say this as I sit here & type on the computer...a bit weird but if I wasn't writing here I would be probably writing in a journal that would eventually end up on this Blog. 
 
I had a very sad moment yesterday after we had eaten the Thanksgiving supper & felt so sad that there are American families who didn't have the holiday supper & here we had left-overs.  I wished that I knew of someone here I could have invited for the supper with us.  I was happy to do this for my husband but felt a bit of guilt knowing there were others in our town who didn't get to feed their family like I fed my husband.
 
Those thoughts made me think of my Mother & how she must have felt about the holidays when we were little kids & the Salvation Army came to our door giving us food for the holidays.  I am sure she felt guilt that she couldn't do this for us & had to take charity, but I also remember how excited my little sister & I were to see them at the door, but I am sure her heart was breaking.  I never thought about us not having enough food when they showed up, but I always thought we must be really special to have those people come & give us gifts & food.  It was like having human angels who just showed up twice a year. 
 
I have homeless friends here, but thank goodness this year they are at shelters, so I didn't have to worry about them, but my heart says I should have made the effort to help someone this Thanksgiving instead of being so self centered trying to cook for just my husband.  Yes these are things I think about often & feel helpless at times.
 
I honestly believe I was born to be a helper to others, most of my life I have tried to help those who has less or just need help & when I am not doing that, I tend to get sad & emotional. So for the last few weeks I have been quite emotional, plus the change of life seems to be hitting big time so am hoping after 9 years & 3 months my' Old Crone' life is about to become a reality.  Now that would be a gift I would gladly accept, if it meant the hot flashes, night sweats & short temper faded away.  Just not happy with the amount of gray hair that I now have that showed up while I was at the farm & with no clear mirror to look in, had no idea I was that gray!
 
Ok so this started as pictures of the winter & ended up all over the place.  sorry about that, but you just never know what you will read here.
 
until next time have a great chicken day!
 
Michele'


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