While I was away

Our little farm was in excellent hands.

It's a much different event to go on vacation now than it used to be. Since January, we no longer live on an 11,000 square foot lot, with neighbors 20 feet away on all sides, in an urban neighborhood only ten minutes from the heart of downtown, with only a small dog and a rabbit to care for. We now live on 7.5 acres, with a dog, a rabbit, 12 chickens, a newly planted garden, and many, many new things to pay attention to.

My Jim and I were concerned about how we could manage this, even considering that it perhaps wasn't a possibility to leave for a week so soon after moving in with so many new things to attend to.

Yet without a moment's hesitation, my mom and step dad volunteered for farm duty, not just willingly but excitedly...anxious to give farm life a try (and ease their daughter's worried mind in the process).

I always thought the two of them would do "ok" out here, but, still, I worried, wrote pages of detailed directions, left yellow post-it notes stuck to walls and cupboards with various instructions, and, of course, called as often as a could. In the end, I don't think any of it was necessary.

I came home and found:

Thriving, happy chickens:

A garden completely redesigned by my step dad...

...the shelling peas were thinned and staked:

...the radishes were thinned:

...the snow peas were planted and this beautiful handmade trellis in place:

...a huge new planting bed was dug and prepared with compost and chicken manure:

This is clearly a lovingly tended new garden:

While Bill tended to the green, growing things (and when the two of them weren't chasing chickens around), my mom was incredibly busy in my kitchen. Two loaves of wonderful EARTH BREAD were baked, a huge batch of homemade chocolate-chip cookies was made, and a wonderful pot of beef soup was waiting...each with its own little yellow post-it note attached:

They left us so many wonderful surprises. I'm worried they didn't sit down once the whole week they were here!

I wish I had pictures to post of the two of them doing all this, but I only have the signs they left behind to use as proof that they were really here.

Shortly before the trip, I was thinking about people's reactions to our whole changing-up-our-lives events these last few months. Beyond anyone else, it has been my parents who have been the most supportive and excited for us. Now that we're here, they delight in coming out as often as possible.

Our lives together have not always been easy. In fact, there have been many painful, scary years, but we seem to have gotten beyond these. I am relishing the now. And I delight daily in my mom and Bill's presence and support in my life.

How lucky can a girl be?
Thanks for taking such loving care of the farm, Mom and Bill!