Month: July 2017

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Chores

For years my morning routine has been to get to work.  I heat up a big bowl of raw milk and put a shot of espresso in it and sit down to study, prepare lectures, translate.  Now with Ancient Ponies Farm, this is all changing.  Now there are morning chores.   So far the chores are pretty easy for me but I am looking forward to more as the farm takes shape.  For now, I get up before the birds (which moved from 4:30 when I first moved in to 5:15 in such a short time!) and walk out to the barn to give the horses their morning grain.  With all the grass here, they don’t actually need the grain but I give them a token amount so we have some morning and evening routine together.  Then I have to muck the stalls.   This takes less than 20 minutes I would say.   Continue reading “Chores”

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Other Dark Friends are Here Too

Black Trumpets

Last year there was a drought.  I went out to my secret places regularly but never found a single black trumpet.  The year before, my friend Danielle and I found more than 30 pounds of them but last year, nothing.  So, when I came upon a colony of them, imagine my happiness!  It had been nearly two years since I’d seen them, my friends.  Plus, there is something very happy about a village of black trumpets.  I cut them with scissors so as not to disturb the root that connects the flower to the mycelium below and cut judiciously, just enough to eat and some to give away. Continue reading “Other Dark Friends are Here Too”

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They are Here!

Yes! They are here! Jasper and Spencer are here at the farm finally. It only took six weeks from the closing for the barn and pasture to be ready for them.  It only took 60 years to have this dream come true!

I arranged with a friend to go with me to pick them up, but at the last minute, she could not go with me. I have to admit to being just a bit intimidated by trailering two big horses by myself. The whole thing is intense. Everything is so BIG – the truck, the trailer, the horses….but I did it! At first, I couldn’t get the trailer hooked onto the truck because the trailer’s support had sunk into the dirt. I had to put the mounting block under the support so I could bring up the wheel off the ground and then get a good big rock under it. Then I could jack it up to hook it to the truck. There is something about driving the truck with the trailer hooked on the back that makes me feel so small! Little me controlling this big equipment. Continue reading “They are Here!”

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Making progress

Day by day this place is transforming.  Hay was delivered which felt like a big step…that the horses are really coming.

The edges of the fields and the hedges in the swale have been bush-hogged so the pastures are open.  I can now see from the house all the way to the garden area.

Flowers keep appearing in the perenial gardens.  New jewels, gifts each day.