Starting Ancient Ponies Farm at age 60
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.
I had a feeling yesterday that struck me in its simplicity. I was taking a walk with the dogs to the little swimming hole a minute from here. It is a place where the brook turns and deepens against some moss covered rocks. There is a sandy shore to invite one into the water, which is waist deep at the deepest part. The dogs waded and swam and I thought, “I live here.” It was the first time I felt that this is my home. I think I’ve landed.
Meanwhile, Dan came over with his 
backhoe and cleared the wall of invasives off of the stone wall in front of the barn. One would never have known there was a stone wall there and now, there it is and there the barn is, much more visible. The backhoe is so powerful, pushing huge stones around, ripping out bushes. Luke came as well to plan the shed at the back of the barn that will house my tractor. It will just be a roof with open sides. They are going to dig down after the shed to create a lower area onto which I can put the cart for the manure. This way, it is an easy shot with a wheel barrow from the barn out to the dumping area. 
Plus it will be easy to pull the manure cart from the barn to the garden area. It’s amazing to watch the vision come into being.
Edward, the Welsh fence guy comes next week to start the pasture fence.
This is the road to the north side of the pasture and to the gardens. I can’t get there through the pasture yet but will be able to once Edward does the fences and Bush Hogs the pasture. For now we walk the long way.
There are three types of fruit showing up this year on the fruit trees; pear, cherry and peach. It’s all such a surprise to see what is coming! There are other fruit trees that have not given fruit yet so the suprises will keep coming. Already I feel a sense of abundance here.
I had my first dinner party, sitting out on the lawn over looking the view to the west. Joan, Josette, Lisa and Kirsch came. 
There are still no mosquitos which I think is due to the abundance of swallows. They are constantly swooping and turning. Of all the song birds, swallows and martins spend the most time on the wing. The barn swallow may be the fastest swallow. It’s been clocked flying 46 m.p.h. So beautiful! Many of my windows don’t have screens now and yet, there have not been mosquitos. Well done little bird.
One important indicator that I have actually moved in here is that I finally got work done. I so love to study and prepare the classes.
The closing was already almost two weeks ago. The move was like entering a vortex like that old TV show, The Time Machine. I was spun around for ten days or so and then spit out into this new world, my new home.
Moving at age 60 is so different than my last move was, almost 20 years ago. My body complained! Last Thursday I finally went for some acupuncture and moxa with Jennifer and felt so much better. 
Before the acupuncture, my low back, legs, feet, arms and neck all felt like a twisted up towel.
All movement was stiff like my limbs were made of cardboard. And, speaking of cardboard, it is piled in the garage waiting for me to use in the garden. These boxes filled with stuff. So much stuff!
Much love to my friends for helping: Molly, Phyllis, Emily and Danielle gave me brawn and moral support. Many thanks to Daniel and Rose, the extreme cleaners, and to Ideal Movers. Continue reading “Phew, moved in….”
I close on the house in two days. Tuesday morning I’ll do the walk-through at 9:15 with Judy Rivard and then we’ll head over to Bob Spencer’s office. We’ll sign the papers, hand over the bank checks and so it will be done. This land, barn, brook and home will be mine.
I find I still don’t quite know what to make of this all. On the one hand, I have been moving toward and wanting to simplify life. I had dreams of buying a cabin on an Adirondack lake, living a life of solitude and reflection. I’ve had the idea of disappearing into the great vastness more and more, at once getting smaller and smaller and yet expanding into nature, into spirit. Shrinking the social engagement, the pressured physical world and resting into a flow. So, here I am purchasing a 13-acre farm that will demand so much of my ageing body and my pocketbook. And filling that pocketbook back up is a big demand as well. It feels like the best-laid plan is usurped by what wants to come. Continue reading “Two more days….”
Vancouver was a month ago! So much gets packed into such a short period in this modern life. It’s rich and full, churning, dense, flavorful.
Spring has arrived. I noticed that each time I look and SEE the incredibly soft, delicate beauty of the spring, I also hear a voice that says that I am missing it, it goes by too fast and I’m not creating the space to take it IN. The voices are so predictable! And when I listen to them, the space to take the beauty in closes down. THEY make something true that would not be true otherwise.
When they are quiet, it is just me and the blossoms and the fragrance and the cool, moist air and the first thunderstorm Continue reading “Spring”
Cool May Evening. I just had a series of sneezing fits. This picture was taken two nights ago when I took a Quabbin walk with the dogs. I went in at Gate 21, the sad sad gauntlet down to the water, and took a left I’d never taken. It took me up a trail that seemed to run along a bit of a ridge until the trail just ended. The place it ended looked like a trumpet mushroom swamp to check out later in the summer. I followed the hill down down along this river. We had to cross it where it got narrow, and Pumpkin jumped over a wide space between the rocks that looked down over rushing water. It would have swept her down had she fallen, and she seemed to know it. But she bravely jumped the divide and then seemed so proud of herself. She started grabbing sticks and shaking them like she knew she was tough stuff. Continue reading “Change Coming”
Below is Remy, Josette’s new grandson, son of Jourdan and Tobin wearing the little vest I made him.
Yesterday I felt so ill. Now as the storm of it is passing, my mood lifts as well.
So, I’ve been three days in a row to work with ponies. The first two days I mostly just brought them in and brushed them. I worked some on being the leader in the pasture which Jasper figured out quite quickly and Spencer appreciated. It is amazing to become sensitive to things I was so powerless over previously. I just assumed it had to be the way it was, with Jasper bossing Spencer around. Continue reading “Horses”