{this moment]

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Inspired by this blog and, ultimately, this blog.

Hope Farms ~where hope grows wild~

I've created a blog just for the farm.  It will focus more on farming and what we have for sale and less on me my musings.  Go check it out and tell me what you think!

http://hope-farms.blogspot.com

I need a wha ??

FEIN, LLC, LLP, Sole Proprietorship, Business Plans, Sales and Use Tax, and since we're on the subject of Taxes we might as well throw in the IRS! How about and EIN? SSID?

It's almost here, this "starting a business" deal. It's oh-so-much-easier spoken about than actually starting the first thing on the list. That's because it's unclear what the first "thing" is!

When approaching my husband with the idea of writing an actual business plan he says, "the plan is, buy stuff, grow stuff, raise stuff, and sell it." Agreed. Because he's actually up with the chickens, I can't complain too loudly. Sometimes, however, I get a little stuck on the fine print and need a break.

Since life is what happens while we're making other plans, I'm a little behind on the official stuff and will be catching up here in the next few weeks.

I just had to rant a bit about how a great idea can get the fluff taken out of it when one looks at the hard knock requirements of business. If only it were so easy as Captain Strong Arms makes it out to be.

If you need me, I'll be over here, in this mound of governmental bureaucratic paperwork with fine print as far as the almost-forty-year-old eye can see. Ahem.

Life is still good.

monday blahs

I admit it.  Today I have only done what has to be done.  I ran some errands, took K, the neighbor girl to the dentist, rescued a chicken that had fallen off of a chicken truck.  You know, everyday farmhousewife stuff and then I came home to sit in the air conditioning and read the entire book "Louder Than Words" by Jenny McCarthy.  Then  I painted my nails with a color by Orly called 'Catch The Bouquet' (whatever!) - which must be discontinued because I did not find it on their website - however, because I only paid one dollar for it, I'm happy.

And now, I'm blogging!  

About that chicken.  When K and I were coming home from the dentist - I saw a chicken truck traveling our route home.  I wondered aloud, "maybe a chicken will fall off the truck" - since my husband has told me that it does indeed happen.  I never expected to come up on a chicken in the road, but I did.

You can imagine what I did.  I kept driving right on by stopped the mommyvan and pulled over, parking and turning on the hazard lights.  I listened for trucks and went across the road to get this poor (huge!) chicken, or,  Rooster I think.  He did not know what to do.  It was like watching a child that's never seen dirt before walk on a dirt road.  I picked him up and looked for major injuries - he was bleeding in a couple places but not bad so I put him in the back of the mommyvan.  I even turned the rear a/c on for him.  SUCH a bleeding heart, I know.

K was screeching at this point, "I can't believe you're putting that thing in the car - I'll drive if you want to hold him".  haha!  poor thing.  Not only did she have to go to the dentist today, AND pick up a chicken - but it's her birthday - and the 16th at that!  Happy Birthday Special K!

I wanted to call him Foghorn Leghorn but husband wants to call him RoadRash.  Either one works.

He really did fall off the truck.  Poor guy.

About that book - I highly recommend it - touched by Autism or not.  I had a lump in my throat by page 6 and couldn't put it down.  Disclaimer:  if you can't handle a few cuss words - don't pick it up.  It is, afterall, written by Jenny McCarthy, people.





      

keep some lose some

When we brought Peaches, the milk cow, home from South Carolina - we also brought with her two bull-calves from the dairy.  One of them was three days old, and the other 3 weeks old.

Only one of them survived.  The younger of the two died today.  Although I'm trying not to take it personal, it always is.  It's heart wrenching.  They're young, innocent and incredibly dependent on the "new mom".  I can't help but think that sometimes being taken away from the mother so soon bears physical as well as emotional damage.

Probably he was sick before we brought him home.  Possibly I could not have done anything beyond what we were able to do to save him.

I had a good cry today.  Seemingly enough for all of the animals lost here on the farm in the last three years.  It doesn't get any easier.  I just doesn't.

So, in life, we keep some, and we lose some.  It's the knowledge that I can still make a difference one calf at a time that keeps the ability to try again on the horizon.  It's HOPE.

My mom once had a t-shirt that said:  If you don't go IN, you can't find OUT.

Hope keeps me going in.  And the other little guy just keeps me going.

Chance and Hope

Meet Chance. His name, pun intended, was indicative of his status when I first laid eyes on him.

I didn't think he would make it through the night. So, on a wing (hoof?) and more than one prayer, we took him home (on the floor board at my feet, inside the truck) and took a chance on him.

So far, so good.

We brought him home the 16th of December, and the first three days he was here was extremely cold, and although he was in the most interior stall in the barn, with a foot plus of pine shavings, I lay awake most of the night, anxious to get to the barn, to see if Chance had indeed "made it" through the night.

Having bottle calves is a trying and rewarding rollercoaster ride. See this post. Interestingly enough, this calf whom I thought was at death's door upon first look, has been the most healthy, trouble-free calf we've raised yet. He gives to me another notch in the Hope Factor of Hope Farms. For, when you think you have nothing left, or nothing to look forward to, you always have Hope.

Chance, apparently, had Hope.

And I have the same. Even if I have to reinforce it one calf at a time. I have the urge to explore an atrocity here, about dairy farms, about the injustice that we Americans, and humans in general, have done to animals. I have done injustices to animals, and may continue to make mistakes, but I'm becoming more and more aware and conscious of the intricate relationship we should cherish - vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike - with our fellow earth-bound friends. As I learn and grow a wee bit older and possibly wiser, I appreciate the long eyelashes of cows and the hungry grunts of pigs and the cautious clucks of the chickens just a little more than I used to.

But, I won't explore that here and now. I'll wait until all of those jumbled and half-written thoughts coagulate and make some small amount of sense before I put the fingers to the keys again.

Until then, Hope as much as you can. And then Hope some more.

Hope Farms ~ where hope grows wild~