Filed under: September 2015 | Tags: lazy, Love, Mental Health, peace, planning, resting, Tea, working
Surrounded by the Boys
September 25, 2015
What a day. I am thinking that I should be feeling free. Much of the work for the year has been completed, but I am feeling crowded by the looming winter. I guess relaxing for me comes hard. I am thinking about equipment readiness for next year, firewood, and even fall plowing. I can’t understand why I simply can’t relax. I guess it comes from my childhood when a mean old man told me that I would never amount to anything and he called me… (gasp) …lazy!
I have spent most of my life making sure no one ever says that to me again! It’s almost funny. I guess I should go out of my way in defiance of him and just screw off once in a while, but I can’t. Heck, I don’t even like to fish. I spend the whole time waiting for the fish to bite, thinking of all the things that I could/should be doing! I will admit that I sometimes take quite a long time to drink a cup of tea. I can let the guilt go as I sip that warm brew…because I can always say that I am thinking, planning or otherwise working out a problem.
I have been known to take a “power nap”. Those quick minutes stolen from a day, fast asleep on the couch, where it is warm or cool depending upon the season 😮 I can, now and then, be found under the shade of the porch sipping water and looking out across the farmstead. I keep that far away look in my eyes so the untrained will think that I am in deep thought. In reality, I am stealing a few moments from a productive day to recharge my batteries by simply sitting and resting.
I guess that is the secret to a happy life, find joy everywhere that you look. I do that. I am satisfied beyond measure with the progress I have made and the plans that I have laid. I just need to pause and reflect more. It completes a man’s life when he takes time to be thankful, to be grateful and to be pleased with his efforts. I don’t want to get so busy making a living that I forget to have a life. So, I take my pleasure in the woodlands and animals on this farm. In the photo above, the horses have surrounded me. They are nuzzling me and waiting to be touched, so in reality I am not crowded… I am embraced, I am hugged and I am loved! Yes, my life is complete and it is wonderful!
Filed under: March 2015 | Tags: coal miner, fire, firebox, making maple syrup, nerves, Tea
Letting her rip
March 17, 2015
St Patrick’s day boil. We gathered this afternoon. We didn’t get as much sap as I thought we would. The temperature was warm yesterday, but no sunshine. The good news is that lots of snow melted! I think from here on out, the sap should run like mad.
Anyway, I fired up today with the small amount of sap that we had. I had a great boil going. Everything was working out well. I knew that I was about to run out of sap, so I slowed down. I quit adding wood to the firebox. I sat down for a bit and watched the steam rise to the roof. I started thinking that wow, I really had a head of steam up.
I climbed the ladder to check the level in the head tank. I reached into the tank to feel because the steam fogged my glasses too much to see. I rammed my fingers into the bottom of the tank, twice! First because I couldn’t see, the second time because I couldn’t believe it! The tank was empty!
I ran for the door of the sugarhouse, the steel shovel and my OS buckets. I started shoveling the burning wood out into the water puddles outside. I worked like a coal miner who owed a bundle to the company store. I had the fire pulled in record time. My OS buckets amount to 3 five gallon buckets of sap, kept for just this purpose. The OS stands for “Oh Sh*t” buckets…and believe me, first you say it…then you do it!
In just a few minutes the crisis had passed. The level of the hot sap was deep enough for the heat left in the firebrick. The fire removed from the firebox, the danger of burning everything up was gone. I sat down and watched the whole thing cool down. I sipped a cup of sap tea and petted my dog. My nerves were returned to normal, everything was well, thanks to yanking the fire 😮
The View From Here
January 25, 2014
  Why is it, that when the temperature drops,…everyone asks “Cold enough for you?” It is kind of funny I guess, but lately it has been no laughing matter! The thermometer struggles to get out of the teens and I struggle to get out of the house! 😮
  Yesterday, I had big plans…then I stepped outside. I did get the chores all done. I added bedding to all the pens as the single digit day chilled me to the bone. My cousin helped take hay bales out to the cattle. It was just enough work to realize that better days were coming for some of the work we had planned!
  My cousin and I headed off to Burton, for coffee and conversation around a woodstove at my buddy’s house. We ran a few errands, killed a few hours and shot the bull …. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am one heck of a bull shooter! 😮
  Today the wind howls outside, while the snow blows into drifts. The animals are snug and fed and I am having trouble finding any reason to be outside in the cold. I will accomplish a couple of things that have been nagging me, but I plan to take all day to do them … with lots of tea breaks in between!
  Oh Yea, … and if anybody asks me, if its cold enough for me… I will say, “Heck yea!”
RicelandMeadows 