I guess for me this is day three. I got here Tuesday evening, and now it's Friday evening. It's a lovely friday evening, actually.
The weather has been beautiful, although we could definitely use some rain. Our garden needs it. Our little plot is not irrigated, and we were planning to use a well pump to make watering the garden relatively easy. For whatever reason the well has dried up. At that makes things a little... challenging. We've resorted to a sort of assembly line system. We fill a big water basin with water from a hose, fill milk jugs from the basin, and walk the jugs back and forth throughout the garden dumping and refilling, dumping, and refilling. It is definitely tedious. But oddly enough I enjoy it. I enjoy using my legs and my arms every single day to bring life to something. Without our walking, dumping, refilling these plants would die in a heart beat. I like watching the ground drink up the water and thinking to myself, "Hm, is that enough or does this little guy need a bit more?" and then walking back to get it a bit more.
So far everything we have eaten has been local, but not everything we have eaten has been from our garden. We have had the fine decadence of eating some honestly incredible cheeses from our neighbor farmer Ray Daley. My first day here we went for a little excursion to Ray's farm, and let me tell you something. That man is John Wayne with a garden. He has cows, horses, chickens, sheep, goats, corn, okra, cucumbers, you name it. He also makes his own wine, which he graciously shared with us in his lovely country kitchen complete with old glass jars, pictures of his grandchildren, and an old wooden church pew. The wine made for a delicious breakfast, I'll tell you that right now. As far as the animals go, I couldn't get enough. I loved Ray's horses, especially one beautiful chestnut named Joe. Joe and I hit it off immediately and were smooching each other all over the place within the first 2 minutes of meeting. Joe does this really great trick where he gives you a kiss, and then you give him some grass. He could easily get the grass himself, being that it is growing right there under his feet, but I think he likes the kissin'.
Each day here has been like vanilla ice cream with a cherry on top. You've got your basic yummy farm livin - waterin the garden, makin the coffee, eatin the cookin. And then you've got your cherry - visiting Ray Daley, swimming in the lake, finding and picking your first actual squash. It's simple yes, but it's not nothing. It is definitely something. And it's not entirely simple. There is a lot of planning, problem solving, mistakes, and compromises.
But it's nice. And each day feels more and more easy. More and more cozy. More and more like a little nest that we're all settling down into, finding our spot. Another week and I think we'll be getting close to clockwork. We're definitely novices. But we're getting the hang of it.
Tomorrow morning we wake up before the sun to load the truck with all the veggies, flowers, basil, and arugula that we picked and cleaned today. Then it's off to the market to see what we can sell. Wish us luck!
