Feb
21
Written by:
Sherri
2/21/2009 8:18 PM
Well, our first 24 hours on our farm proved to be beautiful, frightening, and new....or "the good, the bad and the ugly". First, the good.
We awoke the morning after our move to bright sunshine streaming in our bedroom, courtesy of the double glass French doors in the family room that face the east, quickly learning that there is no sleeping in on a bright day 
. The boys were anxious to get outside, so while I fixed breakfast they enjoyed the patio & deck just off the kitchen. James, my oldest son, brought me the most fragrant bouquet of purple flowers that he had found growing just beside a bench. I don't know what they were, but for days their sweet fragrance filled the kitchen. I will look forward to those first blooming flowers each spring.
Now, the bad. The day of our move proved to be a VERY long day, with the movers showing up at 7am to our house....and we weren't ready. Some of you know our moving history...in a span of 3 years we have moved 8 times...moving ourselves 6 of those 8 times. We've always been prepared and ready for moving day. Not this time. I was literally packing boxes going from room to room with the movers coming in right behind me taking the boxes out to the truck. The movers anticipated loading our belongings by noon. Not only was that deadline not met, but they were only able to take about half of our things because they underestimated how many trucks they needed. The last few feet of available truck space was spent making decisions about how critical certain items of furniture would be. Off came Ted's recliner and one of the sofas to make room for the refrigerator and freezer 
. Over at the farmhouse, unloading went much quicker, but the movers still didn't finish until 10pm. We finally sat down for our first "real" meal of the day about 11pm. I realized then that I hadn't even packed our silverware! (I was focusing on items that would be heavy or too bulky to take later in the pickup.) We got the kids off to bed, Ted's almost asleep in our bedroom, and I am FINALLY able to spend a few minutes to myself in the bathroom (mom's....you understand that one!). Who peeps their little head and body underneath the bathroom door.....A MOUSE! I've never seen one in a house where I'm living, and feeling very trapped sitting on the toilet, of course, I SCREAM! Ted's now awake and so am I!
Finally, the ugly. Actually, it's not ugly, but I couldn't resist not using the phrase. So this poor story gets titled with the "ugly" bit. Go back to the morning after our move....sun is shining on our pasture, the scent of the beautiful flowers is filling the kitchen and I'm standing at the sink looking out the window (it faces one of our pastures to the east). What do my wandering eyes see, but a coyote standing just as still as can be in our pasture! Everyone crowds around to take a peek before he decides to take off after some unknown prey, jumping through our fence with the greatest of ease. We had heard the predators were abundant, but didn't think we'd see one so soon.
Our first 24 hours on the farm...a strange and different life to us city folks....but we LOVE IT!