Romancing The Farm?

Lest I be guilty of romanticizing life on the farm (ok, I do), here's the post that reminds romance readers of all texts that reality does set in on a daily basis. Each season comes with its own particular problems. Today is a classic spring day. Our farmer plowed under the orchard grass in the pasture by our new barn. He was definitely told NOT to do that, but he did anyway. So, he's replanting grass one month behind schedule, and it may not take. The dirt blow back is almost unliveable; everything is covered with more than a thin veneer of good old-fashioned topsoil. Definitely not happy. Definitely not a farm romance.

Combine that with mowing the grass. I have, without a doubt, the BEST HELP! But between the plowing and the mowing, even indoors my allergies kicked into high gear. The silver lining: I do not have to cut the grass.

Spring ushers in a different kind of llama care. The girls need shearing, and I am having huge problems with the person scheduled to shear them. I may need to learn how to clip them myself. Not so terrible, just a huge learning curve. They are not clipped the same way my horses were. Still, I'm not a novice at clipping.

Then there's the constant shift of weather, hot and cold. My biggest concern is always the fans; when to put them on, and worrying while they run. There's also a different kind of clean up; I sweep more often, and am going to invest in an industrial wet/dry vacuum sometime this week. I do love a clean barn. Finally, I do need to groom the girls before they are clipped. And do I gamble that this summer will be better, with time to learn to wash their harvested fiber, spin and use it. Time will tell.

Is a farm work? Absolutely. Constant work, and even with a team of two to four every other week, there is still much to be done to maintain the beauty and romance of the place. I used to be the primary worker; now, even with a team, I still put in 8 hours yesterday and today. Not a complaint; you could not drag me off the farm. As long as a looker-on visualizes the hours of maintenance behind the beauty, it's okay to romance the farm.

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• Shearing alpacas takes an expert (bendbulletin.com)
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• Topsoil could vanish in 60 years, says study (businessgreen.com)
• How Much Grass Must Be in Organic Milk? (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)

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