5.10.26
In some ways it feels as if the past few weeks have flown by. Here we are only a few days away from the middle of May and yet it seems as if the middle of March was just a few weeks ago. The EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) class that I began on March 17th has come to its conclusion. All 13 students that began the course have remained just as enthusiastic at the end as they were at the beginning. Soon they will complete their licensure application with the State EMS office and become fully fledged EMRs, ready to serve with their respective ambulance services around the area. I am so proud of them, my little EMR Chicks!
Now that the class is over, I will find something else to fill those evening hours before bedtime. All those Tuesday and Thursday evenings heading down the hill at 5 o’clock to prepare for class had been a boon for me. A way of keeping my evenings, and more importantly my mind, engaged with thoughts other than ones of how much I was missing my dearest Darrell. Yes, the class was a blessing for me.
Yet spring is here in all its glory and how can one’s spirit not be lifted up at such a time? Calves frolic in the fields beside their mums whose heads seem almost glued to the ground as they graze on the lush green grass. Marty, our new bull, has settled so easily into the farm routine that it is as if he has been here for ages, not just a couple of months. Each morning when I head down to the milking barn to relive Lady of her morning supply of milk, there stands Marty, in his usually spot, waiting for his small pile of grain to be deposited in front of him. Heidi stands beside him, her belly huge with calf. Of course, her belly always looks big, but with baby due in a couple of months and her summer coat already sleek and shiny in the morning sunlight, it looks even larger than normal!
I am now starting on my third list of chores to be accomplished around the place. Well, I guess you could call it the fourth list as I have already been checking off things accomplished from the list I have labeled “Things to do long term”. You see, I actually have three lists on the go at the same time. One is the above mentioned “Things to do long term”, the next is “Things I need help with.” – yes, I actually will admit there are some things I cannot accomplish alone! – and then the final list, “Things to do.” It is this latter list that keeps getting fully checked off and a new sheet taking its place. I guess that is a good thing!
Around the farm the large piles of brush, tree limbs and rotten logs that will be burned this coming winter dot the fields here and there. The decks of logs suitable for future firewood have grown and give me a sense of satisfaction that not only this coming winter’s wood is secured, but a good year or two in the future as well. A healthy stack of new t-posts waits for the day when I shall expand the milk cow’s grazing paddocks so they can mow down the grass instead of me. All these chores, completed or still to complete, are things my dearest and I had planned to do together. Now I find myself fulfilling them on my own.
A couple of days ago I tilled the garden plot for the last time with the tractor and big rototiller. I have the walk behind tiller all tuned up and sitting ready to make my planting rows. Today I think I will lay out some hosepipes in preparation for planting seeds in the garden and maybe the cabbage and onion starts too. With the very warm weather we have been having and lack of rain, the seeds and plants will need a bit of help from a sprinkler to thrive. Of course, as soon as I do that, I am sure Mother Nature will decide to deluge us with rain! No worries, I will take it gladly! We usually do not get cracking on the garden in a serious way until the end of May as it never fails, we get a killing frost right after we decide to plant our seedlings. Maybe this year I will take a chance and get out there a tad earlier than usual.
As I sit here with my cup of tea by my side, I glance across at the empty chair beside me. On this Sunday morning, we would be discussing our plans for the day, maybe getting up to head outside to sit on the front porch in the early morning sunshine. Me with my cup of tea and my dearest with his coffee. As we sit there in companionable silence, we watch the cows and their calves head into the horse paddock I just opened up for them a couple of days ago, the young ones running and bucking while their mums bury their heads in the lush grass. Swallows swoop around the house, a little Jenny Wren chatters away fluttering her wings at us before darting into the eave where her nest resides.
Oh, drat! I feel the tears starting to sting my eyes. “Stop it Rose!” I tell myself, “You have so much to be thankful for!” Yes, I do, I know I do. I may be alone, yet I am not alone. Taking a sip of hot tea, I compose myself again. Then, with my cup of tea in my hand I get ready to head out the door to sit in my deck chair on the front porch in the morning sunshine. Habit will make me glance at the empty deck chair beside me. “One more day Matey,” I say out loud, “One more day.”
