9.26.26
What a week it has been! A good week, but a very busy week. As the autumn equinox arrived it brought with it a definite sense that the seasons are changing on time this year. I say on time, because for the past few years it seemed Summer just did not want to bow out gracefully and let Autumn enter but instead determinedly hung on with her hot temperatures and dry winds. How nice it has been to wake up to cool mornings, to take the dogs on a before dawn stroll down the driveway and come back to the house with the hem of my fluffies damp with dew. I am ready for this seasonal change and thankful for it.
At last, I can take a breath and feel as if I am ready to head into the winter months. Hay is stacked in the arena for winter feeding, the pantry well stocked up, deer season is around the corner which means a fresh supply of little white packages of venison will be in the freezer to sustain me through the coming year. Yet what is most satisfying is the sight of a woodshed filled chockfull with chunks of well-seasoned firewood.
Yes, that was the big chore I accomplished earlier this week. After braving the tall ladder… again… to give the gable end of the house a much-needed coat of paint on Monday, I decided the next couple of days would be devoted to splitting wood. After morning milking and feeding chores were done, I got myself out to the woodpile, fired up the splitter and got cracking. How thankful I am for that splitter!
Some of the rounds were so large in diameter that I put the hydraulic ram of the splitter in the vertical position, rolled the rounds into place and whacked them into more manageable pieces. Slowly, slowly the large pile of rounds was reduced to chunks suitable for stacking in the woodshed. Trundling trailer load after trailer load from the woodpile to the woodshed, bit by bit the hard work paid off. How gratifying it was to see what at first had seemed such a daunting undertaking – that huge pile of big logs – now turned into neatly stacked chunks ready to burn in the old wood cooker and woodstove.
When I first started the task, I admit I felt it was a tad overwhelming. Could I really do this all on my own I asked myself? Yet I had to give it a go. Once the long logs were reduced to a pile of rounds I felt better. As I started splitting each round and throwing the chunks in the waiting trailer, hauling the full load to the woodshed and doing my favourite job, stacking, the feeling of accomplishment increased.
Tomorrow I shall haul a few of the beef cows to the auction yard to be run through the sale on Monday. This year the girls gave me six lovely calves of which four were dandy heifers. Our farm can really only support around 10 mother cows, and as we had kept back four heifers from last year as replacement breeding stock, if I want to keep any of this year’s young heifers, four of the other animals will need to go. It was hard to decide who should stay and who should go, well, with the exception of one of the cows that is!
There is always that one cow who will see an open gate and immediately run through it. Usually, my girls and bull learn early on that they only go through an open gate when I say so. Not this cow! She is not mean or anything, if she was, she would have been in little white packages by now, no, she is just one of those cows who likes to break rules. As a young calf, she would be the one who got through the fence and went on a walkabout. As a heifer she took longer to breed than the others, but I gave her a second chance as she raised a dandy baby that first year. But now it is time for her to move on.
The other three of the four I am taking I based on how well they did during this droughty year. Did they breed in a timely manner? Raise a nice calf and still keep fair condition on themselves, or did they struggle to do both? Gosh, how I wish my dearest were here to give me his input! Even though I know he would say, “You make the final decision, Rose, you know the cows best.” What I would not give to have him standing beside me, leaning on the corral fence as we look the girls over.
Yes, this has been a very busy week. I have accomplished things that at first felt were more than a wee bit daunting, yet I got them done. For those ladies out there, who have also recently lost their beloved one, stay strong. Inside you is not only your own strength, but the strength of your loved one too. It is amazing what we can do when we put our mind to it!
Tomorrow morning, I will be out at the corrals bright and early to load the girls up in the trailer and head down the driveway. I know tears will roll down my cheeks; they always do when I am off on a jaunt without my co-pilot beside me. I shall reach out and gently touch his picture that is affixed to the dashboard. “Another day my dearest,” I will say, “another day.”
