Well, last week I had high hopes and the weather did also. Sunny warm and perfect outside. So what went wrong what was my reason for not getting the veg garden up to grade and blah blah blah. I think it may have been 1 part laziness combined with two parts over scheduling and 1 part feeling a little down.
I try really hard to not get caught in a downward spiral of poor me and why can't this be that way. I try. And most of the time I am doing great. But last week was not a "doing great" week. It was a moment of all the moving in the past 2 years catching up with me. Add to that the stress of hearing your husband almost died, losing our Lovey Fur Child... Jeffery Dog *a yr ago and finding out truths about people just caught up to me. So it was a Blah, overwhelmed and needing a good cry week.
But it did get me thinking about farm animals and if veg was growing out in the yard. If having one of these bad weeks would have happened while I am taking care of "the food" that would go on our tables... I guess I would have been talking to a goat and crying with the chickens. Because no matter how I might be handling the day for the animals it would have been business as usual. Or would they have picked up on my mood. Would the goats let me milk them if they sensed I was off? Would the chickens allow me near their eggs and would the onions be even more tear-filled?
If having an Off day or week isn't allowed on the farm.
How do you cope with HAVING to work?
I guess the same would apply to having a cold or the Flu. The animals still exist and no amount of talking will make them understand you need to cough up a lung.
I think that they can definitely sense what you're feeling after you've had them a while. When I need the world to stop for a little while, I go sit with the chickens and my water bottle filled with Lambrusco and just enjoy them. They are always happy to see me, which is a nice change from feeling needed, but not necessarily *wanted* by my kiddos.
ReplyDeleteThe goats, especially my sweet Barley, are a lot like dogs. I just go and sit in his pen and brush and scratch him, and he sits right down in my lap and nuzzles me and breathes his grassy breath in my face. It is nice to get that kind of love back after all of the fretting and slogging that you do to care for them. They don't always show you appreciation, but it is there.
Maybe you need to come over a snuggle a goat for a spell? :)