Life on the Farm

Life on the farm revolves around the seasons.  Spring slips away from winter in a fragile back and forth fashion with lambing ewes calling to their newborns and garlic peeking out under the winter mulch. As the daylight grows stronger, asparagus and rhubarb emerge, the hens begin to lay in earnest and the pasture transitions from brown to green. Spring draws to a close with the splash of blossoms in the orchard blowing away and the pond crowded with evening peeper song.  Summer's bounty fills in the garden beds and the maturing lambs, who leave behind mother's milk in favor of pasture.  The clockwork succession of berries: strawberries to black caps to raspberries to currants to blackberries marks the passing of summer and their surplus turns into jam, freezer stores or liqueur. Fall winds drop acorns, hickory nuts and hazelnuts along the hedgerow, while we harvest storage crops for winter, finish up the canning and press apples for cider.  The cold heralds a time of rest and gestation for the land and trees as well as the sheep.  Winter, we find, is the best time for peasant dreams until the sun returns to wake us again.

A slideshow of life on the farm is available the Gallery page.

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter