By Leslie Neff
Most of kidding season is over for us with ten new little lives joining our farm. I wish I could say it was easier and that things always go well but the brutal cold snap and changing temperatures were certainly a formidable opponent this season when welcoming new life into the world.
We’ve been feeding hay for months and I’ve been patiently waiting to work in the woods on a project and any day the temperatures are over forty degrees I’ve been running a chainsaw. My inner spirit lives for such activities. I long for the smell of wood smoke, cut hay and earth. I’m not much of a town shopper although I do occasionally go with my friends or my daughters and enjoy it with company. Otherwise, I’d rather be piddling around the land here.
I keep hearing reports of our water tables are exceptionally low still, even with our snowfall and recent rains. Lots of folks lost barns and sheds in the last snowfall turned ice event. I myself have older poultry houses and gave a prayer up that they could withstand the weight. We didn’t lose much other than the table and chairs my youngest uses at fair. The ice slid off the metal roof of the goat barn and crushed several of my flowerpots and her pink bistro set.
Tonight, we are attending the 4H achievement awards ceremony. My twelfth one, this adventure into agriculture started with my oldest child. We pretty much learned farming together in almost every aspect. He was a little boy raising meat rabbits in the sand hills of North Carolina, that eventually went to calves, hogs and the purchase of our farm in September 2014. He’s always been my right hand man as a kid. Now he’s grown and has a operation of his own. He’s long since aged out of 4H but we are still showing livestock and gearing up for the fair. Although the children are growing and our time there is coming to a close. I still look back at the last decade with awe and what an honor to be able to raise them in this community with the folks here who are true genuine stewards of the land.
My favorite month, I’ve come to realize, is March. As much as I fuss about the time change it’s really only the one in the fall I loathe. But boy howdy does the idea of long warm evenings thrill my soul. Especially after the winter we’ve had. Hopefully we’ll see berries on the vine soon and enough rain to sustain them.
Peace
Leslie
