It's a rare moment on the farm.
The hobbit is tucked into bed after an intense showering session in which the mud (ah, who am I kidding, it was mostly poop) he'd decided to play in while I was milking was washed away, along with the sins of the day.
G-love is pretending she's a mermaid in a bubble bath – also washing away the drudge of another hot summer day.
Sir William has been asleep for hours already, not making it too far past the chicken tacos he enjoyed for dinner.
Stuart went to go enjoy some chicken wings and beers with the men from church.
And I… I'm sitting here, watching the sheep through the window, wishing I had a London Fog, and dreaming of where to plant my echinacea plants that I picked up at the market today.
These moments of rest and reflection are fleeting, but I'm working hard to work them in. Admittedly, I've been in a dreamy stage for a few weeks now. I'll blame it on the first green tomato I ate. That tomato put me into the intense summer days – the days that are horrifically hot, every chore causes abnormal amounts of boob sweat (sorry, it's true) and swollen feet. These days are the days that start early – like 4:45 early. They involve way too much espresso and after all the work, cold beer.
A Day In The Life
I rise after the sun around these parts of Washington, even getting up that early. So I've set apart that hour before the kids get up to my first cup of coffee and the gardens. Stuart and I have been enjoying weeding, talking, and harvesting before the thickness of the summer heat arrives and before the littles make their way out of bed. It gives me a brief moment to be quiet, be still, pray, and make real progress in the potager.
Have you ever gardened with children? While it may be a great time for lesson learning, it certainly isn't a good time for real progress. At least with a 4, 2, and almost 1 year old.
After the garden work, I'll meander back inside for my second cup of coffee. I'll sit down, check my morning email, respond to pressing messages, and mentally prepare for the tasks ahead that day. Girlfriend's gotta get herself worked up sometimes. You can do it, Shaye! You got this! GOOOO TEAM ELLIOTT!
We're one of those weird families that actually sits down to a hot breakfast, 365 days a year. I love this time. The kids are waking up and not at their maximum functioning quite yet and we always can connect with each other before the day begins. Georgia's always curious to know the happenings of that day, informs us which princess dress she'll be wearing for our chores, and offers her assistance in story-telling (just in case). Owen is usually shoving some sort of food where it doesn't belong and causing general mayhem, as Owen does. Little Will just sits… observes… eats.
After breakfast, it's dishes. Always dishes. Alwayssssssss dishes. After which, I attempt to hide the bags under my eyes with a heavy concealer, powder my nose, put on a coat of mascara, brush my teeth, throw on farm clothes, add some lip-gloss so I feel like a real woman, and go about making beds, changing diapers, brushing hair, brushing teeth, putting clothes on three children (realizing that most of the items I've picked out have stains on them), and so forth. Usually by 8:30, we're fed, changed, bathed, clothed, and rip-roarin' ready for the day.
Rip-roarin'. Now there's a farm word for ya.
Because Stuart's out of school for the summer, we've not only been dreaming about progress we'd like to make on the farm… but we're actually getting to make some. The days have been full putting up hog panel, building a milk parlor (more on this to come!), pulling weeds, spreading pea gravel in the potager, planting flowers, revamping hay storage, shoveling poop, designing stairs to go down to the coop, and enjoying the new calf. We've been working as much as we can stand the heat – which, unfortunately, isn't nearly as long as I'd like.
Mid-day is often reserved for my work time, where Stu will hang out and play with the kids, do school with Georgia, read stories, etc., while I make phone calls, work on the new cookbook, work with essential oils, answer emails, write blog posts, take photographs, and on it goes. Having him home more has given me more play room for finishing the cookbook – can I get a holla for progress?
HOLLA!
Thank you, self.
After morning chores, work, lunch, lunch clean up, and nap time, it's time for cold beer and dinner prep. Yes, we sit down to a meal for supper too. The whole fam-damly. Even though it's excruciating to run the oven in this heat, I still love summer suppers. The vegetables are out of this world and we get to eat as many as we want! Farmer perk, baby.
Here's a question for you: If you could only have one vegetable stocked in your refrigerator at all times, what would it be?
I have my answer. It dawned on me when I was cooking up those chicken tacos for dinner. My answer is cabbage. Cabbage hot, cabbage cold, cabbage with butter, cabbage with lime juice, cabbage with stuff wrapped inside, cabbage is the vegetable love my life.
See how important it is that I have alone time to reflect on such import questions?
After our summer supper, the kids usually play outside with the chickens and ducks while we get Baby Will bathed, fed, and put to bed, followed by (you guessed it!) more dishes. I like to completely clean my kitchen at night – the dishes, a clean table, a swept floor, a running dishwasher, the whole sha-bang. It makes me feel like a teeny-tiny fractal of my life is in order.
Post dinner “fluffing” (as I like to call it) involves a clean sweep of the house in which Disney music is played and all Elliott family members, sans the littlest, help me clean up the “sin” of the day – that is shoes, clothes, diapers, toys, and general disgusting bits that are spread around the house like a deadly virus. They're not much help yet… but we're getting there.
We've been milking Sally as late as possible since the weather has been so dang hot and it's been incredible. Since Lyle was born just last week, we're only a few days into real milk (the first few days are colostrum). Georgia drank a glass last night, right from the milk bucket – it was still warm and frothy. She gulped it down, licked her lips, and said “I've been waiting so long for this milk!”.
And then I died a thousand, happy farm deaths.
Y'all, these days are so full. And there are many days when tasks go unaccomplished, dishes pile high, laundry piles even higher, and I question my desired to ever do any of this.
But then.
Then there are those baskets of eggs, tomatoes, and okra. There are littles faces covered in tomato seeds and fresh mint in our iced water. There is muddy feet, dirt under our fingernails, and “baby Sally”. There are harvests, there are losses. There is life. There is adventure.
There are dreams.
And Amen.
More posts on Farm Life:
- Why We Homestead
- Tips on Starting a Homestead
- Great Benefits of Homesteading
- I Believe in This Farm Life
Miley D.
AMEN Shaye! I wouldn’t trade my farm life for ANYTHING!! It is what keeps me at peace and close to our Lord! I do have to ask – what kind of fencing do you use for your sheep?
God Bless!
Amanda
Sounds exhaustingly wonderful! Living the dream!
DaNelle
Love this! But you forgot to add, “7:30am-The time at which I wake DaNelle up with a phone call to get her lazy butt outta bed.” 😉
Ali
Amen to farm life! We just bought our farm in February so I know all about the dreaming/planning/progress. We’ve even had our first baby goats born already on the farm and I would say it was in my top ten best life experiences watching them being born. And what a life for kids! Mine are 14, 10, and 8. They adapted quickly and love it. And I love them having a childhood unplugged! Don’t get me wrong… they have devices that they like to play but that time is limited and they would much rather run around outside with the neighbors.
Life With The Crew
Did you make up that line that your daughter said? 😉 Love it! I feel the same way sometimes about cooking from scratch. I never question if it is worth it, but there is no denying the amount of time that I spend in the kitchen. However, what is more important than preparing the food that my family eats, that sustains our bodies and minds? And when I hear my daughter over at her little play kitchen “making butter from the milk she got from Farmer Jeff” (our local dairy farmer) or “making bread” (which we do from scratch), then I know that I’m doing something right. Teaching her about real food is worth the time spent in the kitchen and the piles of dishes.
Madelyn
That’s awesome. Growing up I showed no interest in learning how to cook and so my Mother just didn’t push it. Now I feel like I’m playing catch up and it’s frustrating. I will definitely be teaching my kids how to cook!
Molly Schultz
GIrl, you make me feel like a lazy bum! And I have 9 kids, farm animals and huge garden. You go girl!
fiona
beautiful xxx sounds like my days including all the dishes – dishwasher no 2 just blew up !!!!
Annabelle
Beautiful!!! Brings a tear of joy to my eye! Blessings and shalom, sister! 🙂
Amy
Sounds like a beautiful (challenging but totally worth it) life! I love reading about it 🙂
Kathy
Shaye, i too have ducks and was wondering how to tell if they are going to lay me some duck eggs. We just got them in May but they are already getting so big. 3 of them are white and the other 2 are brown . Of course we have 25 goats are some ate generation 5 and the babies are generation 6. and about 20 chickens. Thankfully hubby is retired so he helps me alot with the feedings. I have the 3 gen 6 that i am keeping this year for breeding. But sold 5 earlier this year and of course we have several “pets” goats that we love and won’t get rid of them. They were our bottle babies. The twins mom died after birth so we had to bottle feed them and the other one was #3 of triplets and she couldnt stand up to nurse so i brought her in to bottle feed her. She was up and walking in 3 days but mom refused to feed her. So she was our house pet for about 2 weeks and then went back out with her sisters but still had to bottle feed her. She is now our pet also!
Stephanie
Your life sounds dreamy–the hard, the heat, the cold, the poop, the dishes–all of it sounds so so worth it when juxtaposed against way too many sun ripened tomatoes and frothy fresh milk and family meals. How very blessed you are!
Jessica
I loved reading about how you organize your day! SO much! We live on a busy farm as well (chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, dog, cats, horses, endless projects and chores!) Sometimes we struggle to even organize a meal, and we don’t even have children! This post gives me hope…and gets me thinking we aren’t quite busy enough and should add more animals to the farm. 😉
Monica Mansfield
On the hard days, your blog reminds me why I love this life. Just ordered Welcome to the Farm and can’t wait to sit back and read it.