I woke up at 4:30 am this morning to bake bread. Yes, you read that right. I know. I should probably get a metal or something. Cue the music!
What's that? People wake up at 4:30am every day to go to work? Psh. Pay no mind to facts such as that.
Truth be told, I get up at 4:30 am to bake bread… but not just to bake bread. I also get up at 4:30 am to sit in peace and quiet while I enjoy my first cup of coffee. Sometimes I'll wash a few dishes. Sometimes I'll light a few candles and read. Sometimes I'll just sit in silence and pick the dirt out from under my nails.
What? I'm a farmer. I can't help it. Dirt is part of the job.
This week it was necessary to start out with early morning quiet time because I don't even know what's happening with my life. All of a sudden, there's piano recitals and Thanksgiving grocery lists and the threat of snow lingering over the horizon. I won't pretend like we're not seriously behind schedule on the farm – we totally are. We always are.
There is hay storage and an additional corral to build before the deep freeze and snowfall arrive. It sounds ridiculous to say it snuck up on us (it does arrive at the same time every year), but it did. I'm shocked it's already here.
So while I'm inside trying to keep the fires lit and the oven full, Stu will begin the week by driving to the lumber yard and piling up enough timbers to frame in a large new addition to the ‘barn'. Hey kids! Guess what we're doing for school today? Geometry! Watch Dad build some trusses…
I'm totally not kidding about that. This week we'll cover building, gardening, baking, butchering, and more. Lucky kids.
I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm just assertively walking from room to room – acting like I know what's happening. The truth is I'm just drinking a lot of coffee and hot chocolate and folding laundry because it makes me feel like I've actually accomplished something.
Today's the day to sink my heels in and finally get the potager properly put to sleep. That will be my grand contribution to the world. I'll recruit the children to use the clippers I never allow them to play with – they can certainly help me deadhead flowers long-gone.
I'll also recruit them to net the dozen rogue chickens that are wandering around the farm and laying their eggs God-knows-where. They've started to make dirt baths where I've planted bulbs and you know homey-ain't-playing-that-game.
Rogue chickens? A cow to milk in freezing temperatures? A large garden to mulch and dig? A house to decorate? A kitchen to prep for a feast next week? A child's birthday sandwiched somewhere in there? A new building? A dozen roosters, a dozen ducks, and four lambs to prepare for the table?
I got this. I totally got this. In fact, I love it.
I'll assume I'm like a diamond. Shaped by the pressure. Yep, that's it. A diamond. Duh.
A diamond who has a lot of dishes to wash and a lot of snow clothes to dig out of the basement.
Send help.
And Amen.
Jodie
I love it! Have your cookbooks and love your writing. The proofreader in me can’t help but correct the word in your third sentence. It should be “medal” ???? thought I would tell you early on. ???? have a fun week!
Judy G
Love your last statement. “Send help”
I would totally come help, if I didn’t live in Arizona.
My chickens took their dirt baths right where I planted my carrot seeds.
They are no longer free range until the plants are big enough to handle them.
It’s all good! Makes me smile, through my gritted teeth. Ha!
Kara
Ha, I think you read my mind today! I have polyrope fence in piles around the field, baling twine holding my goat pen together, haven’t found more than 1 egg a day in 2 months, a new milk cow, a whether, rabbits and 2 hens to process, my house is a wreck and schoolwork is an afterthought. We have lived her 4 years this month and my kitchen is only half painted! Lol. I love the way you write, and I can tell you are hard on yourself but you also extend yourself the grace you need! I keep telling myself that we are doing HARD things and its ok to shift focus where its most needed, but I am usually crabby about it! Throw in a toddler and a 6 month old that nurses more at night than day…….I don’t know which way is up somedays. Thank the Lord for grace! Love your blog, first time I’ve ever commented!
Sally
Hi Shaye,
Here in Western Australia we are moving into warmer, longer days. It’s changing the rising time of the sourdough bread… the other morning I got up at 1.30am to go to the bathroom and found three loaves bursting at the seams… so I stayed up to bake them. Back to bed at 3am. The things we do! As you say, it’s all good!
Cheers, Sally at One Family, One Planet blog
Jo Murphey
The fact is that I wake up most mornings bu 4AM too. With the time change, it’s still 4AM too. Like you I have a busy homesteading schedule to keep. Unlike you, I no longer have children in the house. My four are grown with families of their own do been there, done that.
I spend the first thirty minutes is prayer. The next thirty is spent with a hot cup of ten and getting the fire started in the wood stove to chase the night’s chilly temps out of the house. The next hour, while waiting for the bread or cinnamon rolls to rise, I spend feeding the inside cockeyed critters, setting up another daily ration of fermented grains for the chickens and feeding them, and then it’s on to the rabbits. While everyone is happily munching on their breakfast, I come inside and stick my hinny by the wood stove and answer the overnight emails and comments. I’ll bake off the bread or rolls. Once a week, I’ll feed the indoor plants with rabbit poo tea. That was today.
Now, it’s 8AM and the rest of my winter mode day starts. I’m combing out and/or blending fibers to spin later. It’s a go to town day to pickup my order from Wally World, pharmacy, pick up grain and hay from the local feed store to pick up the extras that we didn’t grow, pay the power bill, and hit the grocery store for the few items I didn’t grow or put up this year.This is a monthly necessity. Then it’s back to the homestead.
I start our big meal of the day. We eat it around 4PM. A quick run out to the outside animals, love on them a bit, and make sure they have what they need for the night and secure them in their enclosures. In the mean time, I’m grabbing firewood to feed the beast.
By 6PM, the dishes are done and I can sit at my spinning wheel until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore.
Autumn
Love this. And emphathize with you! We’re racing winter in a new way this year: we bought raw land and are building a home this fall/winter with our own hands. Cold is coming and we still need to pour concrete. ACH! And there’s the garden to finish up, a home to pack, a plumbing-less cabin to move into, the last of the butchering to complete and an onslaught of family coming to help raise the house. Winter rest never looked so good.
Jess H.
I have been reading your blog for a while now. Periodically remembering to check up on y’all. And it seems that whenever I’m in need of a reminder about life’s truths, there you are, inspiring others to ride the wave, relish God’s masterpiece, and dig your heels into the mess we call life. Thank you for sharing what it means to be real. There is a serious lack of truth and realness out there in the world, but it feels comforting to know that someone is out there that gets it. Here’s to baby boogers, soft (but full!) bellies, and pots of hot coffee. Amen sister.
M Belford
Love, love, love the “realness”!
I’m a homeschooling mom of 4 ranging from nine to one with another lamb on the the way.
We’ve been here three years in our fixer upper, all the while fixing with our babies & experiencing all sorts of newness; hens being killed by raccoons & you name it.
Through the hills & valleys, we continue to trust in a God who we know is the God not just of the mountains but of the valleys.
Continue to push ahead. Continue to do
Just the best you can for each day. May grace come your way.
Amy
Shaye I don’t know how you juggle it all! I love reading your blog, so inspiring and encouraging!
Joan sorita
Love this story. I can so relate.