Monthly Archives: December 2010

fathers & sons

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I passed these good looking farm fathers and sons yesterday as I was driving to work.  A little jealous that everyone else has already started their holidays, but not so jealous that I can’t be happy when I see the farm boys enjoying morning walks together. 

This whole ‘living in community’ thing is seriously wonderful and I continue to feel blessed by it.  Instead of just getting up in the morning and heading to work, I get up, swing by the house to have a morning coffee with whoever is awake, hug a baby or two, and then hop in the truck to go to work, sometimes passing more farm members out enjoying the crisp December weather along the way (like Chris, Matt, Kai and Canaan yesterday).  Not sure if it gets any better than this!

getting to know the *neigh*bours

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The property next door to ours is home to three horses.  I love horses.  LOVE them.  I’m a girl who loves horses.  It happens. 

I took horseback riding lessons for a few years when I was in junior high and fell in love with them – their physical beauty, their faces, their smell – they really are magnificent animals.  The more time I get to spend near them the better, so you can imagine my delight when our neighbouring horses started showing some interest in me.

Over the past few weeks, the horses have been watching me as I go out to check on the chickens every morning.  From across the back field, they raise their heads and eye me as I trudge towards the chicken coop in my red rain boots (maybe it’s really the rain boots that catch their eye ;).  While I’m letting the chickens out and filling up their water dishes, the horses make their way over to the property fence that divides us.  After finishing with the chickens, I walk over to say good morning to them, pat their soft noses and feed them some grass from our side of the fence (which is way more prolific than the grass on their side of the fence).  I love this new morning ritual. 

Yesterday, Fergus (the cat) was hanging outside with me so I carried him over to meet the horses.  He wasn’t as keen about this as I was and scrambled out of my arms as soon as the horses started to move.  Like Jackson (our dearly departed dog) and the chickens, I’m sure the cats will get used to the horses too.  Bit by bit, our little farm oasis – where animals and humans and plants co-exist – is coming together.