Busy Solitude

Today was a wonderfully productive day at the farm. We drove out around 10 a.m. and spent the entire day there. The sun came out just as we pulled in the driveway and the rain subsided. I let the chickens out and the kids went inside to eat their lunches. Then Rog and I took care of some landscaping chores that we had been itching to tackle. We cut down some overgrown wild bushes that were growing up against the house, trimmed the lilac bush, cut down some other undesirables and pulled the lattice off of the front porch with a hammer and a crowbar. Then Dylan helped us haul it all to the burn pile in back. We also trimmed some low hanging tree branches and swept the back porch off. It was such a humid day, hard to tell if I was sweating or just damp from the humidity. Maybe a mixture of both. But it felt good to be working like that. Good ol fashioned sweat equity. Oddly, I am my most happiest self when I am working on a house. I love the connection of "us". Working side by side, kids lending a hand too, listening to music, making something "better" than how it was before. I love the instant, (well not always instant), gratification I get from manual labor. Whether we are painting a wall, trimming bushes, moving boulders, or replacing a mechanical part. I so enjoy improving old things. Buildings, furniture, landscaping, etc... I enjoy the working relationship I share with Roger. We have been fixing up houses for so long together that it just comes naturally. We hardly even have to speak. If we are painting, for example, he cuts out and I follow with the roller. If we are landscaping, he cuts something down to the nub, and I pull the branches away and pile them into a heaping mound. It's just simple. I instinctively follow his lead, or he follows mine, whatever the project, we are an excellent team!
So today was one of those days. Highly productive. Smoothe. Easy. Harmonious. Rythmic.
We moved from the yard, to the floors, to the staircase. Never breaking to sit down or to rest. We were in our "busy solitude", just happy to be working. Happy to be transforming our little old farmhouse.
The kids were good too. They played, they helped out, they annoyed each other, but mostly stayed out of our way.
The chickens got to free-range for 7 hours, which is probably the longest stretch for them so far. So, they were easy to coralle back into the coop when it was time to go. They were fat on bugs and grass and weeds, and got to return to lettuce and strawberry treats left for them in their pen. It's a hen's life around Hentennial!
So now the upstairs if officially ready for beds! Yay! With primer and two coats of glossy white paint on the floors, it looks amazing! Next time we are there, I get to make up the beds and really make it feel like a home. Our home. Our heavenly home away from home.