Slow Down

Am I still a blogger? It has been what, three weeks? More? In that time we’ve taken a trip to New York. I was determined to start looking for work on March 1, but instead work came to me, with two big Saint John’s Bible presentations, one of which I went to in St. Paul right from the airport. The second involved a trip to St. Louis, where I had a fantastic time with more friends down there and a really good experience at the talk to the archdiocese for their Lenten Staff Reflection Day. But also, on March 3, I received a large freelance project with many, many due dates. That gobbled up my weekends and any spare time between the trips and talks.

In the midst of all that I got blood work and a scan done. I wasn’t nervous at all, really and truly, and my CA-125 was 19, absolutely perfect.

So my phone is full of photos and blogs have gone unwritten. But today I went out to the greenhouse.

Ah, the greenhouse! It is fully functional and super cool. There are thermometers and when the temperature gets too high, a louvered window opens on one end and a giant exhaust fan turns on at the other end. There are lights, so you can be there at night. There is water at the turn of a handle (though the coupler seems to have frozen last night and cracked, so watering my beds this morning meant water spewing everywhere).

There are tables where Jeff and I are planting plugs today. But since Jeff wasn’t there this morning when I arrived, I planted a bed with spinach, arugula, and radishes.

And as I watered the bed and planted, I contemplated. Contemplated the story of this farm. My other project is working on some documents so we can set up the place as a Land Trust, a way to ensure a preservation of values and a peaceful transition of tenants (!) to the next generation.

I had all sorts of thoughts–

The three families here have lived by certain values, balancing individual ownership and privacy with communal use and restoration/transformation of the property. As I work on a draft of possible bylaws, I’m thinking about our values. I’m thinking about why it worked– in part because it wasn’t ideologically driven. In fact, it started as a dream of a lay Benedictine community, but that sort of fell apart. What remained were people with a love of natural beauty and a commitment to stewardship of the property. What remained were people with a lot of charity toward one another that enabled them to share the property for the benefit of all.

Also, this place has been able to sustain massive and nearly constant change. Over Christmas I saw home movies where Steve’s three girls and some friends played on a swing set on a grassy lawn. (What the wha?) They also built forts in small areas of scrubby trees. Just last week, one row of cottonwoods came down along the drive, and the other half will come down next week, while the ground is frozen and it’s easy to clear them. Everyone likes the way it looks. It will look even better with the clusters of red cedars and oaks coming after the ground thaws.

There was once a horse named Coco in the stall where our chickens live. There have been so many chickens.

After a certain number of years, a third home was added to the original two. A marriage ended and the girls moved away, a major trauma in the life of the farm. I arrived not even nine years ago and started building garden beds.

And in the greenhouse, I experience the property in a different way. It’s more centrally located, so I will see people more often. The common areas like the shop and barns are where people drop by to visit. Last week when I went out to see the progress, the beekeeper was there and warned me of the angry bees, so I cut a wide swath around him.

Yesterday I woke up happy. I had work to do, and that doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, but the rush was over. I had made it to a certain point where I could start to write for myself, too, and plant seeds, and go out to the greenhouse and help. It was very cold but had not snowed as much as was expected. I had no job to “go” to, and was happy to turn on my computer and face the task at hand.

Until there is produce, we have sunflower sprouts!

If everything goes well, we’ll have radishes in three weeks, and baby spinach and arugula– maybe in time for Easter. On Easter there might be some children here, though they’re all growing up fast, and there might be baby chicks, and there will certainly be a greenhouse.