Peace

It was another fantastic weekend out at the farm, with good food, good wine, and a lot of much-anticipated relaxation. Unfortunately, the whole gang wasn’t quite there as S’s business is keeping him very busy, and P didn’t feel right leaving him at home alone while she came to live it up with the rest of us. So…next time, yes? And all things considered, I’m really happy for him that the business is going so well, even when it does interfere with fun plans.

Some sad news at the farm was that one of their goats had to be put down on Friday, and it was a really rough experience for all involved, so they were definitely in need of some laughter and company – which Special K and I endeavored to provide. I think that’s got to be one of the hardest things about having a farm – as K said, living off the land is setting yourself up for one heartbreak after another, whether it’s saying goodbye to beloved animals or watching some disease hit your crops. Now, I still could easily see Special K and I having a small property like that one day, where we grew as much of our own food as we could and had some animals, like chickens to produce eggs and such, but it’s a lot of hard work, and a lot of commitment. I’m torn between whether or not I’d like to raise kids out in a rural area – on one hand, I think they’d develop an appreciation for the earth, for knowing that our food comes from it, and knowing how important it is to really care for it, since we’re not going to get another one. On the other hand, I’d like them to have a greater diversity of after-school activities and rites of passage than mailbox baseball and cow-tipping.

So, it’s a quandary.

I think my knee-jerk definition of what I’d like to own when we’re ready and able (and who knows when that will be), is actually quite similar to what we have, but a lot closer to our jobs and with a bigger back yard. I’d even be fine with keeping the size yard we have, really, but the proximity to our jobs is just bothering me tremendously. I’m having a really hard time sitting in a car for so long; I just can’t get over the financial and environmental implications of it. I love older, inner suburbs that are more accessible, where you’re not forced to rely on a car for everything. I like houses that don’t all look the same. I like old trees and sidewalks, and I think there are still a number of years of city girl left in me, when I really sit down and think about it.

We don’t want to move any time soon, so we hope that our landlords don’t want us to move any time soon, either. But we’ll have to look pretty carefully at both sides of the river once we do decide that we’re ready to buy.

But back to our weekend. Well, there really wasn’t all that much more to it – which was the best part in a lot of ways. I managed to fall asleep at almost every opportunity (I do this a lot lately. My body is getting greedy about sleep, methinks. And yet, I still feel tired all the time. And I’m not pregnant. So I really don’t know what that’s about.), but we still all had a great time together. Dinner was fantastic, as it always is, and we spent the evening sitting out on their porch, listening to music, and talking about life – which is actually about the time I dozed off, although I do remember being woken up for pie.

Mmmm….pie.

Brunch the next morning was delicious, and then since it was raining really hard, our walking plans were scrapped in favor of sitting around and doing nothing, which felt like quite the luxury for all of us. First, we watched Galaxy Quest, and underrated gem of a movie, and then we watched a good chunk of the HBO miniseries John Adams, which Special K and I want to Netflix (funny how that’s now a verb…sort of) as soon as it’s available since we had to leave before it was over.

(And I fell asleep again.)

Overall, it was a renewing weekend, and one that lived up to all the anticipation, as they always do.