This time of year

Life on the farm can feel oppressive at this time, when everywhere you look there's something that needs to be done and there's no way you can get to it all. Crops need to go in the ground, weeds and insects need attention, fruits and vegetables need to be harvested regularly, food needs to be preserved for the winter, cheese must be made or else the milk will spoil, cows need new pasture, and so on. But this is how it is every year, and I have learned not to freak out because it will pass and things will ease up.

Instead, if you can change your frame of mind and walk around the farm sort of like a visitor, not like you actually live here, things look incredibly beautiful and bountiful, and all you feel is joy and gratitude at all this abundance and diversity. Berries lusciously waiting to be eaten, cows contentedly grazing or loafing in the shade, baby chicks just hatched picking at the ground with their mother, flowers and herbs with enticing aromas, birds chirping, insects buzzing all around, sun and a nice breeze, everything is alive and fertile, plentiful and diverse. This fills the soul and makes one get over the fatigue and the unending chores.

Some pictures:
Excellent strawberry harvest this season

We made strawberry jam. Here, Sena and Aiyana are preparing the berries.

Stirring the pot. Just Strawberries, maple syrup and a little lemon. It smelled divine.

Canned about 40 pints of jam. Not sure that will be enough. But we also froze about 60 pints of raw berries, so I guess it will be.

 And after all the work, a treat: cheese and jam, all made by us.

Peace