We are still ignoring the lingering boxes in the corners that have yet to be unpacked from our move last month. Let’s be real—I still have boxes I haven’t unpacked since I moved to our first home after finishing graduate school. Everyone has at least one of those boxes right? I’m going to pretend that you are nodding in agreement and proceed to feel no shame about my not so hidden character flaw. While we are still settling in and finding our new normal (as much normal as we can muster during a global pandemic), we have opted to spend this time together with our #dukecrew outside exploring our much bigger yard.
Our soon-to-be farm has 6 acres of mostly cleared land divided by two creeks facing east/west for amazing morning light and evening sunsets. For those of you who know me, I grew up in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee on a 50 acre farm and spent much of my childhood catching crawdads in the creek, climbing fruit trees, and chasing chickens. I can already see Lily, Holden, and Emma playing in the creeks, (gently) harassing the chickens (i.e. toddler love), and herding the goats. But before we can bring home the highly anticipated farm animals and play in the creeks, Ben and I have had to step up our yard work efforts because if there is anything in this world I hate; it’s snakes and poison ivy-and I spotted both in our first week on the farm. We have spent hours upon hours weed-eating the creekbanks and using a machete to cut back heavier undergrowth in preparation for putting up field fences. It’s a good thing we finally upgraded our push mower to a riding mower two years ago because we have mowed several days per week every week since we moved in! The former owner was not exaggerating when he said you may work the land, but the land will work you too. I was sad to leave my gym in Grayson, but it looks like I’ll be getting in my workouts the old fashioned way–brings an original spin to the “farmer’s carry” and “chainsaw row.” We had an unseasonably cool spring and early summer here in Georgia and now the stifling heat and humidity have me counting down the days until fall.
Despite the sweltering temps and hard labor, our toddler crew has followed us through thickets and creeks, team carried fence poles, and picked up stray limbs in the field after thunderstorms. They’ve spent hours building homes for worms, frogs, and lizards that they have caught and have eaten celebratory popsicles on the front steps after planting our first garden. While this summer has not been what any of us have planned and we are very much struggling with social separation and fatigue, we are attempting to make the best of it. They miss their friends terribly and don’t understand why we can’t resume normal pre-quarantine activities, but they have adapted well to the change and embraced our new lifestyle. I know they are excited to grow the farm and bring home animals and I’m looking forward to the herd of goats that will help us with the amount of weed eating and grass cutting!
