Hey there,
How are you? Do you feel like it was only the other day that we started 2025 or is that just me? I had high expectations for February and to be honest those expectations are a long way away from my current reality! It’s so annoying that gap between expectations and reality… I am aware enough to recognise the gap so I’ll take that as a win. One day I will learn how to align my current reality and expectations, but for now I’m not ready to compromise or add that skill to my tool belt!
Our youngest started Kindergarten this year and for just this year we have all four kids at primary school together. This was pretty exciting for Joel and I and one of those moments where a milestone that always felt like the distant future actually arrived and happened. It is also the point where I may have tripped myself up. This new chapter of life and the opportunities that are on offer created a very dreamy set of expectations! Are you smiling? Is this familiar to you too?
Well, life on the farm goes on and my month of February has been a very good reminder that. There is a saying by Jim Rohn ‘Either you run the day or the day runs you’ – I have to say it wasn’t just the day for me, it’s the month of February! Life and the farm has definitely had control of my time and energy, yet there have been pleasures only this season brings that have come with it all.
This month we crutched and shore almost 1000 sheep and that is unusual for us to do both tasks in the same month. Crutching is the removal of the wool from the tail and bottom area of the sheep and it is critical to manage animal welfare and reduce wool staining. It is important that this task is done before shearing and this year it was only the fortnight before. Crutching in the shed is fun though, the shearers move through the sheep so fast that there isn’t time to do anything but go, go, go! (The insulation on the shed roof didn’t really help considering the pace of work and its FEBRUARY!)
We seem to happily share shearing time on social media, I think it is because there are lots of moving parts and something not everyone gets to experience. My favourite part is watching the fleece be separated from the sheep. As the shearer flows through their repetitive rhythm this pure white wool is exposed, contrasting so much from their long dusty fleece. There is a soft pink behind the remaining wool and the light bounces off the short fuzz giving a pearly glow. The hand piece of the shearer leaves little groves along the line it has cut and it reminds me of long parallel lines shown in the COLOURBOND ads on TV. I’ll see if I can get my photos from the shed to show this on social media… wish me luck!
February has the home vege garden and orchard in full production, apart from the slight challenge I had were my automatic timer used to water the vege garden ran out of batteries. We had some summer storms that disguised the lack of regular water and I lost a few plants as a result, luckily the cucumbers and beans had served me very well already. I saw it as a welcome break from finding ways to continue enjoying cucumbers and a window to start preparing some early autumn crops.
A few unexpected wins that came from the busy month was that it forced me to do a few things differently. I had a great crop of red onions this year and I needed to preserve them as I don’t have a lot of success with just storing them in the cupboard. My time crunch made me consider fast and easy options and we came up with picked onions that are delicious and ready to eat/store in the fridge in 5-10mins (or in my reality the space between starting to prepare dinner and sitting down to eat it!). I’m more than happy to share the recipe if you are interested?
The second win was that my evening routine became my daily highlight. I moved the chooks into the orchard to scratch around under my apple and pear trees while they are fruiting. This helps to manage any pests and as a result I was out there every evening emptying the chooky scraps. I would make sure to pick a Nashi Pear or apple every visit and stop and enjoy it. February brings hot evenings and there is absolutely nothing that compares to the intensity of the flavour and sweetness while the fruit it is still warm from the day’s heat. Add to that a beautiful sunset of gold and red and orange and the dusty haze from sheep wandering around the dry paddock. It can be easy to forget how good life can be sometimes, especially when we hold high expectations!
Well February, thanks for your whirlwind visit and reminding me that I need to do more than just daydream about the reality I could have. I’m happy to say that the season of summer is on its way out and there will be respite from the heat and garden watering soon. I know better than to think it will arrive with the first day of March, but it won’t be too far away.
I hope you had a wonderful February and I look forward to hearing about it, if you’re happy to share. Thank you so much to those of you that responded to my last letter, it was so lovely hearing from you.
Until our next letter, sending my love from the farm,
Em.
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