Meditations from Monday

April 9, 2012

All of the days run together. I don’t even recall, in this moment what I did today. What I ate of breakfast, or how I even managed to get showered and fed all before 7:00pm.

It’s work. It’s outside. And it’s exhausting. Sometimes not in the moment so much, but at the end of the day, I realize just how tired I really am. Go for a walk? Forget it. Go run errands? No way.

At the end of the day there is dirt under every fingernail. Solid black dirt. There is dirt in my snot, dirt in the corners of my eyes and dirt on my Q-tip when I pull it out of my ears. This nighttime showering thing is completely new to my routine, but completely necessary at the same time and really the only way I would be able to live with myself (and Chris) at this point.

I started my day learning to drive a standard transmission. Yes, a stick shift. This is only because there was not way Chris could drive both the tractor and the Chevy down to the soon to be rows of peas to fertilize, till and cover the beds. We threw the brand new row cover, fertilizer, buckets and shovels in the bed of the truck, I got my five minute lesson and off I went.

I get it mentally; it’s just my feet that don’t cooperate. The ignition starts without a key, someone has to lean on the side of the truck for the bed to close properly, there is chicken wire on the back hatch where glass used to be…. You know, a real farm truck. Not one of those 2012 four-door megaton, leather seats, power windows trucks with heated seats and a DVD player in the backseat. What’s the worst I could do? Besides kill the engine no less than ten times driving back and forth across the pasture in first gear.

We did our thing in the rows while the wind blew. We raked and weeded more in the greenhouse we tore the bed our of last week. After lunch Chris had a chiropractors appointment. (And we’re not even one month into this thing…) So, for the first time I was left working alone with farmer Thomas.

Conveniently during lunch the ground cover and the plastic top for the greenhouse we’re rebuilding arrived. Perfect.

This afternoon I drove stakes into the ground with a sledgehammer. I looked Thomas right in the eye and said, “What if I hit you?” I think he responded with a grunt and a grin that meant, “Seriously, just hit the damn pole….”

So I know I swung a lot more than I should have, but the poles got into the ground. Then more shoveling and turning over beds in the 96 foot house while we waited Chris’s return to unravel the massive plastic tarp that the wind could whisk away in no time. Seriously, the wind up here…. It is not to be taken lightly.

We completed the greenhouse around 4:30 and stopped for the day.

Margaritas in hand (out of a pre-mix Jose Cuervo special that we picked up at the wine store) we trudged uphill across the pasture at to the pond. We sat on these massive rocks which made up some historical stonewall that Farmer Thomas had told us about previously and looked out at the gorgeous view. Silos, farm houses, freshly tilled soil, green pastures, trees and mountains in the distance.

Today was hard work. I am sore, I am tired, but it feels good.

For dinner: acorn squashed stuffed with rice, ground turkey and cheese. Followed by hot cocoa… I’m happy.