ALMOST as good as it gets

Right, once again I have been amiss about blogging. So, smack me! No, now that all the hay crop is in for the year, I had a little time to set back and really enjoy the quiet life of farming. The other night my neighbor across the street (yes, we do have a couple of neighbors in the valley) came over and wanted to go fishing in our pond. So I decided to go. Hubby is in NJ dealing with a break-in to our house which we have STILL yet to sell. Grabbing my things, we headed down the street. This is the same neighbor we had to rush to hospital in my last blog- so you can see, he's doing better.


Getting the tackle and rods out of the barn, I decided to go with a shiny spinner. No sooner had I made a couple of casts, I hooked a 12" big mouth bass. Nice! Got that one off the hook and made a few more casts. Bam! Hooked a 13" big mouth. By now, my neighbor is still fumbling with his worm, and I've caught two very tasty looking fish. He's not amused. I am! After about 2 hours of fishing, I had another large blue gill, and he had nothing. We decided to take what I had in the freezer from a previous outing and fry everything up for dinner that night.

Most of the time, when I catch fish, I kinda leave them out to die without having to "dispatch" them myself. Well, couldn't do that this time, so he gave me a pair of pliers and I had to whack the fish on the noggin. I don't like killing things- honestly. But, I had to remind myself I'm also a farmer, and there WILL be a time in my life I'll have to kill something larger than a mouse. So I dispatched my fish and began the process of learning how to cut filets off it. It wasn't difficult, and after maybe an hour we had enough to feed us all.

In the kitchen, it was washing, dipping in egg, then flour, and frying. When it finally arrived on my plate and I took that first bite, I realized just how nice it was to have my own pond. Fish so fresh it was swimming less than two hours ago- you can't get any better than that- or can you?

Yesterday, after all the barn chores were done, I had a little time to myself. The lawn around the farm house needed mowing, and I really didn't feel like dragging the noisy riding lawn mower inside the gates to mow. So, as I stood looking at my poor stallion, Galveston, who was begging me for some grazing time, I decided to take a chance and let him mow the lawn. I took him out of his rather bare paddock and brought him into the yard. I stayed right with him for a little bit, just to make sure he wouldn't do anything moronic. When satisfied that he was mowing happily away. I went inside, grabbed my laptop and brought it out onto the porch. Plugging in, I went to work, happily watching my 1,400 pound lawn mower chewing his way through the grass. The sounds of birds and crickets, the occasional passing car, and the munch, munch of a horse was all the noise I had.

In the few hours that I let him mow, he did a reasonable job. He's a rather environmentally friendly lawn mower- he fertilizes as he goes. Unfortunately, all the fertilizer ends up in big piles! But that's okay. He was happy, and I was happy to get another chapter done in a book I'm working on.

Sitting there, with my laptop, looking out over my farm, I realized it was almost as good as it gets. I've attained a goal in my life, but there's still so much to do. More farm chores, more books to write, and more marketing to do- blah! But all in all, life isn't too bad being a farmer/writer. I've met some nice, and interesting folks in our new world, folks who if you need help, they are there for you. Such a rarity in society these days. Dinner last night was with a bunch of my new friends as they were getting ready to head out on a trail ride. The chili was great, and so was the fellowship. Country life does indeed take a special breed to survive. I hope I can do it.

Until next time, my creatively obsessed friends.

Cheers,
Kathy