How You Like Them Apples?!
The sky is grey, has been all day. The air is stagnant. The smoke from the wild fires on the other side of the country is terribly suffocating when added to the choking humidity. It is a rare day this summer when it isn’t 90 plus degrees. The wildflowers, are out there like little warriors facing down the cloud cover demanding the return of the sun… It is so very green here due to a month plus of endless rain often torrential, which is nice even against the grey above. The sun is going down why it bothers I don’t know. It’s not like we have seen it all day anyway….
Walking around the farm when it is cool and not in the 90s is a treat this summer and to be taken advantage of as often as possible. I like to look in on the trees. Tess, the friendly red maple tree, is out there as usual this summer holding up the sky. She seems weighted down by the air, holding up the stagnant sky can’t be easy. You can see her suffering on days like today. She isn’t happy and dancing. She is… withstanding the heaviness of the day. I feel a bit sorry for her. She has been holding a heavy weight all summer. And she looks somehow actively miserable about the stagnation and humidity. I can feel her exhaustion in conditions like this. I gave her a hug, but I don’t know that she noticed. I am not sure she is able to borrow my strength. I tried to loan her some all the same.
It is eerily quiet outside. Usually the birds are dive bombing everywhere. Usually they are boisterous and noisy, actively up there in the trees laughing at my slow dogs when they go outside. The birds will come to tease them. They drop down low above the dogs then suddenly there they are, back up high in the trees laughing down loudly. But not today. (Note to self, find out what is up with the birds.) Whatever it is, it can’t be good.
Our wild visitors here are somewhat regular. Not long ago a moose dropped through a nearby neighbor’s yard, and a strange pair of eyes scared off the deer the other night. I have seen many varieties of birds, the bunnies are a little too plentiful. Coyotes drop by now and again. But some of our most frequent visitors are the thieves. You know, they wear horns and fur masks and carry out their theft unarmed because they are on four legs… The other night, whatever has been scaring them off lately wasn’t there. And it looks as if they got into my very poorly kept fruit trees. (note to self, find an arborist to teach me proper care for fruit trees.) You can see them up to no good in the video made by our trail cams. I am surprised the dogs didn’t have a melt down… I mean they go nuts over every bunny in the yard but when these thieves showed up not a peep from the dogs….
I hope the birds are ok…. I am really quite concerned, sitting here as the sun drops a bit further in the sky, and the air stays still, heavy and suffocating, and Tess stands strong against the curses offered to her by the changing climate. What are we going to do, climate change is gonna get ugly… It already is. It kills 5 million people a year. I wonder if that is what happened to the birds? Could that be why I hear no laughing bird songs? I miss them.
(Note to self, thank readers for reading.)
Thank you for reading.
Amanda of Wildflower Farm
Tags: B&B, deer, deer eat apples, deer steal apples, deer video, farm, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, from the trail cam, homestead, homestead farm, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, homesteading New England, innkeeper, Innkeeper's blog, lifestyle, local wildlife, new england, New England B&B, new england homesteading, new england wildlife, self sufficiency, self sufficiency homestead, self sufficient, simple living, simpler way of life, trail camera, trail camera video, trail cams, travel, video, wild animals, wildflower farm, wildlife, wildlife trail cam video
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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