Attitude Adjustment

It was hard to be in a good mood upon waking up this morning. A close look out the window revealed it was snowing outside. Very lightly, so lightly it was almost undetectable, but still snowflakes were falling. And it was cold. And windy. And cloudy. And it's May 1st. And seriously this has been the longest winter of my life. And it's not suppose to be like this.

We had a long list of things to do today, all of which fell under the category of gardening. There are beds to prepare, seeds to plant, not to mention a huge pile of pea gravel waiting to be shoveled onto the walkways between each bed. We'd been watching the weather and had planned to spend the whole day outside. It was suppose to be nice. Except that it wasn't. I couldn't let it go.

So I was outside (in the wind and cold and snow) planting the potatoes (because they were all cured and ready and couldn't wait another day) and grumbling about the whole process. Meanwhile Ryan had completely scrapped his plans for the day to reluctantly chop firewood (apparently there are more cold days ahead) which was making me even more mad cause how ridiculous is it to have to chop firewood in May.

And then suddenly Ryan's Grandpa popped into my head. Grandpa Miller was a cattle farmer and lived into his early 90s. When I met him for the first time he was 90 something and still farming. I remember when we left he gave me a handful of carrots straight from the garden, dirt still clinging to them. This was probably 13 ot 14 years ago and I'm embarrassed to say I was so removed from real food back then that I was afraid to eat them.



While I never knew him well as he died not too long after I met Ryan, I feel like I knew him just from the all the stories I have heard over the years. He was a very strong, hard working, independent man. And, while we are in no way "farmers" in the way that he was (nor will we ever be), we do have a few things in common. We are trying to feed our family through our own hard work. We are trying to use this small piece of land and be a bit more self-sufficient. And even if it is 1/100th of the work load that a real farmer has, in our own teeny, tiny way, we are trying to be farmers.

So it is good to have his image to bring to mind and give myself a little reality check. This life we are living is what we wanted. And this is a part of that (this being snow, cold, abnormal temperatures, rain, or any other thing nature brings our way). We can never predict or control what nature will do. Nature does not work around us, we work around her. I'm pretty sure that's farming 101. So... loose the sense of entitlement, nature owes me nothing. If you want potatoes go plant them... and quit whining about it.

Right? Right.

I'm happy to say my mood improved. I did my work. Potatoes were planted. Oats were planted. Carrots and lettuce were planted. More dirt was moved. More beds were filled.

While there is so much more work to be done in the next few weeks, rain or shine (or snow), I'll be out there doing it... with my new attitude.