Spring is a time for honest, old-fashioned hard work at our place. Winter’s wind and rain storms knocked down a ton of wood from the big trees in our pastures, and, now that the weather is getting nicer, I’ve spent the last several days, carting windfall out of the critters’ grazing areas. Our ruminants -- the sheep, Smokey, and the goat, Pumpkin -- hang out with me and keep me company, though I doubt they’re aware that it’s the cheapskate in me that motivates my work: The more downed wood I get cleared out of the pastures, the better the grass will grow this summer, and the less hay we’ll need to buy to feed Mr. S and Miss P.
But this is pleasant work I’m doing, and I feel good, not only about money not spent on $20-a-bale orchard grass hay, but for the exercise I get. My body and my photographic eyes benefit from jobs like this. I always have a camera at hand to use as my visual note-taking device, ready for moments when I’m in the barn and, though a hole in the wall, I see Smokey outside, curious about what I’m up to; or times when Pumpkin comes begging for a chin-scratch; or, most heart-warming of all, I find Pumpkin napping and goat-purring in the spring sunshine.
