Since we recently celebrated Easter, I figured I would share with you some of the goings on here on the farm, because it’s been a minute since the last real farm update and I know you’re all dying to know what’s going on here.
I bring up Easter because I think it’s no coincidence that God timed Jesus death and resurrection in the spring, when all the plant life is literally being brought back to life all around us- by the hour so it would seem. I am not kidding. I living in Middle Tennessee, if you don’t know, and what that means is every single tree in the entire state- and there are a lot of them- die in the winter. They all die. This means two things… spectacular springs and even more spectacular falls… but dismal winters. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year here- or anywhere- but spring is definitely making a play for second favorite (Don’t tell winter). But I can’t help but think of my Lord and Savior coming back from the death in all his glory when I look around and watch Creation demonstrate that very visual. It’s pretty magical.
Green. Just all the green.
As you might have seen from my social media (hey, join me on social media- links in the margin!) we’ve got a lot of new friends here at Shalom Farm…
We’ve got a he and she peacock!
This brings me so much joy! Why peacocks? I’m glad you asked (well, my friend Molly actually did ask). Way back when, when my husband and I lived in Woodland, my in laws lived on a few acres at the edge of town. We actually got married on this property and on this property, there was a male peacock. He was the most beautiful creature, and frankly the best watch dog, you could ever find on a ranchette. His name was Pedrick, because the road the house was on was also known as Pedrick road.
As the story goes of Pedrick, he blew in on a storm one summer day and never left. He arrived before I arrived in the family, but he found himself as the primary inspiration for our wedding, which would happen at this home a few years later, as I mentioned. You see, mature peacocks drop all their beautiful feathers once a year, and so come end of summer, we’d all set out on a month long scavenger hunt to collect the beautiful plume.
These feathers found their way into our invitations, our centerpieces, our flower arrangements, my hair and our cake, and the colors inspired the entire event. So why did we get a peacock couple for Shalom Farm… nostalgia.
We also gained three ducklings this last month. Why? Well, we got three ducklings last year- one for each kid- and only one of the three made it to adult hood. There is just something about a duck, and well, I love our duck. But, if you can imagine a duck friend being the cutest, I want you to imagine a duck couple! On a whim, my husband picked up a male duck to accompany our female duck from a farm up in Spring Hill area, and wouldn’t you know it? They quickly fell in love. Did you know ducks mate for life? Well… I should say they are monogamous…
The boy duck only made it about six months before he was just gone one morning. Unfortunately, that’s how it goes around here sometimes. Here today, gone tomorrow. Man if it doesn’t keep me VERY grounded in gratitude and mortality, I don’t know what will… I digress…
So the cutest duck couple ever, became the saddest widow duck ever literally over night. First off, do you know the difference between a boy and a girl duck? Boys hiss and girls quack! You’ll know when you hear the difference the next time you’re hanging out with ducks. So anyway, this sad little girl quack was breaking my heart. To inflate these feelings of sadness, we lost this boy duck right around the same time that we lost Tracker, our sweet Golden Retriever puppy. It was just a lot. So I’ve been bugging Tom to get some more ducks on the property, so we got some new chicks and they are growing up SO fast (ducks grow up so fast!!) and I look forward to watching the Bachelorette as she decided which of the new ducks will be her suitor. Well, that’s assuming one of these babies grows up to be a hisser…
I already mentioned to y’all in a previous blog that we’ve got some new piglets, but we’ve got even MORE piglets now and more on the way. It’s pretty amazing how quickly these things duplicate. Thomas has taken to giving away hogs to make friends… he calls it ‘networking.’ I don’t know about all that, but we certainly do have pigs to spare around here.
We also recently added a goose to our herd of misfits. Why a goose? Well, as I mentioned, my husband has a funny way of making friends and so he told a fellow farmer that we would be willing to hatch her goose eggs in our incubator. Everything is a homeschool opportunity for our kids, after all. So we received six goose eggs from this gal, three hatched, and she only wanted two babies back. Thus, the goose addition to our farm. He/she is just a sweet baby goose right now, so it will be interesting to see if this goose grows up to be a nice goose or a mean goose. Stay tuned.
Last but not least, we’ve welcomed Billy (I think that’s his name) to the family. Billy is a baby cow and he’s adorable. He joins the other 5 cows (one who is almost the very same age as Billy- Pearl), who have already taken ownership of our pastures. He’s adorable and he and I got to know each other well after I chased him all over the yard. I heard him mooing right outside my bedroom window… which is not where we keep our cows… and so that’s how we became aquatinted. There is some hazing process that each animal who joins us goes through which includes breaking loose of their pasture and evading capture for several minutes, sometimes days- let’s be honest. But now that he’s safe and sound (for the moment) we’re glad he’s here.
Let’s see… what else am I missing? Oh yes, in true Shalom Farm updating, we really can’t report on new life without discussing lost life… unfortunately we believe our cat Luna- the only one we actually bought and intended to be here (of the 10 who have called this place home over the last 2 years) has gone missing. We suspect the worst and honestly, I’m pretty sad about it. If you know me, you know that I hate cats. No, I HATE CATS! Like I can’t even handle the fact that I have had 10 cats at one time that I fed. My mother has all but disowned me because of it… this is a multi-generational hatred of cats… but I was just starting to understand Luna. She was a brat- don’t get me wrong. I would not be lying if I told you that she was returned to Petco THREE TIMES before we bought her ON SALE because of her attitude problems. But after a year of hanging out with her, I think she was just misunderstood. She plays rough. But she’s not mean. Now Smokey… mom to 6 of the cats who have lived here… we call her ‘the gray devil’ because she truly is demon possessed (but she hunts mice like a demon so she gets to stay)… but not Luna. So it’s with great sadness- which is weird to say- that we say goodbye to the first and last cat I will ever pay money for.
So there you have it… that’s the latest on the farm. It’s always changing. It’s always evolving. There is still so very much ahead for us on this little slice of heaven, and we’re so grateful and tickled that you’re coming along for the ride!
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