Love it or hate it, farm life is real.
Loss and death lie around every corner, whether its the favorite cat that wanders off and never returns, or the champion herdsire alpaca that expires without producing an heir. Chickens and ducks fall prey to a variety of predators.
Matilda
Marigold checks out the new arrivals
We were devastated last January when our treasured milk cow, Marigold, got sick and passed away within a week, despite vet care. She had the sweetest, maternal heart, visiting new sow mamas and licking their newborn piglets. You could tell she had a sense of humor too. When milking time came, she’d glance slyly back at you and jog the opposite direction around the carport before jauntily ambling back to her stanchion and hay.
Farm life, however, is also full of intense joys. You find a stray kitten in the woodpile, and when he’s old enough to go out on his own, he sticks around. Ducklings and chicks spring up seemingly from nowhere. Three fuzzy goslings appear, toddling between their protective parents, who hiss like all get-out at anything that dares to come near. The alpaca you never expected anything from sires a princely son. And the broken down horse you purchased as a companion to your other horse now romps and gallups about the pasture with her, glossy-coated and full of life.
Felix in May 2024
As hard as farm life can be sometimes, I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
Praised be Jesus Christ!