We Bought a Farm: Meet Captain Cappuccino

I arrived back home on the farm to a whirlwind of activity. Honestly, I wrote many lines of many Blog posts in my mind as today transpired around me. And now that things are finally settled down, I can't remember most of them.

JB was working today. We were meeting someone at a halfway point and so I had no choice but to be the ram picker-upper.

I arrived home with a new ram in our truck. After much debate, we decided to let Isaac name this ram since Sidge coined the name "Admiral" for our other ram. This one will be called "Cap" or "Captain" and it stands for "Captain Cappuccino." (Just go with it.)

In the midst of figuring out a way (with the help of our wwooffer, Tijmen, and our good friend, Shane) how to move a nearly 200 pound ram into his temporary holding area, I found myself doing a lot of reflecting.

(And we did it brilliantly by following Tijmen's suggestion of putting a piece of plywood under the travel kennel, moving that to the ground, and letting him walk in on his own accord.)

Our farm dog, Arabelle, made the drive with me. (I'm driving around with a farm dog in my truck!) And 'm driving a huge F-250 pick-up truck with a ram in the back.

After the ram is nestled in his new home, I meet a good friend here at the farm to exchange some eggs and tomatoes, and another lady drives up interested in eggs. Her son is battling a very bad allergy. (Like he is allergic to everything.) And she is finding that our food seems to work for him, and she's introducing it to him slowly. I have just said good bye to Shane and sent him on his way with his requested eight dozen eggs, and now I don't have chicken eggs left for this lady. So I find 11 duck eggs in the fridge and give her those instead. She's pleased. I'm relieved.

I get all the kids settled in the house while Uncle Ray is working on electrical issues in the girls' bedroom. Oh, did I mention that we now have a skylight in our bedroom now after someone's foot went through the ceiling during that work? Not kidding. You can't make this stuff up.

Oh and I left out the best part: when I injured my foot in Vermont, I hit my toe. My big toenail chipped. I got an ingrown toenail. Never had one of those before. Holy COW do those hurt badly. Don't worry. JB is helping me fix it. But man oh man doing farm work with that baby is NOT fun.

I quickly run out to do animal chores, not paying attention to how hot it is or how little water I have ingested that day. And as I come back in, I find myself feeling light-headed. I'm getting tunnel vision, wanting everyone to just shut up. Mom takes my blood pressure. It's super low. Call JB. I'm dehydrated. Drink a ton of water. Rest. Blood pressure back to normal.

I notice one of our guineas is being "kicked out" and picked on. I note one turkey that JB needs to put down. He's not doing well. Our rams are low on water. We have tons of apples from a local orchard to feed the pigs. And I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all our tomatoes.

In the midst of all of this, I seriously am just in awe that this is my life. How did I get here? Will this ever feel normal to me? Will I ever feel like a farmer? Or will I always feel like a city girl pretending to be a farmer.

And then Hannah, walking out of the house to go show Dad the ram says: "Mom, I just love living on my farm." And during the whirlwind, I send Sidge out to get a video of the ram to send to Daddy at work, and I don't even have to time to watch it, and as I'm going to bed, I watch this, and I realize, this is exactly the life God asked me to lead.