Walton and I both feel that being on the farm is magical--especially in the summer when the sky is as blue as a robin's egg and a light breeze flutters through the trees and sings in the grass. We can't imagine living anywhere else.
We are having a winter! New snow has fallen upon old, and will be with us for some time…a phenomenon that hasn’t happened in recent years. Temps will remain below freezing for a week, or maybe longer, and are dipping into single digits each night. Aside from feeding animals and basic barn chores, these are good days to stay inside. They encourage contemplation.
I almost stepped on it during a misty walk with Piper the other night. Big as a dessert plate with brown and black mottling and bulging eyes, the toad was peacefully sitting on our rock sidewalk. His colors blended into the stone so artfully that at first, I thought that he was a stone. He blinked in the glare of my flashlight and then stared me down. Not in a confrontational way, or defensively. It was more of a “I’m here minding my own business waiting for a fly-by dinner, please do not disturb” kind of look. I didn’t disturb him, and luckily Piper did not put him in the chipmunk category and bother him either.
The line of traffic stretches all the way down King Street as hordes of SUV’s, many with luggage carriers, snake their way towards campus. It is a warm August day, and everyone has their windows rolled up to optimize the refrigerated air in their cars. But occasionally, I see an open window defying the heat and exhaust smell as asome enthusiastic young personl in an Appalachian State University t-shirt leans out and waves excitedly at someone else in the car line.
I sigh as I sit (not so patiently) in this long line of traffic. Apparently, I have chosen a bad day to go the feed store
My youngest left for a new job in Idaho last week. I put my winter coat over my flannel pajamas and followed her to the barn as she said goodbye to Josephine the pig and gave the donkey a quick pat. Her dad handed her a can of corn, and she dutifully threw it to the chickens, the kernels making an orange arc in the air before landing in the muddy barnyard. Then I stood waving, shivering in the cold March wind, as she drove down the driveway and out of sight around the first curve on Willett Miller Road.
She left her doorknob collection behind of course…
Willet ponds farm, LLC
Located in Todd, NC
(828) 297-6573