If Rocks Were Nickels...

If Rocks Were Nickels...

Oh home on the farm, where the dogs and the wild boars all play, where rarely is heard, a disheartening word, and the skies are not smoggy all day…

Oh, home on the farm, where:

…love is the greatest power.

…if rocks were nickels, I’d need a wheelbarrow to haul them to the bank (the nickels, not the rocks).

…I have seven right-handed work gloves without partners; I am a southpaw. Let me think this one over and I’ll get back to you.

…I have two forms of footwear, sandals and steel-toed boots. I haven’t laid eyes on the boots since last August.

…if it’s the first weekend in August, you can find us at Reggae on the River.

…the work doesn’t stop just because it’s raining; it just means we either put rain gear on or move indoors. There is always work to be done in the greenhouses.

…cats are a dime a half-dozen, which is the number of farm cats we have; their sole job is to ride roughshod over the region’s rodents.

…dogs fulfill critically important roles, the specifics of which elude me at the present moment.

…Mondays and Wednesdays mean market days, and no one loses track of this.

Quarry Market 

…veggies rule and water’s cool.

…where music rules-ANY kind of music. (Yes, even country…)

…a pond is the same as a magic wand. 

…the minutes are interminable but the hours fly by… and the hours last forever, but the days rocket past.

…the work never ends so much as it takes brief intermissions while laborers take in refreshments (dinner) and a quick cat-nap (hopefully eight hours), before it begins once again.

…the food is to die for, which in turn reminds us of why we got into it in the first place.

…water occupies a much-deserved elevated status and is correspondingly treasured. Nothing sounds the alarm more stridently than water being wasted.

…the bong rules and the only alcohol to be found is isopropyl.

…if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you’d best check for a leak in the water line…and fix it before Casey sees it.

…dinner is routinely served promptly at the prescribed time…to an empty dining room because the crew was in the middle of something and couldn’t/wouldn’t stop.

…it is possible to go to bed overwhelmed by the number of chores still to be accomplished, but feeling elated anyway because we are gittin’ ‘er done.

…where love is the greatest power…

…where every single denizen of the farm, rises to the occasion when Boss Lady has to go back to Ohio to care for her mama, and does so with enthusiasm, because, well, love is the greatest power.

…gals are as likely to be seen slinging hay around as dudes.

Savage Courtney...

…family matters more than ever before, each and every day of our lives.

…religion and spirituality blend together in a soothing panacea for our souls. 

…the most likely noise you are going to hear is Emma the dog, responding furiously to the call of…oh, it’s a cricket.

…machinery comes into play, only as a last resort.

…where the phrase “off the grid” has little relevance because by definition, we don’t need no stinking grid to grow food, flowers and medicine.

…where twenty acres may as well be 10,000, for all the soil we can actually till. 

…where “Paradise with an Ocean View” is more than just the title of a song.

…where I unplug the solar-operated refrigerator every morning about 3AM, because the batteries are precipitously low.

…the distinction between “family” and “friends” gets blurry around the edges, and deep into the core.

…life moves at a slower pace, even as the pitchfork prods us along.

…Boss Lady calls the shots, without having to shout.

…the only dishwashers we have do not need to be plugged in, so much as turned on.

…where the quad has become indispensable.

...where dogs must fulfill SOME function, even if it is just to entertain us.

Dozer, totally useless as a farm dog, but highly entertaining.

…dryers and Dreyers have something in common: neither is to be found  in my home. We have a freezer that freezes ice just fine, but not ice cream.

…all we have to do is look around and we cannot help but notice the countless things that we have, for which to be grateful.

…if I have said it one, or even twice, it’s only because it bears three-peating: Love IS the greatest power.