Playing with one’s food: turkey poult
The reason I ask is I do not think I have one. I do enjoy sitting down and eating dinner, though. And right now it’s a very fine evening of complete stillness and long shadows as the sun tips away from us for the night. If anything, I think I am biased toward evening.
All the critters are out: the ducks with their insistent noises (they are ENTIRELY noisy and nervous when they leave their pen), the goslings and turkeys cutely pecking the rocks of the driveway, and all the egg chickens are at my feet here on the back deck, giving themselves and each other a preen. The slow-growing meat birds are flapping around in the chickens’ pen and venturing outside furtively: they actually like to fly, and their favorite game is to play King of the Mountain atop the feeder. This is a perfect summer evening.
I will say this about country living: You can develop feet of lead. (Or maybe, in my case, clay.) I don’t ever want to leave, so…we don’t ever really go anywhere. Surely it is wonderful having people over, entertaining and feeding friends and relations. But to get me actually off the farm and, you know, go out for an evening? It’s hard! And I blame the creatures.
My inlaws came over for dinner recently. My FIL was laughing heartily at all the critters as he couldn’t turn his head without seeing some avian drama or another, or see the new kitty Little Edie do something amazing like show up with ANOTHER huge mouse in her mouth (thanks, kitty!). My FIL is a whiz with all things electrical (he’s an electrical engineer) and dang he’s cheap: feed him, and ye shall get your electric work done! (I should here mention that I can do the electrical work too but I have a much lower threshold for wiring than he. Let’s just say to each his strenghts. I would rather weed and cook.) So I laughed when I read the news recently that there was an uptick in durable goods in the US (goods sold that last longer than 3 years) because I guess we just helped that number. The inlaws were over so my FIL could add a dedicated circuit and new outlet in the basement for our brand-spanking-new second chest freezer. They were on sale at Sears, and all our meat birds (plus the half pig and quarter beeve this fall from Providence Farm) mean we need more freezer space, for at least half the year. (The other half it will be off, a nice surface for me to, I don’t know, start my seeds or fold our laundry.)
So maybe it’s evening with me. Maybe it’s the stillness, the chance to observe, the chance to sit back and reflect. And you?
Glad you came to visit!
Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.
fast grow the weeds 
I’d have to say early extremely early morning is my favorite time of the day. I get up early to get all of the creatures out and fed. I tortured them this morning and slept until 6:00. You would have sworn it had been days since they had been fed.
Everything seems so pure and possible in the morning.
Evenings are second for me, since that’s when I do my embroidery and knitting.
I have no opinion of late nights, unfortunately, since I am sound asleep after the news. I’m undoubtedly missing tons of fun.
For me it is the evening when everything that will be complete is complete and all creatures have been put to bed. I like to stand in the kitchen on Sunday night specifically and look around at what has been produced, put by, cleaned up, created or just plain consumed (leftover thoughts). It leaves me feeling grounded, peaceful and ready for the coming week or day.
I love the morning garden and animal check, but I still think nothing beats the evening as things slow down, and the day gets all reminiscent. I especially enjoy Saturday and Sunday evenings after a weekend of productive action in the yard.
I can identify with the desire to stay put. We grew up traveling, and moving (Bea has moved something like 34 times in her 30ish years of life). Now, vacation means time to hang out at home, not rush off to some other location that we will never get to know. Our friends were talking about where they would like to visit on a trip to Europe, and we realized that we do not want to travel around and sight-see if we make such a trip, but to just live in one rural village for the entirety of the trip, getting to know who lives there, where they grow their food, how they live. So even one month seems to short to be worth the trip. I guess we will wait a while on that one, which is fine because that means more time at home.
Oh I can realate. I don’t know that I really have a favortie time of day, although like you, I sure enjoy sitting in the evening and watching the birds enjoy themselves. Last night we had a small amt of family over for Ethan’s birthday. I enjoyed sitting with them, watching the birds putting on shows. And the lead feet thing I can completely relate to as well. When I do leave, I am usually unsettled by the crazy-fast, and often careless nature of the outside world. I sometimes feel like a different species out there! But that’s a whole ‘nother topic, isn’t it? 🙂
Oh how I like to get home and close the gate. We were just debating what/where we’d like to do/go if we took a vacation. Heh! We just like HOME way too much to leave.
Everytime of the day is my favorite. And if I could have five or six more hours in the day, those would be my favorite, too. I’ve had to travel so much for work that staying home has been quite the treat. Hopefully the novelty of staying home lasts a long while.
We just ordered a 1/4 of a bison, and I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. I hope there’s room for veggies and meat alike in our chest freezer.
I think it would be morning with a cup of tea. The birds are out singing and everything is covered with dew. Then again, we don’t have animals (besides indoor cats), yet. Evenings seem more rushed for some reason. It would be better if we got home from work earlier.
I would have to say I love mornings most, very early when the kids are still asleep and the garden is dewy and lovely.
I also love coming home at 3 or 4 in the morning from a peaceful home birth. The drive home feels surreal,like I’m the only one awake, alive with the news that a brand new baby has entered the world! Then to come into our quiet house, to see my big kids asleep. It’s the warmest fuzzy ever, I tell ya.
I love this photo! Lila has those boots, too and just loves to try to get her hands on one of the chickens…they’re too fast for her, though.
Chest freezer is on my list for next weekend. Must. Buy. Chest. Freezer. I’m ordering 10 roasters from a guy down the road who raises pasture poultry…and I hope the lamb lady remembers me…I should shoot her an email –fall harvest will be here before we know it.
I much prefer hanging out at home, too. We go to friends’ houses, but that’s about the extent, and that only to acknowledge the fact that yes, other people sometimes like to stay home too.
I can’t remember if I’ve commented here before or not… if not, Hello! I’ve been reading for a while.
I like early morning or mid evening too. There’s something about the stillness… or the way the morning is full of new possibilities and the evening is just for relaxing. (I don’t have any animals besides cats, which accounts for the ‘relaxing’ bit. 🙂
Thanks, all! It was really nice to get a slice of life from you; very evocative.
Hi Pamela. I hear you on the stillness. Yeah, the turkeys wake me up every morning; I hear their peeps and I bolt upright. They’re so cute I just need to respond quickly! I wish I didn’t know what late nights were like. I have a bad habit of reading in bed, and I tend to do the “oh only one more chapter” thing and the next thing I know it’s 2:30, like last night. Eeks.
Alecto, Sunday nights are special, aren’t they? Kind of a breath taken before something new is begun. My Westport friend Joe and I and a couple other folks would do Sunday night dinner together. It was a great way to wrap up the week and begin a new one. Ah, life before marriage…and children…what few cares we had.
TS, that sounds like a wonderful way of vacationing to me: staying put in one place and getting to know it! You know in Italy they have farm stays, right? Agriturismi. You stay at a working farm and eat with the family. I’m with you on weekend evenings, though; it is kind of fun to sit around slightly sore but feeling like you accomplished a lot during the day. There IS something about evenings that’s quite great: less pressure to get things done, except maybe the dishes.
Angie, aren’t yardbirds great? And it is so much fun to share. Most people really are quite taken by them when they visit us, and it is so fun sharing them. I do know what you mean about getting off the farm and being a bit overwhelmed. I do feel at home in big cities, though…it’s the suburbs and medium-sized towns that kind of freak me out 😉
Jules! I love that image: come home, close the gate. Not quite like lifting the drawbridge above the moat but really a nice way of leaving the outside out!
Daisy, ick, I know how work travel can be wearing. But I am with you: the best hours ARE the ones spent at home, right? And as far as the bison goes, hopefully you have some say in how it’s going to be packaged. If you can talk to the butcher they usually can do a pretty good job walking you through your needs (more ground, say; or smaller portions). Look into it, anyway. Oh, and label it, too: I am notorious for having frozen blocks of I don’t know what downstairs.
Andrea, I have thought that too: would it make more sense for us all to get to work at 6 a.m. (esp. when it’s dark in the winter) and then get home at 2? Wouldn’t that be great, having all kinds of afternoon hours open to ourselves? Oh yeah: getting up that early could be pretty hard! But you are right; there’s something nice about facing the day with a hot cup.
Amanda, you have such a wonderful job. I had a nurse midwife and a doula and a super cool OB in a super cool urban hospital (complete with water births and a midwife’s wing). I can just imagine the tingly feeling you must have driving home after a homebirth late at night. The silence, the happiness, your own sleeping babies.
Kelly: Get that freezer! I swear your life will get lots simpler if you have a place to store 50# of cupcake flour at home. Not to mention the whole “what’s for dinner” question, with the freezer you have a lot of options! But yes you are quite right in getting out and going to others’ houses. I have to remember that before I turn down another evening out 🙂
Hi Dakota! I love the stillness too. There’s something welcoming in it for doing your list-making: what to do today, what had I done today kind of thing. Gosh but we sound like such adults. My kid doesn’t have such thoughts. Maybe we should just embrace it all, like she does…
mmm, love this post & its comments. so peaceful!
we don’t have animals yet – still painting rooms and pulling bindweed – but am really looking forward to that time (maybe next spring for chickens!?). for now, i love the early mornings. the sunshine and drying dew. a coffee and a walk down the driveway for the paper and mail. the neighbour’s distant rooster and the wild clouds. and, as pamela said, contemplating all the possibility a day holds.