A Beautiful Place

Today, someone I sold an item to from Kijiji came by the farm to pick it up.  He drove off the paved road and onto our gravel driveway and passed the horses grazing in the meadow to the left of the driveway.  He came up and around our drive and saw the sheep munching on the grass next to the red roofed barn.  Parking his car and getting out, he was immediately greeted by our free ranging chickens.  The man turned and opened his back door and out popped a child.  The man beamed at the child as if they were being greeted by Mickey Mouse at Disney World.  They made their way slowly to the porch while being escorted by our rooster.  On the deck next to the porch they broke out into wider smiles as our goose strolled leisurely next to the pond where a lone duck swam about below.

I open the door and greet him and the first thing he says is, "What a beautiful place you have here."  It's not the first time I've been told this.  Actually it's almost always the first words out of people's mouths when they visit our farm.  It certainly is a compliment however I always think a little ironic since this "beautiful place" isn't so easy to maintain as one may think.  I believe those coming from the city often have no idea what it takes to make a place like this so beautiful.  And it isn't easy.  Or fun at times.

For instance, the horses are only in the pasture because they have been giving me a hard time in the sacrificial lot from bending fence tops, chewing up the drive shed next to the sacrificial lot, and taking hissy fits for being condemned in said sacrificial lot.  And I refuse to house them in the barn and spend money on straw and hay not to mention the time and energy on mucking out four stalls.  So I finally relented and sent all the horses back into the big pasture.

The sheep are a pain in the butt to keep contained behind the barn as the horses have ripped their electric netting and they plow right through it and get themselves all tangled up.  The chickens are out free ranging because there coop is ten inches thick in manure and I don't have the time to muck it out.  The goose is hanging out next to the pond because the duck below is trapped and can't get out and after being rescued by farmer's husband, goose was not getting too close and falling in again.

I guess what I'm saying is though we may look like we live in paradise, not everything is what it appears to be.