In the beginning :Tales from the shepherd
IN THE EARLY DAYS…
Continuing my paying job until I could get this operation up and running was clear. I just didn't know for how long. The house itself had good energy but needed ALOT of work. The land seemed huge to me at almost 60 acres, each of my previous homes were on less then 1/2 acre! I had a lot ahead of me and I hadn't really embraced the totality of what this shift in my life was all about.
I knew no one living around me, I was in a strange place. In the beginning I would often wonder if I’d lost my ever living mind! Every one else thought I had, why not join the ranks?
I had a sign I hung at my back entrance, “NO WHINING”.
One night I arrived back at this place, not even close to a farm yet, feeling alone and doubtful. I heard my father’s voice…”Pick yourself up by your boot straps and quit feeling sorry for yourself. You made this decision. Do something about it” my pity party wasn’t serving me well so I decided to do something, anything….
something told me to grab Floyd, my newly purchased vintage Ford pickup that I named Floyd because I thought I needed just a wee bit of male energy around this big expansive space that needed so much physical labor.
Yep, this mood was nothing a tailgate and a bottle of wine couldn’t cure!
The back 40 is nothing more then the 40 acres in the back of the property and it was very dark and VERY quite. Something this “city girl” hadn’t been used to. I spent a lot of time in my back yard garden and going on long hikes and brief visits to natural wonderlands but I hadn’t know the raw of nature so personally since my childhood. As a child I spent a precious few years in the mountains of N.C My father retired there and brought us to what he deemed “Gods country” , a place he wanted his children to grow up. I have fond memories of my secret spots in the woods, over hills, where no one could find me. Most of my memories of my early years aren’t so clear but of these moments I recall sights, sounds and smells. My experiences in that beautiful place and my exposure to nature in such expanse, influenced my soul in a way that would set my path in life, although I hadn’t the slightest idea of it.
So, here I was, in a place that until Floyd and I arrived I thought was unfamiliar.
As I sat on the tailgate and looked up at the night sky, EVERYTHING MADE SENSE. I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
After I came to my senses (or lack thereof) and began remembering what my dream was, I decided I just needed to start somewhere.
Just start!