It's Just One Line... : Life On The Farm
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It's Just One Line...

by Darlene on 03/20/11

This is the third blog I've attempted to write this week.  The other two are quite long but were never finished and have been saved as drafts.  Usually when I write, it 'feels right' by the time I get to the end of it, and as I droned on and on in the other two, it just started feeling 'not right'...whatever that means lol...

It's been a week that I sure hope I don't have to revisit anytime soon, if ever.  I had electricians here for several days beginning to do some of the work that needs to be done on the houses and land...moving meter boxes, adding and subtracting outlets, lights, etc.  On and on it goes and they haven't even finished the houses lol.

My sons came up to visit...my younger son needed his wisdom teeth pulled so I took him to an oral surgeon and he's all set now, but it was hard to make fruit smoothies when they had my power off all day.

One of my ewes had her baby lamb and hopefully in the next day or so I'll be able to write what I've been longing to write in my Babydoll Sheep area.  She had a little boy and he's all black and just toooooo precious.  I'm still waiting for the other ewe to have her baby(s).  I check on her several times a day, but no babies yet.

The week flew...it was one of those weeks where the stress levels went off the charts.  I'm pretty good at multi-tasking so inbetween electricians calling my name, the children calling my name and the animals all needing my attention all at the same time, it got to be a little much to say the least lol.

The electricians are gone for the weekend, my boys have headed back to Miami.  The baby lamb is strong and healthy and the rest of the animals are doing well.  FINALLY! I had the time I had been looking for all week to wrap up my latest fencing project.  I've never tried to do this part alone before and I realized something as I busted my hiney on the land...

It's very easy to sit inside and plan out my day to run 7 strands of high tensile wire for the fencing I'm finishing.  I say to myself, "no problem!".  I'll knock about 3 or 4 strands today, finish the rest up Monday...hang the gates and I'll be good to go!  The sheep will be able to walk through pastures and woods, down to creeks to get fresh mountain spring water and all will be well in my world.

Real life however, dictates a much different scenario.

I'll save you the trouble of reading each play by play obstacle I encounted on my single strand of high tensile wire.  Suffice it to say that I fell down the hill and landed on my hiney, fell up the hill and landed on my knees.  I got the riding lawnmower and the wagon that was attached stuck down in the woods by the creek. I fell again down the hill and landed on my hiney, tripped over tree stumps and rocks, fell into the creek, snagged myself a few times on the neighbors barbed wire fencing that borders our property lines.  I threw my girly girl Husky tool carrier across the creek convinced that I could surely throw a mere 3 feet.  There was no way it would land in the water, but it did...and not only did it land in the creek but it landed upside down.  I was ravaged by prickly thangs that I have no idea what they are but they sure are prolific in those woods.  At one point the high tensile wire slipped through my hands as I pulled and pulled and pulled, scratching my side as it went flying through the air.

Through it all, my determination rose to levels I haven't had to drawn upon in a long, long time.  My exhaustion also grew by leaps and bounds and when that dreaded thought of  "am I going to make it?" crossed my mind, I became even more determined to finish that one line. lol

I trudged ahead, pulling the wire around corners that totalled at least 600 feet, pulling, tugging, using my whole body weight to move it forward one more foot.  The end was in my sites and I never realized that 20 feet could seem such a long way away.  Thoughts of plopping down and having myself a good cry seemed like a good idea...later, after I had finished pulling that one line of wire.

I got to the last post before I reached the end, reached into my girly girl Husky tool bag and pulled out one of those horseshoe shaped nail thangs and began to pound it into the last post, securing the wire.

I looked ahead, hope filling my heart as I saw that the end was almost within reaching distance when WHACK, I hit my finger.  Talk about pain...geeeez.

I looked towards the heavens...my heart cried "why?...why did You call me to do all these things?" and then I set my sites on those last few feet to the finish line, pulling, tugging, bound and determined.

I made it.

I finally made it around the new pasture I was fencing.  I had reached the end but I was not real happy with the journey lol.  I was too tired to even cry...a mildly resentful "ha! I did it!" simmered inside.

I stood up, walked all the way back through the woods, up the hill, across the pasture, to where the 4000' spool of high tinsel wire lay on the wheel.  I cut it and stuck it into the ground.  I could barely move but over and over again I couldn't help but think "who cares if it's only one line of wire.  Who cares if I have 6 more to go...those 6 will come to pass another day, but for today, I have one line done".

One line of wire holds more meaning today than it did the day before. lol

After that, I went to the garden nursery where I splurged and bought a bunch of plants...all kinds of flowering plants with bright, vibrant colors.  There is no way I'm going to try to run another line of wire by myself so I decided that I needed something pretty.  I like flowers...flowers are pretty.  So I have about about 40-50 flowers I'm going to plant instead of running one more line of wire.  40-50 might seem like a large amount compared to *1*, but trust me when I tell you, that 40-50 ain't nothing compared to that *1*. lol

:)


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