I am a rooster….and other transformations

Last year in February, I closed the door of my little house in Connecticut, got in my car, and drove “home.”  I have settled in to a way of life that feels both familiar and new – familiar because I grew up here and spent my early years on this farm, but new because being here is so different from my life in New England.  These months have been a time of transformation.

A few months ago, I boxed up most of what was my work wardrobe and sent it off to “Dress for Success,” a group that provides clothing for women who are trying to get a job and need appropriate outfits.  I have some church clothes, but mostly these days I wear jeans, a tee shirt, and boots. I am dressing for a different kind of success, I suppose.  My closet shows the transformation in how I spend my days now.  

I have always loved to cook for those I love, and it is a joy to do that every day.  I figure I have cooked over 500 suppers for my family. Feeding others feeds my soul.  In addition to the humans in our household, most days I also feed eight chickens, six goats, one horse, one dog, and three cats. When you come bearing food, you get a warm welcome from all kinds of creatures! 

My little garden in Connecticut was just that – little.  Here I have hundreds of acres!  It is easy to have eyes too big for the planting.  My first garden was long rows that I hoed day in and day out. The second garden was some rows but also six raised beds – more manageable.  I have dirt under my fingernails and a farmer’s tan. I have become a redneck – the literal kind…..

Ruby, the Rhode Island Red

I have always been an early riser, and I still am.  But these days, I don’t get up and commute to work.  I get up and let the chickens out.  (There is much less traffic!)

And, I am a rooster! The hens look to me as the boss of the chicken yard.  They squat down when I come to them, just as they would for a dominant rooster.  It is a bit disconcerting!  Who knows what they think I am, but they talk to me, in sweet little chirpings, they come to the gate when I call them, and they follow me around the fence.  In my past, people sometimes spoke of negative or petty things as chicken sh*t. Now that is not a negative at all, but rather good organic fertilizer for the garden!