No Cows Next Week

We passed the "one-third of an orchard" mark yesterday, having 138 trees in the ground. Phil had work for pay, and we were both physically exhausted, so we knocked off earlier than we have been: dirty, tired, sunburned.

And without the wished-for cornbread, as the hens have refused to lay any more eggs thus far. Humph!

My first thought on waking this morning was, "We're not ready to get the cows early next week." I've begun to wonder if I'm most receptive to the moving of the Spirit in those early waking moments: events of the day proved that thought correct.

First, the deposit that we needed to pay for three cows came in today, but our bank needs five (!) days before we can withdraw cash. Second, after talking to cow owner Doug, he advised against artificial insemination, so we again wonder about purchasing a bull. We should have money coming in for a bull in the next few weeks, but it wasn't waiting at the bank today.

We eagerly await the cows, but plan now to wait until the first few days of April. This actually works better for our orchard planting. We'll get to press through over the next couple of weeks, and then he'll be gone on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Which has an unexpected benefit: we won't work the land at a bad time.

Maria Thun, in her beautiful book The Biodynamic Year, has this interesting observation.

From Good Friday to Easter Saturday we do no work in the garden at all. In numerous trials we have repeatedly found that garden work of any kind during this period, including harvest, does plants and people no good. Fewer seeds germinate, fruits are smaller, produce quality is diminished and medicinal herbs have less healing power. However we ponder this question, ultimately we always come back to the conviction that the cosmic event at Golgotha penetrated and imbued the earth, and plants annually participate in this.

Phil ran errands in town. I spent much of the day doing my least-favorite parenting task: changing children's clothes from winter to summer outfits, which includes trying on various pieces and trying to figure out how to store/what to do with the other clothes. Today was Abigail's day, and it was nice to try clothes on a willing child (the boys don't view dress up as a pleasant chore).

And I played catch-up on neglected home pick-up. Joe took advantage of Phil's boots on the floor to play dress up of his own.



In our noodles for dinner, I put in some of the just-about-finished bacon. It was delicious.