Post

Vacation?

Commentary.

Six months had passed since my last opportunity to take a week off from my job managing Brownfield Ag News. Five days away from all things Brownfield (except for checking e-mail on the Blackberry a couple of times a day) meant I would have the opportunity to catch up on a “few things” around the house, garden and yard as well as spend some time helping my husband. I had a short list of errands to run but with five whole days, I was sure there would be plenty of free time to wade in the creek, read a book or just sit in the rocking chair on my front porch watching the Baltimore Orioles and hummingbirds.

I was up by 5:30 on Monday morning, and as it turns out, no later than 6am any of the next few days. I wanted to get a jump on my vacation and spend the first few hours of that Monday morning with my husband checking cows, feeding chickens and running errands. With a beautiful stand of what would soon be square bales of hay, he was focused on making sure equipment was ready when it was dry enough to cut mid-week.

Because our errands included a stop at the feed mill and the farm store, it was well past noon by the time we decided to drive an extra 30 miles out of our way to have lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We even stopped for an ice cream cone on our way out of town! Jim wasn’t planning to cut hay on Monday as it was still too wet, but seeing the fellow mowing alfalfa on our way back home was enough to make him say aloud – not necessarily to me – “I should be cutting. . .”

I was eager to return home, too, to complete those few “tasks” I had planned for the week so I could get on to the business of relaxing. How long could it take to catch up and stay caught up on laundry? The house just needed a quick once-over, not a deep cleaning. How much time would it take to run to a couple of greenhouses to pick out a few annuals? Pulling weeds in flower beds, replanting zinnias and spinach and planting green beans, cilantro, basil and marigolds in the garden should not take long!

Since I had to run to Boonville to stock up on Gatorade and some groceries to feed the hay crew and while there, drop by O’Reilly’s to pick up spark plugs for the tractor and a couple of tubes of grease and to the farm store to pick up some more things we need – a “quick” stop or two to shop for a small tiller wouldn’t take much extra time. . .

It was a week of spading, mulching, harvesting herbs and strawberries, tilling, putting up square bales of hay, putting new bedding in the barn and a million other tasks.

Did I relax? Not exactly. Did I have a good vacation? The best.