Morning after

April 1, 2008 – Cloudy, warmer. Welcome to April. I’ve never liked April Fool’s jokes, so I’ll skip one. Perhaps I’m getting old and humorless. The sheep look great this morning, prancing around and complaining loudly, but eating heartily. Fred DePaul says they are all healthy and in great shape and complimented me on a well-run farm. Big praise, coming from him. I have an insane day today, going to have coffee with Pastor Steve McLean, a hound from heaven, and then teaching the last class of the Granville Writers Project and meeting with the kid’s parents.
  Then, shopping and going to Saratoga. Izzy will come every step of the way and he and Lenore will go to Granville.
  Got up early to read and meditate – Merton, C.S. Lewis, MacDonald, Oliver, good stuff, much food for thought. Checked in on Warren and Helen, who are holding steady. Got the tractor stuck in the mud bringing a round bale out to the cows and then remembered four wheel drive. Annie is exhausted and sore from shearing and so am I. I sometimes think life on a farm is always a second away from disaster – a toppling tractor, a kick in the head, a fall on the ice, animals in the road. You can enjoy it, but never really relax. Last night, a coyote came to the edge of the pasture, and Rose barked, and a lamp blew up and smoked. Glad I was home.