I’m on a major campaign regarding our lives on the farm. Maria and I work all the time, usually, seven days a week and most nights, writing, blogging, taking photos and videos, podcasting. It is the peril of self-employment and working at home since we can always work and love to work, we do.

Neither of us is about to give up on our work, it is our very identity, so I’ve launched a campaign for us to take one  Friday a month off, and take a day trip and sometimes, a single overnight trip.

Maria very much agrees.

We have a half-dozen different possibilities for short trips in mind, this is to keep our perspectives fresh, see new and different things and rest our fevered brains. And force ourselves to rest and cherish the time we have left together, however long or short.

I have another agenda. I’m not morbid about it, but I know I’m getting older, and I want the two of us to spend time alone together while we can. I hope that’s 20 years, but probably not.

We went to the Bronx Zoo two weeks ago with my daughter and granddaughter, but we didn’t get to see a lot of the animals we wanted to see.

The pace of a three-year-old is different from our pace, we like to sit and talk and watch the animals, sometimes for hours. That would be unfair to a three-year-old.

So we decided to go back and have a quiet and peaceful day with the animals there. We did.

I signed up for membership in the zoo, the largest in America and one of the best, and we drove down to the Bronx for the day. It takes about three hours each way, and with both of us driving, it was comfortable. We had lunch outside, with some Peacocks and their babies marching around us.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll return to visit Hudson, New York, an ascending arts and culture center by the Hudson River, and do some exploring. We have some Vermont towns to see.

In November, we will have to go to Connecticut at least once to meet and pick up Zinnia, our new Lab puppy.

We had a wonderful time at the zoo. The weather was gorgeous we watched the sea lions, stared at the baboons, went into the Reptile House and had lunch together outside. I think we’ll visit the zoo in this way often.

I got some neat photos and will put them up tonight and tomorrow. In mid-afternoon, the seals gathered in front of us and demanded to be fed. Maria was mesmerized, I got a short video. They remind me of dogs.