Anything Can Become Normal

We rose well before sunrise in a house still vaguely warm from last night's baking. Somehow, we managed to creep past the toddler's room quietly enough that he didn't wake up (an achievement indeed, in our current small trailer!) and set a pot of water to boil for tea. After preparing sourdough waffles in our cast-iron pan and getting the now-awake boy ready for the day, we all walked outside for morning chores. Fresh water was put in all the animal buckets. The goats were set out on their picket lines, the chickens and ducks were set loose to free-range, the rabbit tractors were moved to fresh grass, and the chick tractor was shifted as well. He came in to strap on his chainsaw pants, steel-toed boots and helmet, and I came in with a still-warm egg in my hand, held like a precious jewel. The boy had fistfulls of acorns, and I wasn't even bothered when he scattered them on the floor to carefully pick them apart. We'd waited a long time for him to have access to such "playthings."

I write that paragraph not as an attempt to brag about my very newfound homesteading abilities (trust me, there’s still MUCH to be learned), but as an observation of change...

Only three years ago, I would never have believed that could be a routine morning for me. I had never made sourdough in my life, was dependent on my electric appliances, couldn't tell an Orpington from a Wyandotte, and certainly had no idea about babies. But now, through a lot of trial, error, and small victories, its normal--forgettable, even. It’s just part of our normal day.

I guess having things become suddenly “normal” is part of life. On the first day of college, as a new freshman, I remember being totally overwhelmed by the idea of trying to find the right room in the right building in order to get to class on time, but after a few semesters, it wasn’t even a thought. As a camp counselor, singing ridiculous songs at the top of my lungs, complete with hand motions, was sometimes a boringly redundant part of my daily routine (there’s only so many times you can sing, “Little Red Wagon” until it's just...too...much). As a wife, I’m now totally used to having Andrew as a part of my every day, and it’s strange to think that there was a time before him.

So as I consider the sometimes overwhelming prospects of building our homestead from the ground up, I try to take heart. Anything can become normal. Currently, I am a novice at pretty much everything we're up to--livestock, gardening, homesteading, off-gridding.... But it's okay. Andrew and I will learn. It will take a few years, and a lot of initial stuttering, but I have hope that we can and will get this crazy, simple life started.

We recently met with Doug and Stacy of "Off-Grid With Doug and Stacy"(https://www.youtube.com/user/growinginfaithfarm ) to visit the homestead and just see how things there work. They’ve been on their land for more than a six years, and seeing the beautiful functionality--the beautiful little off-grid house, thriving gardens, and roaming herds of animals--gave us more encouragement than you can shake a stick at (what a weird idiom). They both told us that they hadn't grown up with a background in any of this, but as we walked and talked, we could see how they had learned, grown, and established something amazing. It had taken time, but now it was their normal life. And it seemed to be working beautifully.

So I look at the blindingly huge array of things that we have yet to learn, or that we realize we don't know, and take a breath. I glance at our not-yet-a-year-old goats, knowing I have never hand-milked one before. I move our rabbit tractor, and have no idea when to know the doe is pregnant. I wait for our pullets to become hens and start laying eggs (though the Buff Orpington is a CHAMP and has been laying every other day! HIGH FIVE, PORTIA). Andrew and I walk over the wild lay of our land where we want to build the house, and the tangled grasses where the garden will be, and it feels huge and exciting and incredibly unknown...

And I think it will, someday, become wonderfully normal.

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I wrote a 2016 version of this post before we moved to our land here--> http://www.simplelifehomestead.com/blog/anything-can-become-normal It's INSANE to see how much has changed in so short a time. I'm excitedly curious to see what our normal 2018 morning will become!

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