Recreating the writing space...

AKA when you need a writing retreat but can’t travel.

That’s where I’ve been the past few weeks. I just had a writing retreat in February and it was wonderful, productive, and both grounding and exhilarating creatively.

Back home, we’ve had rain, and mud, and mud, and rain, and now cold weather and wind. There are too many things on my to do list and getting to the writing time has been hard.

I needed a getaway, a place to do the deep work that I’ve committed to this year, but the garret was a mess. I craved space to spread things out, a room where I can close the door if I want to and leave things sitting. The garret had litter boxes in it, so I couldn’t close it off, but then the kittens started using the bathroom outside the litter boxes and I needed to shake that up to stop it. The litter boxes were moved and the garret door closed until further notice.

Something about seeing the door closed tipped a domino and I went on a wild purging rampage last weekend. I cleared and cleaned, cleaned and cleared. Got ideas, abandoned them. Looked at expensive Pottery Barn desks, shopped in my basement storage room. Moved furniture, got rid of furniture.

Went through every single piece of paper in the room. Sent a feed bag’s worth out the door.

This is what is left.

This wasn’t anywhere on my to do list, but it had to be done to get me writing again.

See the skinny thing hanging on the wall behind my iPad? That’s a storyteller, created by a local artist I love. She’s the guardian of writing time. 

The sun hits the window in the morning and the golden hour illuminates the crow forest outside the window in the late afternoon. And of course there are cats. 

My grandma’s old sewing machine is still in the room for little excursions to the past when a drawer full of buttons and threads of every color mesmerized me.

There are still four large piles of papers that need sorting and filing but guess what? I resubmitted a story today, I edited the novel for over an hour, and I did research on where to submit several other stories and essays awaiting attention. I think the tempest in the teapot has been set free. 

November Hill farm journal, 70

We’re soggy with rain tonight, but once this rolls out, it looks like a clear (but colder) week ahead. I’ll happily take the cold along with the sunshine.

This past week the volunteer peach trees bloomed, the daffodils and crocuses are still blooming, and everything else remains dormant but I’m waiting to see what pops out next. It will likely the the redbuds.

Yesterday was warm and dry with sunshine and one of my farm helpers was here and managed to get the entire farm mucked and dumped, which made me happy. I used the time to get to a project that’s been waiting and slipped into deep cleaning mode this weekend. I had an idea to rearrange my garret which ended up with me going through every single bit of paper in the office (and cleaning a feed bag’s worth of it out) and deciding to go ahead and purge my 25-year old rickety desk, filing cabinet, and recliner.

Our old dining table is in the basement along with a long narrow table that will fit perfectly along the sloped wall in the garret. I’ve moved my grandma’s old sewing machine to where my old desk sat, and have the space ready for the “new” desk - the dining table - which will give me room to spread out papers and have desktop, iPad, and writing pad all lined up for working and positioned so I can see out the window.

For some reason with my current novel edits, the side burner writing that I’m trying to get to, and the ongoing research I’m doing, the need to have a large desk space has been pushing at me. I hope to have things set up in the next couple of days.

Right now the twin guest bed is stacked with what’s left of my files and I still have to move the old filing cabinet out, but it’s amazing how much lighter it feels in there without the rickety desk, the chair, and all that paper. I think it will feel good to write there again.

About the time I finished up what I could do tonight, I needed something out of my bedroom closet and suddenly grabbed a stack of things to take to the thrift store. I had to stop myself from diving in and cleaning out the entire closet as it, too, needs some purging. I’ll get to that another time!

All of this has to mean spring is moving closer, right?

Meet The Grand-pups!

Both my (young adult) children have new dogs and suddenly I’m a grandma!

(Trying to convince husband that our grandparent names should be Donk and Darling but he’s not keen on it - any ideas for creative grandparent names? I’d love to hear them.)

Ciro is my daughter’s German Shepherd who is joining us on November Hill tomorrow. He came from Germany and has received specialized training.We’re thrilled to bring him home and help him settle in to life on November Hill.

He’s a sweet dog and huge. It’s going to be an adjustment for us to have a dog with legs this long. Many years of Corgis have spoiled us for kitchen islands and countertops being out of reach. It’s going to be fun to have a big dog to remind us what it’s like!

My son and daughter-in-law went to meet Ciro and ended up falling in love with their new girl, Aria, a Belgian Malinois. She won’t live with us but she’ll be a regular visitor and of course part of the clan.

Aria is in her training now. We’re excited to get to know her over the next few months.

When I was young we had a white German Shepherd and my brother has had two German Shepherds as an adult so I’m familiar with the breed. Good dogs! It’s going to be fun to have them around.

November Hill farm journal, 69

Back home after writing residency and enjoying this week of sunshine and mild temps before rain sets in again. It feels like spring!

The pollinator beds are becoming active. I’m seeing green at the base of every plant and also a few weeds coming in. I’ll be removing the remaining growth from last year and composting it. Meanwhile the spring bulbs are starting their show.

So far no redbuds blooming but I’m keeping my eyes open.

The main work on the farm this past two weeks has been overseeding pastures one at a time, after aerating. We still have the biggest front area to do but happy to get this done early and then we’ll move on with my list. The stone projects are back in hiatus due to the rain we had and now are looking at again. But we’ll slide in one at a time until we finish.

Once we hit a dry spell combined with warmish weather we’re going to finally replace the interior fencing that borders what we call the dirt paddock. This fencing is the original black plastic fencing and posts that the donkeys totally ignore and climb through.

The dirt paddock is a long rectangle running from the back of the barn along the arena and then between the front and back pastures, so it serves as a corridor for horses going from barn. I have also used it as a dry paddock for chunky ponies and donkeys (though as noted, the donkeys escape it when they want to!). The far end of the dirt paddock goes to our property line on that side, and gates to pastures are at that end as well. I’ve always disliked the herd having to go all the way to that fence to enter/exit pastures, as that puts them near the neighbors and whatever is going on over there.

The new fencing will actually create a new enclosed area adjacent to the fence line where I’ll put in garden beds: vegetables, a few trees, and herbs. We’ll move the gates to the middle of the dirt paddock so horses will move from front to paddock to back pastures much closer to the barn than is now the case. The garden area at the end will also create a living screen between our property and the neighbors. Being so close on that side is really the only thing I don’t like about our farm. This plan will help.

Also on the docket is some work in the barn, removing some rickety stall doors and replacing with the mostly unused top Dutch doors which for whatever reason are larger than the bottoms. I figure we’ll move the tops down and get the use out of those. We never close the tops and since both sides of the barn have shelters there’s not much need to do so. I found replacements for our stall latches online and ordered new ones for every door. And we’ll install the smaller stall door on the donkeys and pony side so they can see over into the barn aisle.

While removing and reinstalling doors I plan to give them a good washing out in the barnyard and apply tung oil.

That’s as much as I’m putting on the list for the next few months. I have reserved my honeybee nucs for May and will FINALLY get started on my apiary. I’ve scaled down from 3 to 2 to start, in hopes that the third hive will come from splitting one of the two at some point. I’m excited (anew) about this project.

That’s about it. Except that we have our new farm resident arriving next Friday. Ciro, the extremely well-trained German Shepherd, will be here settling in and hopefully getting to know and love his new home and family. We’re very excited!

Weymouth writing residency and a morning with horses and hounds

I’m at Weymouth this week writing and had the great fortune to see the Moore County Hounds gather and ride off from this historic home and property this morning. The Boyd family who lived here over 100 years ago started the hunt and this morning it could have been that long ago - what a sight to see the hounds and horses on the grounds as they would have been all those years ago!

It was fun to see a few old friends from when my daughter rode with the hounds. I’m missing Keil Bay but having a wonderfully productive writing week and am grateful to Weymouth for hosting me and to my family at home who are holding down the farm so I can be here.