Reclaiming the Lower Pasture

I love Matt.

I love the way his eyes crinkle and shine.  I love his dimpled chin (when his beard isn't hiding it).  I love his man-hands, all strong and thick.  I love his sense of humor and ability to get me to crack up even when I am irritated with him.  I love that he is smart.  And wise.   I love that he knows all this country stuff when I have no clue.  I love that he is handy and that he is hardworking.

I love that he gets something in his mind to do and then actually does it.  Even if it is hard or confusing or tedious or overwhelming.  He just dives in and gets started.

And I love that he lets the children get in the way while he is doing it.  Because every grown up knows~ the children 'helping' you work is actually making more work for you.

A recent idea of Matt's is to reclaim an old, overgrown and abandoned portion of the lower pasture.  It is full of overgrown thornbush and other bushes, branches, trees and random overgrowth. 

I look at the sheer amount of work involved in something like that and say "What the hey- we have nice fields already.  Let's not bother with all that.  That's WAY too much work!"

But he just picks up his cutting tools, clippers and boy paraphernalia and hogs right in.

I love that.

So, the overgrown lower pasture got a nice wake-up call over the weekend. 

"Wake up, land.  Things are gonna be changing around here!"

 

Plenty more to do, as you can see. 

It's a long process and will probably take a long time.  (Mundane.  Tedious.  Overwhelming.  I say, let's quit!) But every project, no matter how big or small, needs a start.  And this was that good start to reclaiming the land for good.  One branch cut, hauled and piled at a time.  One bonfire at a time. 

After all, says the Mister, "no one but us can get it back to what it once was."