Memorable days...

Most days around the farm are filled, sun-up to sun-down, with chores. Today was no exception. Most days, though brimming with potential, end up blending one into another for the tedius pace at which we move from one project to another with the ultimate goal of having Four Cedars Farms look more like a homestead and less like a junkyard. Today, however, wasn't one of those forgettable chore-filled days.

Today was notable for two firsts. (Recall, we've got less than two years of rural living notched onto our belts.)

Take lunchtime for instance. I stepped out of the kitchen around 1 p.m. to call hubby in for lunch, and instead of finding a hungry man eager for a midday meal, I encountered smoke filling the shoreline and hubby frantically pulling a garden hose out of the stable. I ran to the spot where all morning long hubby had been grinding nails off of metal roofing to find that the sparks from the grinder had ignited dry hay which covered the ground. The fire spread quickly ... lunch had to wait.

Not an hour later, when things were calmer by the shore and hubby was taking a break from demolition, something caught my eye just over the tree line. I yelled out to him and ran around the granary for a closer look. It was a bald eagle, taking advantage of the gusty south wind to glide around the eastern shore of Rice Lake. We both watched in awe, wanting deperately for it to swing around and make a second pass. (My camera was only steps away.) But it glided out of view, the way a dream slips away as we wake, no matter how desperate we are to hold on.

And so it goes on a Saturday of firsts at the farm. When trouble flares, you move fast because you're out here all alone. And later, an eagle soars overhead to remind you why you love it out here, here where you're all alone.

The charred hay...