Monthly Archives: January 2010

I do know that most of Friday was spent doing one of my favorite things: preparing the house for an overnight guest.

My dear friend Jessica came from California to visit for a few days.  She arrived at DPF on Saturday afternoon, and she’s just one of those friends who fall right into the rhythm of the house.  She was always one of our “core” friends in Los Angeles who kept the social buzz at our house at a constant hum!  It was so incredibly wonderful to have her here in Oregon for a few days.  We had lots of down time, lots of wine and martinis, lots of laughs, and made plenty of new memories together!

Jessica left today, but not before getting a taste of the craziness of DPF.  We woke this morning to a beautiful day without much rain – and thankfully we were able to take a nice slow walk around the property without getting poured on!  Once the day was going, however, it was full of challenges: a fallen, deteriorating fence around the paddocks at the barn made it completely and utterly unsafe to put the horses outside. A massive fallen pine tree in front of the shop led to a broken chain saw and a frustrated groundskeeper. A dog whose front feet were horribly painful and sensitive ended up causing a trip to the vets’ which turned into a full day stay. A second dog who had eaten SOMETHING to which she had an allergic reaction and couldn’t stop drooling like a faucet gave cause to much worry and concern, though luckily not another vet payment.  On top of that, we had a baby to take care of, people to feed, and American Idol’s “Pants on the Ground” to watch (that, my friends, is a catchy song!!!).

We made it through the day with some help from my mother (thanks, Mom).   I did NOT want Jessica to leave, but even with the calamity that the day developed into, we still enjoyed our last day together.  When we hit traffic on the way to the airport, there was a tiny moment where I thought, “Woo hoo!!! I get her another day.”  But, despite my hopes, I sped to the airport arrivi

ng no more than a few minutes behind schedule.  We said our good-byes, and she hurriedly got herself to the counter — only to find out that her flight had been delayed 3 hours –  NICE.  Unfortunately, she didn’t call me until I was too far gone to turn around.

After finally winding down the day, EG and I spent some time together in my bedroom playing on the bed.  It was nice just to play, cuddle, and look at her beautiful face.  What a wonderfully upbeat way to end a rather intense day.  She really is so darn adorable!

Aren’t January and February supposed to be the months that the farm rests???  Harvest is done, it’s not yet time for planting, the holidays are over…what more could there be, right?  RIGHT?!?!

I was so looking forward to having the first part of the year to have some down time with Ellie Graye, rejuvenate, and slow my pace for a while.  Of course, I quickly found out that I don’t function well when I have too much down time, and am so much happier when I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off…but still, do I really need to be running around like a CRAZY woman?!?!  Chicken or crazy lady – you pick.  Great options, huh?

I did have an epiphany tonight as I foraged through all the things I’ve collected, harvested, created, and stashed looking for “the perfect touch” to put on one of my new projects.  My intense desire to excel at everything I that I do is the common ground I have with my husband.

We recently had the opportunity to meet with a Zen priest and Life Coach, and as we already knew, were able to see on paper how we operate in two very different quadrants of our brains.  He’s a left-brainer, and I’m a right brainer.  In fact, we’re so opposite, that we pretty much exactly mirror the other, balancing one with the other. The beauty of our relationship, however, is that under stress, we both turn to the same part of our brains – organization.  This is what facilitates our open communication and willingness to “work it out.”  I knew all that, but tonight, it hit me.  We also both strive for greatness; we both have a strong desire to be the as good as we possibly can at what we’re doing; we both love to apply ourselves; and, more importantly, we work hard — THAT is an amazingly rare commonality.

Mediocrity isn’t something Jeffrey and I are comfortable with, and in our relationship, that means we’ll work as hard as we can to make things the best they can be.  I like that.  I like knowing that he is as committed to “us” as I am; he is as committed to our family as I am – and we’re willing to work our asses off to achieve that.  My friends, I couldn’t ask for anything more.  I don’t expect perfection, but I’m certainly happy to know that I have a partner who is willing to face the ugly things, figure out what needs to be done, and then DO it.  Aaah, I love that man!

Ok. Enough mush. Back to the chicken-with-her-head-cut-off day.

I’m desperately trying to get DPF Home Decor off the ground.  I have a potential customer on Etsy who has custom ordered some pieces for her wedding.  The odd thing was that the items she ordered were things that I had already started making…when she asked, “Can you make such-and-such,” I about fell over, since I had already discussed the idea with Victor!  Funny how life guides you, huh?

The following two photos are what she sent me (I don’t know where she got these photos, so I can’t give credit…if these are yours, let me know, and I’ll make sure you’re sited).

His first load of stump slices

I already was using the shutters for miscellaneous items, but the galvanized tins and plastic dixie cups are PERFECT for all the tiny little odds and ends.  Tomorrow I label them…

One of my other projects of the day was to finally plant the curry seeds that my dad had sent to me in that mysterious package I got on Christmas Eve.  I was supposed to plant them ages ago, but didn’t get a chance until today (sorry, Dad!).  Let’s hope that they grow…I did use the peat capsules, so hopefully it’ll work…the guy said 4 – 5 weeks…

Our neighbor Darcy came for dinner tonight.  She owns the other two horses that are at the barn, and has been beyond helpful over the last month.  Usually she feeds in the morning and I turn the horses out (of course, I’ve been slacking on the turn out side of things) and Victor dumps her wheelbarrow and keeps the barn clean and up to par.  It’s been awesome having companions for Avdoo and Frank.  I wish things could be this easy always!

For dinner, I adapted a yummy Asian Chicken Peanut Pasta dish that I had seen on AllRecipes.com, and added my delicious sesame green beans on the side.  It was light, spicy and scrumptious.  We had a good time talking over dinner while EG ran around being her normal entertaining, precocious, rambunctious self.

So that’s it.  That’s all I did, nothing spectacular, ground-breaking, or life-changing…I just got through today, made a little progress, and made a few people smile.  What more could I ask for, huh?