Last of the Last Days

My last few weeks on the west coast (I'm currently in NYC on this particular day) were generally peaceable. I was still doing some farm work but also freelance editing to make some moola. The sheep were no longer being milked, which in turn meant that L. wasn't making any cheese, though she continued her weekly yogurt make. In any case, here are the last images of my time on the farm and around Seattle before my departure. I got to see M&A&M a few times. Little M. was sleeping for a majority of my visits, and so tiny. By the time I come back she'll be four months old and, I'm sure, a completely different baby than the one I spent a bit of time with. Crazy.

B. joined us on the farm, so I made him a painting. He liked pizza and Mountain Dew and disliked homework.

I think this may be the morning that W., L., B., and I trimmed hooves. I got down there a little early and just laid myself out on a bench area of the barn and chilled with the sheep.

The weather definitely was changing. Fewer sunny and warm-warm days, though not truly chill-chilly.

I say that and then follow with a photograph of a clearly nice and sunny day. I had been on my porch reading, or maybe trying to pack up things in the apartment, when I saw W. and B. carrying something that looked kind of heavy. Then I realized that they weren't about to embark on some kind of farm improvement project but, instead, were simply setting the ping pong table up outside. I joined them and we played like it was the last time we could do so outside, which, at least for me, it was.

I've been away from the farm for about four weeks now, which seems both like a lot of time and no time at all. I definitely miss the rhythms and routines and views of the place, as well as the people and animals. This is especially true when I look at all these photos and realize (not for the first time) just how charmed my life has been, overall, on the farm.

W. made a delicious lamb schwarma dinner one night. Seriously delicious.

For the last dinner I would make before leaving, I went to some farm favorites: barbequed/spatchcocked chicken and macaroni and cheese.

On my list of things I wanted to do before leaving the farm, was having one last outdoor fire time. B. and W. allowed me to realize this dream. I also wanted to shotgun a beer, which was also accomplished.

A morning with the lambs.

So, yeah, there were still some nice days. I laid out my outdoor blanket/shower curtain in the lambs' pasture and soaked up all the sun I could. Pretty sure this was one or two days before I left. Probably one, as the fire was two. Maybe? And that wraps up all the farm times for the 2014 season.