?Year’s End on the Farm: A Story from Our Pastures
As the year draws to a close, we like to look back over our pastures and remember the moments that made us laugh, gasp, pray, and celebrate — often all in the same week. Life on the farm has a way of keeping us humble, grateful, and just a little bit entertained.
It all began in early winter, when Karl — in his annual burst of enthusiasm to prepare for the new babies — decided to wrangle a ladder like it was a gentle, cooperative creature. It was not. Gravity won that day, and Karl ended up with five broken ribs and a strict lecture from… well, everyone. Karl would NOT stop — he pushed the limits of healing and kept working! And then he wondered why it hurt, despite all of us begging him to stop and heal!
January brought new life — three bright, wobbly-legged crias: Gabriel, Elijah, and Noah. Each one arrived like a small miracle, soft as clouds and already full of personality. The farm shifted into that tender hush it gets when newborns appear, and for a moment, everything felt perfectly calm.
But calm never stays long out here.
Easter morning arrived with drama fit for a hymn. A bolt of lightning cracked down from the heavens and struck the old tree in the pasture, blasting our new Christmas lights clean off the branches. We stood there staring at the smoldering bark and sparking wires, thinking, “Well… that was festive.”
And as if the day hadn’t already handed us enough surprises, we walked back into the pasture and found a little something entirely unexpected — a cria on the ground we hadn’t even known was coming. A surprise Easter blessing, warm and blinking up at us. We named him Ascension, because how could we not?
Summer followed in a joyful blur. Schools, families, and wanderers found their way to us, filling the fields with laughter, curiosity, and exactly the kind of human warmth we’d all been craving. It felt like the world exhaled a little out here, and our farm soaked it up.
By September, while the heat still clung to the afternoons, we began preparing for Christmas. Lights, garlands, displays — every corner of the farm got a touch of magic. It took weeks of planning, hauling, creating, and Karl most certainly didn’t learn his lesson. Instead, he attempted air acrobatics with ladders in truck beds and balanced on 30 feet of pole like a tightrope walker, determined to put lights back into the very tree that lightning had struck.
By Thanksgiving, everything stood finished, sparkling, and ready for the season. Family gathered for a Thanksgiving dinner, filling the farmhouse with warmth, stories, and the comfort of being together after a whirlwind year.
We now enjoy the Christmas season, bringing joy to over 5,000 visitors new and old — a time where precious memories are made. This is a time of gratitude, joy, love and memories. We are grateful to having the honor to meet so many beautiful people!
And now, as we look toward the year ahead, we do so with full hearts — grateful for the births, the surprises, the storms, the healing, the laughter, and every visitor who shared a piece of the farm with us.
Life out here is never dull.
But oh, it’s beautiful.
Love and Light!
Kathy