Today is my catch up day here at the new farm house.  We’ve been spending several days at our previous home preparing it to sell.  Owning two homes at the same time is exhausting, but would be made even more so if there were two yards to mow so we are feeling more motivated to get it on the market.  A catch up day here at the house looks just like every other work day except with a bit more gumption.  There’s always books, trash, clothes, food remnants, and general clutter to pick up…but on work days I try to be a bit more motivated to get those things back in their original spots.  Wednesdays make the day before life gets busy and consumed by farm work as we start the harvesting, boxing, and preparing to distribute the food grown on our farm to our CSA customers.  In many ways I’m thankful for the routine that is coming back into my life.

I’m keeping myself busy today, but my heart keeps breaking as I think about the fact that we haven’t seen Carter’s dog Red in almost two days now.  Carter is visiting his tap paw in Hart County, but will be back later today.  The thought of seeing his face when he hears the news is almost unbearable.  I keep thinking through every scenario.  Is he hurt somewhere or lost or did someone pick him up?  I’m hopeful he’s at a neighbors and that we can go door to door later today and find him.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I spend my time away from the farm and being much more thoughtful about that.  It’s important that my work does two things:  it helps increase profit for farmers and it helps consumers make a stronger connection to local food.  One program that our beloved Community Farmers Market accepts is the Big Red Dollars program through our local university (Western Kentucky University).  I think back to my college days and I used my card for sodas, candy bars and chips from the snack machines.  To think that I might have stopped by the local farmers market and picked up a juice, coffee, treat and the a bag of lettuce or other fresh food makes my heart soar.  As always, I’m reminded of the hard work that produces results that we are doing here in this corner of Kentucky.