Happy as clams…defined

Life on the farm is very smooth right now.  All the chickens are safe.  We have five babies running around, happy as clams.  Where did that phrase come from?  Most clams I’ve ever met are about to be eaten.  Can being a meal bring us happiness?  Anyone out there know?  I’ve tried asking clams about the experience but they just clam up.   What else can you expect from a clam.  We haven’t been very generous with them up to now.  Why should they talk to us.   I don’t eat clams.  I prefer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I might eat a clam if they went well with peanut butter and jelly.  Then again I think the whole point of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is that you don’t have to kill anything to make one – nothing that breathes anyway.  The chickens asked me to put in that last remark.  We have standards here on the farm.  We do on occasion sneak down to the village and buy a whole barbecued chicken.  We shower thoroughly before entering the chicken pen,  hopefully removing all traces of chicken as food from our being.  I’m not up to having 60 knowing eyes staring at me.  Chickens have long memories.

We have Jamshed taking care of the gardens, including watering.   This clears up time for me to work on all the equipment that is waiting for my magical mechanical skills to put them back into working order.  I’m nearly finished with a Land Rover a friend gave me.  It was in sad shape.  I had to go through all of the wiring.  After that I removed the fuel injection, computers, etc and converted it to a carburetor  I also made my own distributor by combining the Land Rover distributor with a GM HEI distributor.  Enough tech talk.  Suffice it to say,  I can now work on it and best of all understand all it’s mood swings.  There’s two kinds of mechanics.  You have the modern day parts-replacers and the old fashioned mechanics who actually repair things and take pride in their work.  I’m the old fashioned kind.  Don’t tell anyone –  I have enough to do.

The year is coming to a close and we’re happy.  Every day we do what ever we want.  We eat wonderful meals.  Our freezers, cupboards and fridge are full of the wonderful things we grow here.  We have everything we need.  For Christmas this year were giving each other a poem.  That’s what you get for someone who has everything.

In the past three years we’ve shared our home with over 100 WWOOfers.  We’re ready to explore other ways of meeting like minded people.  We have a warehouse full of interesting stories the WWOOfers left us with.  In case you don’t know.  WWOOfers are members of an organization with a really awful name.  I think it stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms.

We’re looking forward to the coming year and all the adventures that await us.  We plan to do more exploring both inward and outward.  It’s a great big beautiful universe we live in.  We wish you all well and hope you’ll find the time to come visit us sometime.

To all of the above I say Amen and good night.