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On June 1, we hosted a big community event (the arrival of a small herd of bison to a ranch outside our small town of Bison, South Dakota) and gathered to sing, dance, and practice some traditional neighbor music . the front yard of our new house.
Preparations took months to make, but like almost everything in western South Dakota, we all knew that our best-laid plans depended entirely on the weather. The possibility of there not being some extreme weather event to contend with was almost impossible to imagine.
During the last few days of May, the forecast looked surprisingly mild, maybe a little too warm, but nothing particularly extreme. Of course, that only made me and the rest of the planning committee more worried. We couldn’t get away with holding a large gathering and not suffer a sudden hail, heat wave, or tornadic wind gusts, could we?
Our new house has a large store. It is unfinished but keeps most of the elements out. “Worst-case scenario, we can hold the event there,” I told everyone, grimly sure that’s exactly what we’d have to do.
Keeping it inside just had one problem. The store, even unfinished, would be fine for the event except that we had never fully moved into the house and everything we hadn’t moved into was still piled up in a messy pile right in the middle of the building.
Almost six months in the new house and we had not missed any of the things that were still in boxes. So, we had been grappling with the age-old question: do we throw away the boxes without opening them or do we actually try to sort through the detritus of our own lives in case there might be some gold in all that dross?
Meanwhile, late spring is the busiest time of year for us here at the ranch. During the first part of May, babies still arrive; During the second part, we move on to preparing flocks and flocks for the move to summer pastures.
The seeds that are going to be buried must reach the ground. With such a short growing season, there is no time to waste between the last frost date and planting day. And the daily tasks are still heavy, as there are a large number of young animals that need special care.
Outside, the grass is green and lush, the air fresh and soft, the sky so expressive in its many iterations that you could almost die from sheer beauty. And yet, with so much work pending at the end of the day, it is not unreasonable to fear that you could die of exhaustion. The feast and famine of it all is a little much if you ask me, but who has time to ask someone something?
Somehow we managed to clean the store. We kill and vaccinate the calves and lambs. We have planted enough garden and so far I consider it good. We build the chicken coop and run after the teenage chicks. We even moved the fast-growing ducklings to an outdoor pen. (Although the little “pond” I made for them was a failure. They still prefer to bathe in a container.) So we’re going on schedule, and that feels like a true miracle of life.
And of course, the weather on June 1st was perfect. The artists and musicians, the distant neighbors and friends, the bison whose arrival we were celebrating, all received one of the most perfect days we will have all year.
Now I enjoy the newly cleaned store; Although we didn’t need it as a shelter, it is very nice to have finally cleaned it; The many animals under my care are thriving and growing, the seeds in the ground are just beginning to appear and greet the sun and the days are long enough to contain all the work and a little play. In other words, I’m officially going to say it’s summer and I’m ready!
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