the big picture

Yesterday, I got one hundred hazelnut shrubs planted. I was a bit disappointed in my performance. I was hoping to get fifty maples in as well. Just not the woman I once was. (sigh)

I could slit plant only very few of the shrubs because they had enormous root systems on them, so most needed holes. A few needed gigantor holes. I kind of hit a wall around shrub no.25. But I kept looking over to the hill where the riding arena will someday go. Looking so much like the great hall of Rohan. No piece of shit oversized tin shed for me! thank you very much! Then there will be new fencing, much of it covered by the hedgerows. My horses will be grazing deep grass. There will be a small barn with a sod roof. There will be the hired man, Sven, with his rippling muscles and flowing golden hair.

I just kept dangling the big picture out there, like a carrot in front of a horse.

When I look across the land to the southeast, there is the downward slope that has been cleared for the maples. Someday it will be the sugar grove and we will , hopefully, try our hand at making maple syrup. What I see in my mind is a blaze of reds against an autumn sky. A team of horses pulling up the hill. Off the cart steps the hired man, his flowing brown hair pulled back in to a pony tail, his red plaid shirt complementing the foliage around him. His biceps bulge as he lifts the sap buckets from the trees.

It's just really, really good to plan for the future.

Then a little farther and you take the path down into the clearing in the woods. The ground has been leveled and drained and the foundations have been set for the big out door stone fireplace. The stone mason is there, sorting the rocks and levering the larger stones into place. He works and his flowing black hair falls across his shoulders. He glistens in sweat and flashes a brilliant white smile as he squares off the last corner.

You know, I am so glad that in my fantasy life I am able to hire good help. You just can't have too much of a good work ethic.

louie