Sundays

Life is better with close friends.  They are there to lift you up when you are down.  They are there to celebrate your successes.  They are there to turn to for advice and there when you just want to veg out. 

At Forevermost Farms, we LOVE Sundays.  We try to make it a point to make a special breakfast of waffles and fruit, or biscuits and gravy or egg frittatas.  Sundays around the Farm has its’ own playlist.  We like to sleep in a little later than normal, sit on swings, watch sunsets and drink sweet iced tea.

Some Sundays are just more spectacular than others and today was one of those Sundays.   It was better than normal because it was all about close friends.  As we started the day, we sat around the kitchen table and told stories with one of the best men God put on this Earth.   We drank a whole pot of coffee and then busted out the new French Press and practically gulped that down as well.  Our dear friend, Rob Guion weaved stories of Vietnam era Naval service in Guantanamo Bay, and he shared stories with Kelly about St Louis and his family that I had heard at least seven or eight times before (and hope to hear at least seven or eight more).  We listened to the Eagles and shared trivia about Don Henley.  We played with the two-day old baby chicks that have taken residence in a home-made brooder sitting next to the dining table.  We celebrated as one of the rabbits gave birth to 9 beautiful naked rat looking kits.  We laughed.  It was the perfect morning.  The only thing that was remotely unwanted was saying goodbye as he headed back toward St Louis.

We then set out making nesting boxes for five more of our rabbits that appear to be ready to give birth.  We watered the garden and made sun tea. 

Then Mickey and Wayne Marshall dropped by for a visit on their out-of-the-way trip from Heber Springs back home to Bentonville.  We walked the property, giggled in the chicken coop as Mickey questioned our sanity and marveled at the direction our homestead life has taken.  We may have even had a beer.  Another litter of baby rabbits were born and we celebrated.

We said our goodbyes and then set out to move our two new hives of honeybees into their Forevermost homes at the back of our pasture.  I even noticed a small tear drip from Kelly’s cheek as we watched little bees carry pollen on their back legs into the hive we set up for them.  We found both queen honeybees and marked them with a green marker and smiled.  Once we were finished with the bee transfer, we both just say down in the field and watched the sun as it set over the top of our hives and farm. 

On the way back to the house, we noticed white flowers covering a dirt hill by the pond.  We climbed the hill to find it completely covered with blackberry flowers.  When I say covered, I mean 15 gallons of blackberry covered.  We stood and took in a perspective of our home that we had never seen.  We smiled and held hands.  Bella, our cat, saw us from the distance and leaped when Kelly called her name.  She darted across the field and climbed to the top of the hill, confused as to why we were standing there.  It was spectacular.

We descended the hill and made our way closer to the house, only to find another littler of beautiful baby rabbits.  25 total born today in all and there is still a few more hours to go.

We are about to settle in for the night, but not before we call our dear friend, Erich Vieth.  We will sing him Happy Birthday and hope to bring a smile to his face.  Then we get to watch Game of Thrones and wind down one of the most memorable Sundays yet on our Forevermost home.

Sundays are always amazing, but when you add in great friends,  baby chicks,  blackberries, honey bees, sun tea, newborn baby rabbits, birthdays, Game of Thrones, and waffles – it is one for the books.  Life is great.