Concentration of Peace. Day 531.

Baylee is collecting branches and sticks for his Foodways and Sustainable Living class, so I thought it would be a lovely time to sit outside at the picnic table and write about the present.

Three red-shouldered hawks are using the warm breeze to rest on while they eye my chickens from way up high. They’re conditioning them, which is brilliant, but of course I don’t like it. It’s a tactic they use so the chickens, or other prey, will become complacent, used to them almost. They’re screaming to their gods and each other. I can’t tell if it’s a pair and their baby, or if they are concerned with territory. (This morning a large hawk was hunting moles who are tearing up my back field. Of course, I don’t love the carnage, but the hawk has to eat.)

Peeking at the back field from where I sit on the deck, I see about fifty or so robins doing their hop-hop-still, hop-hop-still, as they feel for worms under their feet. They’re surrounded by tall pines and some bare deciduous trees waving their arms like they’re all listening to the same, slow song. Back-and-forth. Pause. Back-and-forth. It’s a nice complement to the quiet that surrounds me, and my two friends, David, and Gisele.

They lie next to me in the shade. They’re sleeping and David has one paw touching Gisele so he will surely know when she gets up. The neighbor’s dog just took away that peace, woke up David with a deep bark. My guy now is taking it out on a very large horse toy. He growls at the neighbor dog, who is quite far away, as he shakes the horse toy violently back-and-forth. It’s quite amusing, actually. Gisele is up now, too, annoyed at being disturbed, so she looks around to see if there is anything interesting going on.

Our new home and property is a palette for us, a clean, flat place to make it our own. This weekend we will add a wooden clothesline and make concrete plans about the vegetable garden. What’s most wonderful is that our project calendar is less rushed and not as desperate as last summer’s was. We are settled now, so we can start having fun with our property’s growth.

It’s home. We are safe here and nestled privately far enough away from the rest. It is peaceful here, comfortable. I’ve yet and probably never will take our home for granted.