Fiona

My sister, Hawkeye and I took the goats for a walk this morning. I am slowing way down. Fiona arrived for the summer four days ago. She is here to help us with the farm and the baby. As I said to Nick this morning I really don't know what I would have done without her. She is throwing herself right into the thick of it all. She milked the goat morning and night yesterday and again this morning when I wasn't feeling well enough to go to the barn. She chased sheep yesterday and corralled them back into their pasture with only the help of our Shepard puppy.

This morning she went on a goat walk with me as we scouted a new pasture for them. While Nick cooked us breakfast she played a guitar on the front porch. After breakfast Nick and I lay down with the four farm dogs underneath the apple tree while she cleared the picnic table and washed up. As I write she is banging in the nails to the deck of the yurt we hope to erect by the end of the week.

She could honestly just sit here like a lump on the log that is our couch and I would be overthemoon happy to have her here. She is the other half of my soul in a way that only a sister could be. But she's also kicking ass and giving me a much needed opportunity to slow down, to stop carrying heavy things, to stop chasing four legged creatures. She is giving me the chance I wrote of last week to move inward.  And for this I will forever be in her loving debt.

What would we do without our sisters?

photos: 1. Fiona and one of the still nameless doelings. 2. Hawkeye and me, at 36 weeks.