A Few of My Favorite Things

Last week, a friend graciously treated me to a fantastic performance of The Sound of Music at the Pioneer Center in Reno. The quality of the performances left me feeling particularly pleased to have picked that occasion to overcome my long-time mild aversion to the work, stemming from being a member of a pit orchestra for a spirited but middling production many years ago.

As I arrived on the grounds of what is soon to be my farm this afternoon – coming straight from signing the purchase documents at the title office – I was immediately reminded of so many of my favorite things, the song of course coming to mind. My first two ewe lambs, Rusty and Shackleford; hay being put up by the same neighbor who will be helping me going forward; moving wheel lines and seeing life-giving water spring forth from the high desert right where the stretched-out Great Basin meets the geologically lively Modoc Plateau.

As the hay was being put up after being cut a few days earlier, I took a few minutes and absorbed the sensory pleasure of it all. That feeling of the orchardgrass tops with all its protein, and the smell: summer encapsulated. It evokes a palpable sense of bounty, achievement, and most importantly – not the promise of survival, but the possibility of it.

Freshly put-up hay, the possibility of young life, and a life lived with the land. These are a few of my favorite things.