For the anxious bird

It’s okay if you can’t focus, can’t get your work done, and can’t stop doomscrolling the news. Give yourself some grace in these extraordinary times. Just surviving is enough. You’re doing just great and I am proud of you.

— Heebeejeebees (who truly is the one who writes this newsletter as you can see from the photo)

Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm

• Baby Watch Day 2,345. I did the math and Benni’s new due date (if she was not bred on the original heat cycle) was yesterday. So we’re back on baby watch. I think we’re all kind of over it—but she’s especially over it.

• A hard freeze is predicted for tomorrow night, so I’m saying goodbye to all the tomato and pepper plants. I wrote about hydroponic gardening for The New York Times last week, and while I’ve always kind of sworn I wouldn’t move that way (I like that my farm is a closed loop: chickens provide manure that nourishes the garden, the garden produces food for us, and then we feed the scraps back to the chickens), this winter feels like it’s going to be hard, and maybe it’s time to bring some sunshine inside?

• Last weekend I blew off a couple of hours of farm work to go for a trail ride. It’s so easy to never stop working when you have a farm. But even farmers deserve to have a little fun every now and then! Those fences will get built someday!

  

Here’s What I Loved This Week

This sweet little short film about how to be alone. We’re coming to grips with the fact that Thanksgiving will just be us and all our critters. It’s sad, but the best choice for ensuring we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with everyone we love next year. This little video helped me process a bit.