Hoofin' It Through The Holiday Season

You are worthy of care: From those you love, from our broader society, and from yourself. This month of festivity and frenzy, demand the time, space, and energy you need to care for yourself, too. - Julia

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Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I had big plans for an afternoon mountain bike ride. The weather was warm, the grandparents were on standby for childcare, and then: I saw Julia’s eye leaking thick white mucus.

Eye stuff is something I don’t mess around with. It progresses quickly and has serious consequences. The bike ride would have to wait.

We strapped the baby to Todd’s back, marched everyone out to the field, and slipped a halter on Julia. (I train all my cows to lead, and it is one of the best time investments I make. Not having to drive everyone into the working chute to administer care to one is a huge time saver.) With just a little urging, she was secured.

Baby’s first animal health emergency!

Pretty quickly, I figured out Julia had some sort of vegetable matter stuck under the top left part of her eyelid.

I’ll just gently reach in and pull that out, I thought. This will be easy!

Gingerly, I pulled back the lid and grabbed hold of the thing. One yank and…it broke off in the eye.

Now there was still something in the eye, but it was too small to grab with my fingers. I didn’t dare reach for it with pointy forceps. One shake of her head and I’d potentially blind her for life. I was going to have to call the vet.

I released her from the chute, took her back to her pals, and left a message on the vet’s answering service.

Farm calls are not cheap. No farmer wants to call the vet out unless they have to. Large animal vets also don’t really want to come unless they must. It’s much more lucrative to have animals come to you than to drive across the county to see a cow with a boo-boo.

But, again, I don’t mess with eye stuff. A vet appointment was made for Monday, and I raced daylight to get in a quick mountain bike ride.

The next day, we pulled Julia back out of the field and got her back in the chute. In one swift movement, the vet reached in with forceps (such confidence!) and pulled out a two-inch-long sticker branch. We all stared at it in total disbelief at its length. Julia must have been in SO MUCH PAIN. Calling the vet was 100 percent the right decision. A few days of applying antibiotic ointment to the eye, and she’s good as new!

I sometimes worry that I don’t have the decades of knowledge of many of the long-time farmers around me. But it’s so good to know my intuition proved to be right.

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Here’s What I Loved This Week

I am doing a December social media fast. No Facebook, BlueSky, or Instagram. The research on active social media use (posting and scrolling) and anxiety is not great. And I feel like my ability to do deep-focus work is so hampered by the siren’s call of “maybe I’m missing something good online.”

Also: I miss having time to be creative. At the end of the day, I am often so tired I endlessly scroll, versus engaging in crocheting, music making, or creative writing. This is not how I wish to spend my finite time on this planet.

So: I bought something called a Brick, which physically blocks your phone from accessing apps. While it’s utterly silly that I need something like this to come between me and my beloved Instagram, it has worked (so far).

I promise, this is not a paid endorsement. However, if you are looking for a tool to make your phone less addictive, perhaps this could help you, too. (Also, it is FSA eligible, which is funny but true.)

May you spend more time doing what you love this holiday season, too.