Hamish watching the Hens chasing bugs and dust bathing Green Hill Farm Summer 2020 “The world is quiet here.” ~Lemony Snicket “Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.” ~Amir “Our task is to say a holy yes to […]
Green Hill Farm Scottish Blackface Sheep Summer 2020 “…with an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.” ~William Wordsworth “Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.” ~William James […]
Farmgirl & lambs Green Hill Farm “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Wishing you a wonderful day!
*This post originally appeared in September 2014. It is the last post in a trilogy titled, Green Hill Farm: A Retrospective. I posted the second part of this journey yesterday as I am celebrating the completion of the restoration of my home and sixteen years of living on Green Hill Farm this month. A kind thank you to everyone who took the time to read or re-read Retrospective #2. In looking back on the experience of saving my family’s homeplace, I’ve realized that not only was it a gesture of love, but more importantly, it was an act of faith. Faith, or wearing my rose-colored glasses as I like to say, sustained us through difficult times and propelled us forward. I don’t know where we would have been without it. At the beginning of this journey, shortly after my parents offered us the homeplace, my mom and I took a walk through the house. I remember walking through the dark, dimly lit downstairs hallway, the musty smell of rooms left undisturbed for too long, and cobwebs carefully covering yesterday’s treasures. I remember slowly climbing the stairs, counting each one as I went up. It made me think of Granddaddy. He once shared a story of the time his Grandmother Rieley visited when he was just a boy; She asked, “John, how many steps are there?” He quickly replied, “Sixteen!” He told me that he knew the answer because […]
Green Hill Farm Spring 2020 My beloved Clover is the oldest and sweetest sheep on Green Hill Farm. He loves picking through and enjoying the very last bites of grain. I sometimes catch him flipping over the troughs to make sure he doesn’t miss a single piece. So, yesterday, when I saw him bathed in the evening sunlight, it was a little […]
BAAAAH!! Just a little “hello” from my sweet woolly, Buttermilk. ❤️ Buttermilk is a lamb full of spunk and personality. He had a rather rough start in life. First, his mother died and left him an orphan and a bottle baby. Then, neighboring dogs attacked him. After surviving that terrifying experience, he endured an uneven shearing in order to […]
Butterbean, Sweet Pea, and Truffle stoically watching their fallen friend. *This post was originally published November 1st, 2018 Although I wrote this post a while ago, I think the story of Rosebud may be a timely lesson–a reminder that we can do hard things, find our strength in the midst of suffering, and decide not to be defeated by circumstances we cannot control. xoxo I squatted uncomfortably in the pasture. My left shin gently pressing on Rosebud’s back with the remainder of weight shifted to my right leg. My left hand disappeared into the coarse wool on her chest, above her heart. As I carefully caressed Rosebud’s face, the feathery sensation of her long eyelashes brushed against my hand as she opened and closed her eyes. Her heartbeat was faint. Although Rosebud was still grazing and eating grain regularly, we recently noticed she had lost weight and seemed to be lying around more. She was nearly 12-years-old now–elderly for a sheep. However, even though a bit slower, she was always grazing with the flock and never missed an opportunity for a grain treat…until Wednesday morning. After feeding the sheep, I walked back to the house, feeling my chest tighten and heaviness gather in my shoulders. Once inside, I picked up the phone and dialed our local vet’s office. A young girl answered, “Bedford Animal Hospital.” I was struck by the contrast of the cheerful, sunny voice at […]
Green Hill Farm Spring 2020 “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” ~Agatha Christie Sending lots of love and good wishes from all of us at Green Hill Farm! xoxo
Green Hill Farm No more BAAAH HUMBUG…just some BAAAH and a little CLUCK, CLUCK, because the Green Hill Farm Christmas tree is FINALLY up! I’ve been collecting sheep and chicken ornaments for a while now, but I recently have enough to decorate a full length Christmas tree. Oh joy!! 🙂
Farmgirl and Buttermilk Green Hill Farm Summer 2019 PC: Alison Creasy Photography “I do not understand the mystery of grace–only that it meets us where we are, and does not leave us where it found us.” ~Anne Lamott, author Enjoy your week!
My name is Tonya, and I grew up on a 300-acre farm in rural Virginia that has been in my family for over 100 years. After graduating from college, receiving my master’s degree in speech and language pathology, and living and working in a small city for six years, I decided to return to the place of my childhood. Here, in this rural area, on this patch of green, where for four generations my family has farmed, gardened, and lived, I, too wanted to be a part of this continuity. As a fourth generation farmgirl, I have many interests that not only include, but also go beyond the basics of farming, gardening, sheep and chicken-keeping. It is all of this and more that I plan on sharing in this blog.
fourth generation farmgirl 