Matt Ross, our farrier, came this morning.
It is always a pleasure to see someone who understands animals and how to treat them. Lulu and Fanny swoon when Matt comes; they stand quietly, lean into him and wait patiently while he trims their hooves.
I get a lot of messages from people who say they want to be a Gentleman Farmer like me, and I most often (not always) smile. They mean well, and they would love to be around animals in a pretty place.
But I try to tell them that you have to be rich to be a Gentlemen Farmer. You have to have a lot of money and pay people to run the farm you visit from time to time.
People like me are not farmers, and I am certainly no gentlemen. Maria and I make our living from writing about our work and farm, and we take care of the farm ourselves.
I love our farm and would never wish to be anyway else, but I feel badly that I might be romanticizing it. Farms are expensive, and so are hay, vets, and fences. Animals get sick and die, barns rot and collapse, trees fall and crush barriers, and old farmhouses need maintenance.
It is a beautiful lire, and I wouldn’t trade it for any other, but like anything else worth doing, it is difficult, intense, and draining.
We are not Gentlemen Farmers here, and I hope people don’t think having a farm – a most beautiful dream – is like it is in the movies or on those creating digital cards.
That would be a lie.
You can always tell a Gentleman’s Farm from a real one because a real one always looks like it’s falling apart, and it usually is.
Trimming our donkeys’ hooves with Matt is one of the sweet rituals of being on our farm. He is a pleasure to know and talk to; he loves animals. It is always a relief when he does the trimming, usually every three months.
It takes Matt about 20 minutes to do both donkeys, and Maria stands with the one being trimmed, rubs her neck, and keeps them calm. The donkeys are like Zinnia, nothing much rattles them, not Matt.
If you treat a donkey badly, they will never forget. If you treat them well, they will never forget that either. Matt knows how to treat them well.
Matt refuses to trim donkeys, as a rule, he’s had some bad experiences, but I talked (begged) him into coming to meet Lulu and Fanny, and he fell in love with those two adorable creatures.
He says his problems come from donkeys who are mistreated.
We rarely get to talk donkey with someone who knows them so well.
I suppose I should be flattered that anyone would call me a gentleman; it has never happened before.
Jon, how right your are about affording to be a gentleman farmer or even living in the country. I moved up from the city of Toronto 34 years ago to the country, for medical reasons, pollution being the main issue. Country air is fresher. That you can`t take away from the country. But otherwise, country properties are often a sink-hole for money. I have two trees to be taken down and one that is already down, needs to be stripped of its branches and taken to the back of my ten acres here. Nine hundred dollars this will cost…with five more trees to get taken down before winter sets in again. As a kid I always wanted to live on a farm, have animals, chickens, well, the first thing I got when I moved to the country and built a hen house with the help of a one-armed country man (one arm because a can of beer was in the other), we built the house, I built a lot of it. And then, the reality of country living hit me. Manure. Chickens poop like every other living thing. Cleaning out the hen house was a reality I never thought of. And then, inspecting the chicken`s anatomy, I learned that chickens have only one hole…for dropping eggs and for pooping. I went off eggs for three months. Yes, you describe a way of life many would envy Jon, but you know, I know, anyone knows who lives in the country, you have to have money to support it. Yes, it`s peaceful, yes, it`s gorgeous, yes, having animals is a treat…but no-one knows the reality of country living until you do it. Then, you learn. I wouldn`t want to be any place else, going back into urban living I hope will never happen but as I age, I know it may. I`ve lived without streetlights for all these years. The country is a wonderful place to live, but you are speaking the truth…it`s not for everyone and it`s costly to afford this `dream`.
Sandy Proudfoot, Canada
Nicely put Sandy…