Most mornings I get the littlest farmer to school and then do a round of chores before heading back home for breakfast. I feel lucky to start each day surrounded by living creatures. Aside from the sounds of livestock I get to hear crows call from the elm tree, starlings chatter in the barn rafters, and sometimes a fox will give a quick bark from the hillside above the creek. I love that life abounds in all forms on this farm.

Last Wednesday I got to glimpse a new creature. A fisher ran through the top of the field and across the road as I was feeding hay to the sheep. FIshers are solitary creatures and sightings aren't common. They are also slowly regaining population in this part of the state. To see one felt a little bit like luck. Once I was done with the hay, I followed and photographed it's tracks for a bit-just out of curiosity.

Later that day I told a handful of people about my experience and their reactions fell into two separate categories. A few wanted to know more about it; what it looked like, how big it was, how it moved. The others warned me that fishers are fierce and that it would eat our chickens and/or lambs so I should probably get rid of it before it started gobbling up livestock. Sigh...I was beginning to worry and also regret my decision to share.

Then an octogenarian farmer friend gave me this humbling bit of advice. He said to me, "A well run farm will have plenty else for that fisher to eat besides your hens. It will be happy with the rabbits and mice in the woods. Your job is to keep the rest of the farm healthy so nature can keep moving. If it goes after your livestock then you'll have to act somehow, but in the meantime try to understand what it needs. It's easier to provide than to prohibit."

Oh, how often we humans want to control the things we don't understand. Instead, what if we asked more questions? It was his last sentence that rang like a bell-such a simple truth-to try to act from a place of understanding rather than fear; to allow something to meet its own needs by maintaining a holistic system. Seems like a good way to run a farm...and live a life.

Lots of love,
Kelly