It’s a gray, yucky day here on the farm. We’re ready for some liquid sunshine in the form of the cod liver pills we take through the winter. There’s a nasty cold (maybe flu?) going around, closing schools (except for those fortunate children who homeschool) and it got to us the last two weeks. That doesn’t help in dealing with the blah weather. Yesterday was a bright spot. We took off to the Old Mission penninsula to pick up pumpkins. Marc and Debbie Santucci have a small farm up there and their neighbor raises pumpkins. After halloween the large pumpkin market is done, so Marc filled his cherry tubs with pumpkins and we brought them south to grow Mangalitsa pigs.
The penninsula was beautiful. The leaves were still on the trees and had a bit of color in them–our trees here were as colorless as the sky, pretty much turning only yellows. The sun even poked his head out for a few hours, which always makes things better. We had fun picking up chestnuts from under their trees, also. It’s a prickly job. Dorothy joked about the mini porcupine stuck to her sleeve. Joe perfected a way of stepping on the spiny hulls with his big boots to get the nut out. I’d brought my leather work gloves. Debbie said they have to harvest the nuts by hand and it’s a tough job. Sheepskin leather seems to work the best for gloves, but they still end up with prickers in their knees. We brought home a pound or two. Joe roasted them in the oven per Debbie’s instructions, then we sat in the living room, watching Shrek and enjoying our chestnuts. It’s a bit of a job to get them hulled all the way, but the rich, buttery nut is worth it.
I heard someone say this weekend that poverty is the result of sin, that God created us to be wealthy. I had to think about that. We’ve said more than once that we’re millionaires–you just wouldn’t guess it to see our bank accounts. I wore my bookkeeper hat today, so that reality is very keen. We have wealth that has nothing to do with money and can’t be lost in a stock market crash. We have great people in our lives, we have enough good healthy food, we have relative health, we have a solid roof over our heads, we have wood in the bins outside and know where to get more. Perhaps, as we are all given different gifts/purposes in life, we’re given different kinds of wealth, too. Perhaps the wealth we’re created for is of a more natural type than can be put in the bank. Perhaps the prosperity preachers and our culture at large don’t have it right. I know I felt rather rich surrounded by my children and husband last night, munching the delicious nuggets and savouring the company we received it from. Perspective is everything, as the saying goes.