Make it

I only have so much creative juice in me. So when I wake up the first thing I do is get the coffee maker going, see to the farm, and then sit down in front of the second-hand 20-inch iMac in my living room to work on graphic design. Knowing the lambs and sheep are counted and fine, that the pigs are chewing, that the pregnant goats have their hay and grains - and sit down with some logo work while the dogs chomp on kibble and the day is new - that is a good feeling. I watch updates from James Corden and Graham Norton and catch up with favorite writers, actors, filmmakers and storytellers as I work on designs.

By my list I have worked with four clients today and have an email from one new prospect. That is work and hope, right there. I work on logos for farmers, massage therapists, Christian Ag organizations, Dog breeders, and homesteaders and once the list of the day is met I head upstairs to Job II. I have a laptop, lamp, and extra monitor in the "office" tack room. There I check in with my corporate bosses I am loosely affiliated too. I look at ad requests and social media updates and image resizing and then clock in my hours. It's pretty simple. I like it. I'm grateful for it. The fact that an old corporate employer still is interested in my services from a little farm on the side of a mountain? It feels good.

When those obligations of farm, dog, freelance and corporation are met is is around 11Am and I take a break. Today I went for a long run (8 miles!) and then did some squats, pushups, and sit ups. I want to be stronger, healthier, better. Then I worked on archery practice for an hour. I shot a 25lb and 48lb bow, interchanged, and did so for an hour. After that - I groomed, ground-work, and ride my horse up a mountain and took in the view from an overlook I had just looked at a few hours earlier while 4 miles away on a long run. I moved my body. I focused. I shot arrows. I cared for animals. I created. I rode. It feels really good.

I have a fiddle student and good friend I met at the brewery coming to work on Ashokan Farewell. The fact that he started playing 3 months ago and is now working on putting more feeling into that song is a boast in itself. He brought a friend on Sunday and three of us locals were just playing music and loving it. He leant me 2 Jason Isbell records. I told him it looked like a nice version of Biff from Back to the Future. We laughed and played more music. It's a good life.

Everything I am supposed to care about is tight. Everything that actually matters is good. A few weeks back into running and I am down 5lbs and no longer scared of runs over five miles. The seven surviving lambs of the original ten are thriving and becoming part of the family.

So that is my weekday now. I have a farm first, and then a checklist of clients and corporate needs second. Then I take 2 hours around lunch to focus on the mindless and mindful tasks of archery and horse training and running uphill. Then it is back to the service of more design work, writing to you, and then teaching music lessons with drinking buddies.

It is not a bad life.

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