Bad Timing

So here it is one day before the start of Hanukkah, two days before Thanksgiving, and I managed to injure my foot by stubbing it on a piece of furniture I happened to be walking past as I was cleaning up in anticipation of relatives arriving later tonight.

I know the manicure is bad, but the bruise is worse!

 My parents may have written a lot of checks to provide me with 15 years of classical dance training in my youth, but it appears that I was just destined to be a klutz.  Maybe they should have sent me to Charm School instead. Or bought cigarettes.  Whatever.

I am not sure if the foot is fractured, broken or just severely strained, but it hurts like the devil and I can't wear shoes at this point.

Of course I can live without shoes, as long as I stay close to the house.  The trick is, of course, maneuvering around the parts of property I can traverse, and working at the winery.

Luckily Big Ag will be home a lot this week, so any tricky property maintenance can be done by him, and I believe I will be able to get at least my cross-trainers on by Friday so I can work at the weekend.  It won't be pretty or fashionable, but it will do. 

And of course this makes me realize that if I lived alone and farmed, a lot of things would be impossible.  As it is, I have a tree full of ripe pomegranates I will be unable to harvest and process now, an orchard that needs weeding, and a vegetable garden that needs water. 

But it does serve to remind me that none of us is ever really self-suffucient, especially not anyone who farms.  The rural life puts you one mis-step away from needing those you live with to take over your share temporarily when you're laid up with injury or illness. 

And if there's no one you live with, you'd better have cultivated enough relationships with your neighbors that they will help you.  It's a sobering thought for anyone thinking owning and running a farm by themselves is do-able.  I see people doing it and, in a way, it's like waiting for a train wreck, because none of us is invincible.  We all need a Plan B for when things like this happen.

It takes a village, people.  Or maybe The Village People. Or at just a family.  But you can't do it alone.