Rural Routes, Blog Version

Welcome to 2020. Or ‘Velkomin’, as the Icelanders say and as it says on our exterior door.
I dislike taking down Christmas decorations. I hate dismantling the Christmas tree. I don’t like the emptiness of the rooms after the task is done.
K says there are two ways to avoid the issue:
a) Don’t put decorations up to begin with, or
b) Leave them up till next Christmas.
Neither option works for me.

TEN YEARS IN A DECADE:
We sold the bulk of our cattle herd in January 2010. The ten or so cows that we kept (family favourites mostly) multiplied and within a few years our herd was back up to 25 animals. That is what happens when you don’t sell the bull, I guess.
We eventually sold those cattle to the farmer who rented our excess pasture. For several years, he brought our cattle back to the farm each summer; it was rather like having the grandchildren come to visit. The cows knew the place and still recognized us.
In 2018, we sold our home quarter, although we kept possession of our house for another year. There were still cattle around, but they no longer had any connection to us or our history. Seeing them in pasture was pleasant, but did not give me the same sense of well-being.
In late 2018, we moved to the city.
Looking back, it feels as if the entire decade was a slow transition into retirement and a new life.

TWELVE MONTHS IN A YEAR:
We began 2019 in our new city home, although the first two months of the year were spent going back and forth between our two homes. On one occasion in January, we spent a night in the old house. It was the best sleep I had had in two and a half months. By March 1, the deadline for handing over the farm house to its new owners, we had cleared everything out.
For much of the year, I consciously avoided going anywhere near our old home. I did not want to see the changes that the new owners were making. Silly me, especially since the decision to move was ours and there was no coercion involved. I just did not foresee how painful it would be to tear up old roots.
For the first half of the year, I continued to work at my job, travelling from the city instead of the farm. In May, I found myself with nine weeks of work remaining and five weeks of vacation to be taken before the end of June. May and June were a blur and I officially retired at the end of June.
I am gradually getting used to this retirement thing. In Icelandic, it is called ‘eftir launum’ – literally, after wages. Retirement is what’s left when the pay cheques come to an end.
Signing up for a university course was a good thing in that it gives my weeks some of the structure they had been missing. But I am still missing my work and the purpose it gave me.
LET’S TALK WEATHER:
The year 2019 was a bit of everything – drought conditions during the growing season, rainy conditions during the harvest and a huge Thanksgiving snowstorm – ending with a relatively balmy and snow-free holiday season.
As former farmers, we were thankful that we didn’t need to worry about hay shortages for our cattle. But once a farmer, always a farmer, it seems. We still talked about it and worried about friends and family members facing the challenges we no longer needed to face.
A NEW YEAR AND A NEW DECADE:
K and I were both awake to greet the New Year, although we were asleep soon afterwards. The first day of 2020 was marked with a family brunch.
The holiday decorations are down. The Christmas puzzle I almost always begin on Boxing Day nears completion and I hope to finish it before my classes will resume in just a few days.

Onwards to the next year, and the next decade. May we brave the changes that will come in the company of family and friends and with hope in our hearts.
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