Till the cows come home

Literally and figuratively speaking....I could be AWOL for a very long time, cos you see I now have a new responsibility. My mornings begin with milking cows, shearing sheep and collecting fruit off of my pear, cherry and apple trees. Evenings begin and end with harvesting, plowing and planting the next batch of crops.

Yes, you're right.[And if you're one of the denser ones and still haven't got it, obviously you aren't on Facebook or don't hang out there much :)]. I am knee-deep in the trenches with Farmville.

Let me explain, please! Trust me, there's a story and a jolly good reason.

I've been asked to join the sisterhood of Farmville for some months now, by some well meaning friends and the little firecracker called Seren. I have diligently avoided it like the plague, cos you see I have never been a virtual/video game person. *Gasp* I know! Having used computers and software for this long, starting from the times of Tetris and Solitaire to the Wii's and Playstations of the now(and god knows what else that's in right now)- video/online gaming just was never my cup of tea. Hence the pushback.

Then recently a little incident caused me to lose my emotional crutch of many years. I felt severely handicapped and that one day I decided to take the plunge. I fell hook, line and sinker into the Farmville pond! Its funny how a relatively unconnected incident has a ripple effect in another relatively unconnected realm of space.

And thus I have found my calling. There's a lot of financial planning lessons in this venture- what crops to invest in, how much it'll sell for, what to re-invest in, when to splurge(should I buy a tool shed, does a fruit stand make sense-will it do good business?, planting a rice crop definitely warrants a well, the ducks and the swans need a pond...so on and so forth). In between all this, you find a small segment of time to help out your neighbors- you chase raccoons and foxes and mice, rake the leaves off their farm...and in doing so you get to visit their farms while they're away. You take a minute, a breather to admire their layout. Each farm is laid out differently.

Then there are the conversations with your virtual neighbors, in real time. One good friend and neighbor(and probably the one that gets credit for finally luring me into the sisterhood, who shall hitherto remain unnamed :P) asks deep questions about what the final intent of the venture is. Is it about hoarding cash? Is it living for the day, spending all your gains and going to bed satisfied and exhausted- with the gratifying feeling that you have individually created a wonderland? Discussions with your sibling on a good strategy for high yields and profits. Signing up the mother so she can donate animals and trees to the cause(all the while she shakes her head in disbelief and wonders whats to become of her daughters). All that's left is to get North Pole(the dad) an account and setting him up for some post-retirement occupation.

So, my readers, that's really what I've been up-to lately. I include some pictures, for your viewing pleasure, of my little plot of 'virtual' land. If you peer closely, you can see the stone mailbox, my picnic set, a pond with ducks and swans and my sign post which goes :

Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days. ~Henri Alain

Being an earth sign, while I'll write more about this tendency of mine to be deeply grounded in reality in another post altogether- this little virtual venture of mine seems to strongly work in its favor.

Time to harvest some bananas and head to the market! Ciao y'all and I leave you with this quote

“Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors.”
~ Edward Dahlberg