Lani was born in 1961 when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. There is a photo of newborn Lani with my mother on a picnic blanket somewhere on the Mall with cherry blossoms all around, or at least that is what I remember. Lani has looked like Lani since the day she was born -- those expressive black eyebrows, big dark eyes, that perfectly round face (as Jerry Lehmann always said) with cheekbones and that little upward curve at the corners of her mouth when she smiles. She has always been beautiful.
Like me, she has a very large body. Sometimes when I wear an aloha shirt, Jon mistakes me for Lani. We can look quite a bit alike, especially now that we both kind of roll when we walk, taking the stress off of our inherited knee structure. She has endured many more injuries than I have, though, after a lifetime around horses.
Lani has always had the energy of two or three people, and for the last ten years or so it seems she barely sleeps. With her partner Kathy she has owned a veterinary business for almost 30 years and about 6 or 7 years ago they bought an old building that housed the Bluemont General Store, a business that had been going for 150 years but had closed suddenly due to health issues of the previous owner. They reopened the general store, selling groceries, souvenirs, hot lunch items, ice cream -- open 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. In addition, they own about two dozen horses in various states of disrepair or health, a couple thousand chickens and random other pets like llamas and dogs and cats. For fun, they compete in endurance rides all over the country and are nationally ranked, sometimes in the top ten. Apparently on Saturday Lani and Kathy were in a race in New Jersey (endurance rides aren't exactly a top speed event, but the fastest one is the winner) and Kathy "gave" Lani the sixth place win for a birthday present. I guess this means Kathy could have taken sixth place if she had wanted to.
Lani turned 54 yesterday. It is nearly impossible to schedule a birthday celebration for Lani since she is often out of town on the weekends and working most of the hours of the weekdays. I sent her a few emails asking about a birthday plan but didn't get very far. In our family, the general tradition is to celebrate the birthday by getting together whoever is around on the exact day of the birthday or at least on the Saturday that is closest. Anna usually organizes us and hosts the dinner.
It might seem like I am changing the subject... but yesterday most of the senior staff (so to speak) of the farm was drafted to go to Loudoun to put the plastic on the hoop house (that we moved in a previous story). It was forecasted to be the calmest day of the week, with no rain. The days all around Sunday were supposed to be rainy, windy, cold, no good for unfurling a huge sheet of plastic. We arrived at 11:00 on the dot, unrolled the plastic, cut it in half (50 feet), and tied the rocks to the corners, attaching long ropes at each end. Stephen and Carrie pulled the ropes and the plastic went over the top, easy peasy. Usually we have to pull two pieces of plastic at the same time, twice as long, so this was 1/4th the weight that we often pull -- we use a tractor for the heavy version. Then it got windy, of course, and we all had to hold tight to this giant sail and wait for the wind to die down. It didn't die down much, so Jon and Stephen climbed on ladders and tacked down the ends as best they could. We all have put plastic on many greenhouses over the years, we know the drill, but it still a little stressful as we try to put it on square and tack it down without any wrinkles. In the end, we won and the cover is on pretty nicely. Jon is of course not satisfied with the result, but we expect that.
I had a vague plan that we would see if Lani was in Loudoun so we could all observe her birthday with her, perhaps with an impromptu picnic in the newly covered tunnel. Mom called her to see if this might work. I told her to bring a birthday cake (just kidding, but we didn't have one with us). Kathy got in the mix and said she had been planning to take Lani to their favorite Chinese restaurant. They had just got back from New Jersey at midnight and Lani was at the office in Bluemont doing paperwork.
So after we had finished the job, we all headed to Purcellville in our lovely work clothes, with mud stuck to our boots. Lani sat at the head of the table with our mother on her left, then Michael Lipsky, Kathy, Jon, Carrie, Stephen and me. We ate a buffet lunch, talked about chickens and predators, horses, customers, who knows what else. If someone had been listening to us, it would have sounded like some kind of a business meeting -- our businesses are closely connected by the chickens and eggs, so all of our interactions are kind of business-related. But I don't think most senior staff laugh quite as heartily around their conference tables, and the floor under the chairs might not be quite as muddy.
That may have been the first time in about two decades that we actually managed to have a birthday party for Lani on March 29. It was just right.
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