Piddling Around

Posted on January 8, 2020 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 1

I have officially become a “piddler”. No (giggle), not that kind of piddler. The piddling I am referring to is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention.”

I remember years ago, visiting my parents at their farm during their post-dairy, retirement years. I always found Mom busy in the kitchen. But Daddy was rarely in the house. When I would ask Mom what Daddy was doing outside, her stock response was always, “Just piddling around.”

The implication, of course, was that since retirement, he no longer had any “real” work. Whatever it was that he was doing, my mom considered “so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention.”

According to the old adage, a woman’s work is never done. Even after retirement, there is still laundry, and cooking, and cleaning. So, retirement didn’t change much of anything for my mom. But she obviously felt it had changed quite a bit for my dad.

I thought about all this recently as I was walking my dogs one morning after chores. My twice-a-day, fifteen-minute walk with my dogs benefits all three of us, and has become part of our daily routine, no matter the weather. There are definitely some days when I can’t wait to return to the house. But that winter morning happened to be a brisk, sunny morning without a stitch of wind. In a word – fabulous. I was desperately looking for a reason to delay my return to the house.

I knew I had to return sometime. And I had plenty of “real” work waiting for me: laundry, cooking and cleaning. But have I mentioned that the weather was fabulous?

As the dogs and I followed the curve of the creek, I noticed that the running stream narrowed considerably immediately after it cut through what used to be a beaver dam. I decided to try to cross the creek at its narrowest point. But upon closer inspection, I decided it was still too wide for me to step, or even hop, across.

But it would be really cool, I thought, to be able to cross that creek. I stood there, thinking.

Then inspiration struck. Along the outer curve of the creek, just beyond where I stood, Danny and I had lined the creek bank with old chunks and pieces of unusable limestone. The intent was to stop, or at least slow down, erosion during high water events. Some of those stones might be useable to construct a low-water bridge!

I searched and found one long enough to bridge the flow. I dropped it in the running water, but it was still below the surface. If I crossed it, my shoes would get wet.

I searched for another to stack on top of it. It was now above the water level, but had become less stable.

So, I searched for another stone that I could use to support the structure on the downstream side. And then another.

Each time I added stones, of course I had to test my bridge. Meanwhile, the dogs were sniffing the grass and splashing in the creek right beside me. They had absolutely no concerns about laundry.

I finally got the stones into a position where I could take one or two steps to cross the flowing creek without teetering and without getting my shoes wet.

I stood back and admired my work. Then I glanced at the clock on my phone. My fifteen-minute walk had turned into an hour.

I had piddled away forty-five minutes!

It was when I sensed the guilt in me beginning to surface that I thought of my parents. Darn it! I thought. I have earned the right to piddle once in a while!

For thirty-three years I was a working mother. For the last ten plus, I have been a farmer. My summers are spent working from dawn to dusk. I refuse to feel guilty over forty-five minutes spent piddling around on a beautiful winter morning in my retirement years!

As it turned out, we had something to eat that night, and we had clean clothes to wear the next day. But those forty-five minutes spent piddling around were, without a doubt, the best part of my day.

Coincidentally, the weather is beautiful again today. So, I’m turning off my computer now because I have to go…

Well, you know.

(My parents’ work ethic was deeply embedded during the Great Depression. Read about it in the January chapter of my third book, The Return to the Family Farm.)

Next Week: Full Moon Fever

Happy New Year from our Farm! (A Pictorial Tribute)

Posted on January 1, 2020 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 1

As we begin a new decade, I can’t help but reflect on the previous decade – our first at the farm. The following photographs, all taken at our farm during that time, will help you understand why we have fallen so hopelessly in love with living in the country. May God see fit to bless us with another decade of farm life! Happy New Year to All!!

(Each of my three books describes a specific year of life on the farm: A Year on the Family Farm is set in 1965, Another Year on the Family Farm in 1970, and The Return to the Family Farm in 2010.)

Next Week: Piddling Around

Merry Christmas from our Farm! (A Pictorial Tribute)

Posted on December 25, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 1

Merry Christmas to all my readers! I hope this blog finds you happy, healthy, and enjoying the company of your closest friends and family. That’s what I plan to do. And so, my blog this week will be pictorial instead of verbal. May these beautiful photos, all taken at our farm, help you remember that God’s greatest gifts are never purchased in a store.

(Each one of my three books contains some of my most treasured Christmas memories.)

Next Week: Happy New Year from our Farm! (A Pictorial Tribute)

No Time to Chat

Posted on December 18, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard Reply

In my last blog, Hibernation, I described how Danny struck up a conversation with the stranger seated next to him on an airplane. That was not an isolated incident. Danny has absolutely no difficulty talking to strangers anytime, anyplace. He can be filling gas in a convenience store parking lot, begin conversing with the guy at the next pump, and by the time their tanks are full, he will know where the guy’s third child went to college, what he majored in, and that the kid just returned from a backpacking trip through Europe.

Okay, I may be exaggerating, but only a little. I no longer allow him to accompany me to Walmart. I shop out of necessity, not as a social opportunity, and the quicker my Tahoe is loaded and headed back to the farm, the happier I am. When Danny is with me, not only will he stop and chat with everyone he knows (which is virtually everyone) but he will make new friends based on the fact that they use the same brand of shaving cream.

I want to make this very clear – I am not anti-social. Within my circle of friends and family, I’d like to think I can be fun, interesting, and quite pleasant. It’s just that my circle is much smaller than his. And I feel no particular desire to enlarge my circle.

And so, had I been seated for two hours next to the stranger on that plane instead of Danny, not only would I not have known that the man was a transplanted Midwesterner, I would not even have been able to identify him in a police lineup.

Because I learned long ago that if you wish to not speak, it is best to not make eye contact.

A few months ago, I had a longer-than-usual layover while traveling to visit the grandkids. But I was prepared to make very good use of that time. I had brought along a yellow, lined legal pad and my favorite pen with which I intended to compose my next blog.

I was seated at a table near my gate in the Denver airport with a man seated across from me. At that point, I knew no more than that. I began to write. I paused, re-read, scratched out, re-wrote, and composed for about ten minutes. Then I committed a significant error. I looked up from my pad to check the time. As my eyes moved upwards, I made eye contact with the man across the table who, I realized then, had been watching me while I was writing.

He immediately seized the opportunity. “Are you a teacher?” he asked with a friendly smile.

“A retired teacher,” I replied with an equally friendly smile.

“Did you teach English?” he asked.

“No, math,” I replied, keeping my answers as short as possible, with the hope of returning to my writing.

“Oh! I just assumed you taught English since you’re writing. Are you writing a math paper?”

Is it even possible to simply reply “No,” and politely end the conversation there? Of course not. I resigned myself to chatting. I clicked my favorite pen closed and put my legal pad in my backpack. I knew there were to be no more words written by me that day.

By the time I boarded the plane, I knew where he was from, what he did for a living, where he was going and why. None of this information had been solicited.

So, you may ask, what does any of this have to do with living on a farm?

Everything.

Would you be willing to spend an entire week on the farm with only the companionship of non-verbal animals during the day and your spouse in the evening? If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to that question, then please don’t become a farmer.

Would you be content to back your car out of your garage and leave the farm boundary only once, maybe twice, in an entire week? If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to that question, then please don’t become a farmer.

Are your physical tasks, your natural surroundings, and your own thoughts enough to keep you happily occupied for an entire ten-hour day? If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to that question, then please don’t become a farmer.

My dad was a farmer. And he was happy doing it. My mom, on the other hand, had a personality more like Danny’s. She was a social creature who craved and thrived on human companionship. After the last of her seven children (me) married and moved off the farm, she was alone too much and she lost her enthusiasm for farming. She told me more than once that if anything ever happened to Daddy, she would not spend even one night alone on the farm.

In this one respect at least, I am my father’s daughter. One of my daughters-in-law told me, “You know Mary Kay, if anything happened to Danny, we know you’d be okay by yourself at the farm. Our only concern is that you’d become a recluse out there.” When she told me that, I paused, thought about it, then nodded and said, “I can see that.”

But sometimes I worry, just a little, about the social butterfly that I married.

(There was a time, in my adolescence, when I was not happy being alone at the farm. You can read about it in the February chapter of my second book, Another Year on the Family Farm.)

Next Week: Merry Christmas from our Farm! (A Pictorial Tribute)

Hibernation

Posted on December 11, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 1

A while back, Danny sat next to a man on an airplane whom he had never met before. Danny struck up a conversation with him…

I’m going to stop right there for a minute. Do you do that? Strike up a conversation with someone whom you’ve never met before? Danny does. I do not. Let’s make that the topic of my next blog, shall we?

…and discovered that the man was a former Midwesterner, transplanted to a large metropolitan area in northern California.

During the course of the conversation, this man said to Danny, “You Midwesterners. You hibernate in the winter and you don’t even know it.”

Danny told me about the conversation when he returned from the trip. From the phrasing of the man’s statement, I gleaned two things: He no longer considered himself a Midwesterner, and (now this might be a bit of a stretch, of course) he considered his new, metropolitan lifestyle as more advanced and enlightened.

This is but one of the reasons why I do not talk to strangers on a plane.

Anyway, he was absolutely wrong. Oh, not about hibernating in the winter. We definitely do that. But we know we do it. In fact, I, for one, look forward to it.

Danny, not so much. We are rapidly approaching the shortest day of the year. There is but a hint of sunrise above the horizon as he leaves for work in the morning. By the time he returns home, the sun has been down for close to an hour. The only time he sees our farm during the daylight is on the weekends.

But what he does see, in my opinion, is even more spectacular. During his commute on the dark country roads, he sees the brilliant, winter night sky!

When we first moved to our farm and were still living in the cabin, we parked our vehicles inside the barn and walked from the barn to the cabin – a distance of about twenty yards. We intentionally do not have a constantly-lit yard light. So, one winter night I arrived home from a meeting, parked my vehicle, turned off the barn light and stepped out of the barn. It was a completely clear, totally moonless night and I was instantly disoriented because it was so dark. In fact, I could not even see my hand in front of my face. Literally! I know this because I put my hand in front of my face and could not see it! When my eyes finally adjusted somewhat to the darkness, I slowly made my way towards the cabin by carefully noting what I was walking on – concrete, grass, blacktop.

And then I looked up. I remember hearing myself gasp. The twinkling stars were so unbelievably brilliant! I know they are often described as diamonds, but until you’ve seen it, the phrasing just really doesn’t do it justice.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans have not seen it. Or at least don’t see it from their homes. Light pollution is real, and researchers are just beginning to understand the detrimental effects of light pollution on a person’s health.

Consider this quote I found on a government health website:

In most of the world’s large urban centers, stargazing is something that happens at a planetarium. Indeed, when a 1994 earthquake knocked out the power in Los Angeles, many anxious residents called local emergency centers to report seeing a strange “giant, silvery cloud” in the dark sky. What they were really seeing—for the first time—was the Milky Way, long obliterated by the urban sky glow.

I find that sad. And unnatural. And unhealthy. The website went on to discuss the potential physical and psychological health effects of light pollution on the circadian clocks of both wildlife and humans.

My own body clock has always been set by the sun. In summer, I average roughly seven hours of sleep per night, going to bed only after the sky is dark, and rising at the crack of dawn. In winter, I average about nine hours of sleep per night, and struggle to stay awake longer. When I am in a big-city hotel, I must close the blackout curtains or I get no sleep at all.

One winter evening, after the supper dishes had been cleared and the kitchen cleaned, I changed into my pajamas and fluffy robe. Danny looked at me, surprised, and asked, “You put your pajamas on already? What if somebody comes to the farm?”

I looked at him incredulously. “Why on earth would anyone come to the farm this late?!” I asked.

Then I glanced at the clock. It was 7:15.

You know how a 30-minute TV comedy can be seen in roughly 20 minutes by zipping through the commercials? Well, in winter, it takes Danny and me about 45 minutes to watch it because we take turns dozing off. One of us will wake up and say, “Oh, I think I fell asleep. Rewind it, would you?”

So yes, we are fully aware that we “hibernate” in winter. But I will not apologize for that. That stranger on a plane may consider himself “enlightened”, and that’s okay. But, as for me, I’ll take the dark.

(It was a night sky that brought us permanently to the farm. You can read all about it in the first chapter of my third book, The Return to the Family Farm.)

Next Week: No Time to Chat

Never Riding Alone

Posted on December 4, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 3

One of my sisters once asked me, “What do you do out there on the farm alone every day?” I responded, “Are you kidding? I’m never alone! My animals are constantly around me.” While it’s true that I don’t often have human companionship during my days at the farm, I know there are many who will concur that animal companionship is often equally, and sometimes even more, rewarding.

As I’ve often told my husband (always with a grin on my face), “My animals do what I tell them.”

And so, I found this quote by Jane Smiley particularly appropriate for this blog:

“I learned why ‘out riding alone’ is an oxymoron: An equestrian is never alone, is always sensing the other being, the mysterious but also understandable living being that is the horse.”

One of my friends asked me quite recently, “Do you ride every day?” It’s not the first time I’ve been asked that. My standard response is always, “I wish.”

The truth is, I don’t ride very often at all. The reason for that is because I ride solely for pleasure. I don’t have beef cattle to move to another pasture or dairy cattle to bring to the barn, so I ride only when the weather is gorgeous and my other work is finished.

Do you have any idea how rare that combination is?

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t spend time with my horses, because I do. In fact, I can only ride one at a time but I can spend time on the ground with all three of them, so the argument could be made that I actually spend more time with them by not riding.

But I miss riding. I miss the perspective that one gets while sitting on a horse’s back. I find it extraordinary that a creature as powerful and athletic as a horse will allow a creature as puny and feeble as a human to sit on his back – the same back that a cougar would leap upon in search of its next meal.

So, I did a little soul-searching recently and asked myself, “What is it, exactly, that keeps me from riding more?”

I think I figured it out. Too much of it seems like work. And believe me when I tell you, I have quite enough work at the farm. But in order to take a long ride off the farm, I must first work BJ in the round pen to get the “skittish” out of him, then I groom him, and then I saddle him just right. When I get back from our ride – both of us worn out – not only do I need to groom him again, but I also need to groom BB and Zip who managed to work themselves into a frothy frenzy during our absence.

The entire process takes hours, and it is far too easy to convince myself that “I don’t have time for this.” And so, another day goes by when I don’t ride.

During my soul-searching, I reflected on my days growing up on our family farm when I rode often, but sometimes only for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time because many of those rides were without a saddle. It was all so simple and quick. Why couldn’t I do that again?

I came to a decision. I was going to teach BJ to let me ride bareback.

I used to ride BB bareback often, but now that she has arthritic front knees, I can no longer ride her at all. During BJ’s training years I didn’t feel confident riding him without a saddle, but now that he is ten, he has settled down considerably. I decided to give it a go.

I’ve mentioned before that BJ is a huge horse. And I am not a huge person. Was there some risk of injury? Possibly. But here’s the thing. Did you know that the horse has the largest eyes of any land mammal? They’re eyes that look right into the human soul. If they see kindness and goodness, that’s what the horse will give back. If I didn’t trust BJ, how on earth could I ask him to trust me?

I put on his bridle and led him next to the corral rails. I told him “Whoa”, then climbed up on the rails high enough so that I could slide onto his back. Standing on the rail with my left foot, I swung my right foot across his back and rested it there to gauge his response. He didn’t move. Gathering my courage, I said, “Here we go” and slid my entire body onto his back. He jerked his head up, but didn’t take a step. I could tell he was thinking, “Well, this is different!”

Several times during our ride around the corral, he tossed his head and snorted, but I scolded him and he immediately settled down. To dismount, I brought him to a stop, swung my right leg across his body, and slid down to the ground. But he is so tall that it stung my feet when I hit the ground. So, I again took him to the rail, mounted him and rode around a bit, but I dismounted by bringing him back to the rail and climbing down the same way I got on.

I’ve been riding BJ bareback for several weeks now, often just ten or fifteen minutes at a time. I get the sense that BJ understands the fragility and precariousness of my position on his back. His gait is easy and steady. And when I mount or dismount, he stands perfectly still and doesn’t squeeze me against the rail.

He takes care of me. Because I’m not riding alone.

(I describe the scariest ride of my life in the August chapter of my second book, Another Year on the Family Farm.)

Next Week: Hibernation

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Posted on November 27, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 1

I know, I know. After complaining at length about the overabundance of Wizard of Oz jokes that are forced upon me, (Bracing Up) there is a bit of irony in my choice of titles for this blog. But darn it, it’s just too appropriate.

This looks nothing like Kansas. Because it’s not. It’s Arizona. Phoenix, to be exact. And this is where Danny and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with our family.

Our oldest son moved with his wife and four children to Phoenix four years ago. Our youngest son, his wife and two children will also be joining us from Rapid City, South Dakota. I have been looking forward to this holiday for months.

You see, I don’t get to see my children and grandchildren very often. At least, not nearly as often as I would like. I last saw the Arizona crew in July, and the Rapid City crew in August. At times I find myself envying those grandparents who live several blocks, or even several hours, from their grandchildren. I envy the fact that they are able to attend every baseball game, every dance, every birthday party.

But when I start to feel that way, I can sense my mother wagging her finger at me from heaven, admonishing me by saying, “You know, it could be worse!” And she is absolutely right. Thanksgiving is a time for being grateful for one’s blessings, not lamenting what one doesn’t have.

So, here are just a few of the things I am especially grateful for this Thanksgiving:

I am grateful that our two sons have found careers that they love and are independent and confident enough to pursue them.

I am grateful that we have two daughters-in-law who accept us into their homes with open arms each and every time we visit.

I am grateful that we have six amazing, happy, healthy grandchildren who look forward to our time together as much as we do.

The fact is, the old adage “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” really does have some truth to it. And although we may not have the opportunity to be present at each of our grandchildren’s activities, there is a downside to never having a reason to miss someone.

My arrivals are met by a screech of “Grammy!” with tiny arms thrown tightly around my waist, and when I leave, my own glistening eyes are mirrored in the glistening eyes of the tiny face that whispers, “I don’t want you to go.”

For those of you who have never experienced any of that, let me tell you, it’s pretty darn special. And it is enough to sustain me through many a quiet day at the farm.

But this Thanksgiving Day will not be quiet. It will be filled with the raucous laughter of adults, the glorious chaos of rambunctious children, …

…and one very, very grateful Grammy.

(I reflect on another Thanksgiving holiday with my family in the November chapter of Another Year on the Family Farm.)

Next Week: Never Riding Alone

Mystery Solved

Posted on November 20, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 1

I lost my eyeglasses. And then I found them. But the story behind my lost and found eyeglasses is a bit more complex than that, and I think you will find it as mysterious as I did.

On Friday afternoon, September 13, Danny and I left our farm for a vacation with my two sisters and their husbands. We call it our Sister Trip, and I wrote about it in an earlier blog. Anyway, that Friday morning was a busy one for me. Even though my nephew cares for our farm and animals while we are away, there are still some things that I do in preparation for a long absence.

Flies were still a bit of an issue near the barn at that time, so I typically sprayed my horses’ legs to give them some relief. I always remove my eyeglasses when I do that, because the spray is oily and difficult to remove from my lenses.

So, what do I do with my glasses while I spray? Well, it depends. Sometimes, if I am wearing a pair of pants with a large enough pocket, I will slip them in there. If the horses are near the feeder, I will set the glasses on the tray of the feeder. Or sometimes, I will set them on top of our stack of hay bales near where I store the spray. Or, in anticipation of spraying later, I sometimes leave them in my tack room.

Bottom line is, they could be almost anywhere. The problem, if you want to call it that, is that my eyesight is really not that bad. In fact, from a distance of about one foot to twelve feet, I see the same with or without them. So, I often don’t even realize that I don’t have them on unless I am looking far into the distance.

That morning I was distracted. I had a million and one things to get done before we left on vacation and I was trying to multi-task. So, after my barn chores were completed, which included spraying my horses, I walked our dogs to give them a bit of exercise before we left the farm. I was checking emails on my phone while I walked. I do not need my glasses for that.

I did not realize that my glasses were not on my face until I was returning from my walk with the dogs. I checked my pocket. Not there. They’re at the barn, I thought. The first place I checked was the feeder tray. I remember being surprised that they were not there. I checked the hay bales. Not there. The tack room. Not there. Okay, now I had to think a bit. Was I sure I even wore them out of the house that morning? I walked back to the house and checked my bathroom countertop. Not there.

By this time, I was feeling a bit frazzled. We were leaving on vacation in a few hours! I didn’t have time for this! Not to mention that I had planned to take that pair of glasses with me. I had an extra pair, but still…

I returned to the barn. I began to look in places that I was sure they would not be, but I was starting to feel desperate. The trash can. The workbench. I stuck my hand between the hay bales in case they had fallen in a crack. Nothing. Finally, I had to give up my search so that I could shower and finish packing.

As we drove away from the farm, I told Danny about my lost eyeglasses. Did you check there? And there? And there? He asked. My answer was always yes. But then I thought about my walk. What if I had them in my pocket and they somehow dropped out as I walked? I called my nephew and he promised to retrace my steps, and look once more around the barn for me. He texted me later that day. He had found nothing.

For the next month, I puzzled on my glasses. You see, I do not lose things. In fact, I pride myself on my still-razor-sharp memory and attention to details. I do not lose things!

After supper on Wednesday, October 16, Danny said he wanted to finish weed-eating around our corral fence. The horses eat the grass inside the corral and I mow on the outside, but there is a thin line of tall grass and weeds that grows directly underneath. He planned to clean this up before fall.

He came back into the house with a single lens from a pair of eyeglasses. I held it up to my eye and looked through it. There was absolutely no doubt that it was a lens from my missing eyeglasses. Danny said he heard the weedeater string hit something and then he noticed the glare from the lens.

But where was the rest of it?

While Danny continued with his trimming, I searched along the corral fence where he said he found the lens. I found half of the frame, then the other lens, and finally the other half of the frame. None of it was salvageable.

But the mystery had been solved. I knew immediately why my glasses were where they were. I hadn’t dropped them. And they hadn’t slipped out of my pocket.

It had to be BJ. Remember BJ, my hat-stealer? Well now, I will add glasses-stealer to that moniker.

In the words of the TV detective Monk, “Here’s what happened.”

I took my glasses off to spray the horses and set them on the feeder tray. Distracted, I forgot about them until my return from my walk. By that time, it was too late. My curious BJ had discovered my glasses, picked them up in his mouth and carried them with him as he exited the corral with the other horses on his way to the pasture.

You know how horses walk single file along a fence? We have such a horse path right next to our corral fence. Right next to where the glasses were found.

BJ dropped them on his way out of the corral. There is absolutely no other way they could have gotten where they were. Hidden by the tall weeds, they were not discovered until Danny trimmed those weeds. Whether BJ broke them with his teeth, or whether Danny broke them with his trimmer I’ll never know. But there is no doubt in my mind how they got there.

The good news is that my lenses were still under warranty so they were replaced at no charge. And although the original frames were no longer available, I was able to find another pair that fit my new lenses.

You know those crazy insurance commercials on TV describing outlandish situations that actually happened? I wonder how many lenses our insurance company has needed to replace because of glasses-stealing horses.

Who knew that horses considered eyeglasses such a fashion statement?

(If you want to read a similar story about something our dogs once did, check out the September chapter of my third book, The Return to the Family Farm.)

Next Week: “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”

Sunrise, Sunset

Posted on November 13, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 3

“Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,

Swiftly flow the days;

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflow’rs, Blossoming even as we gaze.

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,

Swiftly fly the years;

One season following another, Laden with happiness and tears.”

Fiddler on the Roof, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Those lyrics and the haunting melody that accompanies them made a huge impression on me the very first time I heard the song years ago. It still does.

One recent morning, I stood in front of my kitchen window sipping my coffee, and I thought again of that song as I watched the sun rise. And I remembered another morning, another cup of coffee, and another sunrise. It was also in November, and it was also near my birthday, but that morning was our very first morning after our very first night in our newly-built farmhouse.

Is it possible that morning was nine years ago?! Swiftly flow the days.

By that morning, we had already lived on the farm for almost two years, but we made our home in a tiny farm cabin while we built our larger, permanent home.

Is it possible that we left town almost eleven years ago?! Swiftly fly the years.

I remember that morning so well. I was preparing to celebrate my 54^th birthday, and as I watched the sun rise, I remember thinking that if I got thirty good years at the farm, I would have totally gotten my money’s worth. At the time, it seemed like a reasonable and fair expectation.

Roughly a third of that time is gone. I wonder if it’s too late to renegotiate that deal?

I also remember, as I sipped my coffee that morning, that I hoped I would never, ever take our beautiful Kansas sunrises or sunsets for granted. And while I don’t think I take them for granted, the reality is that there are quite a few that I have missed. And I know that many of those were breathtaking.

And so, as I celebrate my 63^rd birthday, I will renew my vow to never take for granted our beautiful country sunrises and sunsets. And I vow to make the most of my – God willing – twenty-something years I have left on the farm.

Because even though twenty years may not sound like much, if I do it right, that may be all I need.

(Our move into our new farmhouse is described in the November chapter of my third book, The Return to the Family Farm.)

Next Week: Mystery Solved

Preparing for Winter

Posted on November 6, 2019 by yearonthefarmsite Standard 2

During the thirty-three years I lived in town, summer was my favorite season. Not because of the weather – because fall weather in Kansas is, without a doubt, the most pleasant – but because of what summer meant. Summer meant a three-month vacation from school – a three-month vacation from the demands of the classroom for me as a teacher, and for our two sons as students. We traveled, we went to sporting events, we relaxed by the pool. I had the freedom to garden, visit friends and family, and read for pleasure. I had time for none of those things during the frenzied, hectic school year.

But since our sons are grown and gone, since our move to the farm, and since my retirement from teaching, I find that summer no longer embodies the same sense of freedom and relaxation that it once did. In fact, summer has become my busiest season. With the demands of gardening, canning, mowing, watering, weeding, and additional heat-related animal care, “summer” is now synonymous with “work”. Often physically-demanding, back-breaking work.

In addition to that, summer is when we receive the vast majority of our farm visitors. Why would anyone want to visit a farm in winter and spend all your time inside a house? You can do that in town. As much as I love our farm visitors (and I do!) there is no denying that there is preparation before a visit, and clean-up after.

None of this should have come as a surprise to me. Having grown up on a farm, I needed only to think back to my childhood days when my father and mother would rise before daybreak early on a summer morning, work all day in the searing heat, eat supper, go back outside and work several hours longer until finally, after sunset, they would shower and then drop, exhausted, into bed only to get up the next day and do it all over again.

But in winter, once the animals had been fed and cared for, and cows milked, there was very little reason for them to be outside when the weather was cold and blustery. It was only in winter when I remember my dad, in the middle of the morning, sitting in our living room, visiting with Mom while warming his hands in front of the furnace. It was only in winter when a farm neighbor might pop in unexpectedly for a quick game of pinochle or checkers. It was only in winter when Daddy would agree, with no objections, to spend an entire afternoon in town while Mom shopped.

I thought about all this recently as I was preparing our farm for winter. As I (with Junior’s help) cleared the garden, …