Category: Country Life

Family Farming

 It’s not everyday that we get to take our kids out on the farm with us.  It’s hard, as any of you with a toddler can imagine, to get much done with a 4 month old and an almost 2 year old tagging along.  But one thing that is pretty easy is looking at fields, because who doesn’t love wide open spaces to run and dirt to play in?!

IMG_2851Hoot and I checking on a cabbage field when he was only 8 months old.

Hoot in his short life so far has probably looked at acres of dirt and more rows of crop than most adults.  He’s been a trooper from the very beginning, and in many ways I think it’s because, well, he just doesn’t know any different.

 Last Sunday Matt and I needed to go look and see how our spring wheat was growing.  So we loaded up the boys and took them out to walk fields with us.  Although Hoot didn’t last too long….

 Davor was a happy camper the whole adventure!

 When it’s said that farming isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life.  I think experiences like these are what they are talking about.  It didn’t matter that it wasn’t a “workday”, it didn’t matter that we had our kids in tow, all that mattered is that fields needed to be checked and we got it done.  This wasn’t our kids’ first and it won’t be their last “family farming” time, this is how farming gets into your blood, this is how you continue a legacy.

Another Day on the Farm…

  

The Views from My Office

I always enjoy when people post photos with the caption, “A view from my office today…” And many times it’s of someone with their feet in the sand, looking out over some beautiful scenery, etc.  I got to thinking today how much my office view has changed since I started farming full time 9 years ago.

When I started my view from my “office” was a lot of the back of my dad’s head.  I followed him around a lot those first few years.  Farming isn’t an easy or quick endeavor, it’s years of experience and knowledge.  Experience and knowledge that even while retired, I still hunt him down for often.

558458_10151088232780795_1040423726_nThen as he slowly took steps back my office view became a lot more of fields while on a sprayer or fertilizer buggy.  And a lot of the real office…because even farmers have to do paperwork!

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Office Work

And as such, life progressed for me personally, adding a husband to the mix, who became a part of the farm a few years after he officially become a part of my forever story.

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Then as luck would have it, my little farmers were born.  My office view became a lot of days out in the fields with a little man named Hoot.

IMG_4421And about a year and a half later, our farm boy number two showed up.  As of late my office view is me, taking care of  business, many times (I’ll be honest here) in my pajama like attire, on my cell phone, while at home with my arms full of this sweet new to the world face.

IMG_5567It’s not easy all this “view from my office” changing that has been going on.  There are many days when I see Matt drive off in the sprayer or take the fertilizer truck in to get filled that I do miss that time of farming.  But some days I’m reminded that I have to cherish the time that I’m in.  Because soon, probably before I know it, the view from my office will change again, and maybe I’ll miss those pajama days (just a little!).