It’s hard to think that even a Monday can be to too terrible when it starts off with a view like this….
All you farmers enjoy the no rain today and pick up all the branches that came down in the big storm this weekend!
I guess you could say this is a Photo Monday for you, doesn’t quite roll of the tongue like Photo Friday, but this week it will have to do.
We all know that farming is dangerous. Those of us who are out there everyday on large equipment…working near to moving gears and belts. Driving down roads where our urban neighbors and us rural folks share the highway. We all know it’s dangerous, we all respect it as much as we can. We sit through hours of safety training every year, yet everyday a farmer is killed in this country.
So when I hear the tones for our fire department go off and it’s a tractor vs. motor vehicle accident. I feel that as farmers our respect for the danger of our jobs has hit full force into the world where our speeds don’t match up to everyone else out there. So I listened with my baby in my arms, knowing I couldn’t go. Knowing that just down the road someone’s life, many people’s lives were changing faster than they ever thought possible. The nightmare was hitting.
The farming industry in Oregon lost a great soul last night. He was a farmer, he was a dad, a husband, a volunteer, board member, and one of those people who you were always glad to see. There aren’t words for how much I want to tell his family about what a good man he was. Or how he always had a way of rallying the troops around what he cared about, around what he knew was important not just to all farmers but to all people. I know that when he spoke, people listened, because they trusted him and respected him. And we laughed with him…oh all the laughter! He was goofy, kind, and serious all mixed in a man who stood taller than most in stature, personality, and character.
Scott Miller, you will be missed by so many.
What is it about gravel roads? I drive the same gravel road every day to get to work. I have driven down gravel back roads to get places my whole life. I even went out of my way to drive down them while I was pregnant and running about 6 days behind schedule! Most days now, I drive down them now to get my little man to fall asleep. They coat my car in dust and dirt, but they make him sleep like the baby that he is.
Until you pay for it, when you’re trying to find the bumpiest part of the road, to really make him bounce into slumber…and it works, it actually works great. Followed by your tire light coming on, and you realize that the gravel road of dust and dirt may not always be your ally. New tires it is for this working mom, and more gravel, bumpy, dirty drives it is for our little guy Hoot. 
I like the pace of these back roads, life is a little bit slower as you pass by with gravel under your tires and dust flying behind you. You can’t go a million miles an hour. It’s the windows down during the summer, fresh air flowing in around your face, hinted with the smell of soil and freshly harvested crops, along with a sleeping baby in the backseat. These moments have become another small piece of heaven. I never thought I would think myself lucky to grow up on back roads, but the dust and the dirt, well it’s always been what has lead me to where I’ve always been meant to be.
NuttyGrass 