Category: Family

Harvest Dinners

It’s not easy on folks to spend 14 plus hours a day out in a field for harvest time.  We all get a bit tired and worn down as you can imagine.  So when the clock starts to creep closer to supper time, looking forward to home cooked meal out in the field just about makes it all worth it.  My mom has done harvest dinners for as long as I can remember.  I can still taste how good lasagna hits the spot after a long day of driving combine, or how I would get so excited just hearing that enchiladas (although hard to eat while driving) were on the menu.

So this year for harvest, as her summer was filling up with visitors and a get away or two, and mine was taken over by a small human, we decided to share the job.  So most days, one of us would hold and take care of Hoot man, while the other cooked and assembled anywhere from 5 to 8 meals to take out to the field.

IMG_1671We come by this job a little bit naturally however, my grandma has cooked quite a few meals in her day.  So I wanted to share with you a short poem that she wrote about this, enjoy!

Again?
by Arlene Hammond

“What’s for dinner?” he asks, as he walks past the sink.
He sits down with his book, and I start to think!
How many meals have I prepared for this great family of mine?
We are quite a group and there’s been lots of time.
There are 3 meals a day, 365 days a year.
That is more than a thousand – that’s for one person, you hear?
67 years we’ve been married – Uncle Sam fed you for two.
That makes over 65,000 meals and that’s only for you!
I like to eat too, as you can plainly see, so that is 130,000 meals if we’re including me.
That sounds pretty big, but we’re not through yet.
We had those four kids, how could I forget?
Nearly 20 years each of those kids stayed on…
So another 80,000 more meals before they were gone.
It is really quite mind boggling this sum I’ve deduced
210,000 meals me and my kitchen produced.
There is much talk about “Burnout” in the workplace today.
What would they think of what I have to say?
I heard “What’s for dinner?” Did that come from you?
If you will pardon me darling, I haven’t a clue!!!

 

Field Life Starts Early

I get the question a lot, “So when are you going back to work?” In many capacities I never really left. I did take 2 weeks at home, no farm time except via cell phone of course. But after 2 weeks my little man and I have been farming away. I laugh as I realize that after only 11 weeks of being alive Hoot has spent more time on a farm and in a field than majority of people will in their entire lives!

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He seems to like the fresh air on his face, the gravel roads that keep him sleeping while we bump along, and all the time he gets to just hang with mom and dad! Life is good out here on the farm!

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Happy 4th of July

Traditions run deep in my world.  Traditions as big as the country’s 4th of July birthday, or ones not as huge to everyone like the 4th of July Rodeo in St. Paul, seem to go hand in hand for me.  The celebration every year of those who have forged on before us to make this country great, to celebrate all the is patriotic, good and salt of the earth in this country, the rodeo for me is that celebration.  The rodeo has been a part of my family for 3 generations, and as Matt and I sat with Hoot overlooking an arena that my grandpa Carl worked the dirt for so many years, we added the 4th to that number.

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The 4th of July to me isn’t just a day, it’s a lifestyle of a small town.  It means volunteering and working together to welcome 50,000 people into our small farming town that quietly sits at just 322 people the rest of the year.  The Fourth represents tradition to me, traditions as small as putting my son to sleep in a bassinet that I was put to sleep in as a baby.  And traditions as important as the start of a harvest with a new face in the field, a face that will someday continue on with our way of life here.

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I am reminded that it’s all about something bigger than us, larger than life that gives us the joy of watching the sun go down on land that we have made our own.  Land that produces for us because we take care of it.

photo 3Salt of the earth traditions, that start from the roots up in this good dirt that we sink our hands into every year to produce a crop for ourselves, for our families, for our country.  Blessed is how I feel about all of this, blessed to be a part of such a wonderful small town, blessed to have my family by my side, and blessed to live in a country where I can enjoy each and every one of those freedoms!

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Happy 4th of July everyone!