Playing Farmer

"Grampa???!!!". That's all I heard before the hay bales fell over and my daughter disappeared. She had been sitting on the top of the "Tower of Babel" of hay that we'd stacked up on the trailer. It was the last of the 120 or so bales in that field. Much to my chagrin, she refused to hop down (I think she was a couple stories high) once they were piled up. Grampa went behind the wheel of the truck and put it in gear. I couldn't watch. I had just said to my youngest "Let's pray" and then, it all went down "boom". All though, hay bales don't really boom. They just tumble silently over one another. She emerged with a sore wrist. Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.

This, folks, is what makes farm life. Life's ups and downs. (no pun intended)

As I was wandering about the field gathering the bales into piles, I was thinking of how being out there with the birds singing and mosquitoes biting and the breeze blowing make this 'the good life'. How fortunate we are to be able to work together toward a common goal - one with no political, moral, or emotional ties. After we all came in from doing the work, we had a late dinner. We were all satisfied and felt unified. I thought about 'the old days' when farmers helped each other out by coming to each other's fields and bringing in the crops. The sense of community was there - which is something that our city-based society is missing.

I was also thinking about when my husband and I were dating. He did some weekend work at a local dairy. I used to come with him - just for the fun of being with him. He liked it too because it was a cheap date. How fortunate he is to have found a woman who didn't mind mucking out stalls with him in order to spend some time together. Now, twenty years later, I still find it a kick to get out there and play farmer-girl. I guess inside, I still feel like a city slicker, visiting and marvelling at the very different life it is to work on a farm.

Hopefully, my muscles will find their way back to normalcy soon. They'll get a chance to find out more of what they are made of when we head out to the other two fields in a few minutes.