Why I Love The Farm

In 1987, my family and I moved to this farm. I was 14 years old. Amid the unpacking of boxes and sorting through and organizing of all our stuff, Mom found a little note I had written in kindergarten. I so wish I had it to show you but it was lost in the house fire, but according to my memory, it went something like this...

When I grow up I want to live on a farm

I want to have 3 pupes (puppies)

2 cats

6 cows

I want to live on a farm when I grow up

Mom hung it on the fridge and it stayed there for months after. I remember my dad saying "well, you got your dang wish didn't cha?"

I think it was just some kind of inherit God-given need for me to live in the country. Mom said that when I was a baby, they brought me to Arkansas when I was about 6 weeks old and it was the first time I slept through the night. Like my soul was at peace here. hmm?

Anyway, here is a list of the reasons I love it here.

1. I can pretty much have any animal I want, with the exception of like lions and tigers.

2. I can work outside all day with no make-up and not worry about what my neighbors will think

3. My kids and dogs can roam around freely and my only worry is ticks and chiggers.

4. We can hear a vehicle coming for about 2 miles and I can usually tell who it is.

5. The community of people around here is like nowhere else on earth.

6. When I go for my walks around the loop, there is a stretch of road that is gated off so I can shake my booty to the music in my ipod and act like an idiot without fear of being nabbed and taken to the insane asylum.

7. I keep a pair of binoculars by my big glass door in the kitchen to look at the wildlife.

8. The light pollution is so minimal that I can lay out at night and see almost every star in the universe.

9. My parents are my closest neighbors.

10. We religiously watch the weather channel because our lives revolve around what the weather is doing.

11. We give each other directions by saying things like "over on the west fence line" or "on lightening hill" or "down in the big gully" or "by the big pond".

12. When my parents house burned down it was in the middle of hay season and about 5 guys showed up with tractors and hay rakes and balers and put up my parents hay.

13. When anybody in the community gets sick or experiences a loss or tragedy, everybody pitches in to help them out.

14. I know exactly where my meat comes from.

15. Peace and quite

16. Grocery shopping is an adventure.

17. When we eat at the local restaurant, we know everybody in there.

18. I can see my husband anytime I want to.

19. I have all the resources at my disposal to live off the land if it ever came to that.

20. My soul IS at peace here and I know that I'm exactly where God wants me to be.

An old cattleman told Rodney once, "you either love it, or you hate it." Farming is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure, but for those of us that love it, there is nothing else we'd rather be doing.