Living on a farm most all of my life has given me an appreciation of the country life. Mostly it’s the simple things that draw my attention to my surroundings such as the lovely smell of freshly mowed alfalfa; the fragrance of the rain as it falls on a summer day; the sweet smell of the blooming yellow clover. Memories include being a young girl and climbing into Dad’s truck box that had just had wheat augured in and then walking barefooted around in that grain feeling the grain as it went between my toes. I liked climbing up into the combine cab with my father and enjoyed that one-on- one time with him.
Another childhood farm girl memory happened right after a heavy rain. I was walking the home pasture, and walking in the rain filled ditches barefooted, feeling the squishy mud. There was the sweet after-a-rain smell filling the air, and the sounds of the frogs croaking by the ponds.
It may be the thought helping as a young farm girl in bringing in Mom’s milk cow from the pasture towards the end of the day and then watching Mom as she did the milking chore she enjoyed doing. The cats anxiously came around at the right time as they knew they would get a milk treat. Hay needed to be brought to the stanchions to feed the cow while she was milked.That was another duty which needed to be done. Tasks expected were filling the stock tank with water, chopping cane from the milo fields, taking lunch to the field, checking the cattle in the pastures, helping load small bales onto a trailer and helping move the cattle from one pasture to another. Though at the time, these chores were unwelcomed, today I see my sisters and I were learning responsibility and the duties of living on a farm.
In more current times, the duties and chores include checking cattle, working on the cattle, preparing and delivering lunches to the fields, helping move farm machinery from one field to another, helping repair pasture fences, digging or spraying thistles, pulling a pickup or truck that refuses to start, chopping weeds out of the crops, running to town for repairs, praying for a much needed rain, loading bales onto a trailer, and knowing you don’t ask for a new appliance or piece of furniture until after harvest is over and the bills are all paid. All are experiences I would not exchange for living in the fanciest townhouse in the city.
It’s the appreciation of being able to get a full view of a beautiful sunset or sunrise, seeing the clouds roll in on a hot summer day and hearing the sounds of thunder. It may be the sight of seeing your children growing up, learning the ways of the rural life and watching them as they solo drive the tractor for the first time.
The appreciation comes easiest for this farm gal, while taking a walk in my favorite pasture in the spring and seeing the tall grasses blowing in the Kansas wind and viewing the wild flowers. It is taking a walk to the nearby creek after a rains to watch the water flowing under the bridge and hearing the sounds of its movement. It is walking into a sunflower field and being able to make a bouquet, or snapping a photo of a granddaughter standing among the sunflowers. When the granddaughters were little, we took walks together into the fields and pastures gathering pretty flowers, large leaves, a pretty rock, viewing animal tracks and trying to figure out what animal left those tracks.
At the end of the day, there is the pleasure of taking a ride with my farmer husband into the pastures checking the cattle and viewing the new born calves, or it’s sitting on the porch looking out into the fields of ripening wheat or the growing soybean crop. It may be a morning surprise as I look out a window and see a deer standing calmly in the yard, or notice a flock of turkeys making their way up the driveway. Another surprise viewing may be seeing a bobcat walking slowly through the farmstead making itself at home as it lay down, taking a rest in the sun and then a few moments later going on across the road and disappearing into a field.
As in the end of the movie that is always associated with Kansas, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy woke up from her weird adventure dream and said, “There’s no place like home.” For this farm gal there’s no place like my Kansas country farm home.
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