Thursday, February 28, 2013

Lonely Paths

Some people are made for this life style.  Other people would never make.  And yet there are those that are not made for it that try every day to live it for the simple values it teaches.  When you think of farming you think of fields of grains or hay, cattle or horses in the fields, chickens in the yard, and neighbors sitting on your porch with a cup of tea.  You never think of the weeks it takes to plant those fields when you are alone in a tractor for 12-14 hours a day.  You don't think of the trips through the snow to check on a cow you know is close to calving at all hours of the day and night.  You don't think of the lack of sleep.  You don't think of hours upon hours you spend just feeding the livestock or mucking out stalls.  You don't realize that you will be so busy you wont have time to make friends that can come over and sit on the porch with a cup of coffee or tea.  Especially since that cup or tea or coffee is either at sun rise or it is an iced drink in the later afternoon when it is too hot in the summers to be out there working under the sun.  Most people, or maybe it was just me, have an idealistic idea of what a farmers life is really like.  For me personally, I don't mind the work.  I actually enjoy being out there to watch the calves born.  I love to bottle feed the ones we choose to keep for projects.  Milking a cow is very relaxing once you get the hang of it.  It almost becomes your therapy session.  Talking to the cow while you milk, you know you can tell her anything and you will never be judged for it and it doesn't matter what you say.

I was NOT prepared for the solitude this life style has ment for me.  I am not an out going person so meeting people is not very easy for me.  I lived in the city and was raised in a city.  I had neighbors within yelling distance.  Neighborhoods with kids so you met other parents.  Here we are so rural that meeting your neighbor you either get in the car and drive there or you walk the two and a half miles to the nearest neighbor.  If you were a couple farming, you could go out to a club or social event in town to meet people.  With a very young family and being next to a very small town there are very very few things you can do.  Here locally it is either hockey (which we have no children old enough to do) or it is swimming.  Otherwise, there is nothing for a family.  No parks or playgrounds.

It is a lonely path that we choose.  It makes you cherish every path that crosses yours.  For our live style can be as lonely as a path in the snow!


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