Posted By FarmerJ on June 30, 2009

I’ve been doing some more reading in How To Shovel Manure ~ the book gifted to me by my Darling Husbie.  After giggling like a little girl over that spring garden chapter, I was anxious to see what Gwen Petersen had to say about Basic Farm and Ranch Attitudes (A Ranch Is a Ranch Is a Ranch Is a Farm Is a Farm Is a Farm…).

I wasn’t disappointed.  If there happened to be something I couldn’t [yet] personally relate to, I know of a couple of lovely ladies who are farm girls and they’ve shared their stories with me ~ so I guess you can say I related through them.

I just have to share this with my fellow farm girls ~ care to relate and laugh with me?  Gwen says:

“…if you’re lucky enough to live in the country, you’re guaranteed to have one heck of a good time!  There’s nowhere else you’d rather be.  Wherever you go, whatever you do on the ranch or the farm ~ toting a snack to the hay fields, trotting out to the corrals, collecting the eggs, or picking berries along the creek banks ~ you sure know you’re alive and living in the country.  The miracle of every day’s small incidents and routine happenings constantly help you reckon you’re a Country Woman.

For example, you know you live on a ranch or farm:

..when the increasing height and breadth of the manure pile gives you a warm feeling of pride.

…when you laugh wildly because town women call you to serve on assorted projects because “you don’t work.”

…when your man pleads with you to drop everything and drive immediately to town.  It’s an emergency ~ the tractor needs a part.

…when it’s five minutes before supper and you’re scraping the leftover peas into the leftover potatoes, planning for soup and crackers.  Just then you hear your Country Man on the back stoop cheerfully assuring a whole gaggle of extra men, “Sure, there’s plenty!  C’mon in.”

…when you wash your face, put on lipstick and a fresh blouse, and your husband wants to know where you’re going “all gussied up.”

…when you try to educate a city friend in the art of butchering her own chickens so as to economize and she turns green and leaves the room in the middle of your recital.”

There’s many more giggle-generating examples of knowing when you’re a farm girl shared by Ms. Petersen.  Ironically, while I was working in the garden a few days ago ~ before reading this chapter in the book ~ I had thought of a few examples of being a farm girl…you know, mainly things I’ve done a 180° on since moving to the country.

You know you’ve become a country girl:

…when your idea of a manicure is to clean the dirt from underneath your fingernails.

…when you get excited when you find a hay bale that has molded and rotted through and through.

…when God’s little critters that once made you go, “Eeeeew” are now critters you do everything possible to preserve and protect.

…when you complain about all the traffic because four cars have gone down your road that morning.

…when you make up melodies in sync with the frogs in your slough, and create conversations with the dozens of different species of birds.

…when you realize just how blessed you are to be in the country where it’s quiet enough to actually hear little things like that!

Yes, indeed, my heart is where it wants to be ~ and I am truly the luckiest country girl in the world.  ♥

Categories: Plainly Ponderings
Tags: