Farm Living Is The Life For Me

Our free range organic chickens

“It will come to you, this love of the land. There’s no gettin’ away from it if you’re Irish”.

That quote is a line in one of my all time favorite movies, Gone With The Wind. Until I owned a farm, a piece of the land, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Now, I understand it completely.

I enjoy living on a farm. It’s hard work, but at the end of the day, it has all been worth while. Yet, I know that I am only a steward of the land for the next generation. I am keeper, not really an owner.

Autumn of The Corn…Playing peek-a-boo in the corn field.

The rooster crows to signal the start of a brand new day. Early mornings are a delight. It’s quiet and peaceful. The land now is still covered in snow, but it will soon be planting time. Planting is always a busy season around the farm. We get up early, and go to bed tired. It’s a good kind of tired.

Lettuce and other early greens are usually the first to arrive in the garden in late spring. Rhubarb for pies, and for eating is always a treat. We also make it into jelly and syrup to sell a the farmers market. The chickens are happy now, as the snow is gone, and they can run wild in the yard eating all the bugs.

Summer brings us a bounty of fresh vegetables and fruits. Fresh salad every day…it can’t be beat! Cucumbers are made into pickles and tomatoes are made into sauce. Our pantry is stocked for winter, with what we don’t eat in the summer. The chickens are a tad upset they are put back into their corral. They don’t understand they are not suppose to eat my zucchini, or squash.

I love my tractor!

Fall arrives, and it is time to put the gardens “to bed” for the up coming winter. The pumpkins are picked and stored in the root cellar or sold at market. Some carrots are left in the garden for winter and spring eating, and must be “buried up” so they survive. This reminds me, I still have some left in the garden to pick.

Winter is much slower. Only the animals to tend to. Yet, it seems like there is always something to fix, or mend for the next season. The green house is cleaned out, and he tools are sharpened and cleaned. It’s a slower pace in the winter, which gives a body a much needed rest.

“Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O’Hara, that Tara, that land doesn’t mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.”
Truer words have never been spoken.