Farm Rib's Home Journal: August 2015

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VEGETARIAN AND HAM AND CHEESE QUICHE
WITH FRUIT SALAD

YEAH...NO ONE HAS ANY FUN HERE.
NO ONE KNOWS THIS, BUT THIS IS A FARMERS VERSION OF
"QUARTERS."
(IF YOU GREW UP IN THE 80'S YOU ...BARELY...REMEMBER THAT GAME)

FRANKS RED HOT CHICKEN/SWEET BABY RAYS CHICKEN

WHAT A FARM WIFE PULLS UP TO
WHEN SHE SAYS SHE IS ON HER WAY WITH
ZIPS.

THE CAKE THAT CAUSED ALL RUKUS.
STRAWBERRY JELL-O CAKE WITH VANILLA PUDDING W/ COOL WHIP FROSTING
HOLY HELL THIS BABY WAS GOOD.
THERE WAS A MUTINY WHEN IT WAS GONE.

LENTIL CHILI AND
CINNAMON ROLLS
(SEE...HARVEST COOKING IS WHY I MUST KEEP RUNNING WITH KRIS!)

WAVE DRIVING INTO THE SUNSET...

THIS IS WHEN I GOT TIRED...REALLY REALLY TIRED....

I have had a lot of people ask me how harvest is going, and why I haven’t been posting on my blog. Well, harvest is going…and that is why I haven’t been posting on my blog.

But seriously, harvest is going “fine.” I do believe that that is all a farm wife is allowed to say. Frankly, right now, that is all anyone can say. Some fields are yielding better than expected; some are yielding worse. It is, I think most people can agree, a strange year, and one that none of us are going to be able to wrap our heads around until the final bulk tank has been emptied and all of the numbers are tallied up.

I had a friend say to me the other day that he heard that farmers were having a great year; that the hot dry weather was making for easy cutting and that yields were way above average. I almost spit my beer through my nose. This is also the friend that said that even on a bad year farmers must make good money – after all, look at the machines they drive – and geez…they only drive them for one month of the year.

I say this not to make fun of my friend, but because I have heard this sentiment before, and if I wrote candidly, I might even say that I assumed a little bit of that in the past. Not fully, mind you, since I did grow up here, but I would say I might have had that thought cross my mind on occasion since I wasn’t raised by a wheat farmer like my friends were.

One thing I can tell you is that the misconception is out there because farmers are individual entrepeneurs and unless they are talking to each other – and in some cases even if they are – the DO NOT generally discuss their finances, their farm plans, or their budgets. I mean really, does anyone?

That being said, all that I can tell you is that the initial numbers are weird, sporadic, surprising, disappointing, and confusing. Pretty much like our weather this year.

And thus, during all of this confusion I have been just pushing through with the usual; running with my sole sister Kristina every morning – regardless of how tired we are, cleaning, watering, writing, working pigs, and baking…and then repeat that pattern…running, watering, cleaning, writing, working pigs, and baking.

And, as I result, I sent a text to my friend Cheryl that I thought summed up the reason why I am not blogging as much as I wanted to be this year: (I’m paraphrasing here, but it went something like this)

I think I am having a harvest break down.

I am tired of being hot. I am tired of being dirty.

I am tired of lifting heavy things, packing lunches, lugging that ice-filled drink cooler.

I am tired of having nasty fingernails. I’m tired of watering.

I’m tired of pigs and the smell of pig poop.

I’m tired of the squelch of f*in radio. I’m tired of sitting in a field.

Frankly, I think I’m just tired.

Therefore, today, after the chores are done, I am planning on taking a sick day. (I can see all the farmers groaning and all of the farm wives laughing but I’m doing it anyway) It’s been way too long since I’ve been in my jammies, made a cup of tea, and snuggled on the couch with my kiddos to watch a movie. We have a date this afternoon, and I can’t wait until it gets here…that is – as I have warned them – IF I don’t get called back out to the field.

Here are some pictures that I thought you might enjoy: