We're not in town anymore! Part 1

Hello, friends!  Once again it has been a while since I've written.  I don't think I am cut out to be an honest to goodness blogger.  I think I am more or less an "only when I remember to write" kind of blogger.  

I was born and raised in a smallish town (20,000).  My grandpas were both farmers, but I wasn't what you would call a farm girl.  Funny how things work out.  After graduating from college I was planning to move to Chicago and continue my career teaching music.  Hmmmm.  I started dating a fellow I knew from high school and, whammo!  I was hooked.  I married a farmer.

Being a farm wife is different.  Living in the country is different.  Being told I don't need to drive 10 miles into town to get Dairy Queen was down right cruel!  I soon learned the value of going to the grocery store in the evening.  Not to mention DQ was on the way home!  A girl had to have her peanut Buster parfait when the urge arrived.

I had to mow our yard today and I was thinking about all of the things I have learned living on the farm that I may not have learned otherwise.  The post would be way too long for Facebook, so here I am.

* Every farm wife needs a good pair of garden gloves.  They are the little black dress of the farm world.  Who wants to actually touch the dead mouse when you have to take it out of the trap?  Who wants nasty black grease on their newly manicured hands?

* Mowing our yard takes 3 1/2 hours.  Using a riding lawnmower.  It gives a girl time to think.  As I said I had time to think about all these wonderful things I wanted to write about today!!

* If you get bored mowing, you can entertain yourself following a carefully crafted pattern to your mowing.  Today was "kick the grass away from the center (counter clockwise).

* Do not wear 'Fresh' lip gloss in Berry when mowing in windy conditions.  Glitter looks cool on models lips, cut grass…not so much.

* Even when you carefully consider plan a life changing event, do not allow the date to coincide with the planting or the harvest season.  Those two 'seasons' are not all inclusive, remember there is grain to haul, tillage work,  roadsides to mow, equipment to be repaired, lawns and other farms to mow…the list never seems to end. Thank goodness we do not have livestock anymore.  My hat's off to those farmers with livestock, it is pretty much 24/7.  None-the-less, I was left to sit by myself the morning I started with the first twinges of labor because my favorite farmer husband had one last field of beans to plant. Good thing the baby was not so eager to make an appearance.  He finished planting with twelve hours to lounge about watching me suffer!  What a wonderful little present I got at the end!

* One must learn the intricacies of the farm water system.  Until about 10 years ago, we got our water from a well and a cistern.  The cistern collected rainwater and it was used for showers, dishes, and laundry.  The well was used specifically for drinking water and to flush the toilets.  It took me forever to learn the difference, I finally figured out hot and cold water came from the cistern and only cold water came from the well.  We were one of the first families to sign up for a rural water program.  I was more than glad to pay someone to have a steady supply of water.  I was also glad I no longer had to be the one to tell my favorite, very tired farmer husband-who has been working for 16 hours straight- that we ran out of water in the cistern.  It never failed that the truck he put the water tank in was filled with grain to haul to the elevator or out of commission because he hadn't had time to fix it.  Or, it would be 25 degrees outside with a windchill of 0 when I had to deliver the "bad" news.  Yay for city water.

* People who live in town do not understand what happens to snow in the country.  Well, at least our part of the country.  It is flat.  Very flat.  We can see 20 miles in every direction.  When the wind is blowing, the snow starts to drift.  My nearest neighbor lives a quarter mile away.  There is literally nothing to stop the snow.  It starts to pile up around the buildings and in the roads because of the ditches.  We have one township road commissioner who has a fellow that helps out during the winter.  Our township covers around 55 square miles.  The snow plow does not plow our roads until after the snow has stopped and the wind quits blowing, or lays down.  There were days I could not get to work because of the snow and everyone who lived in town or on a main highway had no problem getting to the job.

Enough for today.  Mowing takes it out of a girl…time for an adult beverage and a nice comfy chair.    

A New Beginning

Hello Friends!  This is my first blog under my newly renamed blogspot.com account. As such, I thought it helpful to explain how I came up with the title, "When I Get To Be Queen". I recently retired after a 24 year career in the Student Affairs division of a midwestern university. I worked in the office which monitored student conduct. Definitely not your typical profession.  If I was asked to over simplify what I actually did, I would have to say I was a surrogate mom, the voice of reason. I believe, more often than not, I was able to have a positive impact on the lives of the students with whom I had contact.  However, many of these young adults had to deal with serious consequences resulting from their unfortunate decisions. It was during this time I started using the phrase, "When I get to be queen...(fill in the blank). It seemed to be a good way to lighten my daily routine.  I loved my job, however; it was super stressful.

When I get to be queen, each of us will know which check-out line is the fastest. When I get to be queen, all husbands will automatically know the perfect gift to get us for our birthday or anniversary.    When I get to be queen, there will be no witnesses to observe us tripping over our own feet while walking down the hall. I believe my sense of humor helped me remain sane in the midst of daily craziness not only at work, but also at home. I hope to share my sense of humor, which has served me so well, with each of you.  I hope to be a little ray of sunshine in your day.