I took Cooks to the airport to meet their flight about 11. At 5 we headed to the Valentine supper with a dance afterwards. Fun to watch Rose dance with Bruce N. and parents.
Farm kids are a special breed. The lessons learned on the farm shape kids into incredible adults. When you grow up on a farm, you learn what it means to have a work ethic. Not only by having chores of your own, that have to be done in a timely and efficient manner, but by watching your parents, and sometimes grandparents, work sun up to sun down. They do it without complaint- because it’s the only way of life that they know.
You learn about life and death at a young age. You watch a wobbly calf take its first steps, and you watch as a tear falls from your dads eye when that same calf doesn’t make it. You know what it’s like to bury your family dog in the grove behind the house, and the joy of new kittens born in the Spring.
You learn about sacrifice. When your dad can’t make it to your music concert because the cows got out, when you have to miss going to the park because plans changed and your mom has to run for tractor parts, or when you only get to see your dad in the field on your birthday because you were born during the “busy” season. You sacrifice, because the rest of your family sacrifices too.
You learn how to use your imagination. You spend hours outside during the summer, building forts out of old fence posts and cattle panels in the grove. You know every nook and cranny of the barn, and have the best hiding places when the neighbor kids come to play hide and go seek. And you’re disappointed when your mom calls you inside for supper and bedtime.
And you learn that there is no better way to grow up, than in the dirt, with livestock and long work days. You learn that being a farm kid is one of life’s greatest blessings.
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