Whether it’s three or three hundred acres, I think we can all agree that being a farmer is a combination of heart, determination and ingenuity. But what does it take to be a farmer’s wife? As a former urban-dweller, I pondered this a lot when we first moved to the country. After several years’ experience, I think I’ve found some answers. How do you know you’re a farmer’s wife?
You know you’re a farmer’s wife when:
. . . you can spot a ripe tomato in the garden from 300 yards away.
. . . between May and September, every page of your prayer journal mentions rain at least three times.
. . . your husband says, “I’ll pick up dinner on the way home tonight,” and heads out with his shotgun.
. . . you don’t cry over spilled milk, you just grab a bucket and head out to the barn.
. . . your answering machine says, “Sorry we can’t come to the phone right now. We’re canning.”
. . . dinner is late because the axe just wasn’t sharp enough.
. . . your favorite shoes have steel toes.
. . . you want to hire a babysitter for the kids so you can spend 3-4 hours helping your husband sink fence posts.
. . . you tell him you’re fixing chicken for dinner and he says, “Which one?”
. . . you go outside to shoo the chickens out of the radish bed, stop by the zucchini to check for squash bugs, go say good morning to the piggies, check the feed levels, go in the barn to see how your broody hens are, check on the broilers, watch the ducks fly to the wallow for a morning dip, and make it all the way back to the house before realizing that you’re still in your nightgown.
Wendy is author of the blog and Facebook page Unpaved Roads. She, her husband and children live on a Southern homestead. Find her on Google+.
