No rest for the weary in Farm Town.

When I gave up my “busy” lifestyle in the outskirts of Kansas City to live in a town of 600 hundred and be a full time farmer, I had visions of long expanses of time that I would be able to read, play and relax. In fact, I was slightly concerned about boredom. (All farmers giggle now)

To give a taste of farm life, I am going to give you a rundown of the last 24 hours of my life.
A week ago I started to get a slight cold brought on by ragweed, not enough rest, and probably a host of other variables. By yesterday when I finally went to the doctor it had become full blown pneumonia, requiring a steroid shot and antibiotics (I declined the antibiotics out of stupidity or the very real fear that I may someday become immune to them if I take them to often – I am not sure which).
At any rate, this morning I was up at the crack of dawn to milk my cow. After I milked her, I brought the milk back to the house, strained it, and put it in the refrigerator. I left a note for the hubby on what to feed Fiona for breakfast and was off to pick corn. One might wonder why my husband was sleeping in, while I was up and at it with pneumonia, but for those of you that know him you will understand that milking a cow is not his forte. Furthermore, Fiona was starting to feel under the weather and does much better with co-sleeping than she does in her own bed, so I wanted to make sure she got plenty of rest.

I didn’t buy my own land until later in the summer so I planted 5 acres of sweet corn at my sister’s house 5 miles up the road from us. Since I had an order of over 300 ears of corn to fill for FreshConnectKC, I had to get to picking. What I was not prepared for was the amount of dew I was going to encounter, and therefore became soaked to the bone by the end of my little corn adventure.
I borrowed some dry clothes from my sister and headed to grandma’s house to pick pears, once again for FreshConnect, 100lbs of pears and a few lbs of tomatoes later I was ready for the next part of my morning.

I headed to my mother’s house to shuck my corn. I did this for a few reasons-
1. The hogs love the husks so there was no sense in chancing that a family without a compost pile would end up with them.
2. I am proud of the corn I raised, and wanted to make sure that I checked every ear of corn for quality.
3. We didn’t use any chemicals on the corn so a few worms had their fun with the tops of them. I don’t mind it, because I prefer to share a bit rather than poison the poor creatures. However, I understand that most people don’t want a creepy crawly on the top of their ear. So, better me to clean them up than send them to an unforgiving customer.

After the corn was shucked, cleaned, and packed it was time to get Scott (my dear husband) on his way to Kansas City to deliver the produce and head to work.
I headed back to the house, had a quick bite to eat, did a bit of paperwork and put Fiona down for a nap. After she got up we headed to mom’s farm to check the daily family report, have supper and then off to our own farm to check on our cows.

Thankfully, we have an adopted bottle calf so I only milk once a day giving the calf fee access the rest of the time.
Although we do use rain barrels, we don’t yet have a pond so we are currently hauling water from my brother’s house to the cows. The process is quite an art form as the water barrels are heavy, and you have to tip them over into the water trough. Since it is my brother’s 21st birthday I decided to take the nightshift solo. I tipped one over, and was ready to start on the second one, when it fell out of the truck. I got out to try and lift it (not sure why I thought I would be strong enough to do this), and the new mama cow (just had her baby today) decided to let me know she wasn’t that into me tonight.
Unable to pick the barrel up and not wanting to test my running ability on bad lungs against a new mama cow, I opted to head back to Cole’s and fill up an additional barrel of water to bring back. I did, and when I got back, it was dark, and I am deathly afraid of the dark. So, I climbed from the cab of the truck into the bed, and tipped the barrel over. Finally, the chores were done!

I headed back home, got Fiona into the bath, myself into the shower, and am finally ready to get some long overdue rest!
What I am finally starting to realize is that being a farmer is like being a parent. It doesn’t matter how tired/sick you are, you can’t call in!