"Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a farm and live entirely surrounded by cows–and china." Charles Dickens

June 7, 2011

You Might Be a Farmer's Wife...

Image source: Eyewitness to History (with accompanying oral history)
I found this list of farmwife attributes yesterday by a random search on old farmwife photos. I don't know who the author is but its website is credit enough.

Here are some of my favorites from the list:

You might be a farmer's wife...

  • If your name is taped to the side of a cake pan
  • If the vet’s number is on the speed dial of your phone
  • If you’re in the habit of buying foodstuffs in bulk
  • If the word "auction" makes you tingle
  • If you’ve ever washed your kids or the dishes with a pressure washer

  • If "a little bit of lunch" involves 6 courses and a dessert made from scratch
  • If the "fresh ingredients" your recipe calls for reminds you to do the chores



  • If that pail with a hole in it is a flowerpot in the making
  • If taking lunch to the field is as close as you get to a picnic
  • If your rock garden was hand-picked
  • If you’re on the lookout for new uses for "Jell-O"
  • If your tan lines are somewhere below your shoulder and above your elbow
  • If you buy antiques because they match the rest of your furniture
  • If your driveway is longer than a stone’s throw
  • If your kids’ wading pool has ever doubled as a stock tank, or vice versa
  • If you have a yard, but not a lawn
  • If you have lots of machinery and each piece is worth more than your house
  • If the neighbor’s house is best viewed with binoculars
  • If the directions to your house include the words, "miles," "silos," "last," or "gravel road"
  • If your storage shed is a barn
  • If your farm equipment has the latest global positioning technology and you still can’t find your husband
  • If Eva Gabor is on your list of "Most Admired Persons"
  • If you consider "hot dish" a food group
  • If grass stains are the least of your laundry problems
  • If your refrigerator contains medicine, livestock medicine
  • If your car’s color is two-toned and one color is gravel road brown
  • If you’ve ever said, "Oh, it’s only a little mud."
  • If you’ve ever used a broom to shoo a critter
  • If family "pets" include deer, coons, squirrels, foxes or birds

Stay tune for more photos this summer––I have a significant "back blog" of things to share with you.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

16 comments:

  1. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! Does Temple know you've post his "in the buff" picture on here TWICE? Let me know if you want me to pick you up at the hospital when they release you,

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  2. Well, last summer (when those shots were taken) he was BEGGING me to send them to various magazines. But that was before "WeinerGate" and he may have changed his tune!

    Now, I'll let you be the one to tell him about these pics...ideally in front of Melvin!

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  3. Catherine, I love, love, love that photo of Temple and the boys in the tank with the cows looking on. PLEASE turn that into a greeting card! I'm thinking you could do an entire line of cards with your wonderful photos.

    Great post--and BTW, I could answer yes to quite a few. Guess I'm a wannabe Farm Wife. (But we already knew that.)

    Love, Peaches

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  4. How encouraging that even this city girl can answer "yes" to a few of those questions. Right now, grass stains are the least of my laundry troubles...because a rat (!!) seems to be shacking up in the basket at the bottom of my laundry chute.

    On a brighter note, I've been using up my fresh chives by making your quiche lorraine at least once a week. Thanks for that recipe!

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  5. Well I was a farmers daughter......
    following now...how could I not?

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  6. I believe there must be a farmwife somewhere in every woman.

    AC, I'm glad you like that recipe! I need to make it again soon myself. So many eggs right now...and our own bacon, too.

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  7. Ok I am seriously laughing! i just chased the horses out of the "YARD" earlier this evening...they keep eating the limbs off the red bud tree! and i was looking at the ads from TSC yesterday for sales on stocktanks, ya know, those big blue poly ones..we need a pool for the kids that the cows won't step on and the cats won't put holes in and (hopefully) the dogs won't take over! hopped over from midlifefarmwife...

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  8. What a wonderful way for your boys to grow up. It's refreshing to know that this sweet lifestyle still exists... Destiny

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  9. Thanks for stopping by! You know we priced pools and an above ground, decent sized, installed is about $4,000. Inground start at $30,000. Believe me, I'd rather have an inground pool than a new house at this point, esp. as KY summers are long and hot -- and the lakes are dammed up rivers. BUT, a cattle tank will do in a pinch. I'm even going to take a plunge soon myself.

    Destiny--I agree. There are days I "miss" certain things and then I count our blessings and realize that we are here as much for the boys as anything else. (And even our daughter loves to visit now from New England!)

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  10. If you need more tanks (one each for Temple and the boys), try one of these. They're made right here in Liberty. There's a great picture of one of them with two tigers in it.
    http://www.tarterfarmandranch.com/switch.php?fn=catalog.details&cod=WTR102&site=che&emp=che

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  11. Love this! Even though I am not a farmer's wife I can relate to most of these. Your pictures are just perfect...love the expressions on the cows' faces as they check out your "boys". Made my day!

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  12. Wow, at least 90% of that list can apply to this transplanted suburban girl!

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  13. I realized that most of these applied to me for most of life, farm or not! And can you tell I like old beaten up chairs?

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  14. Wow. I've personally experienced more than 75 percent of this list. It brings back fond memories of standing in a pile of mud in the rain with a crazed cow trying to get around me. I'm no longer on the farm, but I've found out that it never really leaves your mindset. People here think I'm a little wacky. Love the blog!

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  15. VAT free laundry chutes
    This is really a nice and informative, containing all information and also has a great impact on the new technology. Thanks for sharing it,

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  16. Funny! I've been a farmwife for 42+years. Wouldn't change it for the world!

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Welcome to the farm! I hope you feel free to comment and share here. I will respond as often as I can.