What do you want to be when you grow up? Is a common question kids are asked. If you had asked me this question when I was young elementary age I would have told you I was going to be a vet and move to Kentucky to work on my grandparents farm. Ironic huh?!? Then as a young child I was told how much schooling that would take and decided that was too much and wrote the idea off. My first love for the farm came from weeks during the summer spent on my grandparents farm in yes, Kentucky. I do have Kentucky roots even though I lived in Florida from a toddler age til I left for college. I was born in Kentucky; most don't know this.
Now the question I get is "How did you end up here from Florida?"
Sometimes I just answer with I fell in love with a farmer.
The idea of living on a farm was not so much of a challenge for me. My grandparents had a farm of about 25 acres which I thought was huge. My cousins and I had free range over the place. We'd walk in the cow field to see Ms. Bossy the cow, go to the pond to watch frogs, or play in the hay in the barn. We'd go visit Ms. Piggy, the biggest potbellied pig ever. She was more like a dog than a pig. We would walk goats on leashes. Also run from roosters that we were convinced would attack us. Climbing the trees in the back yard was a favorite past time even as we got older. We rode horses. Played in creeks. I even walked in the mud barefoot behind the tobacco setter putting in skipped plants. I so badly wanted to ride but wasn't old enough for that job. So many good memories on the farm I couldn't list them all.
One summer I remember seeing baby chicks hatch. We had the incubator on the kitchen counter and when they hatched we moved them to a bucket on the back porch. I remember my grandfather telling us he had the farm for us grandchildren so we could experience the farm. There the foundation was laid for what my life is now.
Here I am with my grandfather on an International tractor. When I got married the only brand I knew was John Deere but marrying into a IH farm I soon learned.
This is me, my brother, and grandfather in the tobacco field.
Then fast forward 12 or so years I'm in college studying Elementary Education not knowing where I would end up after college, I met a farmer from Kentucky. When this farmer seemed interested in me we had more in common than he thought. My childhood dreams were coming back around. Little did I know I would get to work with baby pigs and be a "vet." Now that I have 2 little ones running around the house I'm not hands on much with the pigs. My main farm jobs now are record keeping for the pigs, running errands and meals to the field during planting and harvest. Keeping up with the Big and Little C's is quite enough.
Here I am 5 years ago with our first pigs born on our farm.
I have learned a lot in almost 6 years of being on the farm. I will admit I didn't know what a combine was when we started dating. We harvested corn in one the night we got engaged and we're making our phone calls to friends. I think LittleC1 has the machines figured out better than I do. I did know food was grown somewhere but never thought too much about the process or the people who grew it. Many have said I have adjusted quite well and I would agree. I now get claustrophobic feeling if I'm in a city or neighborhood too long. I've grown to appreciate my wide open spaces. As I tell people I have a phone, internet and most amenities of city living; country living isn't old fashioned anymore. Now I'm living the dream of a farmer's wife and a mom of little boys who think they are farmers too.
I'm still learning about this farming thing. As I learn I'm going to share with you. Planting season will be starting in a month which is very busy but I hope to be able to update and share pictures of day to day activities. Today Big C has taken a semi trailer load of soybeans to be cleaned so we can plant them soon.
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