Farmer Boy

I bet you can't guess what Farmer Boy's all time favorite book is.  C'mon guess.  Okay, I'll tell you.  "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It touches something deep inside him.  He keeps it on his night stand and reads it occasionally.  He dreams farm. He breaths farm. Some days he smells like farm.  He tells me strange things about how he gets restless in the Spring and Fall because he wishes he could be planting and harvesting. He thinks manure smells like money.  What?!  I look at him and scratch my head.  I don't get it.

In real life he drives away from the farm every morning to his office. It's not his dream job but it takes good care of us and provides us with more than we need.  His office is his obligation, our little farm is his dream.

Our barn showed up in his dreams.  It spoke to him.  It said something like, "I'm dirty and disorganized. I'm over run with cats and unknown things that don't smell good. Please cleanse me. " Saturday his dream became a reality.

He had lots of help.

Everything came out.  Unknown things got shoveled and put onto the compost pile.  Do you know anyone who needs some good poop?  Things got re-arranged to his liking.  But, he didn't stop at the barn.  The chickens needed attention as well.

They're eating mango peels.  Completely oblivious to what's coming.  

Farmer Boy decided it was time to let the young chickens mingle with the older hens.  Our coop has two rooms and up until Saturday the young chicks were sequestered, kept under a heat lamp.  Saturday was their big coming out. I thought about having a party.  You know, do the chicken dance, but Farmer Boy had more practical plans. He wanted to band them so we would know which ones were older and which ones were younger.  Aren't you glad we don't do this in society in general?  I would hate to wear something that classified me as an old chick!

Anyway, when Fall rolls around we will escort the older ones to my freezer where they will make excellent soup.  Then we'll get another batch of baby chicks and our now younger chicks will become the old chicks. 

Isn't Farmer Boy a good planner? I think a chicken dance would have been fun.

But wait, there's more.

Farmer Boy and his friend Chad decided we need to raise some cattle for beef.  So today we have some new babies on the farm.

Everyone was very excited.  The kids have their alarms set for 6:20 a.m. They want to feed the calves before school.  I'm not sure Farmer Boy will be able to sleep tonight.  The plan is to bottle feed the calves here, and then finish them at Chad's farm with his organically grown corn.  Then we'll sell the beef.  I told the kids to name every cow Butch since they're destined for the butcher, but they couldn't do it.  They're too darn cute.  I'm not sure of all the names yet.  Know of anyone who wants some locally raised beef? 

Farmer Boy does a lot of dreaming and takes us along with him.  I have to admit, I like his dreams. They are who he is.  I hope he never lets them go. The ride is never boring, the stories are plentiful, the calves are cute, and the chickens make good soup.