Early Summer Farm Days

“When God created Adam, He set him to be the first farmer in the beautiful Garden of Eden. Man didn’t want the job. So sad.”

c e hollis

Life on the farm is a coveted lifestyle these days. Many city dwellers dream of the peaceful independent life of a farmer and his wife. They dream of quiet nights along country roads, of the sounds of owls and whipporwills calling. They dream of a sky dark enough to watch the stars and see the white glow of the moon. That is the life we have found.

Though the farm involves much work it also brings in many dividends. There are the meals around the table of food we have grown ourselves in pasture and garden. A trip to the pantry for a jar of applesauce or a jar of jam is a pleasure. To see a crop waving in the morning sunshine or watch contented cattle lying in the green grass under a shade tree are delights.

A farmer surveys his land and plans where a road should run, a fence should guard, whether to buy a new piece of equipment. Decides whether to build a chicken coop? Whether to purchase a bull for his herd? When will the calves be born and when should the trees be pruned?

There is work, more work than can be done even if one works from dawn to dusk. Many an evening supper waits till mowing or hauling hay is done by headlights on the tractor.

But work is rewarding and the open spaces and growing things hold sweetness. An evening on the porch swing listening to treefrogs sing, and birds call, cows lowing, and wind sweeping the treetops is a sentimental pleasure.

A truck rattling down a dirt road leaves a trail of dust in its wake. A bed of iris planted by a grandmother now gone on is a spring joy. Watching squirrels and birds and calves romp on a cool day is an elemental happiness.

A walk in the woods and an exploration of the creek banks brings mystery and nature close and inspires a soul. A sunrise beams golden in the east. The clouds bump and glide across the blue. A breeze from the south helps the pears and crabapple trees bud and bloom and brings the scent of lilacs. Sheets flap in the wind along the clothesline. A sunset glows rose in the west. Night falls like a sigh. It is the music of the country life.

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The trees bud, bloom. and send out their leaves. The whole world is green again. The garden is suddenly sprouting tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. Asparagus peeps up and we are ready for it. Sunflowers come up and outgrow the corn shoots and okra stems. Soon the garden will be producing cantaloupes and summer squash, radishes, watermelons, and onions.

The days will grow longer and hotter. We will sit on the porch and fan ourselves and drink iced tea. The grandkids will visit to splash in the pool and eat popsicles in the shade, watermelon at the picnic table. They’ll fly kites, run the tops of hay bales, and blow soap bubbles. Summer will be slow and long here on the farm and beautiful with wildflowers, roses and hydrangeas.

God blesses the farmer. He is a farmer at heart, I think. He knew the joys and the benefits and is happy when one of His children chooses the farm life and fills that special place.

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