I’ve mentioned before that this country livin’ thang is new to me. That being said, I love it, but…..I have discovered that country life has its own set of issues. I think I came to this realization fully on Friday.
I was in the house, washing dishes and I heard the *pop*pop* of a shotgun outside. There are tons of goose hunters around us, so I wasn’t surprised by the sound of a shotgun, but this one sounded so….close. Could it be that hubby was goose hunting in our back yard? He did try to put out goose decoys a week ago, he did sit outside with his goose call for the morning….by the driveway….in a camping chair… But, he didn’t have any luck. I mean, we only have 5 acres and a lot of that has buildings, cars, cats….what are the chances of him actually shooting a goose out there?
So, back to Friday afternoon. Hubby had been out shooting bb guns and paint ball guns with the kids. It had gotten cold, so the kids came in and hubby stayed out to clean everything up. Apparently, a flock of geese flew by low enough, he grabbed his shotgun out of the garage, aimed, and took two of them down! Exciting for him, funny to me, but it presented us with a problem none of my city dwelling friends will ever have. I now had two geese to clean and the eldest had basketball practice in 45 minutes. Basketball practice is 20 minutes away, so I had 25 minutes to clean 2 geese…… This got me thinking that, since moving out here, I have a whole slew of new things to deal with.
Farm Girl Problems:
- Hubby shot two geese out back….only have 25 minutes to clean them before having to go to basketball practice.
- Have 2 working toilets, yet the boys in the house seem to think that outside is their new urinal.
- Need to go out and close up the chicken coop….don’t want to because it’s too cold, dark, and scary out there!
- Had to jump on the tractor for a minute to help out with something…..smell like diesel the rest of the day.
- Forgot to change shoes before going into the chicken coop to get eggs….now I have chicken poop all over my “good” shoes.
- Just mopped the house…surprise rain/storm storm means the dogs will track in mud for the next three days.
- Just dusted….wind picked up outside and now everything is covered in dust again.
- Flies…..oh my god all the flies…..it’s December and we still have flies.
- Went in to town not realizing there was dirt/poop/blood on my clothes.
- There are at least 16 pairs of shoes by the back door. One pair of work boots for each of us, one pair of sneakers for each of us, one pair of slippers for each of us, and one pair of snow boots for each of us. Seriously….it’s a bit much.
- Traffic jams consist of tractors and oil rig trucks.
- All the books by my bed are about farming/raising livestock.
- When the wind blows, we worry about the barn blowing over.
Wait until we have pigs and cows and I’m sure I’ll have a whole slew of new “problems”.
But….I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love it out here!
Hi from Tabernash,
In the Arnold household the rule was: “Them that shoots em, cleans um”.
Helen Arnold told a story about her dad, Horace. Horace had been away looking for gold in Mexico or Alaska (he did this on several long occasions). Upon his return home from one of these trips, he came into the kitchen and picked up the shotgun which was near the back door. He walked over to the kitchen window and thinking that the shotgun was not loaded he took a bead on Anna’s favorite rooster through the kitchen window and pulled the trigger. Rooster was dead and the window was shattered. Anna was furious as you can imagine. I can not tell the rest of the story but you can imagine.
Warmest Regards from Tabernash, Becky Arnold
PS, If you can, keep that old furnace in the basement. It saved us on several occasions when the power went out.
Oh, Becky, I laughed out loud reading about the rooster!
The furnace is in the basement, but isn’t hooked up to anything. All of the heat runs have been cut away. It is there likely because there is no getting it out!
Great to hear from you. We hope to make it your way sometime soon.
The sweet smell of growing things. The vista’s for your eyes. The horses on the pasture nearby. The children playing outside. Yep, plenty to love and a wonderful house that’s turning into a showplace of hard work and love!