Well life on a farm is kinda laid back.... it's a simple kind of life that never did me no harm...yet i do know i like living the small city life!
My days growing up in the country were at times charming and at times well challenging! It's easy to say though and i truly mean it.." i wouldn't trade my country life for diamonds or pearls"
It was early to rise...there were chores to be done.... i can hear "rise and shine"...the pigs need to be fed...believe it or not, i was in 4-h and took pigs to the fair...really me washing and tending to a pig, including bathing them, baby powder and baby oil on them for what i dont remember...maybe showmanship...walking or running around a fenced in cage with a cane to guide them and do whatever, them squillin, and fighting with other pigs hoping for a blue ribbon??? i can remember my daddy saying "i cant wait for your kids to be in 4-h or FFA, and you take your vacation time and spending it here at the fair!" darn it dad, but i never had to do that!
so, next were the horses... loved my Rico...gym cana days ( i think thats what its called) barrell racing days... loved riding horses, never had a fear, but i do now! we had some great rides with Manteca Horseman Association, camping on trailrides, my dad taking me and deeana olson horseback riding and camping. i remember riding in the christmas parade and how can i forget riding around the football field during home games in the East Union Lancer suit! And i knew something was happening when i decided to sell my horse in order to buy my first car! at least i sold Rico to a family friend... its coming back now...my dads horse's name was "Pizan" meaning "my friend"
ok... next... ill keep this one brief..." GEESE"... never liked em, never will... meaner than a watch dog! They would lower their necks and squak and chase you...i can remember having to go in the chicken pen and collect eggs and run like heck so these dang geese wouldnt bite me!
i guess every good country girl has to experience killing a chicken from catching it, to chopping its head off ( i know cruel) and i know now what the saying "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" means, enough details on that, but then i had to dip it in hot boiling, and pluck the feathers off, then had to eat it! surprized i like chicken!let's see what's next.... Sherri had a little lamb... i did get the opportuntiy to bottle feed a baby lamb, he loved me and would follow me all around, i dont think its fleece was white as snow though!
guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, rats, cats... all the same to me, creepy! i did get tricked once by who else.. my daddy the trickster... i was actually eating fried rabbit, but was lead to believe it was fried chicken!talk about a trickster.... nice big cold glass of milk, i thought "cow milk"... nope i was wrong it was "goat's milk" but i do have good memories of getting gallon jars of warm fresh cow milk with cream on the top of it, i would walk thru the pasture over the irrigation ditch and under the barbed wire fence give our neighbors a gallon jar and id come home from the McDonalds farm with warm milk...i remember making butter to!
talk about goats..... one of my very first jobs...very few will be able to picture this... me waking up in the middle of the night and after school, i would walk across the street, and yep...milk goats for a living! Big time pay... a nickle a goat! omgoodness... stink, and flies and kicking my bucket of milk over... one reason i like the city life! i"ll never forget Robin and Myrtle Pease...the goat people!
this is not the actual irragation ditch by us.... but many memories swimming in irragtion ditches. One time that i will never forget in all my life was swimming in a ditch with Artie and Danny Nunes, and getting caught by their dad.... i had no idea it was dangerous or whatever, but i will never forget the sound and sight of that bright orange hay truck coming down the dirt road being driven by Mr. Nunes, hiding from him didnt work for the 3 of us... i dont think i ever swam in an irragation ditch again! i do remeber having to walk all the way out in the back of our farm to turn on or open up the water valve! We'd have our rubber boots on slosh our way out there with a flash light, still hard to believe you have to just wake up and get up when the neighbors called to let us know they were done and it was now our turn! Some of my best( and worst ) conversations with my dad... never forget the time i did something out of the ordinary and got caught and totally disappointed my dad.. he gave me the talk as we were irragating... that was enough to be the one and only time i did that, and he was good enough to just talk to my friend too, and never threw her under the bus..(.love you Sherrie H.)
did i mention the garden... oh what I'd give today to have a garden like we had. " but why do i have to weed or cut okra or pick 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes, this is just wrong, i dont want to eat any of this stuff"!! Clearing remember complaining how unfair it was!
let's see.... how about the cow paddy fights... the hard dried ones made descent frisbees! wasnt fun getting hit with one, running barefooted in the irrigated pasture, , learning to make dill pickles, soaking em in a brine or salt water, canned pears, apricots, canned anything! we had a total room off the garage filled with jars of homemade everything made with love. that's my dream and goal this next year to learn from the best and make canned spagetti sauce, tomatoe juice, salsa, freezer jam. i believe its a lost art, so yes mom and yes to my mother in law... i want to learn! even though its much easier to walk down the isle and pick up a jar of this or that, it's just not the same!
oh the country life... thank God I'm a true country girl! catching the bus in the fog , or walking past the corn fields ( one of my favorite things to this day is watching corn grow, i know sounds silly, when it actual is very simple and amazing)....riding a tractor (but i dont think it was a "big green tractor).. did i say i loved climbing on hay bales and talking to a certain someone thru the fence ... the more i write, the more i remember... after our pigs or swine were killed and made to eat by the butcher people, we would make pork skin or pork rine...can still see the pig hairs on the pig skins. eek!
so as i've reminsiced some tonite... i am so grateful for being a country girl... i believe you can take a girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!
My daddy taught me young how to appreciate the country life, he taught me how to work and how to play, he taught me how to live a good life, with him by my side, and everything i do ...do it with pride!
and like John Denver said..."when the sun's coming up I got cakes on the griddle...life ain't nothin' but a funny funny riddle... thank God i'm a country girl/(or boy)"
I was taught how to love and how to give more than just alittle...
Thank you God for the country life...
the house i grew up in is still standing, (corner of Lathrop and union) only remaining house... now its all about Del Web, Raley's, Starbucks, Auto store... for now i buy my spagetti sauce, tomato juice, freezer jam, pickles, store bought tomatoes, okra, green beans, pork and chicken and beef in the butcher department, milk with a date on it, lock my doors, get my yard water for flowers out of a hose,...and address my elders my Mr. or Mrs.
because of HIS AMAZING GRACE
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