Farm Lessons for a City Girl
My mom is a farmer. I didn’t inherit that gene. When my kids were young, they’d go to Grandma’s and carry around chickens. I’d tell them to make sure the chickens don’t peck their eyes out. They’d respond, “Oh Mom, you’re such a city girl.”
I don’t know that I’m the typical ‘city girl’. I like to get dirty and camp and I save worms on the sidewalks after a heavy rain. But no one would argue the fact that I’m no farm girl.
Mom needed the chicken coop cleaned out. She has an asthmatic reaction to the dust and dander (suuuuuure Mom. Jk. Although a respirator may be in her stocking this Christmas), so like a good daughter, I volunteered.
She put me into a hazmat suit and rubber boots, gave me a purple pitch fork and put me to work. And I learned a few lessons!
#1- If you ever volunteer to clean a chicken coop, choose a day that isn’t in the ’80’s. I was soaked by the time I peeled off that suit, and apparently I’ve lost the COVID-era talent of breathing hard while wearing a mask. A day in the ’60’s would probably be satisfactory.
#2- Things are not always as they appear. As I was pushing the wheel barrow to the biggest manure/compost pile this side of the Mississippi, I passed her goat pen. Tootsie and Li’l Bit, the Boer goats, have a fun jungle gym play structure. On one of the platforms there appeared to be gravel. I thought, “Huh. I wonder why my mom put gravel on there. I’d be worried that my goats would slip on the tiny rocks.” And then a few minutes later, I realized that it wasn’t gravel- it was goat poop. Duh.
#3- Hard work feels good! Alright… by the time I was scooping the last of twenty-five wheelbarrow loads of hay or straw (I’m no farmer, I can’t tell the difference), and chicken poop, and wood chips and dander and who-knows-what-else, I did not consciously think, ‘Wow! This feels great!’. It really did feel good though, to get outside, on a farm, and work every muscle in my body. There’s just something cathartic about working up a sweat.
#4- Do what you love and… help out when you can. I am very much pro-Farms, especially organic, regenerative and small local farms. I do not ever want to be a farmer or work on a farm though. And that’s ok. If you love planting and harvesting and coop cleaning and hoof clipping, and tractor driving and whatever else goes into farming- Be a farmer! If you love welding- Be a welder! If you love writing- Well, good luck with that and don’t quit your day job!! But keep writing :). If we all did what we loved, the world would be a happier place. And we’d all get better customer service! Pretty sure the gal at the Amazon Returns desk in Kohls hates her job.
It really was fun to get out of my box and experience a glimpse of a life so foreign to mine, especially since I got to help my mom and hang out with one of my favorite people in the world.
I suggest y’all consider it too. Do something different. Mix it up. Live a little. Help somebody out. If you aren’t sure what to do… my mom will need her coop cleaned again in about six months.
