I live in a fairly rural town right outside a bigger city. And when you come out to our little town, ways of thinking, acting & living greatly change within a couple miles. My town is full of good hearted, hard-working, skilled people. Most of whom have grown up here & either still farm or grew up on a family farm nearby.
That being said many never leave this area for fresh perspectives & people that challenge their way of thinking. ENTER: ME! I have spent 24 of my 36 years on farms across OH, PA & CO. Mostly horse farms & some are simultaneously, ranches to raise cows, sheep, & crops. Many of those years were spent along side vets doing some stomach turning care.
I like most horse owners or managers have worked in -30F temp to 100F, cleaned enough stalls to put a five digit number down. I have pulled babies out of moms, pulled machinery out of trenches in the pouring rain & agreed to help the neighbor catch their runaway cows. These are norms to horse & farm owners
Why do we do it? Because be love it! Can’t imagine living any other way and though some of these people couldn’t or wouldn’t put the words “love” or “touching” into their statement but somewhere down inside most of us those are there.
While I do not encourage in myself or others, if asked, the claiming & personal identification of titles, my ego got the best of me a few days ago. My friend, local farmer & part-time rancher had the nerve to tell me ” I wasn’t a REAL FARM GIRL”!! For a moment I felt like giving him a piece of this “farm girl’s” mind, BUT I bit my tongue!
So why did he make such an outrageous statement after 24years of working my butt of because I love animals & I love nature??
Imagine I was on our skidsteer “kelley” just topping off his 5ton dump truck that I had filled to the brim with half composted horse & goat manure when I noticed I dropped a lil’ plump mole into the truck, startling from his dark,cozy & warm home putting him in direct sunlight in open air without the comfort of knowing where his precious ground was. He stuck his head up in the air & sniffed all around & felt nothing around him. He was so darling & fragile in the moment!
In a matter of seconds i went through my head the fact that he was soon headed straight for the blades of a manure spreader that would likely chew him up. But with my traditional farmer friend standing nearby I held back to stop “kelley” & just climb up there & toss him out. I KNEW some comment would be made! However life is short for every being & life is treasured by all of us not just humans. We can’t save everything but if stopping for one minute, literally, can allow me to save a life that is really important to Mr. Mole then GOSH DARN IT that’s what I am going to do! So I threw up the safety bar, yelled “DON’T ASK” to my friend & climbed up the 5 ton heap of hot manure, grabbed the fuzzy guy by the nub of a tail that he had & tossed him off into my bushes to land softly.
When I was all done loading I turned off “Kelley” & my friend sauntered over & asked if I climbed up there to save a mole. I said “yes sir I did” He shook his head & said “You ain’t no farm girl if you gotta save a mole!”
Did I have too? No. Did I care too? Yes! And somehow having compassion made me not a “real farm girl”
In my opinion NOT TRUE! Enjoy a few pics to show that even though I don’t eat my chickens when they stop laying I still am a “farm girl”!; )
