FARM
Wild Word Friday!
When I was a child, one of my very favorite things was visiting my paternal grandparents at their FARM. They had a mean rooster that would chase you if you ventured too close to the chicken coop. Their big black horse would eat an apple right out of your very flat open hand. They also owned a field full of cattle, two milk cows and a tractor that Grandpa let us “drive.”
I remember the evening when I was 12 years old that I heard my grandparents tell my parents (I was supposed to be asleep in bed, but I was listening.) that they were going to sell the FARM and move from Michigan back to their home state in the south. Oh, how my heart ached. I got up and went to the bedroom window, my hands clutching my grandmother’s sheer white Priscilla curtains, and looked out at the moonlit pine trees that grew in a wide windbreak beside the house. And even though – according to my grandmother- I was a very big girl, I cried.
What I didn’t know then was that even after my grandparents sold the FARM, I would be able to keep it whole and lovely in my heart, and visit it there whenever I was inclined to do so.
You may have guessed by now that our Wild Word today is FARM. FARM comes to us from the Middle Latin word, firma, which means a fixed payment. The first FARMs were pieces of land leased out to tenants by wealthy landowners or by governments. Thanks to homestead acts, the family FARM became an affordable possibility for people who lived in North America.
If you dream about FARM life, you will probably enjoy one of my favorite Blogs written by Nicole Bates. You’ll laugh and cheer for Nicole as she and her family learn about life on their FARM. Check out her Blog at http://nicolelbates.com/other-interests/the-farm/
Question for You: Do you live on a FARM? Have you ever?
Blessings!
Sue
Photo from Wikipedia.
Sue, what a lovely story and gorgeous photo.
My dad grew up on a farm, and years later when he and my mother married they built their little house just down the road from that farm. This means I grew up near a farm, spent much time on it, but didn’t live on it full time. I often visited cousins on their farm and a friend on her family’s farm in my growing up years.
My father-in-law owned and operated a farm, and my husband and I obtained from him a little piece of a far end of that property and built our house there. Like me, our children grew up near a farm, spent much time on it, but didn’t live on it full time.
In my opinion, there is nothing equal to farm life. Although for too many it is very hard to manage financially it is a good life. There is something about the morning sounds, the smells of animals and hay, that bring calm to me .. even in only memories now.
Such a great word for today. 🙂
Thank you, Lynn. I’m glad you like FARM as our Wild Word this week. I’m so glad that you and your children were able to grow up near a farm! Our son’s first job was “haying” on a farm owned by a friend of ours. Our son says that that job was the best thing that could have happened to him at age 13, a good lesson in how to work hard and that farm life is very good.
Thank you so much for the link Sue! I really appreciate it.
You’re welcome, Nicole!