Yesterday, The Bigs didn't have school, and Carter's preschool had a field trip, so we all loaded up and headed out to a local farm. It was such a gorgeous day, and wonderful to be outside surrounded by green and blue with good friends.
There were goats to be milked (we watched), eggs to be collected, and tractors to be climbed on.
Letting the goats from the barn pen to the field- we had to make a human fence chain, and then we got to chase them to make sure they got in the correct pasture. It was quite exciting!
Sweet baby chicks.
My sweet boy holding a chick, with a little help.
Oh, he was so proud. So, so proud. So big.
After exploring all the animal and garden parts of the farm, we walked with another family up to the pond.
Boys and sticks.
Ah, the pond. Bliss.
I loved growing up on a farm, but of course as a teenager I didn't love being so far from my friends and having so many chores. Always a fence to fix or weeds to cut, or a project. (You know, kind of like being a grown up- city OR country!) Yesterday, watching my babies unsteadily climb a small pile of hay, it hit me like a brick that my kids are 100% city kids. And I didn't love that. My kids don't even know how to climb hay! How can that be?
Anyway, it was a gorgeous day and we spent the drive back to McMinnville talking about 'choices' and 'tradeoffs' and how different- good and bad- our lives would be if we lived in the country instead of in town. How it's fun and romantic and lovely to visit a farm for a couple of hours on a spring morning, but how it's so different when you have to do chores every single day. EVERY day. How driving into town two or three times a day just isn't an option and things like dance and maybe soccer would just have to go.
"But I really want a dog," Garrett says. "I really want a dog." And somehow I can picture him as a farm boy, with a dog. On a sunny spring day.
Yes, our lives would be so different, but on a sunny spring day, it still makes me a little wistful.
No comments:
Post a Comment