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A Farm of My Own:  Am I a Country Girl ?  |
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KD Earthwork
True Blue Farmgirl
210 Posts
Katie
Gualala
Calif.
USA
210 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 08:30:41 AM
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http://rosemancreekranch.com/2011/03/country-girl/
Country Girl
Posted on March 29, 2011 by katie
My husband accused me of being a city girl the other day, which I found very disconcerting. When I told my kids this they commented; ” but you never even wear clean clothes to town, you always have dirty knees and your muddy boots on, how could you possibly be considered a city girl ? ” I wondered too what he’d meant. I’ve lived in the country for twenty six years now, longer than I ever lived in the city ( suburbia). Gardening and working hard; in tractors, backhoes, trucks and mostly on a shovel. I always built gardens where ever I’d lived in that time, also cleared land, built houses, ran my own companies. Was I really a city girl ?
My husband is very hard to pin down, never a straight answer from him or his family ( is this a country trait? ). So I had to follow after him trying to question him about what he meant. It took me a few days of questions to get down to it; I didn’t have faith that everything would be provided for. That bartering, working hard, taking care of others, being a good neighbor, would stand me in good stead for the things we couldn’t provide ourselves. That city people always had to worry about how to “afford ” things, country people figured out how to ” make it work, or make do with what you got”.
I think it might be true, I don’t let myself just farm because I’m too worried we won’t get by financially. I always have to run around gardening for others to satiate my anxiety (although I also love it too) . Maybe I still don’t understand what it means to live on very little. But it seems so hard as well , what about insurances? Car tires and repairs? Gas? Shoes ? As we pair our life down to the bare necessities to be able to farm year round, what do we really have to make to live ?
I think also, what about the infrastructure we still need to put in place here ? How can we afford to do that ? But the reality is that whenever we are getting another aspect of a project clarified, my husband runs out and ” finds” most of the items we would have bought, for free or for some exchange. We have been splitting redwood buckskins for fence posts, straightening bent T posts thrown away in the vineyard for our fences. Collecting left over fencing from where ever we find it. Maybe our fencing the next five acres won’t cost the fortune I thought ! Now if I wasn’t working so much outside, I might have the time to put that fencing up.
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Heartbroken farmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
604 Posts
Annette
rio vista
Ca
USA
604 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 09:41:34 AM
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I don't think its city of you to worry about how to afford things. My husband was raised on a farm, they never had insurance, they struggled for everything monetary. One gift for Christmas, one for birthday, farmers loans, just so they could pay property taxes, the price of fertilizer and pesticides, and herbicides kept going up, then the price of seed...my DFIL never worked off a farm. He would help the neighbouring farmers with his mechanic skills, or advice, and as he couldn't afford hands to help on the farm, the farmers he'd helped, sent their hands over at harvest or planting time to help. It's very country to barter, help, work trade...but my DFIL barley majesty ends meet to this day. My DH is as "country" as it gets, and he works in the dredging field. No farm work at all for him. It's hard for him. It's hard for the lot of us to be off the farm. But we're still country!
It's in your heart, its in your mind. Your knees are dirty! Your fingers are in the dirt. There's mud on your boots. You are focused on things like shoes, clothes, insurance, all the necessities for living. Your thinking about what your family needs, and in my opinion, that's what makes us a step above other moms, we are "country farmgirl moms"! We are gentle AND tough. We garden, dig, drive a truck, and paint our toes. And come Hell or high-water, our family comes first, and doing all it takes to keep our family running is exactly what we do! You, my dear, are no city girl.(((hugs)))
The tears I shed then, watered the flowers I harvest now.
www.broken908.blogspot.com
http://forums.familyfriendpoems.com/broken908
"The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values."-Dean William Ralph Inge |
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paradiseplantation
True Blue Farmgirl
1277 Posts
julie
social springs community
Louisiana
USA
1277 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 1:32:14 PM
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Me, personally, a city girl is one who's 'allergic' to dirt, wouldn't know a bean seed from a candy wrapper, and would faint if she got some cow manure on her designer shoes. You, my friend, are truly country. Just because you worry about money, doesn't make you city. Too many of us do worry about where the funds will come from for (fill in the blank). I know I do. All you can do is hug your dh and go on about your gardening and other farm chores. If nothing else, WE all know your a country girl!!!!
from the hearts of paradise... |
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msdoolittle
True Blue Farmgirl
1143 Posts
Amanda
East Texas
USA
1143 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 2:52:29 PM
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Well, it's only practical to worry about how you'll 'make it'...financially or otherwise. I do believe that we have to meet God halfway. We try to be more 'grasshopper' than 'ant' around here. We save for that rainy, cold day. But, we also realize that our kids will soon be grown and we won't be young forever, so we don't work outside the home any more than is necessary. I mean...what are all these people working FOR, after all? We are fortunate in that we own our own business and can do that. But, we also budget almost every dollar so that we can use our time how we'd like.
You sound 'country' enough to me!
FarmGirl #1390
www.mylittlecountry.wordpress.com |
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KD Earthwork
True Blue Farmgirl
210 Posts
Katie
Gualala
Calif.
USA
210 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 8:31:15 PM
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Thanks so much, I feel like a country girl again. I guess with this economy and what we all have to face, there's nothing wrong with thinking about the money.
Katie |
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Joey
True Blue Farmgirl
1868 Posts
Joey
Gulf Coast
FL
USA
1868 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 9:08:23 PM
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Well, I think it is attitude. I was raised up in Phila, PA-a city of 4 million people. I was a single parent who made sure my daughter got to museums, and plays and the ballet...BUT I also had a little garden and went to the farmers market and canned and cooked often from scratch. I'm an old hippie who recycled and "used up" and saved soap slivers and rain water..yes, in the city.
My darling, well educated, cultured daughter married a dairy farmer (imagine my surprise!) who co-owns the 3rd largest privately owned dairy farm in NC-they milk almost 300 cow and plow 1200 acres. Yes, she still works a "city" job-(small town)and works the farm. My 9yr old grand-daughter feeds calfs every day. Funny, but after dismissing my hints for years, now my daughter cans and cooks and sews, etc. I sit and watch the wheat blow in the wind and love it. SO, am I "a city girl?"
Well behaved women rarely make history. |
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Oggie
True Blue Farmgirl
526 Posts
Ginny
Machias
Maine
USA
526 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2011 : 9:09:14 PM
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I don't think "having faith that everything would be provided for" has anything to do with being a country or city girl. I have always had faith that everything will be taken care of, yet I've lived in the city, suburbs, and country and still have always worried to the extent that I want enough money to pay the bills, have a roof over our heads and shoes on our feet.
I know plenty of people who live in the country and are quite wealthy. They are so because they set goals, work hard for those goals, and if they are knocked down, they pick themselves up by the boot straps and start again.
My Mother is a perfect example! At the age of 36 she became a widow with four kids, no car, and $3.13 to her name. She was determined to keep us together as a family so she sold our house, used my brother's hot rod as the family car, put herself through college, got a job, and never went on welfare or needed a handout(actually I don't even know if they had welfare back in the early 60's). We lived in some strange places, we had some strange "jobs" to make ends meet, and at times we ate some strange meals, but she was determined to make it as a family and we did it as a family.
She is now 82, very well off financially, re-married to a man who accepted us four kids as his own, & they own three homes, a couple of rental buildings, and they have 6 kids, 11 grandchildren, & 14 great-grandchildren. She did it with a strong faith in God and determination to give her children the best life she could. She put 5 of us kids through college, paid to adopt 2 grandchildren, lent a few of us money for down payments on our homes, and has been able to travel a lot, even taking some of the grandchildren with them. She is my hero, if you haven't noticed! And she was born and raised in the country on a farm! She now lives just outside of Washington, D.C. in one of the wealthiest suburbs in the Country. She achieved her American Dream.
Ginny
Farmgirl #2343
www.thedewhopinn.com
"I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with."
"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it." Both by Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) in the Movie Harvey
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KD Earthwork
True Blue Farmgirl
210 Posts
Katie
Gualala
Calif.
USA
210 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2011 : 07:26:15 AM
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Gosh I love this farmgirl site ! Ginny I love your story about your hero, your Mom. I think everyone is saying , positive attitude, work hard, plus and that it's mind set that makes you a country person even in the city.
But my point is that we "city" people have learned to depend on money and the attitude and worry that goes with that, but that there's another more subtle, more " Heart" based way to get the same things as money would buy. Maybe not everything, but how much more can we get away with than we thought ? Now in these difficult economic times where corporate is king, it's nice to find a way around them through the back door and maybe through the grace of friends, family and neighbors.
http://www.rosemancreekranch.com |
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Heartbroken farmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
604 Posts
Annette
rio vista
Ca
USA
604 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2011 : 07:34:09 AM
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Ginny,
Your mother is my un-sung hero! What a great story. It took work on your's and your siblings part too, so good for all of you.
Katie, if you are feeling country (again), you are country! Like Joanna said its an attitude, or mindset. My little sister is city, to the bone. The contrasts between us are as different as night and day.
Tell your DH you are going out to garden, and kiss him on your way out the door.
The tears I shed then, watered the flowers I harvest now.
www.broken908.blogspot.com
http://forums.familyfriendpoems.com/broken908
"The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values."-Dean William Ralph Inge |
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Cibola
True Blue Farmgirl
50 Posts
Remi
Ellensburg
Washington
USA
50 Posts |
Posted - Apr 02 2011 : 8:02:24 PM
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You are right - country is definitely an attitude and mindset. Good luck to you all.
Farmgirl: cibola
"When you get to the end of your rope, you tie a knot and hang on." |
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A Farm of My Own: Am I a Country Girl ? |
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Am I a Country Girl ?
