The stars at night are big and bright...

The stars at night are big and bright...
The stars at night are big and bright...

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Farrrm Living Is The Life For Me

One little thing I blissfully forgot about farming. It's a LOT of hard work. Getting one of the fields ready to plant oats this weekend (yeah, I know it's late) so Brother Inlaw brought over his equipment. He's got much bigger (and better) equipment than I do and it makes a hard job easier and faster.

He also (finally) brought over his backhoe yesterday and did some brush clearing around the house. I may actually be able to have a yard next spring. But today it wasn't used for clearing brush. It was used to gather rocks out of the field. Lots of rocks. I have the finest crop of rocks in Wise County. Big rocks, small rocks, medium sized rocks and half ton boulders. Some of the bigger ones I can scoop up with the front loader bucket. The rest have to be picked up and thrown in the bucket by hand.

I call it "The South 40 All Natural Full Body Workout". It's particularly good on abs and legs.

I did my best Tom Sawyer routine and offered to let my niece help me pick a bucket or two and she declined. Kids these days. They just don't appreciate the down home wholesome country memories that would make. Trust me, you never forget a day of picking rocks out of the field. Never.

The good news is I now have enough rocks to make a fine rock entryway into The South 40 (and pave a 4 lane South 40 Boulevard to boot). The bad news is I've barely made a dent in the rock crop and there's plenty more where that came from. They have to be out before we plant and we are planting tomorrow.

Now pass me the Ben-Gay and a bottle of Maker's Mark. By the way, if any of you ladies care to volunteer for the role of Eva Gabor I'm holding private auditions.


EDIT: I've already had about a dozen people tell me to get a rock rake like this:

 If you happen to have one I'd be happy to rent it for a day. Very happy...


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll be your huckleberry.


Rage

el chupacabra said...

There's a magazine that comes in newspaper form I think it's called Farm News? It was great I subscribed to it during my country living days.
There was one issue devoted to showing how to make your own rock picker.
It was a very informative and inspiring paper. I think you could get all the back issues for cheaps on CD.