Had a Fox visit our bird feeder yesterday afternoon.  Don’t see them up close very often.  Click Pictures To Enlarge.

Country Woman

It was a beauty of a day and I had just come in from doing my chores. I was sitting in my most favorite spot, in the wood box in the corner and listening to Reg talking to his Grandson and Wife. Reg was washing his hands by the sink and listening to what they had to say. The Grandson’s wife was looking out the window. “I see your wife Laura working in the garden, she sure looks happy out there. It must be nice to not have to go to work every day like I do. She sure has an easy life living here on the farm, doing what she wants, when she wants, not having to answer to any one. I got to say, I don’t think she would last one week in the city.”
Reg was standing there taking it all in and then went and sat down at the table. “Young lady, I think it’s about time you and me had a talk. That woman you’re talking about, is about the hardest working woman I have ever met. She might not have a degree of schooling hanging on the wall but she has a farm that has risen from the dirt and made into a place we can call home. She is the back bone of this whole farm, without her it would have never happened.
You say she could never live in the city and do your job, well your probably right. She hates the city, as she is a country woman. Country women are a different breed of woman. They are special, she has worked by my side for over fifty years now, through hard times and good times. She has put up with my nonsense, cooked, baked, washed and knitted my clothes when they had holes. She was there for me when we had no money to hire help, worked in the fields, helped with the milking, delivered new-born calves in the middle of winter in the snow. She has helped with getting
firewood ready for winter, splitting logs with an Axe, she has planted and worked the family garden for longer than I can remember and kept it hoed by hand. She has been there for your Husband, Father-In-Law and Myself when we were sick and nursed us back to health. Fixed our cuts and broken bones when no doctor was around. She also has been the love of my life and I will not stand here and let you run a woman down, that has done so much.
I don’t blame you though as much as I blame society. You younger folks don’t realize, that if it wasn’t for these hard-working country women, you wouldn’t have even been born. All the food that is eaten in your cities,where do you think it comes from? It isn’t grown in a grocery store. Society has you all so strung up on what you think you need in life, that you don’t take time to enjoy life.
You see that woman singing away in the garden? She is enjoying life, doing what she loves and making every minute of every day, count. When she comes in here in a few minutes, I expect you to treat her with respect, as she will you. I have had my say and these words will never leave this room.”
With that Reg got up and went outside. I watched as the Grandson’s wife got up and went to the sink. She wiped her eyes and then looked over at her husband.
“I needed that she said. I just never realized what your Grandmother had to go through, or any farmers wife for that matter.” They gave each other a hug and went outside to the garden.
I don’t know what was said after that but for as long as I can remember, I do know this. They became the best of friends from that day on.
Farm women are a different kind of woman I will say that. As my wife, she has been there for me through all our farming days and without her we wouldn’t be where we are today. The old saying, that behind every successful man is a good woman, can wrap this story up all in one sentence.
So there you have it, a conversation that I overheard, that stuck with me through life. I guess I kind of molded my life around that conversation and I do know that when it comes to country women, I got one of the best. In Closing, I Would Like To Wish You Well.  GW

How Country Folks Lived
Without The Corner Store

The thing about years ago, our weekly shopping trip wasn’t to a corner store. We had our own pantry where we kept all our preserves and in the Fall of each year, it was chucked full of all kinds of things. The way the winter weather was back then, folks wasn’t able to get to town for supplies. For most parts we grew our own and what we didn’t grow we bartered for.
Through the summer months we ate fresh out of the garden every day. I remember every spring, Laura and I would head off to a small clear brook, just up the road from us. It was a bit of a walk but with the trees just coming into leaf and the spring  flowers showing themselves, it was sure a site to see. I used to enjoy all the smells of the bush and in my eyes there is nothing like it. In the small brook, down near the bottom, Laura would find the water crest, a small leafy plant that we used for salads. Being so fresh and tasty you could eat it right out of the water if you took a notion to. We would pick a couple of baskets and head on home.
Later on for supper we would have the tastiest salad you could ever ask for. To get some more ingredients for that salad Laura and I would head on out to the pasture fields to find morels, a type of mushroom. I got to tell you, they make my mouth water just thinking about them. They mostly grow up on knolls and in the spring of the year. If it was a good year we would have more than our share. The morels would be taken home by the basket full. A few would be then taken, washed and put in with the salad. A few more would be fried with garlic, fresh butter and cream. That would be put on top of the salad, when all said and done.
Back to our garden, this time we would pick a few tomatoes, some onions and fresh garlic tops that we planted last fall. Them all cut up and mixed in the salad, we were almost ready. The last to go in was a few chopped up apples also from our trees out back, which we had put away for the winter. Once all mixed in with the fried morels and garlic poured over the top, it was ready for us to dig in. I have to say it was sure tasty, also very healthy and the best part was, it didn’t cost us a cent, other than a bit of energy from the walk to the bush.
Most of our things came to us that way and Laura had a way of fixing them up, so that a young fella couldn’t wait to get to the table at meal times.
For winter meat we did up a steer, a pig and some laying hens that stopped laying. The hens would be kind of tough being so old but Laura would let them simmer on the old wood stove all afternoon in a big pot mixed with more fresh vegetables. After she got finished with them, the meat would fall off the bones and there wasn’t a time that anyone didn’t go back for seconds.
Once in awhile Reg would bring home a deer, to add to our meat supply and if lucky a  pheasant or two. If a  pheasant did come our way, it would usually go towards our Christmas dinner. Potatoes were grown by a farmer up the road, which was his main crop and we bartered hay for them. Just wasn’t worth our while to grow them ourselves at the time.
In the spring, I couldn’t wait for the sap to start flowing from the hard maple trees. We did up a few jugs of maple syrup every year and my most favorite time was when it was just starting to thicken in the big kettle out in the bush. Reg would dump it on top of a cup of fresh snow and give it to us young ones to eat. It was a treat that we all looked forward to, that’s for sure.
I guess some folks would say it’s not a life by today’s measures but for me looking back, I had everything and more than a young fella could ask for. I had a good home, warm, clean and lots of food, with folks around that cared for me.
Along with that, they taught me the real values in life and how to enjoy each and every day. Sure I had my chores to do but you know, I looked forward in doing them. Every day working with the animals, making sure they were fed and cared for, gave me a feeling of accomplishment.
My rewards were many, no, not with money but with a family, friends and critters of all kinds, along with  Mother Nature thrown in to boot. Yep life was good.
Well there you have it, how us country folks lived, with out the corner store.
In Closing I Would Like To wish You Well.