Making Memories at The Farm

Early corn in front of the house.

My kids spent 13 days at The Farm this summer during my busiest couple weeks at work. It’s a win win. My employer gets my undivided attention for 10-12 or so hours a day and my future kids get a taste for rural life, which involves a lot of time outside.

So what did they do while they were there?

Good luck dragging any details out of them. It’s as if they were on some sort of mission, sworn to secrecy about their day-to-day adventures. Yet I know they had a good time. I know because, except for a couple brief tearful moments when I came down for a day to go to my cousin’s funeral, they never begged me to come home. And they were returned to me fully tanned and golden-haired.

They spent a lot of time outside. A lot. Just what mommy ordered.

It’s taken me a few days, with only mild forms of torture, to tease out the most memorable things about Summer ’11 at The Farm.

Here’s what surely is an incomplete list:

Making lasagna – from scratch, from rolling and cutting the noodles to simmering the homemade sauce.

Playing with kittens – the two wormy, flea bag rag-a-muffins my sisters rescued from a ditch brought home one day and have been nursing to rambunctious health ever since.

Visiting Victory Acres – where there is all manner of activity, from fresh produce to a barnyard full of critters.

Going to the ‘Garfield Museum’ – or as my children have finally realized, the single Jim Davis room in the James Dean Museum in Fairmount.

Playing in the pool – where, I’m pretty sure they started to grow gills.

Hunting buckeyes. It’s too early to find any on the ground, so they had to pick some from branches grandpa pulled down for them.

Tee pee adventure – I’m still not quite sure where or when this was, but I’m told it involved going in and out of real tee pees and visiting rooms filled with animal hide. [My daughter, disturbed by the collection of animal skins, was not impressed by this particular outing.]

Collecting eggs. The children learned that the layers are docile while they lay their eggs. This was a particularly good time to pet the chickens and see how soft their feathers are.

Feeding the goats – even though one little Billie was a little over eager and bit into my little girl’s hand.

Learning the Lord’s Prayer. This may be my favorite. It’s one of my favorite communal prayers, mostly because, just like my kids, I learned it by repeating after my grandpa as he tucked me into bed in the Orchard Room at The Farm.

I know there is so much more, but these are the things my children are still talking about and will be thinking about for months and years to come.