FARM LIFE FROM A FARM WIFE: Enjoying the simple pleasures of life

Riding tranquil back country roads alongside my husband in our side-by-side, I inhaled the warm fragrance of the gentle summer day and, slowly exhaling, felt great contentment. It’s the simple pleasures in life. Week vacations away are rare and extraordinary, and while I appreciate those adventures, these little jaunts are what fill my tank.

This day the baby blue sky was cloudless, the air tender and calm, with just a slim breeze smooth as silk, tickling the hair across my face. As I hung my sun-kissed arm out the window, I marveled at the sights along the way and found delight in the utter greenness of everything; it was like looking through an emerald-colored glass.

Reminding myself to wonder at the simple pleasures God gives us to enjoy in His creation, I focused and truly appreciated the beauty of vibrantly colored bushes and flowers, spotted a doe and her twin fawns, a fleeting black bear cub (we think we saw one!), fields of alfalfa lying in wait of a harvest, little green corn shoots, like soldiers marching straight down the line, contrasting against the rich black earth. We saw horses tended by a sweet little Amish girl perched on a rock under a huge shade tree, her legs swinging merrily.

“Your horses are beautiful!” I called to her in passing.

On our wanderings around the county, I take a peek at other people’s landscaping projects, what looks like it might work for me, what I would not like for me, what I appreciate looks great there. I marvel and gape unashamedly at the ingenuity of folks. Some places look like people love to live there, well-kept. Others, not so much. Those places pull at my heartstrings, for I find myself wondering if they are unable to tend, not so much they wouldn’t want to tend.

Coming back home, I kick off my flip flops and walk out to our garden, the soft grass pleasant beneath my bare toes. It’s a miracle from God alone that small, planted seeds shift and move deep within, then push face toward the sun to grow, forming green beans, potatoes, peas, corn, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, pumpkins, spinach and, new this year, broccoli.

We have a raspberry patch, which each year, until hard frost, produce ruby red, thumbnail-sized, sweet berries especially in the fall. The first batch which ripen early July aren’t as good. We also have planted a couple of apple trees and a plum tree. The plum tree was not producing well and, asking, we discovered plum trees need to be planted in pairs to encourage pollinating each other.

The gal we asked was very knowledgeable. Using her app “PictureThis Plant Identifier,” she scanned her phone to the tree and was informed it was a Chinese plum. The popular cultivar to be compatible with our tree, we found, is a Toka plum. Time will tell if this new tree, already bought and planted, will work out. Patience.

I enjoy the simple pleasure of living off our land, harvesting garden produce and raising beef and pork to eat. A homegrown ribeye or a pork chop grilled to perfection along with produce from the garden — a meaty potato, and a green salad with spinach, cukes, carrots, tomatoes — can satisfy me like no other meal.

Raising steers and swine for consumption, I have to keep in mind as I feed and care for them, that they are here for a season and a reason. I can’t think too much. Detaching is a requirement or at the inevitable time they’d leave, I’d be a basket case.

That being said, I do enjoy their time on the farm. They are simply a pleasure to watch, especially those pigs. I’ve never been around pigs until these last few years, when my husband and I took to raising a few. Their squat bodies, flat-nosed snouts and perpetual smiles make me giggle. There is a pecking order for those four. I know already who is in charge. I try to help the one snubbed by giving it some extra room to feed. Using a long-handled stick, I poke the kingpin out of the way, shoving on his already sizable rump to encourage making room for his chums out there in the pigpen.

As far as our fruit production goes, while our apple tree is not quite up to edible apples for humans, the pigs will enjoy a few every now and then. My freezer is stocked each late autumn with a good supply of raspberries for Jello, desserts and smoothies. I’m looking forward to sweet plums in time. When my mother-in-law was still alive, and I’d visit my soon-to-be-husband on this very farm, I’d pop some of her syrupy plums in my mouth, the sweet juice running down my chin.

By raising our own fruit, vegetables and meat, we assure self-sustainable food for our own table and to share with others. This, along with pleasant little jaunts around the county, are the simple pleasures of life.

(“When you eat the labor of your hands you shall be happy and it shall be well with you.” Psalm 128:2)

Kay Reminger was born and raised on a dairy farm, and she married her high school sweetheart, who happened to farm for a living in Leopolis. Writing for quite a few years, she remains focused on the blessings of living the ups and downs of rural life from a farm wife’s perspective.