A weird sort of feeling just swept through me.
I’m sitting here listening to the rain hit the window next to my “desk” in the living room. If this were six weeks ago, we’d be enjoying a day off. And, believe me, there’s nothing better than waking up during the middle of the night hearing that sweet sound of rain pinging on the cottage roof. No lunches would need to be packed and I would be able to sleep just as long as my body would let me. Unless, it meant ANOTHER day of sitting.
Tonight, it’s just rain. Our lives aren’t controlled with weather as much anymore. Well, it still is for Jim. He’s still harvesting but the rest of us are involved in the “real” world again. Speaking of Jim, he finished with the soybeans last night and was going to start with corn today. Not so much now. I talked to harvesters today from North Dakota to Kansas and everyone is sitting now due to rain. It’s a harvester’s holiday!
Jim left this morning, while I was on the phone, and I never saw him again until after 5:00. I’m still not sure where all he went but I heard him tell the girls he treated himself to Chinese food for lunch and he came back with these awesome coffee mugs.
He was like a little boy bringing them into the living room and standing over me holding them. “Look at these cool mugs. They have tools on the sides and wrench handles! They’re mine and they were FREE, with a rebate!” He tells me this while trying to pass the rebate form to me (guess that means I’m supposed to fill it out for him). It’s the little things that mean the most. Guess that means I’ll be throwing a couple of our older ones away because we have no more room for additional ones in the cupboard. I’ll just have to do it when he’s not looking or he’s liable to dig them out of the garbage.
Jim is a sucker for anything that’s free. We have more Case IH, New Holland, John Deere, and seed company hats than anyone, I’m sure. More hats than there are hats! I honestly don’t understand. And…what about all those years and years of freebies from farm shows and USCHI conventions? I bet we have things in those bags that could be worth large amounts of dollars – yeah right! And flashlights…
Speaking of rain, I found a journal that I had kept in 1992 the other day while attempting to put a pile of stuff away. In 1992, we spent over 30 days in Norton, KS sitting on like 100 acres of wheat. It rained day after day after day after day. We even missed our job in Lodgepole, NE that summer due to the rain in Kansas. This was one time hearing rain on the roof was NOT something I took as a relaxing sound. This particular year, the rain on the roof meant more sitting and more mud to deal with.
Monday, July 13 – “Rained again last night. Jamie (age 7) slept with Jim and Jenna (age 4) and I slept together. Needless to say, I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep! Got up late and fixed a late breakfast. Jim went to the mailbox. I wrote out some cards in the p.m. and went to the grocery store. When I got back, we all went for ice-cream (3rd day in a row). Before I left, it rained fast and hard. It even flooded the streets again. Fixed spaghetti for supper. Just as it was getting done, friends from home drove into the campground. It was SO good to see them!!! They ate supper with us and we went to their motel until 1:00 or so and viewed our summer on tape.”
Looking back on this, I almost feel like I should call them up and apologize for boring them with our summer tape and thank them for stopping. They had no idea just how lonely I was at that time. Even though I had two little girls and men to feed, I felt about as lonely as I have ever felt! Re-reading this, I went back 21 years but it felt like it was yesterday.
Before I sign off for the night, I wanted to share with you something that has sort of just happened for me. I was asked to be a contributing blogger on a new site, Housewives of Rural America. This is all thanks to my new friend, Jenny Rohrich. Remember her? She and her (now) husband, Mark, stopped in Jordan for a quick visit on their way to their wedding destination. I’m just so darn excited and honored to be a part of this adventure! Thank you, Jenny and Katie Vaz for letting me be a part of your dream. Friday will be my first blog on the site…wish me luck and I’ll meet you there!
Related articles
- what? another week is gone? (nebraskawheatie.com)
- Top 10 Things I Love About Farm Life (carolyncares.wordpress.com)