I've had a bit of a winter (and spring) hiatus. I’ve learned in the farming world it’s not uncommon to have a winter hiatus. Since we don’t have animals (except for hobby) the winter months on the farm are slow, the terrain bleak, the air cold & yet I have found incredible beauty. Sheep still needed to be fed and barn kittens needed a warm home for a few days when their mother left the barn and didn’t return.... Left alone they’d freeze and starve..... so we took them in. They quickly became accustomed to the warm cappuccino house, snuggling & playing by the fire. My gentleman farmer kept his days busy with buying & selling a variety of things, assessing machinery & equipment, cleaning up after harvest only to start prepping and strategizing for the spring planting season. We traveled to warm destinations and took time to relax and reconnect as a family. Our town has an incredible youth wrestling program, so our weekends were filled with little boys wrestling and screaming at the top of our lungs as parents, for our son to “Get ‘em down! Hold ‘em down!” Etc — to any non wrestling parent the screaming of such things by otherwise lovely nurturing women may seem odd, but if you’re a wrestling mom it’s OK for your son to make the other kid cry...because chances are your kid will be crying at some point while being held down by a stronger kid ... so it’s how it goes. Case in point — see video below. The redhead in the black singlet is mine....he totally “got” that kid.... (sound on to hear my screaming) 2019 Spring time planting in MN has been tough - it’s been on the news & is the talk of the town to some extent. We are now midway through June and we are getting close to the season being done. Better late than never. I have a new appreciation for farming after living in our new cornfield world for a year. Exactly a year... I spent my first night here & moved my urban household a year ago this week. We wouldn’t change it for the world! I’ve found the best privately owned small town coffee shops a cappuccino lover like myself could ever ask for. My family has made lifelong friends - some of whom also have migrated from city life to the cornfield/small town life for various reasons. I’ve realized that many people who live in this cornfield land are farmers or grew up on a farm... some still “live off the land” in ways. Many have lived here their whole lives with multiple generations farming the same land. There are also those who want to live in the land of cornfields because they value the slower pace, smaller community and peace that this place offers. They may work in the city & have nothing to do with cornfields, but value the cornfield life. I’ve come to appreciate that beautiful “smell of cows” (you know.. that cow manure smell) that drifts through town, and waiting in a line of cars because a tractor is ahead and no one can safely pass. I’ve come to appreciate the fact that our town seems to have a dozen last names that belong or are related to just about everyone. I’ve come to appreciate that I have to drive 30 minutes to the nearest Target store - this was a hard one, but I’ve come to appreciate supporting local retail businesses instead and re-thinking the way I shop and spend money. My cappuccino self and my cornfield self are continuing to merge. I love my cappuccino house. I love putting my feet on my pretty ottoman in my pretty sitting room and having morning coffee and devotions there in the morning before anyone else is up. I love keeping it tidy and decorating it in ‘cappuccino style’ — while still finding joy in and accepting the huge amounts of farm dirt and messy little farm boys who run through its clean floors and sit on its clean furniture. I also can proudly sat that I have continued to foster my relationship with the farm truck (for a refresher course in this: www.cappuccinoandcornfields.com/home/first-morning) and can now properly drive and back it up. I also can blindly track down my gentleman farmer, via a great app on my phone, in the middle of a 150+ acre field of crops. I’ve also learned how to properly walk through knee high, grassy farmland in flip flops.... I also can chase and catch up a rambunctious lamb and learned this year how to properly milk a mother ewe for colostrum. I’d say this year I’ve definitely had some resume builders with combinations like that. Enjoy this slideshow of some of our favorite things this winter.
3 Comments
Danny O’Leary
6/23/2019 12:17:17 pm
Colleen.... what a perfect snippet of life in the “cornfields”. You transported us to that wonderful place..... and into the mind of a strong, loving, smart, and funny woman, living a full and vibrant life in 2019.
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11/2/2022 04:13:19 pm
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11/15/2022 09:44:24 pm
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