Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live on a farm? There were a lot of things I didn’t know about farm life before I became a farm wife. It’s been lots of fun, lots of work, and so very wonderful!
5 Things I Didn’t Know About Farm Life
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Moving to a beef cattle farm from the suburbs of New Jersey was a giant change. Even though I grew up in a small town, it was still a big culture shock for me. I’ve grown to love being a farmwife and farm mom, and now I can’t imagine it any other way. Here are 5 things I didn’t know about farm life before I started living on a farm.
1. Farm life is a family affair.
No matter what the job, everybody has a way to pitch in. It might be driving a truck and trailer to haul hay to another farm. It might be picking up corn from the feed mill to feed the cows. It might be checking the cows’ water before dark so we have time to thaw it if it’s frozen. It might be climbing in the cracked corn to help scoop it out into the big buckets (that’s usually our son’s job). It might be getting dinner ready so everyone has a hot meal at the end of the day (that one is usually my job). Whatever is going on, everybody helps out. Even our son gets involved – every vehicle can be used to haul something!
2. Long days are normal on the farm.
I thought being a vet student, a resident, a full-time working veterinarian, and a mom was exhausting! Farming is about the same… there are a lot of early mornings and late nights, usually on the same day! There is always work to be done outside, and the best time to do that is when you have daylight. So as soon as the sun comes up, farmers hit the ground running. And they often don’t stop until sunset. (Or sometimes well after!) Some jobs, like tedding alfalfa hay, are best done in the very early morning. To get that job done, John is up before the sun.
3. Weather matters to farm families.
Have you heard the saying “make hay while the sun shines”? What about “God willing and the creek don’t rise”?
Those phrases really didn’t make sense to me until I started living on the farm. Weather is a big deal to farmers. We rely on it to make our living. If it’s too wet, crops can’t get planted or harvested. If it’s too cloudy and damp, hay won’t dry. If it’s too dry, plants won’t grow. If no grass grows, we need more hay to feed our cows. But if the grass isn’t growing, then we can’t make hay!
And that creek thing? If our creek rises, it floods one of our hay fields. The field eventually does dry out, but it takes a long time. When that creek floods, it also covers our driveway! We get flooded into our own farm with no way in, no way out until the water goes back down. Luckily, that usually only lasts for a few hours.
4. There is always a project for farm families to do.
Always. Just when you finish one thing, there is another thing ready to be worked on. Think you’ve finished building fence? The cows will break a fence post and it needs to be fixed. Think you’ve finished running water lines? Something will spring a leak and you’ll have to dig them back up. Think you’ve got the garden planted? It’s time to start weeding. Got the weeds under control? It’s time to harvest, use, store, and give away all that garden-fresh produce. Think the hay is baled? It’s time to cut the next field. All the calves are born? It’s time to get ready for breeding again.
It doesn’t end during bad weather or the winter, either. There is always equipment to maintain or fix, jobs to do inside the barn, and animals to take care of.
5. Farm life takes a village.
No matter how big your farm or your farm family, it takes a village to manage it all. Friends and family pitch in on almost every job – from loaning equipment, to helping vaccinate cattle, to picking up hay out of the fields, to making dinner for everyone, to helping with the kids so the bigger jobs can get done. Everybody helps everybody else – that’s the only way to get it all done.
Now that you know what I didn’t know about farm life, check out the things that I have come to love about farm life!
Farm life has been an adjustment for me. But it has been worth every minute! What else do you want to know about farm life? Leave your question in the comments!
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Thank you for sharing what it’s like living on the farm. It sure does take a village!
Thank you for sharing your farm life. It is endless work. My aunt had a dairy and Dad was her foreman. Now that I am older and there is no more farm, I miss the “good old days”. (don’t miss the water til the well runs dry)
I never thought I would love farm life as much as I do! And I definitely know what you mean about the well… We had major problems with ours a few years ago and were without water for 4 days!