This is a bit of a challenging post to write as I have neglected my blog for a very long time and I am sorry. Things in the online world tend to feel overwhelming to me, so I just push them all to the back of my brain and find other things to focus on. Like laundry. Or dishes. Or flowers….
With that said, I’d love another chance to share some of my life with you all. My hope is to create a space where you can feel my love for this rural life that God has given us. I want you to walk away feeling more calm and at peace than you were before you came. Maybe this will be a place for you to do that.
A lot has happened in the last few years that I never shared much about. I tend to be a pretty private person on the Internet, but I’d like you to get to know me better, so let’s rewind a bit..
On a cool December morning in 2017, I married my childhood sweetheart in our small, country church. It was a tiny (and short) ceremony, followed up by cinnamon roll cake and chili in the fellowship hall. (You can read more about it on my Gal Behind the Blog page).
We nestled into a charming little cottage and began setting up our new life. Apple covered dishes that were found at an auction filled my kitchen cabinets and a heavy scrap quilt lined with denim and flannel covered our bed (making it had been my summer project after graduating high school). During our first year of marriage, I was in awe of how many blank walls there were in our home. Somehow, my beach-themed decor I had brought from my childhood bedroom just didn’t look right in our living room. As time went on, I began collecting more antique tins, old-fashioned signs, and plenty of other vintage relics to display in nooks and crannies throughout the rooms.
Eventually, my attention turned to the outside of our new home. Some well-established bushes were the only plants that decorated our front porch, but I had grand ideas to bring more color and life to the space. While Kansas summers, a faraway water well, and lack of a backhoe have curtailed some of those plans, our little house now sits surrounded by hostas, creeping Jenny, and leafy Boston ferns. The West side of the house boasts an array of planters overflowing with rose moss (as it can withstand the afternoon sun), canna lilies, hydrangea and snowball bushes. In the center of the circle drive, there is a bird bath no longer offering water, but more rose moss and a red geranium. Flowering sedums, salvia, honeysuckle, a butterfly bush, and a rose bush help make up the little center garden and add a sweet spot when the irises up front have stopped blooming.
Not long after we were married, I wanted to get a guard dog to have outside. I had always grown up surrounded by animals and not having more than a couple of cats just felt strange. Eventually, a sweet little German Shepherd/Great Pyrenees puppy found her way home with us. She managed to make the first ride home on my lap rather than in her crate and I consider it practice for her upcoming role as my co-pilot in our 1986 F-250 (my get-around vehicle before the car came into the picture). Roxy would curl up in my lap as we drove between the farm and my parents house. Practically my child, she stayed with me a lot of the time. After it snowed, we would wander around outside the shop and she’d bury her nose in it and roll around on her back.
Later on, we were given the opportunity to adopt a retired stud dog — Tommy. He’s our 100 lb., English Yellow Lab that sounds like a hog and loves us with every ounce of his being. A year or so after Tom’s arrival, my husband surprised me at Christmas with a handwritten card and a picture of a yellow lab puppy in it. A trip to Ohio and Teddy Bear was headed back home with us! Tommy has taken Teddy under his paw and they are like grandpa and grandpup. I like to think that Teddy’s energy and enthusiasm for life keeps Tommy young.
Fast forward to today and there’s always something going on. Canning green beans with my mom has started filling Friday afternoons and I’m loving the thought of home-canned beans accompanying a beef roast during the winter. The laundry almost constantly needs washed and hung on the clothesline, and there are always some weeds to pull.
My garden this year has been a joyous, yet painful, project. Last year, I let it completely get away from me. Once wheat harvest hit, weeds grew tall and it was toast. Thankfully that hasn’t been the case this year. While there are some unwanted visitors that like to pop out here and there, the green beans are getting canned, zucchini picked, and the jalapeños are teasing me with how big and beautiful the plants are looking. Now don’t think for a minute that it’s all fun and games. I’m surprised I don’t have Malaria from how many mosquitos have bit me while working among the plants late in the evening. And the watering? I’m just barely keeping up. The thing that is so encouraging to see though, is that I can do this. And if I can manage to keep a garden together and alive, anyone can.
As for my husband? He keeps beyond busy working with his family on their farm a few miles away from our home. They raise cattle, corn, wheat, and soybeans, and there is never a dull moment. Literally. But I soak it all up.
There have been several blog posts wrote throughout the years when it came to harvest time. While it can be exhausting (especially for the guys), it’s nice that the work is always changing. One month they’re planting, another month they’re harvesting, and the next they’re hauling manure. Hopefully I’ll be able to share more of the daily happenings with you as time goes on.
While I need to wrap this up, I hope you’ll stick around. Life is messy and busy, but when I look at it all together as one big picture, I love it. I wouldn’t change it. Don’t stray too far and I’ll try to keep you updated with what I’m planting next, the newest chickens to join the coop, and what’s happening on the farm.
Ashleigh
Traci says
Just a simple comment… I love the photo with the snapped beans, as when I was a little girl, I often went to my my great-grandmother’s with my Nana, and we would snap peas, can, and much more. It will always be a fun memory.