Tractor Tracks, Cowboy Boots & Glamin' it Up on the Farm!

A few years ago when a female farm friend, Caroline  and her farmer- husband Mark divorced, I remember giving her what I thought was the best advice ever.  And what I told my girlfriend was “now that you are single, you can paint your whole house PINK if you want to!”  (and she did just that!) But what I was really conveying was the fact that beginnings and how you choose to shape your new life are just like a farmer’s Spring work, in that what you sow is what you will reap, and the method of how you do that, will not only affect you, but will also affect  those around you.  

Note - my "pink shop door". Love my little tractor too!

My Red Boots!

A chandelier in my farmhouse kitchen. As I "girly up the farmhouse"

And this blog is again what I have learned from a wheat plant and what I am discovering about me and my new beginnings.  I had the title of this  blog for 3 or 4 months and  didn’t know how I was going to integrate  Tractor Tracks, Cowboy Boots and Glamin' it up on the Farm … all I knew was that one day I would  know what to write, and then… it all came together yesterday as  I took an early morning walk.....



Welcome to the  S-Wheat Farm

Enjoying the quiet beauty of the fields, I started noticing the tractor tracks in the fields all around my farmhouse and ideas started forming.  Farmers leave all sorts of tracks in their fields from the initial seeding of the fields, to doing the maintenance of the crops, and then there is a flurry of many tracks when it is harvest time, and again ending with more tracks when seeding winter wheat in the Fall. The tracks left in the fields are necessary.  Depending on the stage of the plants, usually they will recover from being heavily trod upon, but sometimes not and their growth will be affected.  It depends on much they are driven on.  If it is often (say for  a road through the field) then the plants will die out, but if it is once or twice, they  will usually  produce a good wheat head but their size may be stunted and the difference between rows of hard use and untouched are markedly different.   Just like in life,  people all leave tracks in our hearts and souls, sometimes tracks are barely noticeable,  sometimes deep rutted tracks get left when going through a trouble spot (just like our personal lives) and then those kinds of tracks leave deep impressions,   other times the tracks are noticeable but not problematic. 

                                                          Light tracks in the field

 

A trouble spot in the field where deep tractor tracks (or ruts) are made. 

 

                                         Tracks in the wheat field, noticeable, but not problematic
I want to tread lightly and leave only the tracks that leave good imprints in the minds, hearts and souls of people I come into contact with. And as I pull on my cowboy boots each morning, I realize some of the tracks I have left on people were not the ones I intended, so sometimes I have “repair work to do” to mend those ruts, but hopefully the tracks that I leave are ones that will evoke fond memories of life and laughter from family, friends and those I come into contact with knowingly or unknowingly.   And speaking of cowboy boots, I have never worn any (really) in my entire life until last Fall! And.....well I have become a boot collector… and I have black boots, brown boots,  a pair of gray boots and my favorite, my red boots.  I now think I need to get some PINK boots as well as turquoise boots.  Then maybe my boot collection will be finished.  And I LOVE cowboy boots and was almost sad as I have had to replace my boots with sandals for summer  (but living in Idaho, summer really only lasts about 2 months- so I will survive).  

 

 YUP a very PINK front door           PINK Flamingos go well with the PINK flowers

As for "Glamin' it up on the farm"… well I am changing up the house and grounds for me.  I have never really been a “Pink kind of girl” but I am starting to really LIKE Pink and I painted my shop door PINK, and then I painted my front door PINK and I planted PINK FLOWERS all over.  So in a sense, I am taking my own advice!  I am in the process of painting and distressing my kitchen cabinets (that are NOT pink) and I put in a green chandelier that took the electrician  and I about three hours to put on all the doo-dads and crystals & stuff…. And he seriously was begging me not to tell anyone about this job as it was way too feminine for him!  Ha ha ha.  So now you have the story about Tractor Tracks, Cowboy Boots & Glamin' it up on the Farm.

 

Plus I have some new recipes to put on the Cake of the Month page.... 

 

Carmel Nut Pound Cake 

 

Did I mention I LOVE to bake.... all these cakes are found on my Cake of the Month page

 

Lemonade Cake,  Coconut Lime Cake, Root beer Cake &

Carmel Nut Pound Cake 

 

On a personal note... well after a couple of false starts, I think I am ready to start dating again, but apparently I must be sort of, for lack of a better word... socially inept when it comes to flirting...  And how do I know this? Well after I related a minor interaction with someone of the opposite sex, I got the same reaction from not only my youngest daughter but the other girlfriend who was present... and  it was the slap the forehead, roll the eyes and have them blurt, "I can't believe you said that!"  Geez, now  my girlfriend from Spokane is coming down to spend the night, as she says "she misses me", but she has never come down in the middle of the week in the 12 years she has lived in Spokane, so all I can surmise is that I must be in serious need of "Girl 101 talk"  (my words not hers).  So when she arrives, I will invite her to come sit on my deck, we will drink beer and I guess I will get lessons on how to flirt.... Lord help me! =)  ha ha ha...  I guess when it comes to talking to the opposite sex, there are other topics other than tractors, weeds, crops and insects! =)  I will listen and take notes as I really do not want to be the "Erma Bombeck of the dating scene"... although it could be an amusing chapter in my upcoming book. 

 

And  with that, I hope all the "tracks that you leave in others lives" will be the ones that they cherish and are  happy that you were there, just as I will forever from here on out be mindful of the kinds of tracts that I leave in other's lives.  All my best, Gayle 

P.S. you can always email if you have questions/comments at idahofarmwife@gmail.com .