Northern Farmer

The evening before Christmas Eve and it’s windier than the dickens out here in Central Minnesota! Had almost a white out coming home from church this afternoon. But the roads were good, at least when you could see them! And tomorrow being Christmas Eve means I’d better start considering starting my Christmas shopping. Haven’t done one bit yet, now I’m talking about me here, not the rest in this house. But the local co-op is open till noon tomorrow and they have what a person could call a country store in it. That’s where I go and buy kids from church their presents so I figured it should work for all my Christmas shopping needs also. Although I think their perfume department is lacking a bit in the co-op. But all the rest like John Deere outdoor thermometers and heavy duty winter work boots, bird feeders and some farm toys are all there just waiting for that perfect person to be given to! I even put in an order for some church clothes through the co-op. Now I’m a denim person, can’t help it, that’s just what I am. And if I’m wearing anything other than denim I get all cranky and ornery. So the problem is kinda solved for me because they make some really nice black denim pants and some super black denim pearl snap shirts that can make me look pretty dignified in any situation at church. And of coarse this goes well with my boots that I wear to church. They’re just next years work boots that I buy a year ahead of time. They’re pretty fancy before they hit the mud and manure come spring when I finally break down and wear them for farm use. So you can see how I can avoid the super WalMart at our county seat in all of this. And here’s the kicker, the prices at the co-op are cheaper than the super WallyWorld and plus I get a five percent discount if I pay the bill before the 15th of the next month on top of the already low price. Gee, I should get paid for advice like this eh, but I’ll give all this wisdom out as a Christmas gift to the readers around here. See, I really ain’t some Scrooge am I?

Then late tomorrow afternoon we got to go back to church for the Christmas Eve service around 4:30. I don’t know why, but I really like going to that. Must be because I figure it should be a “low stress” service. Ain’t all that likely that I’ll be called to do anything special and can just sit around and enjoy it all. What can I say, sometimes it’s just nice to be a bit lazy! And to top it all off, tomorrow’s daughter Rachel’s sixteenth birthday. And that’s the big one! Cause that’s when the Minnesota farmer’s driving permit changes into a real drivers license. Well, it ain’t all that big for me, but you all can kinda remember that age and how important that drivers license was. But she’s a pretty good driver if I must say so, been trained in by me since the age of 12 driving the three quarter ton pickup with a thirty five foot trailer behind it, hauling big round bales off of the fields. And that truck is a bear to drive let me tell you! That’s the hardest shifting beast ever manufactured I swear. (Oh, did I mention it was a clutch and four speed?) So she got trained in right. Not one of them sissy automatics! Hauling around 18000 pounds, following me who was driving the tractor picking up bales and loading them. I remember that’s where I learned to drive too! An old three speed on the column. In an oats field after it was combined and baled up. Yup, things are different around here compared to the norm these days and times!

So anyway, that’s what’s happening around here. Just a general white out happening outside, it should be OK tomorrow. Cattle are happy, but I suppose they’d like a little more food than they’re getting, but they’ll make it to spring and pop a calf, then they can fatten up on all that lush green grass we’re gonna get this coming year! Ah, forever an optimist! Christmas ah coming, birthday ah coming! Some durn good meals ah coming! Ok, Christmas morning I’ll bite my lip and give the cows just a little extra, I’m kinda a softy during Christmas you know. So here’s just wishing everyone out there that reads this thing a Merry Christmas!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.