So today is a big day around here.
We have been showing cattle for four years. That first year, we started with one picture in our head of how we would always have access to a barn. With our transition out of that operation, we had to quickly shift. For three years, we have been so grateful for our friend's barn down the road. While it always came with a warm welcome and was a hospitable space, it was never super convenient. Chores had to be done with a parent in a car...not the easiest feat when it was nap time or dinner time.
Since our kids have continued to show, we have wished and prayed and cursed for a space on our farmstead for our calves to be near. So our kids could be those farm kids that walk out the door in their pajamas and chore boots to do those quick chores. So our kids could be those farm kids who don't have to have a driver's license to get to the barn.
Today, that day has come. My parents and uncle and grandpa have been working and figuring out and agreeing to this space for us. It's a tricky spot where we are.
You see, where we live is the heart of the farm. Thanks to a lovely tornado over 20 years ago, the barn lot was blown away. Furthermore, "our" barn lot is actually my grandpa's. We own our house and the land around it, but otherwise, we're pretty much landlocked by fields of grain and gravel not owned by us. Over the years, it has morphed into a communal space. My dad's semi is parked in the shed. The main pieces of equipment are here. It's the space where the hunters meet, but also is where our kids play, where we live.
If you were to look at our house's footprint, an untrained eye to what is necessary for cattle might assume to "put a fence here" or "put a shed there" (these are words I have said).
It's not that simple. There's water. There's power. There's shade. There's flies to consider and smells.
Many, many days last summer as we waited (sometimes) patiently for this deal to be sealed, and there were days we thought we would just put and fence here and a shed there and call it a day. While my yard is still bumpy and unlanscaped from our remodel (fingers crossed for this summer!), I wasn't necessarily asking for THAT type of fence when I requested a space to be fenced in.
So TODAY IS A BIG DEAL, MY FRIENDS.
BIG. DEAL.
Just about a quarter mile from our house, six head of show calves are taking up residence. The power guys came on Friday and by Saturday afternoon, Joe and the girls were hauling bales and readying water for Lil' Sebastian, Tommy Fresh, Pandy, Queen B and two others I can't remember the names of BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN SO FAR AWAY.
While the logistics of this makes life so exciting, the experience is what I cannot wait to see unfold.
As we were chatting on the way to church today about the excitement of the barn, a little voice piped up from the way back.
"It's like Charlotte's Web, Mom."
The idyllic picture of farm life, the stereotype that I have spent a lot of time rolling my eyes at, writing blogs that proclaim we are NOT like, is the picture my kids have wished for.
Isn't that just the way life is?
Oh the irony...
The wish list for the barn is long. There are things still that are just "fine" for now, but will be corrected sooner and some later. The kids want pigs. They want barn cats. Amelia wants desperately to show rabbits over cows. They want to walk down by themselves and talk to the animals as they do their work after a day at school. The quiet, sweet smelling barn is what farm kids are supposed to experience, and until today, we haven't had that without a lot of wrangling and who's going and who's not and who's too little and who's napping.
So, yes, today is a big day. As the sun goes down, there's muddy boots on my freshly mopped porch (gah), but there are happy kids and a really, really, really happy dad chatting in the basement about chores.
No big deal over here, we're just dreaming of pigs and cows and maybe an amazing spider. Because, we dreamt of a barn some day and here we are. Why not shoot for "Some Pig?"
