The Fruit (Juice) of My Labor

This is IT. This IS IT. THIS IS IT! After spending approximately 18 hours in the scalding hot sun, picking roughly 3,287,423 (give or take a few) tomatoes, then 28 hours of cutting, cooking, stirring, pouring, smashing, boiling, heating up the jars, making sure the lids sealed correctly, FOUR QUARTS of tomato juice is all I ended up with.

Okay, maybe I exaggerated the work leading up to the four quarts just a little bit. But, it's my own fault. I was the one who convinced my mom to teach me how to can tomato juice - she just wanted to throw them all out, because she knew full well how much work would go into this endeavor. But, the upside is, now I know how to make tomato juice! And it's going to be the best tomato juice I've ever tasted before in my entire life.

And if it isn't, then I'll bet it'll make a mighty satisfying bloody mary. :)

Hunting ... sort of

It's funny, but one of the first questions people ask when I tell them I'm moving, is 'So, how's the dating scene in Tiny-Town?' Well, the way I look at it, it's like going shopping at a TJ Maxx or a Marshall's: you have to sort through a lot of things that just aren't you, but you can find some real gems there too.

I'm not gonna lie. There are NASCAR fans in the country. There are boys who would rather hang out with their hunting dog than people. There are dudes who wear pliers on their belts - always. Sometimes even to church. There are some dudes whose mission it is to get rip roaring hammered starting at exactly 5:00 PM every day. There are dudes whose daily vocabulary includes words like 'warsh' and 'sumbitch' and 'wild turkey'.

But. There are also guys who like to go have a beer and play poker. There are guys who play on summer softball leagues. Dudes who work hard and play hard and enjoy the hell outta life. They love to get their hands dirty and work on old muscle cars. Some guys put their heart and soul into building and improving their farms. And they're good guys to the core.

It's kind of funny, because those chicks in the cities whose first question after "You want to buy me a drink?" is "So, what do you drive?" would have it easy in the country. It's such a small community, everybody knows exactly what everybody else has. People like to talk about other people, and the conversation easily goes to, 'Did you see So-and-So's new truck?' or 'Joe Schmoe must've sold some cows, 'cause he's building a big new machine shed out behind his house.'

The other huge difference between dating in a small town and in KC, is that your parents probably know who you're going out with. And they know his parents, and his grandparents, and probably where he lives, too. Makes it tough to date a jackass, which is what I'm good at. So maybe this small town dating thing is a good thing ...

The Decision

Well, friends, many of you know this already, but I've still had some people asking. And yes, the polls have closed, the votes have been tallied, the hanging chads have been checked (Chad? Chad! Get down from there!), Florida's votes have been re-counted, and it has come down to a very close election. But, the votes are slightly more in favor of Broken B Farms.

It is definitely going to be a transition for me, but, one that I feel that I need to make. I know that a very small number of you will miss seeing me around and about in the city. But, on the bright side, the amusing and sometimes inane blog posts will keep on comin'. And, it's not like I'm moving to another country (Already did that once. Won't do it again.), so you can count on seeing me every once in a while. And of course, if you want to experience the Farms in living color, you only need ask. I'll show yo' citified selves around.

Thank you all for being so supportive.

Wait, this isn't Kansas

We are (still) haying. But, we're on the last 80 acres, so we're almost done! Hurrah! I was glad we were in the hayfield today, though, cause I saw the coolest thing.

As you go through a field, the grass types and thickness can be really varied. I was mowing this afternoon and on top of the hill the grass is just, well, puny. It's wispy and short, and was dried out and ready to bale about an hour after it was mowed. But, it's a good thing it's that thin. There was a very light breeze coming over the hills this afternoon, and as I got further into the field with the mower, I glanced around at the rest of the field and my eyes caught something moving through the hay on top of the hill.

The breeze, through the magic of air temperature and all things atmospheric, had created a mini tornado in the hayfield! It was moving along the ground, erratically, like a meandering drunk person, swirling the hay around. Every 10 feet it would pause for a second, grab the little wispy hay and spin it WAY up in the air (like as if it were saying, 'Hooray!'). Then it would continue on its staggering path, pause, and do it again. But, once it moved into the thicker hay, that was too heavy to jubilantly throw in the air like it had been doing. So I'm glad we have some disappointingly skinny grass on that hill. It was a wicked cool thing that I had never seen before.

Of course, I'm finding more and more that the weirdest things strike me as awesome ... clouds, cattle, dirt. Yeah, dirt. It's a long story. And one that I promise I'll only tell if I've sucked the life out of every other topic I can think of. :)