Its FARM TIME

it's October first and that means it's time for farms. That's what we call it in our family. Farm time. Since I had the luxury, or perhaps the insanity, to homeschool my kids, we were always going on a field trip because that's so much more interesting than sitting at the kitchen table doing schoolwork. I even wrote a book on it called Day Tripping.

One of our favorite field trips was farm time. Of course, my children being city slickers have no idea what it's like to actually live on a farm. It means getting up before school to thaw out your horse's water, feeding the damn chickens and stepping in chicken crap,changing irrigation pipes--twice a day-- cows getting out, pigs getting out, weazles getting the eggs, coyotes getting the lambs... yeah..Farm life. Dirty, smelly, far from romantic, farm life.

No, my children think farm life is bright crisp apples, petting zoo's, hay rides, fresh produce, and picking out pumpkins. And that is exactly the way I wanted it, because I was NEVER going to live the reality again. No sir, not me!

Ahem.

But we do love farm time. That means we get to visit pretty picturesque farms, go through hay and corn mazes, taste apples, listen to music and wander through gift stores. It means I get to come home to my snug suburban home and decorate with fall decorations while my now teens enjoy it like little kids, setting bowls of Indian corn about the house, tying up stalks of dried corn for the front porch... we pretty much go all out and have for years.

I wish they enjoyed raking leaves half as much.