Farm Girl

So Christmas year was very nice, to say the least. We had it at my grandmother’s farm down in out state Virginia, nestled in the Blue Mountains. I met up with RB in Minneapolis and then flew into DC, got a car and drove the 3.5 hours down. The weather was nice all weekend except for the car drives to and from the farm. During those times it rained like nobody’s business. The rest of the weekend was warm enough for shirt sleeves. So that was nice. I was glad that both my little bro and sister could make out there. There had been a bit of an on going discussion over whether she was coming or not. I guess it’s just hard to be eighteen and not be a little goofy. But she did come; my mother, brother, and sister drove from Minnesota the 2 days down to the farm.

It wasn’t the first time RB had met my grandmother. They had met at thanks giving at my folks. I had already heard that grandma liked her but it was still nice that they got along over the holiday. We didn’t have a lot of time. We flew out Friday night, got in 1:30am, Christmas was of course Monday, and we actually drove up to DC Monday night so we could catch early flights Tuesday morning. Saturday was nice and relaxed everyone hung out and caught up with each other and we to town and made our final gift purchases. For the second year in a row I spent half the day in the McDonalds on the side of the highway using there wireless network to keep on top of my work. I did enjoy driving RB around Bedford and the country, not there are a lot of sites out there it is just a nice place to be. Later that night my dad flew in and everyone watched movies and chatted the night away.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast. I skipped out of going into town to use the wireless for another day of work. Mid-morning I talked the GF into taking a hike around the farm. Now she is a pretty laid back girl for the most part and she didn’t mind walking around the farm, but I think it certainly was a new experience for her. Having mostly been in cities or the suburbs and state parks for camping this was definitely a new environment for her. As many people know farms are full of things you don’t run into in the cities or the burbs. Animals tend to leave their bi-products all over, there is strange equipment every were, the land is not graded at all and is used for grazing animals, or for growing crops. Though on this farm the only thing being raised anymore are cows; No more chickens, no more corn, no more tobacco, just cows.

However she was surprising; which is very often the case. With very little resistance and some enthusiasm we toured the majority of the main 100 acres or so. First I had to let her know a few things. Such as not to touch the fence (it’s electric and did get me once while we were out, how to climb over old cow gates, how to hope creaks, and the most import to watch out for cow pies (and what cow pies are!). Farms can be fun but they are defiantly not clean and easy places to get around. With in only half an hour she was jumping over the muddy banks of the creeks and moving along old cow trails and sometimes crawling under (though not without protest) the barbed wire fence. If fact she was pretty enthusiastic about it, when were resting on some rocks that sit on one of the hills in the front field we saw my parents car go by she started jumping up and down waving at them.

The rest of the weekend was nice; Opened presents, two holiday dinners, lots of videos, and good times with my grandma. She was thrilled to have everyone down at her house and I think we were all just as thrilled to be there. We drove back to DC Christmas day and stayed the night at a Holiday Inn. Then first thing in the morning RB caught a flight to Minnesota, and I flew back to Milwaukee to see the client. No rest for the weary this holiday!