country living
I’ve lived in the country most all of my life. There’s no question it sits deep in my soul. A few years here and there in cities..all good stuff, I adore the city…however……darling I love you but give me that countryside!! I love the smells in the country… where we are it’s all freshly cut hay and horsey smells. I adore the sounds..crickets and toads year round, the high whiney of the horses, kids yelling, tractors going down the road…peacocks ye-ow-ling , chickens cackling….these are sounds of happiness to me! There is great opportunity for the boys to get bored ( yes, I am one those parents that thinks boredom is a true gift!!) ..and yet…even greater opportunity to find oddball “creative” things to do. Since I was a kid I have always called them ” country things”…stuff like the never ending search for the baby kittens, building forts from rocks and sticks, shooting each other with potato guns because although we have 65 nerf guns there are no more neon bullets….anywhere. Catching things…( most anything is included…especially with 4 boys…) also….
Mending and painting fences. This is a constant. I remember it well when I was a kid, back then we used creosote …..god awful skin burning garbage… the horses didn’t like to chew on it much….but I never stopped us from climbing the fences for hours on end.
Rope swings, we have 4 now…this is by far the number one thing our boys like to do. They have all sorts of “freestyle” rope swing contests…they even climb up into the big old oak tree and hold the knot on the rope and jump…a distance that surprises me every-time I see them do it…but they love it. Their nice strong arms will be good for more garden building chores down the road!! Keep swingin’ boys! (…I know what you are thinking…but, stitches only once so far….knock on wood)
Cowboys hats…this sort of melts me when my boys put on cowboy hats. I get all little house on the prairie excited….they get all embarrassed by my gushing….and so it goes.
Garden building. ( this goes back to strong arms are good….) We make little additions to our garden all the time, most of the materials we find on the property…. rocks, good compost, nice flat stone….The boys do the collecting….and together we start playing out with what we should do….we run into the feed mill to poke around,… + run over to the hardware store..poke around more….get more seed packets….grab our shovels and go!.. That little skeletal structure is the very beginning of a chicken coop that my darling boys ( and daddy man) are building. Me excited ?…well…just a wee bit. ( more of that to come)
Lizard catching. This is not such an uncommon scene. An empty bathtub filled with nearly 30 lizards on this particular day ( same with you eh?) ….and then the oh , so-sweet…..”mom, it’s cool that we have a bunch of lizards in the tub isn’t it ? ( yes, thank god they are not in the microwave….this is much better) …don’t worry we’ll put them all back outside later…..” Yes, it’s cool…..don’t hurt them, and yes…release them later…..I don’t even give these things a second thought anymore.
One of our favorite things to do is to watch movies under the stars. John rigs up big drop cloths ( while I watch..wine in hand…all smiles…MacGyver does the work) between the trees..the boys drag every blanket from the linen closet that they can carry. ( kind of make me nuts later, but it’s worth it….making memories right?….I mean hell…. what’s 17 blankets with a bunch of grass, dog hair and spilled soda to worry about?) The projector flies….and everyone is happy. ( We have now learned to shut the sprinkler system off…that was a bit of a shock the first time….ahem, correction….”wet” , grassy, dog hair,soda spilled blankets)
Then we crash hard. All that fresh air knocks you out.
No matter where you live…get outside man. Nature is crazy good…for your whole happy soul.
Cheers + xx,
T.
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Labels: be extraordinary,behind the scenes,more Tracy Porter,nature's inspirations
