A Very Different Life on the Farm

It is now a week since we arrived here in Irma. Tonight it hit me both how fast this week has flown by as well as just how far from home we really are. And I'm not talking miles! Here you can walk out in the road and usually there just isn't any traffic. Unless you count the large flock of Canada Geese flying overhead, noisily making their way south for the winter. Occassionally they will stop in the pond in the field across the road, refueling for the next leg of the journey.  You can see the length of this dirt road stretching out for miles, just as the gently rolling prairie seems to go on and on forever.  And the silence. It is oh-so-quiet. That's what I remembered from last time: the peace of standing out in the field and hearing only the wind. Not the distant hum of the autobahn or of airliners passing. Just the all-encompassing silence. I miss that in Europe. There I sometimes feel claustrophobic and crowded.

We have been working a lot on the kids schoolwork here, especially as it has been a cold and rainy week and so there was little field work.  Being busy with that, and cooking up schnitzel and then a curry for a crowd, I have picked up a Louis Lamour novel to relax with before bed (OK, when ALL are sleeping)- "The Man from the Broken Hills".  I'm a bit nostalgic about these books because my Dad collects them and I used to read them here and there. Well, the hero is down in the States, acting as a cowhand, trying to gather cattle back into the ranch.

Lo and behold, what were we doing one day with our hosts' cousin and his sons? Trying to gather the cattle in from the fields! And what were they talking about? How some times the cattle were easy and cooperative and that sometimes, no matter how much herding you try to do, they just won't do what you want. Exactly what Milo Talon (the cowboy in the book) just said.  Well, this time they didn't want to go our way. Never mind that these Cowboys wore hoodies instead of Stetsons and that then rode quads and dirt bikes instead if horses, it was exciting. The kids loved it!

Tonight I was indulging myself in the webpages of The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Beides fantastically mouth-watering recipes, she has beautiful photos of what? Rounding up cows, among other things. Reading her blog gives me another dose of this feeling of 'other-worldliness'. I was excited to see her show on the Food Network too!

Jonathan had decided even before we came here that he wanted to learn to throw a lasso. Well, our hosts here have a lariat (lasso) in the shed and he has been diligently practicing. It took him a little while to get going but now he can even catch Jeremiah on the run! It helps to have a little brother to act as the moving target! :-)

We have a chance here too to go on the quad or the side-by-side, driving around in the field which has already been harvested.

Life is just so different here. It feels like a totally different life than our life in Austria. And I guess that it is.  It is amazing to think of what our life would be like if we lived here instead of where we do. Or if we were in Africa.....or Australia...or anywhere else in the world.  What makes us into the people that we are? It is a great opportunity to see what these other cultures are like and to have a little taste of them!