Visiting The Farmer

I took a little trip this weekend.

My destination:  

halfway between the equator and the North pole; 

 the land of single digits and negative numbers; 

to see our oldest daughter in her neck of the woods.

When you visit the Farmer, you drive to the Canadian border and hang a right. In order to get to town from the farm, you drive over this bridge in no man's land between the Canadian and US border stations, giving you a split second of identity crisis.

After Erik loaded the pick-up, I drove up with the remainder of her stuff so she could officially move into her new place. The first order of business was putting the bed frame together.

This daughter of mine, the one with a degree in photography, doesn't appreciate being on this side of the camera. Probably my own fault since as the first and only child for four years, she humored me with countless poses.

Friday was her day off and we celebrated by hitting the movie theater. Now I am not one to diss anything, especially a five dollar movie, but this North country theater was an older model with painted plywood floors and lime green seats from the late 1900's.

We chose a middle row and settled in. I looked down and had a very hard time suppressing the giggles. I totally embarrassed my daughter by taking a picture. There at my feet was a piece of dental floss! Must be wicked popcorn up there near the border.

Can we be honest? Life on the farm is NOT kinda laid back. This is AM and I was dressed and had already consumed a large cup of coffee. My daughter asked me when the last time I was up at this hour AND productive. She's a joke-ster, that one.

A bunch of cute faces were waiting for breakfast!

They know when their momma walks in!

We are incredibly proud of our hard-working daughter!

Every barn has a cat, right? This one was permanently installed in front of the heater. It was about -7 on the outside and around 40 degrees inside the barn, practically balmy in comparison.

In the heifer business, milk is reconstituted. I don't think they care.

At three days they get their milk in buckets which they greedily slurp down.

The new babies still get it the old-fashioned way in a big old bottle.

Feeding bottles is fun! 

In the spirit of full disclosure, after morning chores I had to go lay down and take a nap. During the weekend we ate out a few more times including some to-die-for Chinese food from the Wok and Roll.

It is a wild experience to go visit one's adult daughter who is making her way in the world while you still have a four year old (and most everything in between) at home. An amazing stretch that I wouldn't trade for anything!

The picture doesn't do justice to the beautiful morning dawning in the North country as I headed home. The moon followed me for an hour until the sun took over the Eastern sky as I traveled south.

What a blessing to be able to spend time with my oldest and experience a bit of her life first hand! 

Although I was glad to be home, because after all home is where the heart is, I'm pretty sure I left a little piece of mine back on the farm.