Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Smell of spring in a rural small town

The other day I was outside and noticed that there was a scent on the air that was distinctly springtime in my small town.  It was the smell of freshly mown grass and fresh dirt mixed with an air of chain saw shavings from tree trimming.  It got me thinking, this is what small town America smells like.  You can walk outside or downtown, sit on your porch or just drive around with the car windows down and smell springtime in my small town. 

It also got me thinking about the sounds of springtime which mirror the sounds; the mowers running, slow idle sounds of cars on a leisurely drive around the lake, children's laughter as the elementary classes take walks through town for an adventure away from the classroom.  Sometimes there is the occasional zing of a bike pedaling fast through the streets. 

Out here on the farm, the sounds and smells are much more dependent on what I have done recently outside.  Nature shares her sounds with me as the pheasants ruffle their feathers making a sound that is similar to a drum roll.  The cackling they do as they talk back and forth to each other.  Sometimes there is a turkey gobble as the hens have made their nests in the windbreak.  I occasionally get the whiff of the farmyard that is freshly mowed.  But my most favorite smell of all is the smell when I walk outside after an early morning rain shower - like Mother Nature took a shower and got all clean to start the day.

So I contemplate how best to share life on the farm with you now.  My life has taken such a different turn in the past 2 years since I started this blog.  I am building a house from the ground up with a farmer friend who might ask me to marry him in the very near future.  He is the one who has been giving me the cowgirl lessons.  I have not had much opportunity for lessons lately but I continue to hone my skills in what I have learned - feeding calves their bottles, pitching hay, driving a tractor and checking cows.  Not much sorting, that has been getting done without me this spring.  I will try to come up with some fun stories to share with you over the next few months as I build a house and see a dream come true.  So stay tuned, you never know what might happen here in My Patches of the Prairie!