Motherwise Cracks

Hubs decided to mow the acreage today as it’s nearly the end of summer and he wanted to be sure to be able to say he worked on a tractor this summer. Ex-farm boys have this thing about keeping up appearances. They still want to maintain their membership in the “I can still farm” club, even though they haven’t planted a single acre or milked one mammal as part of their livelihood in many moons.

He is out there now trying to steer my brother-in-law’s tractor around our 17 acres and his mowing looks more like he’s making a maze. There is no pattern, rhyme or reason to his swathes and I can’t wait to hear why. Maybe he is listening to Helter Skelter?

So far, one mad raccoon has trotted toward the house and I expect several field mice to be looking for alternate digs tonight. Probably in our garage or basement. His excuse is that he is mowing the grass for the dog. Yes, for the dog. Apparently she needs to walk in low grass. Trust me. Tomorrow he’ll be talking with a drawl and sporting a hay sprig in his mouth as we pay for our corn at the local farmer’s market. “Yep. S’been a real wet summer. Not s’good for the buckwheat” when he hasn’t touched any buckwheat since the last time we visited IHOP.

While outside is looking like Jack the Ripper visited, sedimentation is occurring indoors. My daughter is depositing her back to college things in my living room and it’s beginning to look like she moved the local Target directly into our home. It’s boxes, bins and bags galore until Sunday when we will take her to school. I will cry as I will miss her terribly. The boxes and bins – not so much.

The boy is at a Youth Rally and I hope he’s having fun. I usually count on him to keep the husband in check with his farm implements come out to play-  but not today.

Me? I played tennis this morning with a woman about 20 years my junior and she got too tired to finish. Humph. What is all this keeping in shape good for when one’s friends can’t keep up?

In a bit, we are going “grocery shopping” and the quotes are because I will be supplying the daughter with things for her dorm room on this, her last shopping trip with me, of the summer. Translation – the bill will be huge and I will discover items I never knew where placed into our cart until I am unloading them onto the conveyor belt. She is a master at this. It still won’t make me mad enough not to cry this Sunday as we drive away from her college dorm and wave away at a sure sign of summer’s end.

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“Tears are the summer showers to the soul.“  ~ Alfred Austin