by Pa Rock
Farmer
Yesterday it was hot - today it's not. Honestly though, it has not been very hot this entire summer, and I can only bring to mind three or four days when the air-conditioning felt especially good. This summer has been downright pleasant!
A bit of that may be perspective, seeing as how I have spent the last two summers in the furnace that is Phoenix, Arizona. But I grew up in the Missouri Ozarks and I can recall a fair amount of brutal, sultry heat. As a school principal, I remember that the first couple of weeks of school in late August and early September were always horrendous, and that things would miraculously start to get better around the middle of September.
That awful, stifling heat just did not happen this summer. There was plenty of rain, things stayed green, and the wild creatures frolicked and survived. Where I live we experienced no one-hundred-degree days, no tornadoes, no floods, and darned few nights when one could not sleep comfortably with the windows open. It was just an amazing summer!
Summer ends officially in less than three weeks, but today it looks and feels as though autumn has already crept in. The temperature outside is sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit, and the sky is cloudy with an occasional light mist. A gentle breeze is blowing, and the chickens are clucking contentedly as they scour the yard in search of late-season ticks and bugs. It is peaceful and pleasant well beyond the descriptive power of words.
As the seasons shift, so too do the farmer's duties. I will soon switch from mowing to raking, from painting to winterizing, and from letting the air in to keeping the heat in. But I have had six months now to get used to living on my little farm, and I suspect that I will be able to handle all of the challenges that autumn and winter can conjure up.
And no matter how bad the winter might get, I still will not miss Phoenix!
Farmer
Yesterday it was hot - today it's not. Honestly though, it has not been very hot this entire summer, and I can only bring to mind three or four days when the air-conditioning felt especially good. This summer has been downright pleasant!
A bit of that may be perspective, seeing as how I have spent the last two summers in the furnace that is Phoenix, Arizona. But I grew up in the Missouri Ozarks and I can recall a fair amount of brutal, sultry heat. As a school principal, I remember that the first couple of weeks of school in late August and early September were always horrendous, and that things would miraculously start to get better around the middle of September.
That awful, stifling heat just did not happen this summer. There was plenty of rain, things stayed green, and the wild creatures frolicked and survived. Where I live we experienced no one-hundred-degree days, no tornadoes, no floods, and darned few nights when one could not sleep comfortably with the windows open. It was just an amazing summer!
Summer ends officially in less than three weeks, but today it looks and feels as though autumn has already crept in. The temperature outside is sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit, and the sky is cloudy with an occasional light mist. A gentle breeze is blowing, and the chickens are clucking contentedly as they scour the yard in search of late-season ticks and bugs. It is peaceful and pleasant well beyond the descriptive power of words.
As the seasons shift, so too do the farmer's duties. I will soon switch from mowing to raking, from painting to winterizing, and from letting the air in to keeping the heat in. But I have had six months now to get used to living on my little farm, and I suspect that I will be able to handle all of the challenges that autumn and winter can conjure up.
And no matter how bad the winter might get, I still will not miss Phoenix!
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