I’ve been a farmwife now for right at eighteen years. That’s really kinda hard for me to believe.

Ok, I don’t know what connotations and pictures the words “farmwife” conjure up in your mind. I will confess it tends to make me think of outside-choring, of driving equipment, throwing hay with a pitchfork, gathering eggs, milking cows, and other farmey chores.

That’s not really me. Nope. Not really.

I am married to a farmer. I love my farmer. Therefore, as the wife of a farmer, I am a farmwife.

I like this farmwife thing.

There are lots of farmwives out there that DO do a lot of chores and spend a LOT of time as the operator of combines and tractors and trucks.

I have done chores on occasion and I have driven a tractor sometimes.

I’d been contemplating the things I do as a farmwife and how it has worked for me and I began to translate the words from my head onto paper to record my story.

Here’s a bit of what the face of farmwife looks like for me.

TWO THINGS right off the bat.

ONE. It means Being On Call.

Cell phone rings or farmer enters kitchen.

“Could I get a ride over to the field?”

“I’m headed to the field with the planter. Could you come get me in about 10 minutes?’

“I’m taking the semi to the field and then need a ride back for the other truck.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll get the field done or not. I’ll bring the tractor home if I do and if not I’ll need picked up.”

TWO. It means Interruptions.

“Hey, I need a ride.”

“Ok.”

Dishes wait. Figuring out school curriculum waits. Fixing food waits. Laundry waits.

“A hydraulic hose broke. Can you go to John Deere for a new one?”

“Yep.”

Bookwork waits. Blogposts wait. Cleaning waits. Stop in the middle of fixing lunch. Don’t start the canner if I think I may have to walk out the door.

It used to involve bundling sleeping babies out of their beds during naptime every now and then, to go give the ride or get the part. Then as my babies grew calling, “Kiddos! We need to go get Daddy.”

{I don’t always jump up and down at interruptions.}{As in, I’ve probably NeVeR jumped up and down because I was so excited to be interrupted.}

A couple more things…

THREE. Flexibility

It means keeping my cell phone close by when we’re in a busy season or when the farmer is in the field. In the long ago days, before {gasp} cell phones it meant, staying close to my home phone and/or getting a vehicle close to the field for the farmer’s use, in case it was needed.

It means not knowing what I might end up doing in a day. Many times my days go fairly as planned. Other times I end up not doing a thing I had planned or I get to ride along with my farmer man or take him a needed tool or I run somewhere for him.

Because it means various parts runs. Sometimes not so far away. Sometimes the-rest-of-the-afternoon away.

It means helping fill planters and drills or more recently taking kiddos to help empty the drill.

It means that over the years, I’ve learned to {try to} hold plans loosely. I don’t like to fill my weeks with too many appointments or things. For one, I don’t like to be too busy and for another if the opportunity arises to go with our husband/daddy, we want to! And of course, the errand runs and taxi rides and all those details. I operate much better without a tightly packed schedule or with plans/appointments that can be changed or go on without me if I have to opt out at the last minute. It’s what works for me!

It means I often have ideas about tea parties or get-togethers or meeting friends, that would be fun, but don’t get carried out. Some do. Many don’t. Even if my husband wasn’t a farmer, I would still have lots of ideas that never materialize into real events! Time and energy required. 🙂

FOUR. Meals

Food. It means food.

I’ve got to play meals-on-wheels a lot throughout the years. Everything from Thanksgiving dinner in the field to McDonalds to scrapping stuff together and trying to make it look appealing!

Everything from lunch to snacks to supper to breakfast. We’ve had it all in the field over the years.

This is how we make a living. This is our life.

Running errands, giving rides, delivering meals.

It is my part-time job.

I am a farmwife, but I am also an employee, just not in so many words or ever thus called. 🙂 That’s ok. I like being Mrs. Farmwife to my farmer man.

It just was a fun realization to me, when I really thought about it and labeled it as a part-time job. Somehow, when I’m not working an 8 to 5 job, it can be hard to say no to things, even though I do not have time. If I was at an office, it goes without saying that you don’t blow off work for other things that come up. There are a lot of good things. But it’s better for me to say no, even to good things, if it’s only going to add stress.

I smiled as I added to my thought about my part-time job. Part-time??

Not really.

Full-time catches it better perhaps?! Because I am a full-time wife to my man, farm or no farm. No part-time when it comes to my marriage!!!

As I made my list, I could see that there’s been a lot of learning opportunities for me as a farmwife. Many of these attributes do not come naturally to me. God put me in a place to grow and learn and keep laying down self. {Amazing! God knew what He was doing! 😉 }

This is part of my story. My unique list of what farm wife entails for me.

Every farm wife’s list would be a little the same, yet quite varied at the same time.

Just the same way for a housewife! Perhaps now, I’ll have to think about the what the face of housewife looks like for me!