Down on the Farm

Last week, our family went t'calling on Beth and her husband, Don. My husband Larry works with Beth, and she and Don have a idyllic little farm in TheMiddleofNowhere, West Virginia.

I kid you not. Not EdgeofNowhere where there would be something, at least, on the edge where you can approach it from behind--but in the middle--no shortcuts. Two weeks from everywhere, it seemed like.

But it was worth the trip. On the way there, we saw herds of deer, a wild turkey, and some baby turkeys (which are called poults, by the way) by the roadside.

Beth and Don have horses and rabbits and dogs, and there were cats that Eleri was able to pick up and cart around like floppy, furry rag dolls that purred. The kids giggled and ran--and ran, and ran. And ran. Emmory tried to pick flowers, which is pretty good for an almost-seven-month-old. Ethan and Eleri fed carrots to the horses and even got to ride one of them.

Larry got into the spirit and rode a four-wheeler for the first time. Although he was going so slow that I started to call him "Hoveround," after those electric scooters some elderly people use to get around. (Seriously, I was glad he wasn't hot-dogging.)

Beth and Don's farm made us fantasize for a few hours that we had a farm like that. Until we realized that we would actually have to live on farmer's hours! To their credit, Beth and Don make it look easy. We had a fabulously wonderful and memorable time.

Enjoy the pictures, folks!

Next time, I promise to have something a little more, er, writerly. Maybe.