We stepped through the ancient door and were met with the unmistakable smell of the past. As we examined the coins from another century, gazed at the array of clothing from another era, and imagined the hands that wielded the impressive swords, we were sent through time in the presence of the well preserved antiques in the shop. As my kids and I walked around the dolls and … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – The Spa Life of Farming
I love to read books to my kids. It seems that a very common theme in children’s books is farming. It’s often a story about the farmer and his trusty tractor, or about how the blue truck and the farm animals save the day. Sometimes it’s counting veggies and learning shapes in the perfect garden, or one that I remember reading as a kid, the kitten who got lost and has an … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – It’s Safe as Long as You Remember it’s Dangerous
It was a perfect evening. You, dear reader, know what I’m talking about. There’s a certain feel in the air, a certain smell on the breeze, and the open space in your life has popped a little dream into your head. What is that dream? Maybe it’s a longing to go on a hike in the park, head to the fishing hole, or go out with friends. For me, it was to be soaring around the skies, … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – Not on My Farm!
I recently saw someone talking about their food, saying, “Why do farmers need to spend so much time and effort when most people just get their food from the grocery store anyway?” Grocery stores must have a great big manufacturing facility somewhere that takes air and turns it into all the food that you eat. I imagine that a grocery store would be kind of like that … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – Crunchy Parakeet?
Have you ever been to an ice cream shop with freezers as far as you can see and thought, “I wish there were more flavors of ice cream in this shop. These 47 options are not enough. I think they need just one more flavor and then I would be satisfied.” I’ve served ice cream when there is one flavor and I’ve served ice cream when people had to pick between 10 different flavors. … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – Fifteen-year-old Cheese
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s June! Time flies by so quickly that it circles the earth and laps me in my floating, flying machine. June has got to be one of my favorite months of the year. First of all, it’s Dairy Month! There’s no better time to come visit the farm and get some milk than June dairy month! Driving through winding valleys, to the top of towering bluffs, is … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – Making Magic
Feelings of excitement flash around me as I prepare to breach the laws of the physical world and make my neon green scarf vanish into thin air! From my 11-year-old vantage point, I see my audience is enthralled with my latest magic show given by me and my string puppet sidekick named Louie. Who doesn’t love a good physics-bending show and a two legged blue creature who sniffs … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer: A Tale of Two Seasons
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the spring of snow; it was the winter of mud. It is life in the temporary, it is life for the eternal. When the dark days of winter start to give way to the new days of spring, and the peepers are loud enough to sing me to sleep over the sound of my fan, “men with cadaverous faces emerge into the winter light from … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – Come Chore With Me!
Every morning (Yes, you read that right, every morning), my alarm clock rings long before the sun says hello. I roll out of bed, stretch my stiff neck, whisper “I love you” to my wife, and sneak down the squeaky stairs. If I’m lucky, I trip on one of my kids who decided the floor next to my bed was the best place to be just because it was near me. That is the closest I’ll ever … [Read more...]
Flying Farmer – Filter of Grace
“There once was a boy who could listen. He could hear a sliced cantaloupe glisten. And closing his eyes He can hear the sun rise By the chirping he knows that it’s risen.” -Hornaday When I heard this limerick, I was surprised by the clever use of senses in a way that senses aren’t used. Why could the boy hear the glistening cantaloupe? Because of his previous … [Read more...]