I love this picture! It’s not often I take the time to reflect on the life we have chosen to give to our children. Part of that is because I grew up in this lifestyle.
Being raised on a farm doesn’t come without its sacrifices for our kids. Your parents can’t take “sick” days from taking care of the livestock. During the spring months there is not much time for anything other than preparing the seedlings to start, getting the garden beds ready to plant, fertilizing the soil, repairing pasture fencing, and fixing/maintaining the farm equipment and animal housing. In the summer there is no summer vacation as every day the animals need to be fed and barn chores need to be done. The animals do not “sleep in” so that means neither do we. Weeds are a weekly family project in the garden beds, the lawns need frequent cutting, the pastures need to be trimmed down to keep the weeds down. Fall is spent harvesting, preserving, freezing, and selling the extras of things we have grown.
But the sacrifices allow for life lessons preparing these kids for their futures. They learn responsibility, compassion, empathy, determination and the circle of life very early on.
They learn to respect the earth and animals with a very deep connection. These things provide them with the reward of food grown from a seed, fresh eggs daily and freedom to enjoy the simple things like riding a horse through the beautiful woods.
It also prepares them for their later teenage years. Both of these kids have been driving and working farm tractors, 4 wheelers, snowmobiles and a golf cart since they were 3 years old. They understand the power a machine has and the dangers involved with a careless decision.
They can prepare their own meals, make bread, can vegetables and fruits, and make pies. In other words, they will be able to feed themselves for the rest of their lives without assistance if need be.
All of this makes the vacations and trips they do get to enjoy even better.
And the time we spend on our boat, camping out in our cabin on the farm, enjoying family time around our nightly bonfires and making lasting memories is where I find my happiness.
And that sums up why I love the above image explaining why being raised a farm kid is the best gift ever!
chase n chance ranch 
Thumbs up on this post girl!! Farming is such a different life but in a very, very good way IF the kids pay attention! Mine did but my granddaughter is a whole different story and think because one parent wasn’t raised farming even though the farm was there to work. Makes a big difference!!
The man of the house here was not raised on a farm either and lived in a residential neighborhood most of his life. I’m blessed he embraced this lifestyle for sure. Unfortunately with today’s world of technology and instant gratification thrown at the kids every day, it’s hard for the children to fully grasp the “lifestyle”.
I agree. I wasn’t farm raised in the sense of where I slept until I got married but we raised our children in the country.
And I love all of these pictures. so glad you shared them, Tina. You’ve given your children something special.
Miss you and your blog – not sure why I’m not getting your posts.
I have been on a blog hiatus for the past few weeks. Tons of things going on and when life gets a bit to busy, I tend to hide lol. I’m out of hibernation now!!
I’m the same. Except it’s since early the year, with intermittent blog posts. Glad you’re out of hibernation.
Oh I love this post! The photos are wonderful, I see a lot of joy in those faces. I was just saying yesterday morning as I was trying to not be late for my eye dr appointment, that getting ready to leave is much harder when you have critters! We currently have 2 bottle calves and 8 baby puppies. They must be checked on and taken care of before I can go anywhere. Have a blessed day!
I love, Love, LOVE the photographs you shared in this post. They clearly portray FAMILY LOVE.
Great photos and narration about being raised on a farm. I like the values your kids are learning. Even though they were city kids, we tried to instill the same values in our sons. Good post!