Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

Rural America.

To some it may seem isolated and lonely. The midwife who delivered my Angel Girl had to drive several miles on gravel and turn several times to find us.

Her comment was, “This may not be the end of the world, but I think I can see it from here!”

But what those people don’t see is the real community that exists in a rural area.

For example, I ran errands yesterday with my sister-in-law from Chicago.

We stopped at the REC to pay our bill and I was greeted by name. The same thing happened at the bank a few minutes later.

A stop at Dollar General included a chat with the check-out gal and our visit to local thrift store not only yielded us some great buys, but also visits with 2 neighbors.

Our last stop of the trip was the grocery store where not only did the check-out gal know me, she punched my card for my sister-in-law’s purchases (she figured we were related) and then offered to carry out our bags. That’s small town service at its best.

My sister-in-law was impressed.

I don’t blame her. It impressed us, too. We were so impressed that we moved here.

Now we’re planting our roots deep and doing all we can to keep the feeling of community alive.

What a heritage!

We just spent the entire day helping our 4H Club lunch a neighbor’s farm auction. We’ve discovered that although it’s a lot of work, it does bring in some good money for the club, and it’s lots of fun!

Lunching an auction means we carried in tables, prepared pork sandwiches, bought chips, plates, pop and water and made a whole lotta desserts. We had 2 entire tables full of cakes, brownies, cookies, and several kinds of homemade pies.

Then we spent the rest of the day selling it all. Since we were the only food or drinks on the farm, we had a monopoly on sales and did quite well. (Especially with pop and bottled water as the afternoon heated up!)

This was our third auction to lunch and I think we finally have the food figured out. The first auction we ran out of food quite early. The second one we had way too much, but this one turned out really well. Although you never really know how many to expect and how hungry or thirsty they’ll be!

A farm auction is quite a social event and brings out all the neighbors. I saw lots of denim and cowboy boots today with a nice mix of hats, both cowboy and seed corn. There were Grandpas with their grandchildren, young newly-married Amish couples, friends, neighbors and the occasional antique dealer.

Some were there looking for a deal, others were just there to socialize. But everybody needed to be fed!

It was a fun day, but a tiring one. I’m ready for a cool shower, a large glass of water and a some time on the couch. I probably won’t look at another pork sandwich for a long time!