Farming Tobacco - Growing Life

Boy's grandparents are third generation tobacco farmers.

While I could never live the life of a real farmer, there is a part of me that has always craved the rustic lifestyle of the honest, down-to-earth, hardworking, country folk. 

I loved living in New York--so, so, so much. I still find myself aching for the wonders that city has to offer. But as amazing as the skyline is from Staten Island, I find an open field tucked in crisp winter air during sunset just as breathtaking.

The tobacco hanging out to dry.

In the barn.

More tobacco.

Of course, there was a tractor!

I didn't get to ride on it....but maybe another time.

Boy said this was indicative of Indiana culture.

Who doesn't like a homemade basketball hoop in the barn?

These are the storage elevators.

"Now, these leaves here at the top, see the dark orange color? 

These are the ones that will kill you."

While driving around, Grandpa told many stories about the history of the land and the people who've owned it. Then the focused turned to me and boy.

"Now, I don't know how serious you two are, and I know it's none of my business... well, actually it is my business.

Let me tell you two a little about life: You can choose if you want to live a life of heaven or hell. If you choose to put Christ at the center of your life and potential marriage, your life will be heavenly, regardless of what bumps inevitably emerge along the road. But without him, life will be hell."

He told stories of bringing his newlywed Southern California wife to Indiana. She went from the comforts of her California home to a shotgun cabin in Indiana without running water and an outhouse so small you had to back into it--no room to turn around.

Ten kids later, I'm sure neither he nor his wife would describe their daily life as a slice of heaven--at least, not in the way the world would. But then again, the world doesn't know what heaven really feels like.

"Grandpa Bill" spoke of his deep love for his wife, children, and grandchildren. And the twinkle in his eye as he told these tales of family and religious devotion, revealed he truly had a taste of heaven.

...and for your information, he did emphasize SEVERAL times, he had not had a taste of his own tobacco--EVER. He just wanted to make sure I understood that. :)

Naturally, what's a farm without a rooster?

I tried for five minutes to chase all the cats into one picture, 

but in the end I could only get six.... yes, ONLY six.

I LOVE ducks!!!

The greenhouses.

(This was Gpa Bill's favorite picture.)

Holy cow!

The dream: an old truck and the whole, open world in front of you.

There are many moments in this life during which we are required to reveal our true nature. We can't hide under our clothes, schedule, friends, employment, or education. We must expose the core of our character in a humble offering to those around us.

I know this sounds overly dramatized and superfluous, but without such depth of life we cease to be human--children of a God.

I believe in the quiet moments this busy world affords us, we show this inner character.

"The poetry of the earth is never dead." -Keats

Our relationship with the earth and our ability to see the beauty of God's creations is indicative of our relationship with God Himself.

Take a moment to breathe today.
Go admire the world.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

— Henry David Thoreau