Farm Kids

I feel really cool that I grew up on a farm, I often brag about it. I really loved everything that came with living on the farm, the freedom, the space and all the cool shit I got to play with. I think it helps that I had really great parents to grow up with, and for today's blog I want to shout out to my Dad, who took time out of his farming to do some really great things for us kids. Here is my by no means comprehensive list of some of the neat things my creative dad did to make farm life entertaining.

1. Barrel and saddle horse swing. I only recently remembered that this existed, it was nearly washed from my old brain. Between two trees dad mounted a swing that consisted of a barrel wearing a saddle. A perfect prop for acting out all my wild west farm boy fantasies. I scoured the internet and this is the closest I could find to what it looked like. Ours was way cooler and more rustic.

2. A stock tank in the back yard. It gets ridiculously hot and dusty in western Kansas, and it's nice to take a little afternoon dip in a stock tank. Dad would often sit one near the house in the summer and fill it with water for us kids. Again, thank the internet and a random family for the visual aid.

3. This one is like the best, and maybe I blogged about it before... but seriously my dad surprised us one winter by building an Ice skating rink in our back yard. He borrowed a skid steer from grandpa, and started diggin up the back yard with out telling us why. When he'd cleared a flat section with built up sides he added a thick black plastic liner. this he filled with water. I think we thought he was building a pool for a while. Here from the interent is a fine example:

4. Square Bale House. We had a grainery building, built into the side of a hill, where you could back a truck into the lower level and use gravity to fill the truck with grain from the large container rooms above. I only remember my dad storing grain in there once, so the rest of the time we used the grainery as our club house. One year, for reasons I don't understand Dad bought square bales, instead of the usual round bales he would make from Alfalfa. He stored these bales in the lower part of the grainery, and rather than just stack them normally, he created a room inside, with a door and 2 windows. Like this, but better and with me and my siblings instead of these randoms:

5. Many kids get a sand box, and ours was no more special than most of them. Yet that mom and dad let us spill the project of the sand box into the entire side yard of our property, building a landscape of multiple cities with roads and houses, that would encompass what would come to be called "out in the sand pile". Devin should blog about this, in detail, because it's the greatest part of our farm child hood and it should be done it's justice. To sum up I'll just say this to the kids of this generation, think of Sim City, but in real life, and you are forced to play it in the 100 degree Kansas Summers, and you can not stop or your older brother will chase you across the yard with his fist in the air, and if he catches you, you will feel the wrath. There are no pictures on the internet that do this justice. Use your mind.

6. Simple Tree House - All kids should have tree houses. Our tree house was simple but great, it used a door to connect two trees. We loved it though, and it was perfect.

7. One winter dad lashed an old truck hood to the back of our 4 wheeler and pulled us around in the snow. It might have been tied to the tractor. It doesn't matter, it was totally awesome no matter how you pull it. Nothing beat a snow day at home with the family. Different kids, different farm, different time, but otherwise this is pretty much exactly what I'm talking about:

I didn't mean to get so involved in this. I need to work. bye.