August Showed Up

Life in the Country

Annals of Grandpa's Farm (retired)
Ho Hum County, State of Suspended Activity

August Showed Up

       Not much happening out here in Ho Hum County right now. The third cutting of hay is off and gone so my mind has been wandering around looking for a place to light. We've been sitting here watching the dog begging to go out after he just went out five minutes ago. Does it have something to do with the goody he gets when he comes back in? Does he have us trained or what?

       It is that time of year again when all the kiddies go back to school. The good teachers have already been back to school for several weeks or all month.
       The reason I say that is because that's what Granny and I did. When August showed up my mind wandered around looking for a place to light and that place was usually in my classroom at school. I needed to go in and sit and look at the chalkboard, the class list, the books to be passed out and to play games on the computer besides starting a whole new list of e-mails. It was important to begin to get into the mood to go back to school.
       It took about six weeks, after school was out for the summer, to begin to feel like a human being. That lasted for two weeks and then August showed up. Later in my career I became a principal and so I never got time to feel like a normal human being because I worked until the end of June, sometimes got July off (rarely) and then August would show up when I started again if I ever had stopped. August showing up sure messed up the whole summer.

       Now, though, I am retired so August shows up in a different way. Usually the third cutting of hay shows up the first week or so of August. We also get a week or so of one hundred degree weather (and then fall shows up). The really good thing about August is that I can watch my former teachers go back to school. If some of them complain to me I just say' "Not my problem." It's a wonderful thing to be able to say that and then go on and do my own thing which consists of changing irrigation water and cutting and baling hay. Sometimes it also involves some construction or handyman activities.
        Being retired is like becoming a "jack of all trades" ("master of none?). I do some handyman stuff one day, cut hay the next, do some more construction the next day, turn the hay on the next day and hope I can bale on the day after that. Then the hay has to be sold or stored in the barn or machine shed. If you plan to do hay I recommend that you have grandchildren that will come and pick it up for you. (How do you think it became Grandpa's Farm?) So far this summer I have had three cuttings of hay and my number one grandson and his girlfriend have picked up what we have had to stack or deliver. My number two grandson has also helped several times. Thanks, guys!

       So as you can see it is just an easygoing, laid back life here in the summer in Ho Hum county. Nothing interesting or exciting ever happens here and never has.

                                                         And I like it that way.