Yes, that is the view from my front porch

It occurs to me that my title photograph might be a bit misleading. Although we do live in the country (I took the picture while sitting on my porch last fall), we aren't farmers. As a matter of fact, I am a transplanted suburban girl. When we bought this house (with a bit more than 10 acres of land), the Hawkeye and I had to have some agreements about it.

Agreement #1: NO farm animals. This includes '4H projects,' 'hobby farm' type animals, or anything else even remotely related to this category. Animals stink, in my humble opinion, and I would like to continue enjoying my front porch without the odor.

Agreement #2: NO expecting me to be a farm-type housewife. Although I am a housewife, my food preserving capabilities are strictly limited to the freezer. I am a fairly good cook (well, I am Southern, after all), but I have no idea how to can. At all. A pressure cooker looks, to me, like a pretty efficient way to blow up the kitchen. Have I mentioned that I'm klutzy?

So, this has worked for us. We get to watch the farmer (that's 240 acres surrounding our land) plant, work and harvest his soybeans, cut hay and other farm-type activities, without having to do them ourselves. However, that land is now up for sale (progress in Middle Tennessee is rapidly resembling the suburban Atlanta that I lived in growing up) and I'm sad.

Maybe we should buy a cow? Nah.