the homestead.

the homestead is a lovely place to be. a nice place to visit, but not where i want to live forever.

how many of you feel the same way?

while i enjoy the people i know and love (like my family & friends that have survived the 2 yr. time span we've been apart), i don't really miss the attitude of the area i'm from. for those of you that don't know, i hail from Northwest Indiana, in Lake County. i guess that probably doesn't mean too much to you, but my hometown is quite literally only 32 miles outside of Chicago and on the southside of Gary, Ind. (brownie points for the person who can tell me WHO is from Gary, Ind.?)

ANYWAYS, people there seem to think farmers are a useless nuisance, who clog the roads with their tractors, feed their goats table slop and are huge hillbillies. but, really people...stop watching so much television.

these farmers that you complain so much about are really just doing the best possible job of providing the food on your table. these farmers, like my daddy, are using cutting edge technology and machines that cost more than your house to plant and harvest the corn for your cornflakes/soda/ethanol/etc. etc. etc. while they might be large & cumbersome, they help us AND you eat healthy, american-grown corn, soybean and wheat products.

furthermore, the livestock we raise might be in "confinement operations" but in reality, our animals are provided housing to protect them from the harsh weather in the summer/winter and allow for my family and i (as animal caretakers) to provide them the best care when or if an animal is sick. they're not raised this way to cause physical harm or to juice them up with hormones, instead it's to insure the consumer is getting the best possible product when they buy that steak/pork chop/chicken breast at the grocery store.

also, just because we farm that does NOT mean we are hillbillies. (i'd like to think we clean up rather nicely.) and what you might see as "crap" sitting out in front of our farm, or behind the barn for that matter, was once used in production agriculture. those old tractors, manure spreaders, and whatnot were once all my grandpa used on his farm, and well, it's hard to give up history. ;)

sorry if this seems like a little bit of a rant, but i'm tired of being judged when i go into the gas station in indiana and covered in cow poo --- farming/ranching has never been a clean occupation. but i am nonetheless proud to be a farm girl!

while i don't see myself returning to NWI, i do see myself continuing a life in production agriculture. and i'm sure i'll find myself defending it where ever i do end up...

peace&love.