Tending to Lambs

When your children grow up and go off to college, you begin to wonder what lasting impressions they will take with them of their childhood. Will they look back with fondness at their life on a rural farm or will they feel that they have missed out on life? Will they value the lessons learned while growing their own food and raising animals.Will they feel the many hours of solitude,  lack of television, a dozen friends, and the newest fashions has left them behind their peers?

Staying up late boiling sap

We launched our oldest daughter off to college this fall. She attends school more than a 15 hour drive away and only came home at Christmas time. She did not come home at Thanksgiving or Spring Break. This past week she sent me an email that read, “I’m so sad to miss lambing. 🙁   Please send me pictures!!”
I smiled when I read that. I wrote back and told her how great it felt to read those words. She responded, “…I am so proud of our farm, and think off all the seasonal events I am missing almost daily. I wouldn’t trade growing up the way Anna, Luke, and I have for the world–those experiences, more than any author or class, have shaped the way I view myself and the world, especially now that I am “away from it all” here. The farm has given me a perspective I think few people are lucky enough to have. I love it, and miss it.”