A Farm Day Not Like Every Other Day
+But a farm day nevertheless. My Life. Sometimes there is no way to describe a whole day on the farm : not in one heading anyway. And though categories and tags defeat me – Aunty Del is still beautiful. 
At the Press Publish conference I was taught that “Content is King, but headlines are the Kingmakers.” And this is very true. This from Josepha Haden, who was the first to greet me into the venue and stood up to shake my hand hers so tiny and smooth in my rough farm-hand hand, She congratulated us on our blog – a beautiful girl. So she will always be special. However even though I understand what she was saying, sometimes there is too much in a day to decant into a King-Making headline. 
Sometimes Farming is the only Headline. Grubby, windy, chilly, wind-burnt, hauling hoses, scooping the winter out of the barn, feeding babies, training grown ups, plants out – plants in, throwing hay, feeding out, walking as slow as the slowest cow, opening gates, shutting gates, barbed wire bras ( from blowing hay, I hate blowing dusty hay) down my front, just trudging in our gumboots through a delightful day. 
But I love the farming. I just LOVE it. My hair is back to being windblown and curly. Standing on all its ends. The ratty, holey, frayed clothes out again. The Farmy- electric shock therapy keeping me on my toes!
Isn’t Elsie developing a respectable udder? (For all you udder watchers – like me).
During this one day the girls and I covered a myriad of tasks. The most important task being; keeping my mind ON the Task. In the afternoon I sent them on the walk Across The Way to feed the Brown Bobbies all by themselves. They loved it. Walking through the prairie grasses, down the wee path, across the bridge, down the country road and up the lane to the West barn.
All by themselves. They had been trained to feed the Bobbies and check their water. So I was confident. On their return there was a universal thumbs up, coats on their arms, faces flushed, camera’s swinging, happy as larks. Kids love to be trusted. It springs them right up. They felt The Belonging. Belonging is a King Maker.
On their return they began to make the international feast. And it was divine.
Good morning. Our Twittering of quotes from each others blogs is roaring along. I am so loving it. It makes me read what you are writing more carefully. Searching for the quintessential sentence. Then sharing that with the link!
Now. COWS. So what do you think? Two weeks for Elsie?. You have been through all this with me before: with Daisy and Queenie. I think Lady Astor is definitely behind Elsie. Her udder is much smaller. But from now on, just in case, the Dutchies are being kept up on the concrete pad, next to the barn, at night. There are coyotes and other wild feral dogs around. In fact only last night Boo sent off my particularly noisy bunch of coyotes. At this point in the gestation of a calf, with birth becoming more and more imminent, it is better to keep the Mama close to home. And I can. So I will.
And now! The WINNER of the March Print: Drawn by The Cadet is:
BEV! ( Bdibell.) It is you! So email me on celima.g.7@gmail.com to confirm your choice of the enlarged copy of Peghorn. Congratulations Bev.
Wonderful. Love!
Your friend on the farmy
celi
55 Comments on “A Farm Day Not Like Every Other Day”
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I can almost smell the clean air, the sweetness of the cows, feel the wind in my hair and the rought texture of Miss Tima’s furry coat. How can you condense all that down into one grabby title? But you do, each day. We get it. Don’t ever become marketing-led, Miss C. You are far too fascinating already! I spend hours in the Lounge that should be spent stitching or making soup or cutting back the snake beans or pruning the citrus trees…
I agree with Kate. Forget all that fluff puff advice. You were our favourite blogger for years before you went to Portland.
Elsie does indeed look almost readty to fulfil her purpose in life. How nice it is that your visitors were able to enjoy the experience as trusted farmy girls.
Happy Easter, Celie and everyone,
love,
ViV
I agree with Kate and Viv, leave your hair to be wild and curly and keep writing like it is – that is why we are here. Laura
Yes, if Portland adds to your knowledge rather than changes it, seems that would be the best. Then again there is always the header of “BarbWire Bra Day” that gives a good weather report…. lol And congratulations to Bev of bdibell, may she forever be happy with Peghorn gracing a wall in her home! Is there a reason you keep your girls on the concrete pad ‘next to the barn’, rather than IN the barn, for safety?
May your Easter Sunday be filled with peace and joy. Mame
I have two clean pens in the barn for birthing calves and two pregnant cows, so when they begin to labour i can put them in a clean pen for the calving. Usually one is aside for loafing but i am not sure when these cows are due so just to be on the safe side I am keeping tboth clean. The concrete pad is sheltered, warm and overhung with trees. Plus their food and water is there. Does that makes sense? c
Makes perfect sense, thank you! As a Mum myself, the idea of keeping an area clean for birthing seems very necessary. 🙂
I don’t care if it Kings Headlines or whatever please do not change one word of your way of writing..that is you..it is genuine Miss C and as for headliners..you have done pretty well up to now without all the shenanagins of the big wide world…
Disappointed I di not get my picture but that means that there is one happy BEV somewhere in this world.
I would not know one udder from the rest, so I will just wait to see
Happy Easter and a Happy Week love from P
This is the happy Bev! I am properly thrilled to be the winner of the Peghorn print! Thank you! What a surprise at the end of today’s varied and interesting post! Love and wishes for a wonderful week to all!
Congratulations happy Bev! 😀
Thank you!!
We all have Bev Envy 🙂 but are happy you’l have a beautiful photo to enjoy.
Congrats darling!! Talk to you about the details asap! c
Thanks again, Celi!
Yes! Congratulations!
Headlines are grabbers is pure J School AO1 & you’ve been grabbing us along, so I agree with the rest, take what you will from Portland but keep on doing what we all click on first thing every morning. Sometimes your headlines have filled me with trepidation, but they always grab me. Your headlines, photos, writing & philosophy & humor & style are all a very special blogging salad compose, Celi. Aunty Del is doing her Rita Hayworth close-up this morning. She knows she is a beautiful girl! Happy Easter Sunday to all at The Farmy. Judith
You have always written from your heart, just keep doing so. Portland was wonderful, but at the end of the day it was a money making event for WordPress. Good marketing means money and that is what they are after. Is that what you want, or is it to hold tight to and build up the residents in the comments lounge? I am sure I know the answer. You know we love you and what you do. That is why we return each and every day. So just keep going, as my husband once said to me: “Never Change!”
In the seven images from Aunty Del right through to the young hands preparing food, we have different stories and your words bring them to life for us. Not just today, but EVERY day. Happy Easter to all the Farmy!
I love your writing style. Those who posted before me today have stated eloquently how I feel. Please don’t try to change anything…please don’t. ❤
Such excellent and timely advice from everyone so far this morning, and I agree Miss C. I’ve been thinking this for days since your return, and the subtle hints in your posts regarding changes and doing things *different* or *better* in the eyes of WordPress. I am going to speak my mind today because it seems right.
Please do not become a fancy blogger who is taken up with correct titles and tags and reposts and spreading the word to the last corner of the earth. Do exactly what you do every day because that is what matters, not only to us, but to the farm and animals you love and care for. Being loud and out there and known is fine if you truly want that, but being the Miss C we have come to know and love is what makes this blog special, and *ours* and more important than all the tweets and catchy titles and other fluff. This blog is of course about the work of the farm, but it is also about so much more and I believe we find you and you find us for a very special reason that even WordPress cannot imagine.
Whew, I have said it and mean it heartily and will not take my words back. You are a treasure because you do what you do in a way that touches people already.
Lovely day to all and thank you for allowing me to rant on this morning.
Deb
I agree totally! Couldn’t have said it better. Listen to Deb, Ms C, and to all the others. (I know you do.)
Thank you Albert 🙂
A hearty agreement on you rant. We have found this haven and come to learn, or to reaffirm for ourselves that the tie to the land and the life it sustains is still there. Tags are all well and good as far as they go, but I don’t want to read something that’s geared to tagging this and that, headlines are fine but if all I’m reading is the headline there probably isn’t enough there to keep my interest. I read each word here, study each photo, read all the comments and it wasn’t tags, headlines or tweets that brought me and keep me coming to read each day. It is the substance, the excellent writing, the beautiful images, the characters, the integrity. Deb is quite correct, you are a treasure because you touch us all.
Thank you 🙂
I agree with Kate and Viv – it’s your style and the farmy that makes me visit each day – marketing and targeting would put me off. I don’t care what WordPress think, but I do care about you and the farmy 😉
Yaay Congratulations Bev!!! Enjoy Peghorn ❤
Beautiful pics as always Celi 🙂
Good morning wild woman! This morning’s post just bubbles farm life perking along at its best… ratty, holey and frayed threads (oh so comfortable next to skin), watching developing udders, wind blown hair, rough hands, hauling hoses, pitching, scooping and feeling spent and yet fulfilled at day’s end. We get up and do it again next day. And isn’t it a wonderful life? 🙂
It is wonderful and I was thinking of you too and how we take on too much but we always get through the season ok.. c
What Mad Dog said. 🙂 The girls will surely come back if their schedule and studies permit it. How can they not? The Farmy holds a special attraction that I have felt myself. It is palpable. Congratulations Bev! Good job Cadet. I love seeing glimpses of you on the Farmy. You are a beautiful young lady farmer. Happy Easter, C.
I agree with the LOVE Farming comment. Especially this morning when I was up just before the sun and is was a sight to behold as I fed everyone their breakfasts.
Good afternoon, c! Sending you and the farmy all my warmest Easter wishes, and a quick return to warmer weather. xx
I was afraid I was just being selfish, not wanting much to change here. I’m glad others feel as I do about your voice, your photos, what has been genuine connection and love for the farmy (and you) and concern for the fellowship. I believe, too, that the best way to grow the changes you (and we) hope to see with regard to our food is the same way that you grow the plants and animals at the farm: organically, with the loving touch of the farmer’s hand. The farmy has been a real place, not a cyber-place for us up til now. It’s your personal medicine that makes this possible. Please don’t start thinking in “tweets”, dear C!
I am utterly fascinated with udders. It’s like guessing how many bubblegum balls are in the bubblegum jar. If that photo was taken today, I’d say two weeks. April 19? Bag almost full, need the other side … maybe one more week … April 26. If I get it right, do I win a signed photo 🙂 ?!
You might start a trend!! Ok. Signed photo for you if you get it right, plus you know a little about udders! Open season now!
I agree with Viv. The heart of you is what draws us to you. Happy Easter to you and yours. Farm days like ours, are all alike but each moment as different as can be. I find that so amazing about life.
Morning all~ My day always starts with TheFarmy. I feel a connection that has developed from your ability to weave farming on the prairie and all it’s ritual and truth with “laundry basket moments”. Really gutsy, heart and soul of the matter fodder that all of us live for Your honesty comes through pictures and writing and I am inspired to grab my day with both hands !!
Change nothing……or change everything ? I trust the process.
Nanster
Everything you are doing is just right. That’s why I am here. When I start my day or rather when my day starts but I am not ready to agree to that, your blog is the first words I will let myself read. It’s kind, gentle, authentic and wonderfully grounding. Thank you.
i love your blog just as it is – i don’t comment often but i feel part of the community – the silent part – start my day with you all and it sets the tone for the day – thank you all –
And you are a very important part of our community – have a gorgeous day
Personally, I think Word Press should of come to you! 🙂 I say April 24th and if I get it right…I get the signed photo! 🙂 I love that last photo…she is making those goyza perfect!!
I am going to have to start writing these dates down!
Celi, every headline from you is a King-maker. You’re already queen here.
I hope a calf arrives on April 25th! That is Evie’s birthday and she will be thrilled to share her birthday with a calf!
Have those geese turned up yet? or only the scouts?
Well everyone has pretty much said what I think. Change is good and necessary, but change for the sake of change – not so much.
I would say the thunderstorm nearest April 23rd, in the darkest part of the night 😉 That’s what ours do.
Well everyone has pretty much said what I think. Change is necessary and good. Change for the sake of change – not so much.
I say the nearest thunderstorm to April 23rd, probably in the darkest hours of the night. That is what ours do 😉
Great photos C!
I agree with the majority. Like the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”!
I agree with the majority. Like the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”!
Connie
Am clapping and jumping up and down on this Easter Monday morning Down Under. I somehow suddenly felt ‘estranged’ from the farmy a couple of days back . . . after some wonderful years plonking myself down for a cuppa most mornings would I suddenly not ‘fit in’ . . . . reading what almost all others have said I also concur with ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’! You have the most extraordinary blog anywhere methinks, please do not go wandering all around the socalled ‘fashionable’ social media . . . some of us can’t follow, some of us would not . . .
Reading all of the comments above is like getting to the happy end of a cliffhanger.
Look at our Del, growing up and becoming a lady! *sniff*
I agree whole-heartedly with the previous Fellowship comments on why we’re here–because the real you is here. In your barb wire bra, no less.
Whilst you are sleeping Milady I have just concluded a charity business meeting here and a thought came to mind and just would not leave : ‘the Fellowship is privileged to belong to a privately incorporated company > for the sake of a few privileges do we really want to sell shares to become a public one!’ . . . . [shall ‘shut up’ awhile but just feel hugely about this issue!]
Old clothes, wind blown hair and a happy farmer. What could be better?
I finally found your blog on Bloglovin, for some reason it never came up when I searched before, maybe I was typing something wrong! So pleased to find it there, I prefer to keep all the blogs I follow in one place, much easier than multiple emails in my inbox.
I’m wth everyone else – don’t change…please, we love you just the way you are….