If I Were a Farmer...

When my parents met, my father was renting a farm near New Serepta, Alberta and my mother was a teacher in a one-room country school nearby.

My father enjoyed farming, and may well have remained a farmer - but my mother vetoed the idea, knowing how hard farmers have to work - no days off! 

So, at her insistence, they moved into town. 

But I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been - what knowledge and skills would I have gained - had I grown up on a farm?

That was the thought that crossed my mind recently when I saw smoke blowing across a farmer's field.

(Or was it steam?!)

Both my parents could look out on any field they were passing - and know exactly what the crop was that was growing there...

What was the farmer doing? I have no idea... They would probably have known - but I see nothing recognizable ... (though I do notice a yellow sky!)

Sometimes I grieve that earthy farming knowledge lost to me.