8.23.2006

The weekend; the recovery

So the kids had the back to back Thomas outings last Friday and Saturday. I will never be able to wrap my mind around a $50 20 minute train ride on a 50 year old diesel train (or $8/gallon milk for that matter; no matter how passionate certain monkey dragons may be). But the kids had a good time.

I was working on Friday, but we all went on Saturday. Met with some friends. It was exactly what you'd think. A. LOT. OF. TRAINS. There were some interesting things there. I dug walking through the 1920's train (which, by the way looked a lot more comfortable than the Metra train I'm on 3 hrs a day). There was a woman there with her young daughter with an impossibly large chest wearing a skimpy top of some kind. I think it was black. I just know that there was cleavage enough for 10 normal women. Maybe it's just me, but I would think that an outfit that has your breasts spilling out might not be appropriate for the toddler crew. Not that I minded of course.

That night there was the block party. The kids ran around, the parents chased them. Big Brother played swords with kids 2 years older than him. LittleBrother kicked a ball for 30 minutes.

But Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. We went to a friend's farm. 210 cattle, big tractors, slingshots with eggs...it was a great time for the kids and us. It was slightly surreal watching both boys feed 1500 pd cattle out of their hands. Pretty amazing.

The family had 3 boys, 19, 15 and 13. They were all great with our kids. They spent all day taking them on tractor rides, pulling them in a wagon behind the lawn-mower, and gathering rotten apples to use as ammo in the sling shot.




At one point, the kids were telling us about one recent arrival. They bought a bull recently, and it was stubborn. Tried to head butt everyone as soon as it could get a shot. Anti-social. Mad. The youngest son said "just won't learn." I thought...well, you ARE going to send him to be slaughtered in a couple months. Maybe he's just smarter than you give him credit for.

The one thing that stood out was how vastly different life on a farm is from life in suburbia. I'm fairly romantic about the farm life, but jesus, it's a lot of work. Hard work. I'll just say I'm glad my dad teaches accounting. It made my life a great deal easier. I have a lot of respect for farmers and the work they put in.

2 comments:

Kelsgarden said...

geez, organic milk is only $4.99/ gal here!

{cursing you with a daughter next}

I see you are making progress with the pictures - and is the decapitated dad you?

Kelsgarden said...

funny - but when we looked at relocating we checked Trader Joe's store locator! LOL!

I have a friend in Peoria area and he said it is a long haul to find gluten free foods too -

my local grocery has an ever expanding healthfod section to compete with the Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe's and local organic farms who deliver!

remember we are all just tree huggin' hippies out here ;)

(BTW I just saw a huge print ad for Walmart organics! in one of my magazines)