A couple "yup's" & and an "ok" and next thing you know...

we bought a tractor?

I attended a "Women in Ag" meeting this last spring thinking I should be participating in these sorts of things since after all, I could be labelled as a woman who participates in agriculture. One of the speakers that night was giving us ladies some tips on improving communication with our other halves (who tend to be of the minimal-communicating variety). She started off by telling the story of being around the breakfast table one morning, thinking she was participating in the daily board meeting. The guys were talking in their usual farmer code - "well what'd ya think of it?" "I think it'll do." "Spose we should go on and do it?" "yep I spose." Come to find out the decision had just been made to buy a combine! I don't tell the story as well as she did, but I certainly understood the point she was making. That conversation did NOT say anything specifically about combines, machinery, purchasing anything, or spending money. And I would think a farm wife who makes decisions WITH her husband would want to know when the farm was about to undertake something as big as buying a combine!





It's taken me years to learn how to decipher the farmer-code conversations that take place between my husband and his father and uncle. I have to listen really closely to the "yups" and ask questions promptly if anything is not clear. I have to make them be specific and I have to expect I will get a surprise once in a while when they forget that I want to participate in the farm decisions too! Luckily, I'm married to a man who's willing to explain and explain and explain EXACTLY what's going on on the farm and lets me help him make the decisions that involve our end of the deal.

So when I tell you we just upgraded our tractor, you can rest assured it was not a snap decision and it was not made by a couple "yups" and an "ok" around the breakfast table one morning! We've been deliberating for more than a year as to how badly it was needed and if we could afford it. And the right opportunity finally presented itself so we did it. So here are a few pictures of my baby and his new toy. He really is like an ecstatic little kid playing in the dirt and it shows in these pictures! I'm thankful and inspired that he has been able to maintain that enthusiasm for the thing he loves the most and not become jaded when life throws him curveballs.