farm girls

This past summer, we five became genuine, bonified farm girls.

Well for one day each week, at least.

We volunteered at the American West Heritage Center, where we worked on the 1917 farm site.  Each Wednesday, we got dressed up in our vintage 1917 clothing, loaded up in our 2008 carriage, and headed to the farm.

As you might expect, the girls loved it.

The girls spent their days doing chores.  Funny how working is so much more fun when you are all dressed up.  A lot like play, actually.  In fact, if you can imagine the very best day of dress-up and pretend?  That is what the girls found at the farm.

They loved doing the laundry and milking the cow.

There were kittens to be tamed, chickens to feed, eggs to gather.

Butter to be churned, and friends to be played with.

Running under the trees, playing in the creek, and exploring in the barn were some of the favorite adventures.  On a lucky day, the girls might find a feather from one of the peacocks (the white ones were the most coveted.)

The girls sometimes helped with the big jobs, such as pitching hay and tromping it in the hay wagon after it was cut by the team of horses.  Often,  reporters gathered around taking pictures of the goings on, which landed Ryenne on the front page of the newspaper.  Famous farm girls, even!

Each morning, water had to be hauled, and porches swept.  Soon the farmhouse was filled with busy women, cooking the dinner meal on the wood stove.  Before we left for home, we gathered at the farm table under the trees for yummy hot food and fresh vegetables from the garden.

One day as we left, Ryenne told me, "I love the farm!  I feel like I really live here. . .like this is my house and these are my real jobs.  Sometimes I just like to pretend that it really is."

Me too.

There's just something magical about being stepping back in time.  Something that makes life seem a bit less complicated.  I loved watching the girls run across the lawn in their dresses, aprons, and boots.  Braids in their hair and smiles on their faces.  Each day was an adventure.  Birds to chase and stories of days gone past.  Feathers and pretty pebbles to tuck into apron pockets, awaiting another day's discovery.

So many things grow at the farm. 

Cows, chickens, horses.  Lambs.  Herbs are planted and  raspberries plucked off the vine.  Old fashioned flowers brighten the fence lines.  Seeds are scattered and memories planted.  Childhood is sown.  Imaginations are nourished.

The farm is a really good place to grow little girls.