Then there are women in agriculture who take part in the industry and are out there driving tractors, sorting cattle, milking cows, castrating pigs, you name it! It isn’t about keeping up or surpassing her husband, it is about serving, stewarding, and being part of the lifestyle.
Nevertheless, the old adage stands firm, “A man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.” Because after she has spent a day on the field with her man, she is still the one with the drive to maintain her house, feed the family, and keep clothes clean. Farm wives know the struggle it takes to live on a farm, but wives who farm know it far more intimately. A woman who is as handy as her husband does amazing things to marry her domestic life to her agricultural one.
The Differences
The Wash: Only in a rancher’s wife’s washing machine will you find a single item because it was so filthy it required an independent wash, but a woman rancher sought out a machine with an extra heavy duty soil setting and the highest RPM spin cycle to get those coveralls clean for the next time she needs them; moreover, she built her house around an adequately sized laundry or mudroom.
The Meals: Only a farmer’s wife feels the pain of planning a meal that is hot and hearty while still being able to haul it to the field. These are some of the best women because walking into a odorous home at 9 at night when it is finally dark is the best feeling in the world. A farming wife has learned that her crock pot is worth its weight in gold. She can set it on a timer to cook the 8 hours it needs even though she will be away from the house for 12 or 14 hours.
The Kitchen: A wife of any herdsman whether it be bovine, equine, swine or otherwise, is kind and gracious in sharing her refrigerator and kitchen sink with vaccines, syringes, and OB equipment. She makes a special place for chemicals and medicine, away from other food and out of the reach of her children. She washes and dries the supplies as if they were a regular old mixing bowl. But a woman who does that vaccinating, castrating, AI-ing, or even pulling of offspring, knows the labor it took to dirty the OB chain and why there are so many pill guns needing washed. She carefully soaps and rinses because she is invested. She will be out there again, and like having to pack your own parachute, she is confident in her prep-work.
The Watch: Agricultural wives keep binoculars handy and alarms set. She knows that soon enough there will be something that needs watching. A cow might be calving, so she checks the binoculars in the kitchen window. A coyote might be stalking, so she checks the binoculars in the family room window. A fence might be down, so she checks the binoculars in the laundry room. She sets a quiet alarm and carefully nudges her husband when it is time to check the nannies in the middle of the night, but there are a select few women who know the joy that rests on the other side of the binoculars and alarms. She sees, and she does. She gets dressed in the middle of the night to check the barns before her husband wakes up. She knows where the fencing pliers are and stretches wire before her husband gets back. And the best woman grabs that .223 and keeps her cattle safe, so her husband has one less thing to think about. Through it all, she is the better off for knowing the value of her participation and pride that she gets in return.
Whether she is a wife of a rancher or a rancher that is a wife, she knows that she is a necessity and knows that it is both indoors and out. Maybe it starts inside as support for those outside, or maybe it begins without and makes its way within, but her house ends up bearing all.
The Return
All country wives see tracks into the house. In the winter it is snow, in the spring it is mud, in the summer it is dirt and dust, and in the fall it is the shreds of harvested crops, but she knows the tracks as foot-shaped links to the life that provides for her. They come in through the nearest door, disregarding a floor mat because time is always of the essence, and that’s okay. She has a good vacuum that has seen more than it’s necessary share of chunks and clods of the land, but because she knows it is the land on which she lives, she is willing to let it in her house for a time, then after it is cleaned, return it back outside.
All country wives see tracks into the house. In the winter it is snow, in the spring it is mud, in the summer it is dirt and dust, and in the fall it is the shreds of harvested crops, but she knows the tracks as foot-shaped links to the life that provides for her. They come in through the nearest door, disregarding a floor mat because time is always of the essence, and that’s okay. She has a good vacuum that has seen more than it’s necessary share of chunks and clods of the land, but because she knows it is the land on which she lives, she is willing to let it in her house for a time, then after it is cleaned, return it back outside.
Tracking it back outside is where, not the country wife, but the woman of the county finds herself again. She cares for the home and the land as equals and essentials that need her. When she’s outside, she isn’t there to admire the cute babies, but she is caring for them like she does her own. She isn’t there soaking up the sunshine, but she is assessing its value over the crops. She makes a date in the tractor and prefers it to town. She is there with livestock that she loves but understands their value in the industry. She puts in the hard work to make it work which is where she will differ from all of her Farm Wife friends.
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