I feel like I should fess up and admit how much fun I had writing Farm Girl.
The more stories I wrote for the book, the more memories that surfaced, making me smile, laugh, and suffer from a terrible case of bone-deep nostalgia.
If I sit quietly and close my eyes, I can still smell certain scents from my childhood, still hear certain noises, still feel the warm sun on my face as it shined through the glass into the swather’s cab where I sat on the floor crunching Lifesavers and playing with my baby dolls while Dad cut the hay into neat windrows.
Of course the book is filled with a lot of humor, but every story is based on a true event (or mishap – some could even be called incidents) that really happened.
When I began thinking of a cover for the book, I knew it had to blend girliness with a farm feeling. Asking one of our friends from church if it would be okay to take the photo on their farm and have their daughter pose for the cover proved to be a great decision.
She’s a farm girl and did a great job posing for the cover.
Two things I thought would enhance the farm vibe and the girly feel were the shirt and boots.
You can’t get much more Farm Girl than a John Deere T-shirt. I loved the soft yellow color as well as the fun embellished logo on the front.
And this logo on the back made my heart skip a beat as I recalled all the times I accompanied Dad to the John Deere dealership to get parts.
The boots… I almost hyperventilated when I found these online.
They’re somewhere between hot pink and magenta and scream “I’m girly!” with beautiful flowers.
Even the soles are awesome. I made the official declaration that if I’d owned a pair of rubber boots like this back when I had to help Dad irrigate, I wouldn’t have whined and complained to much. These beat the ugly drab green boots I wore hands down and then some!
If you downloaded the digital version of the book, you’ve already seen some of the following photos, but if you purchase the paperback they aren’t included so I thought I’d share them here.
That’s my dad riding our horse, Doc. If you’ve read the book, you know Doc was not the most friendly, cooperative horse on the planet.
Dad liked to invent and build things. One such invention was his conversion of an old stock rack into a camper for our pickup (Ol’ Orange). It was quickly deemed unsuitable for family camping and relegated to a place to sleep at hunting camp. One of my cousins, Grandpa and Dad are in the photo.
This is Crockett. He spent most of his time on the farm plotting an escape and chasing birds. He was hyper, hard to control, laser-focused on his true calling, and complained frequently and loudly about not being treated like royalty.
That’s my dad, taking a break in the yard at one of our large family gatherings.
One of our neighbors had a fawn named Kit. I loved to go visit it and Dad often indulged my begging and stopped by. (Note the expression on my face that says “hurry up and take the photo!” I think I still have the same expression any time a camera is pointed in my direction.)
While I’m melting into a nostalgic puddle all over again this morning, I’ll include this photo and say thanks to my dad for giving me so many fun adventures and great experiences growing up on the farm.
