Even though they contain elements of farms, this is more of a stylized way of decorating than a true farmhouse.
Please understand before I continue, that I am not lumping all farmsteads into this, I am merely speaking of the ones I am accustomed.
There are extremes in either direction. Farmers are human, as with anyone else, there are messy ones and clean ones.
There are extremes in either direction. Farmers are human, as with anyone else, there are messy ones and clean ones.
The realities and challenges of keeping up a farmhouse are different than the average bear.
Someone who lives in town walks out to the car, in a garage or their blacktop driveway, and goes to work wear, unless they work at a slaughterhouse or hospital etc, the worst dirt they come in contact with is probably public dirt.
Then they go home after their long tiring day of doing whatever it is they do, to a relatively clean house where they probably make dinner and watch some TV before retiring to bed, as the dishwasher hums away, to do the same pattern over again the next day.
This, however, is not reality for farmers and farm homes.
Even though we very rarely leave home we are very often not in the house.
We wake up and down a Fast breakfast and go out to do whatever work needs to be done which is usually seasonal dependent and often dirty.
We returned home exhausted at lunchtime to have a quick meal and a ten-minute break (or if you're lucky a 20-minute nap) and return out into the wild of our 130-acre backyard to continue with what we had started that morning.
We then return home in the evening potentially cold, almost always filthy and exhausted where then, a hot shower is taken, you fall into bed and hopefully, have a full night's sleep.
The next day, wake up and do it again.
Although our jobs differ from day to day depending on what needs to be done.
This leaves very little time to clean up the mess that you make when returning home at lunchtime from, whatever it was you were doing beforehand.
Even though our farm is clean, (what I mean by this is we do not have junk piled everywhere, we do not leave our animals living in filth,) but we're still a farm, driveways are dirt, our homes are heated with wood.
This combination leads to Mud, dust, small stones, and sawdust on our floors pretty much all the time.
I would like to tell you that I take time every week to vacuum and wash the windows, but that is not reality.
There are so many other things that need to be done the housework takes a back seat.
Now, please understand that we're not living in squalor and filth with dirty dishes piled to the ceiling and garbage in the corners.
I am way too organized and OCD to have that happen.
It does mean there are dirty clothes in the bathroom and mud on the floors there's sawdust underneath the wood pile because honestly, we have a woodpile in our living room and no I'm not kidding!
How else do you think we feed the fire in the middle of the night?
We have muddy boots sitting next to the wood stove and as the snow and mud drys up and falls off, its then on the floor.
We have dog and cat hair everywhere, we have many coats that smell of cows hanging on The doors.
Our vehicles are splattered with mud as are the carpets inside them. There is just no way around this, no matter how clean of a person you are (trust me I am a neat freak!) at some point, you need to put this aside for the reality of a farm.
It took me awhile to get to this point where the pig spilling their food it didn't bother me and make me want to run in with a shovel and clean it up.
Living with animals is dirty, our dog rolls in smelly stuff at least twice a week, he comes in with his muddy sloppy sponge-like paws as we come in with our large heavy work boots.
Our Floor is, well, you wouldn't want to eat off them that's for sure.
Farmhouses are filled with love and kindness and good food for certain, but that's not the only thing lurking around the corners.
I swept our floor this morning after giving my husband a haircut and I had a dustpan full of dirt that looks like I went outside to dig a hole.
It's also dependent on the seasons.
My husband likes to say you can tell what season it is just by what is coming out of our boots.
During the summer it's hey chafed, that gets everywhere, (and I do mean everywhere!
At some point, I would like to challenge Victoria's Secret to team up with Carharrtt to make a hay-proof bra, but that's for a later post.)
In late summer and fall it's harvesting of grains, so we'll come home covered in dust and chaff which will be falling off of our socks as we take our boots off.
In winter it's snow and sawdust everywhere.
In the springtime, well, all you Vermonters are very familiar with our fifth season, mud!
Sometimes will have several mud seasons in the spring, between all the freezes and thaws.
That is by far when our house gets the very worst!
It doesn't help that we're sugaring as well and really only come home to sleep and shower. We eat all our meals in the Sugar House
We're there almost all day.
My husband calls it our spring home.
The house really does take a backseat, instead of being home mopping our floors we're at the Sugarhouse mopping its floors.
So whether you enjoy chaos or are a neat freak as I really truly am on the inside.
As you're reading this potentially sitting in your lovely neat living room that is mud, dog hair and manure free.
Be grateful for a moment, because you don't have to clean a farmhouse.
We then return home in the evening potentially cold, almost always filthy and exhausted where then, a hot shower is taken, you fall into bed and hopefully, have a full night's sleep.
The next day, wake up and do it again.
Although our jobs differ from day to day depending on what needs to be done.
This leaves very little time to clean up the mess that you make when returning home at lunchtime from, whatever it was you were doing beforehand.
Even though our farm is clean, (what I mean by this is we do not have junk piled everywhere, we do not leave our animals living in filth,) but we're still a farm, driveways are dirt, our homes are heated with wood.
This combination leads to Mud, dust, small stones, and sawdust on our floors pretty much all the time.
I would like to tell you that I take time every week to vacuum and wash the windows, but that is not reality.
There are so many other things that need to be done the housework takes a back seat.
Now, please understand that we're not living in squalor and filth with dirty dishes piled to the ceiling and garbage in the corners.
I am way too organized and OCD to have that happen.
It does mean there are dirty clothes in the bathroom and mud on the floors there's sawdust underneath the wood pile because honestly, we have a woodpile in our living room and no I'm not kidding!
How else do you think we feed the fire in the middle of the night?
We have muddy boots sitting next to the wood stove and as the snow and mud drys up and falls off, its then on the floor.
We have dog and cat hair everywhere, we have many coats that smell of cows hanging on The doors.
Our vehicles are splattered with mud as are the carpets inside them. There is just no way around this, no matter how clean of a person you are (trust me I am a neat freak!) at some point, you need to put this aside for the reality of a farm.
It took me awhile to get to this point where the pig spilling their food it didn't bother me and make me want to run in with a shovel and clean it up.
Living with animals is dirty, our dog rolls in smelly stuff at least twice a week, he comes in with his muddy sloppy sponge-like paws as we come in with our large heavy work boots.
Our Floor is, well, you wouldn't want to eat off them that's for sure.
Farmhouses are filled with love and kindness and good food for certain, but that's not the only thing lurking around the corners.
I swept our floor this morning after giving my husband a haircut and I had a dustpan full of dirt that looks like I went outside to dig a hole.
It's also dependent on the seasons.
My husband likes to say you can tell what season it is just by what is coming out of our boots.
During the summer it's hey chafed, that gets everywhere, (and I do mean everywhere!
At some point, I would like to challenge Victoria's Secret to team up with Carharrtt to make a hay-proof bra, but that's for a later post.)
In late summer and fall it's harvesting of grains, so we'll come home covered in dust and chaff which will be falling off of our socks as we take our boots off.
In winter it's snow and sawdust everywhere.
In the springtime, well, all you Vermonters are very familiar with our fifth season, mud!
Sometimes will have several mud seasons in the spring, between all the freezes and thaws.
That is by far when our house gets the very worst!
It doesn't help that we're sugaring as well and really only come home to sleep and shower. We eat all our meals in the Sugar House
We're there almost all day.
My husband calls it our spring home.
The house really does take a backseat, instead of being home mopping our floors we're at the Sugarhouse mopping its floors.
So whether you enjoy chaos or are a neat freak as I really truly am on the inside.
As you're reading this potentially sitting in your lovely neat living room that is mud, dog hair and manure free.
Be grateful for a moment, because you don't have to clean a farmhouse.
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