It was the screen door that slams that sold me on this old farm.
A Simpler Life
We moved our family of six from a busy urban life in the Phoenix metro area to the northern Arizona high desert, and discovered to our delight that we were country people all along. My mom always told me that we come from good old "peasant stock" and I am certainly glad of it. I never knew, until I was back in this quiet corner of the world, that my spirit had been longing to return to the life I lived with my grandmother as a child: we gardened, we canned, we danced an Irish jig at potato planting time, we made homemade cheese - then dressed the cheese in a hat, jewelry and flowers and built an entire skit around it when it wouldn't quit growing. I learned that potatoes and strawberries can be unpredictable in this climate and soil. And, since I've started my own first attempt at gardening, I've had many moments where I've stopped and stood still because the memory of working alongside my grandmas is so strong. I wish I'd learned more, rather than just helped. And I wish she was by my side in our garden, in her floppy hat, old nursing shoes without strings and polyester pants, showing me how to properly stake a tomato plant. And, after my disastrous corn crop last year, I'd ask what the heck was that powder in that old stocking she'd bop the corn tassels with each year!