Just Two Good Days
Amy VanStraaten is a dairy farmer in Gads Hill and a nutrient management planner with Crop Quest. Amy understands all too well, the challenges you are required to face and what it feels like to be a farmer and shares that experience in an eloquent expression that was published in "Progressive Dairy". We are very proud to share that with you here.
Just Two Good Days
Contributed by Amy VanStraaten
Just two good days,
He said again
One to work the ground
And one to get it planted
Just two good days of sun.
We waited through the rains,
We greased and oiled and
Twiddled our thumbs
Cursing the weatherman and
Praying for sun
The seed got in.
It was time for hay.
We really needed
Just two good days.
One to cut and rake and dry
And one to harvest,
If nothing went wrong.
We walked fields, checked for flowers
We worried and fretted and counted our last bales
But the hay got cut
Maybe a few days late,
But the silos were filled
And our sunburns reminded us
That the sun had come
For two good days.
And then, there was that Sunday
That beautiful warm Sunday
Where the cornfields were growing
The hay was cut
The straw was done
And we went to the lake,
Or the cottage,
Or the beach,
Or the drive-in
Or just the backyard
We watched our kids play in the sand
We ate ice cream and greasy burgers
We sat back and relaxed in the shade
And rested our weary bones.
On Monday it rained.
We quit chores early
Watched a movie
Took a nap
Went to that soccer game
We usually miss,
Had an extra coffee
And then started again.
The beans needed sprayed
The manure needed spread
The hooves needed trimmed
Fall came
Corn time,
We just needed two good days for a year’s worth of feed.
We had worked it and planted
And fertilized and waited
And hemmed and hawed
And thought about starting,
And worried about drying,
And still the rain came.
And more rain.
And just before our window passed
As leaves were falling and school had started
We got two good days
Of sun.
We had enough feed
For another year.
And looking back on the long, long year
We hardly believe it all got done.
We remember the rains,
And the fear
And the worry
We remember the hard work
And long nights
And early mornings
But we remember most those
Two good days.
At the lake,
Or on the porch,
The ice cream day
The movie day
The family day.
Just two good days to pull us through
We just needed those two good days.
Amy VanStraaten is a mother of two,
dairy farmer in Gads Hill, Ontario,
and a Crop Quest Nutrient Management Planner.
