Drove out to the country today for my Mom’s birthday and a family dinner… lots to eat, lots of hugs and a short walk outside taking photos. It was a perfect autumn day today — so sunny, crisp air and lots of leaves crunching beneath my feet. I climbed to the top of a stack of bales for old times sake and then wandered through the maze of corrals, climbing over fences until I reached open pasture.
Kid story: Stacks of bales were probably my favorite things to play on; after that I’d have to say fences and rooftops. Really anything that I could climb on. I was much braver then. That is, when I was climbing up. I didn’t always like the climb back down — occasionally I’d get stuck up on a roof until someone would walk by and talk me down. I remember walking along the top of 8 foot fences, on a board no wider than 1″ thick, climbing up the gas tank to get to the roof of the little shed, climbing up the fences to get to the top of the barn roof(s), climbing on top of the propane tank and then manouevering myself down head first, walking the entire length of the fence that ran outside our yard to see if I could make it without falling off, climbing high into the spruce trees getting my hands full of sap, climbing other trees in the yard, and last but not least, climbing 3-high stacks of round bales and then running along the top of them along with my dog (she found a way to climb up too). Also, if I was lucky, my brothers or Dad would stack the bales to allow for a fort or tunnels inside. Those were especially fun in the winter when I could slide down the snow to get inside. There really is nothing better than growing up on a farm.