Discover the pleasures of rural living with Farm & Ranch Living Magazine! You'll enjoy fascinating month-long family diaries, Old Iron restoration tips, inspiring fiction, wholesome country humor and more when you subscribe today!
THERE COMES A POINT IN LIFE when we learn that our mothers are pretty much always right. Growing up, mine told me that everything happens for a reason. I never bought in on the destiny part, but Mom instilled in me the belief that I’ll always land on my feet. She empowered me to take a few chances and to bet on myself. That’s exactly what Bethanee Wright did when she started her own Community Supported Agriculture farm, Winterfell Acres. Bethanee grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, and the family’s business was a hardware store. Unlike so many of the farmers we feature in a given issue, Beth didn’t have a generational push to farm. But she loved growing food, so she took a risk. Bethanee started her CSA…
Enter at least six of your best photos (high-resolution JPEG files, please) along with a 500-word essay in one of the four categories below: Interiors Show us the place you retreat to—perhaps your kitchen, your living room, a cozy bedroom or bath? Is your craft room your happy place? Maybe the potting shed is where you find solace. Wherever it is you go in your home to relax and regroup, we’d love a peek inside. The View What do you see when you step outside your back door? Is your home surrounded by beautiful country? Gardens Does your outdoor space become paradise each summer? Show us the power of your green thumb. Farmland Is your homestead defined by picturesque pastures and rolling acreage? Do you keep a wedding-worthy barn? The…
New kittens on the farm would normally be cause for celebration, but when I was 13, our mama cat, Joyce, gave birth on our porch on a cold, windy day. To top it off, she took only one of her two kittens to a warmer place, leaving the other one without shelter. She’d never been known as a great mom, but she had always been better than this. I scooped the little guy up and started feeding him every hour. I couldn’t go to sleep, so I just lay there on the couch, waiting for Spotsy to start crying for the bottle. I fed him at 1 a.m., then at 2 and 3. This kitten didn’t just want to be fed; he wanted me to cuddle with him. Finally, I…
1 “Grandpa Lee assists 17-month-old Grace as she bottle-feeds our newborn donkey,” says grandmother Janice Teinert of La Grange, Texas. “The three of them together created such a sweet moment.” 2 “Our 2-year-old grandson Gray is on his way to help feed the bottle calves,” says grandfather Dickson Sistare of Lancaster, South Carolina. “He spends all of his time at the barn.” 3 “Our grandson loves playing with the baby goats,” says Sandra Weber of Mohnton, Pennsylvania. Carter finally got a chance to feed one on a recent trip to a friend’s farm.…
It can be tough to get farmers off of their fields on an April morning when the weather is good, but out they come each year for Plow Day. Many people go down for the pancake breakfast, putt-putting to the gathering on old 2-cycle John Deeres. They swap stories of restorations, repairs, unusual sounds and what they think other tractor drivers are doing wrong. Families and farmers come to celebrate the new season with tractor and carriage rides. I usually seek out one tractor in particular. It used to belong to my father. After his death, it made its way into the hands of someone intent on restoring it. The new owner, Paul Rouse, graciously shared the restoration story with me and let me pose with the tractor. I also…
OUR BRICK BARN WAS BUILT over 90 years ago using recycled materials from a two-story house that was on the property. I’m proud to say we still use our family heirloom barn to house livestock and machinery. A brick barn is quite unusual in this area, but ours is pretty traditional on the inside, with box stalls, a granary and a haymow. As a child, I spent many hours playing in the barn with my siblings and cousins. Now my great-grandchildren are enjoying it just as I did. Post the riddles from your shed and help other readers solve their mysteries…like the strange object (left) that Jason Confer found. Jason Confer Farm & Ranch Living Does anyone know what this is? My father-in-law picked it up at an auction. It…
