City Girl Goes to the Country

Having coffee when T visited She!

*This week I went to visit My Terryn and did a guest spot on her blog  Faith Family and Beef.  Our relationship has always been complimentary; I am an accountant who grew up in the city and she is a ranch wife who has spent her whole life raising beef.  I give her insight into urban life and help her with math, and she teaches me about rural life and raising beef.  Please, enjoy my post and feel free to stop on over at Faith Family and Beef  for additional information about her life!*

There is something about the country that a girl who grew up in the city can easily fall in love with.  Ever since I was a little kid, I would take trips to visit my extended family out on the “Farm”.  Starting in middle school, these visits grew from day trips into weekends and then week-long trips.  I got to experience things on the farm that I didn’t grow up doing living in a city.  I went to county fairs, helped clean out the stalls, rode horses, collected eggs, and fell in love with a bucket calf named Oscar.   I always enjoyed my trips to the “Farm" and so did my cousins.  Their “chores” were exciting new adventures for me, and they got out of them for the week since I would jump at every opportunity. 

These trips were the start of the relationship that I now have with my Best Friend, Honey, Second Cousin, and whatever other name we decide at the time.  During my trips to see her, Terryn began to educate me about country living.  Things that were second nature to her were a whole new experience for me.  I still remember the saying that she taught me to help remember how to properly tie up your horse, “Over, Under, Eyelet, Underwear”!  Living with Terryn during college, my Friday nights became something I would never have imaged.  My own Grandma had to come out and see it in person to believe it.  Friday nights were roping night!  What started out as roping the dummy on the ground turned into roping the dummy from a horse, and eventually I made my way into the heeler box in the arena roping a real steer.



The girls out checking cows.

Now that Terryn lives on the ranch, I get to learn all kinds of new things about beef and raising cattle.  There is way more that goes into the process than one would originally think.  The vocabulary alone is a lot to learn.  I went from being a city girl that knew one simple word “cow,” to one who now knows what a bull, cow, heifer, steer, replacement heifer, heavy, and pair are.  This time of year is my favorite because I make her send me pictures of the “babies” they have on the ranch.  On this trip to the ranch I even got to help move a group of pairs to their new pasture.

My favorite horse Cash meeting "Sam" for the first time!

The mutual feeling is that we are both more well-rounded people because of our relationship and the experiences we have shared together.  Because of Terryn and the exposure she gave me to the county, I am now a City Girl that lives on 5 acres outside city limits, I keep half a beef in my deep freeze, and dream of owning a horse someday.  We are both so grateful to our parents who started the tradition that we plan to keep the tradition alive with our kids.