Winter for us means January 1 (after the holiday craze) through the unknown date when they head out to the fields the first time in spring and don't come back for 2.5 months (slightly exaggerated, but not much).
Don't get me wrong, Ben is still really busy. As an entrepreneur/small business owner, there's always more that could be done. There's the mandatory list of broken equipment that needs a lot of TLC. With all the equipment it takes to farm 1,400 acres and the amount of hours the equipment runs during the year, it's a long list (especially this year). Ben and his dad do basically all maintenance and repairs themselves - it takes a lot of time but worth it for the cost savings. There's also the second list of things that would be really nice to do (usually modifications to fieldwork equipment), and they try to pick a couple off that list each year. Plus all the office work it takes to run a farm all gets done right now - taxes (bleh), informational seminars, purchasing all the inputs for the upcoming year, etc.
A few weeks ago Ben and I talked and actually set his work hours so that we are on the same page, versus just willy nilly every day. It's really nice to set your own schedule, but also really necessary so we can fully-utilize this family time. Now I know to expect him home around 5:30 to 5:45 so we can have dinner and some family time in the evening. Molly goes to bed at 6:30 (transitioning from two naps to one has been hard for her), so this way she always gets some daddy time before bed.
It's one of the bitter-sweet things about being a farmwife - we don't get much normal family time during the parts of the year when it would be nice to do outdoor activities, but yet it makes the dreary part of the year a whole lot sweeter.
Focusing on the "sweet" of the bitter-sweet right now.
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| Ice fishing on Pleasant Lake = winter family fun |
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