Ode to the country woman

Do any of you get the Mother Earth Newsletter?

Great article

http://www.grit.com/Community/Country-Women-Rock.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost

Part of it -

Country women know how to use a fence stretcher and a set of jumper cables, can speak knowledgeably about livestock breeds or corn hybrids, and know their way around the three-point hitch on the tractor. They’re equally adept at using a frog knife or a pair of fencing pliers, and they always remember to close gates. They’re part animal lover, part veterinarian and part wildlife expert. Part horticulturist, part entomologist and part economist.

If there are livestock on their place, you can bet that farm or ranch that women have, at one time or another, chased down errant cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses or llamas on the lam. They have bottle-fed orphans and brought newborn lambs, calves or colts into the house to keep them from freezing on an icy-cold winter night. They will put out food for the barnyard cats and aren’t squeamish about retrieving field mice from traps.

Like their urban counterparts, farm and ranch mothers are counted on to drive their children to school sporting events and doctor appointments. Even if it’s a 30-mile trip to town and there’s a foot of snow on the ground. Country mothers help their children halter-break 4-H club calves, and teach them how to ride and how to judge when the sweet corn is ready. Some have been known to take their children fishing.