In rural America, at least in Iowa, the noon meal is called dinner and when I helped various farmers with certain seasonal chores like cutting and baling hay the noon break was a time for good food and catching up with the neighbors. The spread, usually put on by the farmers wife, usually consisted of a delicious meal and lots of Kool Aid or coffee. The phrase "all you can eat" applied and the food never stopped coming until we could eat no more...at least until dessert happened to pass by.
During this time of "fueling up" the talk usually centered around the crops, the crop market and family. There were diversions, but generally discussions about crop quality and moisture amounts dominated the discussion. There was usually a good deal of humor that threaded its way into the conversation and included such topics as antics of children, veterinarian mishaps and or the difficult cow.
The dinner setting also supplied a certain amount of replenishing of the bodies energy which would be needed to finish out the day, whether behind the wheel of the tractor, on the hay rack or throwing bales in the hay loft. There were also short repair occasions that usually arose that involved anything from a plugged baler to flat tires. A group effort usually managed to "band aid" thing together to finish out the day.
I saw this setting of the blog image while I was driving down a country road and I just couldn't stop myself from taking the shot as well as flipping through my memory file. As I was doing this I could see two farmers heading toward the tractor from the top of the hill and could easily remember being one of those men about to face the task of an afternoon working on the hay rack with gentle breezes in my face and the warm sun overhead.
Thanks for joining me here and please feel free to comment below.
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Looks like Iowa in July. Nice image.
Posted by: Merle Hall | July 06, 2016 at 11:26 PM
It's definitely Iowa's time of the year with luscious greens and puffy white clouds. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Posted by: Daniel Ruf | July 07, 2016 at 07:05 AM