Why I Want to Farm in Alberta

Perhaps this is me being overly sentimental, but I am particularly ready to be back among my cows today. These are my reasons for loving where I live and how I live:

1. I love watching the sun come up on a winter’s morning, feeding and checking cows.
2. I love the smell of an hours-old baby calf in the barn (except when they make one of those nasty yellow milk poops).
3. I love the exuberance with which my dogs greet me every morning.
4. I love sitting on the porch in the late summer afternoons, on the last day of baling hay, and knowing that all will be well for the winter.
5. Speaking of hay, there may not be a more wonderful smell in the world than a warm barn full of fresh alfalfa hay.
6. I love watching cows calve and care for their new babies every spring.
7. I love being able to watch the calves we had in the spring be weaned and start to grow.
8. There is no better feeling in the world than going to the pasture and seeing a few cows that were born and raised on the farm.
9. I love the family interactions that happen on the farm- the fights, the cooperation, the dinners, the snowball fights and hard work and genuine conversations.
10. I love the sense of pride farmers take in the proper stewardship of the resources God has provided us.
11. I love the smell of rain on hot soil in July.
12. I love the way the mountains look on a bitterly cold, bright January morning.
13. I love the colours of the sky at sunset and the silhouette of the Rocky Mountains at dusk.
14. I love how mother cows talk to their babies constantly.
15. I love watching calves playing in the snowbanks in early spring.
16. I love the feeling of numbness in my dominant arm after building or repairing fence all day (Or all week. The grass is always greener for some cows).
17. I love watching the cows leap from the trailer when they are hauled to their summer pasture.
18. I love the slow rocking of the square baler, making the rounds in the hay field.
19. I love learning about farming from parents, friends, and neighbours.
20. I love the trusting look the old cows give you when it’s time for them to come in the barn.
21. I love the look of a freshly mowed farm yard.
22. I love the life lessons in science, mathematics, and communication that a rural lifestyle demands you learn.
23. I love the look you get when you have to wear barn clothes to the grocery store (not to mention the crinkled noses).
24. I love sharing agriculture with people who genuinely want to know more about how their food is produced.
25. I love the agricultural can-do, will-do attitude, independence, and spirit.

Not everyone has the ability to experience life like I have. My life is radically different than the vast majority of people in this world. My life is not 8-5, Monday through Friday. It’s Sunday-Saturday, 12:00 am to 11:59 pm. And I love it.