What makes a Country Man?

I was listening to a country music radio station today (yes, I do that sometimes) and the song Country Man by Luke Bryan came on. One of the lyrics lines says "I can wrestle hogs & gators with my two bare hands," and it got me to thinking. I know a few country men, and none of them wrestle hogs or gators. I've had the privilege of watching Ryan turn into a country man in the last couple of years, and so I have my own definitions. Ryan went from this:

To this:

in three years. Now, it's subtle I know. But there are some major differences in these two men. These pictures were taken at the same time of year. So here's what would make a Country Man if I were the type to write song lyrics about being a Country Man (but I'm not).


A Country Man...
1. Wears jeans. Always. To almost everything, except church. A country man is uncomfortable in anything else.
2. Comes back from a trip to Target in the middle of a weekday grumpy because there are "too many people."
3. Can't be picked out of the crowd at a farm estate auction.
4. Walks funny on concrete. (This is the one that always strikes me when we go somewhere like the state fair. Ryan walks on concrete like he expects it to roll under him like his pasture, and then it's like his feet are surprised when it's totally completely flat.)
5. Swears at his livestock at the top of his lungs. Ryan's proficient at this one.
6. Leaves little bits of grass and seeds all over the house as they fall off his jeans. See #1.
7. Has firm shoulders. mmm, mmm, but I like this one. Oh, sorry. I'll move on.
8. Can back his livestock trailer into its parking spot. Not just the skill level in getting it into a specific spot, but the fact that it has one.
9. Has a pair of shoes just for going out into public in.
10. Could carry around a tape recorder with the message "Sorry I'm late, chores took me longer than expected" ready to go for every occasion.


I admit, I do love my country man.

Lullaby quilt & the Stuff that makes a Marriage

The turkeys are all done now, and just in time! We had a nasty rainy couple of days and wind from the northeast (our least sheltered direction). A fellow farmer friend of ours lost a bunch of her turkeys last night, and Ryan commented that we got done on the right day. Now it's just a few short days to Thanksgiving and we can settle into winter.

I finally finished another quilt, this one is a blue version of a green one I made for my niece about a year ago. I hand quilted this one with an all over design that is the sheet music for Brahms' Lullaby. 

I do like the design idea, but again I continue to quilt complicated all over designs on top of non-wholecloth quilts. I should just save those designs for less complicated patterned quilts. Someday I'll learn.

So tonight I went to do a load of laundry and our dryer was making a funny noise. It was heating, but not spinning. Ryan immediately surmised it had lost a belt (Mr. Fixit) and we googled it for confirmation. So we pulled out our "tools" in the house together, and took the top off the dryer.

This is a wrench set Ryan used to have in his very first car. Even though we have all kinds of tools from Ryan's grandfather, this is what he grabbed. 

So as we're pulling wads of lint out of the dryer, Ryan comments that this is what it's like to be an old married couple. We spend Saturday night pulling lint, both ours and someone else's (we bought the dryer used for about $50), out of a dead dryer. 

I told him these are the things that make a marriage. And they are. 

Meanwhile, Nermal enjoyed playing with the broken dryer belt.

He's helping.