Stephanie Carter
I
’ve lived in Farmington, Kentucky for a year and a half now. Farmington is a very small town set out in the country. The scenery is beautiful here; lots of farm land, horses, and cattle. I happen to live on a horse ranch with seven horses, three cats, two dogs, nine chickens and a partridge in a pear tree.
I’m a city girl. I grew up in the outskirts of Chattanooga in a nice little town called Harrison. Harrison is known best for its bay. You can fish, camp, swim, boat, and hike there. I’ve done it all. My in-laws live in Kentucky, you see. That’s how we came to Farmington.
I’m the “feed-girl” at the ranch and as I was getting grain for the horses one morning, I turned the corner and there he was; this beady-eyed little mouse.
I thought to myself, “Steph, this is the country and this is normal. He’s got to have a place to live, too.” I kept calm and was rather impressed with the fact that I was watching my worst nightmare run freely in the same area I was in.
I watched him run from the far end of the barn and then all of a sudden, he ran across my foot. I let out a scream that was heard from here to yonder! This girl had met her match! This was my first realization that I’m living the country life now.
It’s not bad though. We have a lot of family bonding time. For instance, during the winter when the weather gets too rough for the horses to be outside we stall them at night. Last winter we had a huge (huge to me, anyway) snow that dropped eighteen inches in some places.
We brought the horses inside the barn. Their stalls must be cleaned twice a day when they are inside and my little girl Ellie enjoys helping out at the ranch …so very much. She is right there by my side quite often as I do my “barn chores”.
This particular day was no different. We were cleaning the waste out of the stalls with pitchforks and my daughter had a kid’s rake she uses to clean the stalls. So I was scooping up poop, if you will, and I notice Ellie is giggling.
I saw her taking the poop off my pitchfork and putting it on hers! I said to her, “Ellie, what are you doing?” and she responded, “Mom, you have all the good poop!” The memories we are making up here - they are wonderful.
Such is life - Kentucky life. Country living. And, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
stephcarter22@gmail.com