Romance in the country

My blogging friend Leah wrote today about romance and marriage.  It is a great post, I invite you over to read it.  http://www.leahheffner.com/it-just-aint-what-it-used-to-be/

She shares some thoughts and amazing quotes about romance, expectations and marriage.  Rather than fill her comment box with a blog length comment I thought I would share my thoughts here.

Men and women are wired differently. We all know that.   But what if your husband is the romantic? Or if you are the breadwinner? What if you work together?  Maybe he is away, serving in the military or working?  Things can change from those circumstances.

Even more interestingly is personality.  My husband is way more romantically oriented than I.  He knows the good chick flicks. I don't care for them at all!  Picking a movie from a date night list is a weird experience.  He knows what really moves my heart.  I know what moves his.

He is not wired to be more practical than I but differently.  He sees somethings I do not, and I can do things he does not wish to do.  We are all about balance.  

Romance ain't easy farming or ranching! But sometimes it can be sweet.  I love that he picks me up for a tractor ride.  Or that h shows me where he wildflowers are blooming so I can take photos.  He will carry my saddle when I want to go riding.  He opens the gate when we are walking to check the cows.  I open the gate when he is in the tractor.  We watch each other's backs with the animals.  I bring him food and drink to the fields.  We do it together.

Fencing may not seem romantic but it is time together. Time to talk, to share, to laugh.  Field picnics can happen when it is busy on the farm.  But again, it is time together. And it is a gift of food, and that in my world equals love.

I check on him to make sure he is safe.  Not exactly a Hallmark card is it? Sometimes I'm working with the animals and he is watching me.  I love his smile as he sees me bringing a young horse up through training or see a calf's first steps.

Touch and time together are our love languages, and we make it work on the farm.  Non traditional roles to be sure.  But in farm country and ranch country it is how we do it together.  We share the work, and we try to make it fun. We take the time together, whenever and however we get it, and we cherish it.

It may not make it into a movie, or a romance novel, or even a cartoon. But it is romance for us, in the country.  And it can be dirty (hey babe you look hot holding a grease gun!) and messy (oh no afterbirth from two calves is super look for you!) and tiring (one more round before the moisture gets too high) but is is balanced by wild sunsets, evening walks, the breath you take after seeding and after harvest.  The joy in doing a hard job together means so much to me!

So farmer and ranch sisters - share your stories of farm and ranch romance!  I would love to hear them!