This might work, could be horrible

So I think I may have come across an idea for the blog that I can do as a serial thing and keep it going for some time. Provided I keep with it. Basically this is something I can crank out in a half hour or so on an odd night, when I'm not otherwise busy.

The blog is called Learned Country Boy and so I figure I can easily create a series of posts about country life. And not necessarily quaint little stories of farm life that conjure up images of a piece of straw clamped between some redneck's teeth, or an old man and his hound dog gazing out at the cattle on the lower forty. Such instances can be recollected, but there are also things much harsher and much deeper than those, which I will attempt to call upon.

Farming in its simplest form is about life. Things are born or take root. They grow, with strength or weakness. And they die, sometimes earlier than they ought to, beaten down by the harshness of the elements. A farmer, rancher, whatever you want to call them is a custodian of life and death. They dictate life and death on a daily basis, measure profit by how long something lives. Corn gets planted, it grows tall and green, then it starts to falter and wither away. A farmer has to wait, watch the leaves of the plant turn brittle, time out how long he lets the corn die in the field before harvesting it. A calf is born, its mother cares for it for months, and then the rancher decides it's been long enough and separates cow from calf. Lets the calf grow more, feeds it well, treats illness if it arises. Then when its market time the calf is sold to be slaughtered. If the corn field gets flooded, or the calf gets sick and dies money is lost, and a family's, hell a community's livelihood could hang in the balance.  That being said, the bulk of these probably won't be in a very serious vein, but some will.

Hopefully some will be funny, provocative, or insightful, but they will be as honest as I can make them. And ideally interesting, otherwise whats the point. The first one will be about me, a bit self-deprecating look at a childhood activity (I can easily be made fun of for what I'm going to divulge).  Be up later today sometime.  Beyond my own rural exploits, I'll be stealing from a massive family history of life on a farm in the middle of nowhere.