EVERYTHING BUT...

our ranch life on saturday and sunday with LOVE n LAUGHTER

EVERYTHING BUT...
on Saturday chores were different
oh, the feeding of the livestock,
milking the cows,
filling all mangers,
cleaning stalls and pens,
gathering the eggs,
all of that was the same,
but Saturday was also yard clean up day
and
i can still hear my father’s voice,
ringing like the bells of doom...

“everything but the grass and the dirt!”
and all five kids knew he meant exactly that,
the yard from the front drive
clear back to the barns
had to be cleaned up...
just as a professional yard crew
cleans and grooms the lawns of a 5 star hotel...

our homeplace had to be
manicured and spotless,
no forgotten toys left under a tree,
no balls left where they last landed...
we were expected to clean the yard
just like the inside of the house...
pristine!
it had to look as if we had vacuumed
the whole place...
that was dad’s law...
“everything but the grass and the dirt”
i can still hear his voice booming out
“and don’t take all day, remember,
you still have your evening chores
to be done before dinner”...

our place always looked so fine...
neighbors often remarked upon it,
but they never asked why
and i often wondered if they knew...
how our saturdays made sundays
“the day of rest”
all the more precious...
because “rest” like all things on the ranch,
was very relative in time and space,
and
on sundays daddy slept in
so as long as things remained “quiet”,
between “morning chores” and “evening chores”
on sundays we were free
to play,
to dream,
to simply exist
on the grass and the dirt we kept so clean....