So we go from 90 degrees to 46 as the low in the same month? I call not fair to that one. I truly am going to miss summer, and I always am so regretful of not spending enough time outside.

How about you? Think of what your favorite summer pastime is…one of mine is grabbing a cup of coffee in the morning and sitting outside with it. Oh and then, at the end of the day listening to all the bugs and birds once the sun is going down. I could do with less mosquitoes, but it’s all good.

The daily news around our campfire is that the school I sub for already found a teacher for art. I’m so happy for them, but secretly sad. You know me and art class…I love it. But I’m doing a lot of subbing right away, so that’s great. I love the staff I work with and the kids…I love the kids! The last two days I subbed for middle school English. My first four hours were two classes of 8th grade and two classes of 6th grade. As I went into my prep hour, I thought, ‘wow! This teacher has it so great, these kiddos are fab!’

Then came the 7th graders and all good thoughts of the day were squashed like a banana in the bottom of a backpack. That first day, they came into the classroom causing a ruckus. Both seventh grade classes. No one could sit down, so much talking, homework wasn’t finished, maybe half brought their English textbooks (I’m serious). I also got asked “Can I go to the bathroom” or to “go out and fill their water bottle” no less then 10 times. I was astonished. I literally had less than 15 teaching minutes.

And I love that group of kids! Before they had filed in, I thought, ‘yes! My favorites are here!’
Well you better believe that the next day was a whole different story. I met everyone at the door and declared, “if you haven’t been to the bathroom, have a full water bottle, have your textbook, work book or earbuds, go get them, because no one is going anywhere. You don’t have your stuff? You’ve got a zero.” They all looked at me wide eyed and off they went and were back in a jif.

As soon as everyone was in, I quieted them down right away, which was hard. Then I said, “despite yesterday, I’m giving you a choice. Your teacher said I can assign another assignment if you’re too rowdy, but today you’re going to be great, so if we get our daily work done, and study our vocab I’m going to give you the last twenty minutes to work on other homework, play a school appropriate game quietly on your computer, draw or read.”

Hands shot up just waiting to tell me about what so and so did in the previous class and wanting to know where our farm was, (yes total random stuff constantly) only to have some say, “I know where she lives, my dad brings hay there.” My eyes were about rolling out of my head just then and I said, “but if ONE person talks, you’ll take that 20 minutes to write four paragraphs on why English is an important class. And all it’s going to take is one of you to make everybody write. Everyone looked at the talkers and shushed them. It was the best twenty minutes in each class. And guess what?

They got almost all of their homework done from other classes and the English homework! After each class I said, “look at you guys! You should be proud of yourselves.” One kid piped up and said, “Yeah, just don’t tell my dad that this is how you got us to get work done. I’ll have to start doing more at home.” I giggled. I had that same kid in the final hour of the day for study hall and he asked if I was teaching the next day and I said no.

“Well you should tell the teacher to take another day off. It’s pretty fun having you here.”

Awe…until next time,
Fairchild “See, I actually am a nice teacher!” Farmgirl

Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com. 

Here at the Fairchild Ranchero, things are moving at lightning speed. The boys have started football practice and we need to go school shopping.

It all looks so good on paper, but then as the days unfold, I always realize how over committed I am. Like this show I was at Aug. 11-18 at Steele County Free fair in Owatonna. You know I love a good vendor show, I love the fairgoers and schlepping my handmade, heartfelt goods. But if you can believe this, my people here at home get a little sick of me talking 24/7. Down there I had a brand-new captive audience for a whole week and I took advantage!

But seriously, this overcommitting stuff. I had this show planned since January, so I wasn’t going to bail and besides, it was paid for. Then a few weeks ago, we get an email from the foreign exchange student placement that we’ve worked with in the past. They needed homes for 20 kids, “and you’ve done such a great job in the past, would you please consider doing it again?”

Fine. We signed up, we want kids to have an American experience, and it’s fun for us. So we looked around our farm and house-really looked at the place. Jeepers…was this a good idea? Well it was too late to change our minds…we were committed.

Seriously though, I’ve seen junk yards more organized. Well…it wasn’t that bad, but still. We worked on the yard, weeding, mowing, hauling farm junk, organizing farm junk, etc. The kids complained, saying this better be a great experience or else. Next was the house-I’ve seen junk yards more organized. Kidding…or am I? We purged, we cleaned, we painted…again the kids and I sweat, worked our little fingers to the bone, huffed and chuffed and got this old lady of a house looking decent. It took all of these two weeks for this project. I got a call yesterday from their corporate that the person that was the coordinator quit and since there’s not a coordinator in our area, we probably weren’t getting one anymore. My kids-devastated. We’re still unfolding that issue…they might somehow make it work, but a little part of me that feels I over commit is doing a dance of joy. Is it a sign?

Then, I vend at a few farmers markets each week, it went from one, to four. Because Ron said I need to sign on a few more and shows for more income, so more schlepping. Which is fine it has me running. But then, the grand daddy of all over commitments came to me and I have to say, this has me so excited I can’t even stand it and I will take it! Long term subbing as the art teacher for the first semester and probably the whole year at the school I sub for on a short-term basis. Really my jam!!

Until next time,
Fairchild “Overcommitting is my love language” Farmgirl

Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com. 

Happy 4th of July! So I’m going to talk about it…that crazy rain/tornado/lightning storm we had. Hey everybody! Wasn’t that crazy? All those tornadoes, everywhere? I have a story to tell you, it wasn’t funny then, but funny now. During that storm, we were in church at 7:15 Mass. Suddenly phones and pagers go off. The singer says, “it’s a tornado warning.” The sweet priest said something that I wasn’t sure I heard right, but I swore he said ‘the angels were coming.’ Ummm I hope not. Ain’t nobody has time for that. I myself have much more to do on this Earth.

I’m sure you remember that ole derecho from a few years ago that leveled half our farm? Well, our family sure does. Poor Tedd whom was home alone with Jessica that night was starting to panic a little in the pew. I’m sure I would’ve too if I was 7 and the dishes were moving in the cupboard and the big old hip roof (I called her the Queen Mary) blew apart to smithereens as they watched it out the window.  Ron and I were at another child’s softball game about 60 miles away. We never knew it was going to be that bad of weather.

So back to Saturday night. Tedd was sitting next to me and was starting to get nervous. “Mom,” he whispered, “is it going to get the farm again?” I reassured him, but I didn’t know where it even was. We had kids at the Crystal Springs rodeo, thank goodness no one got hurt out there with that huge tornado and they left early so that was ok.
But as we sat there, I oddly felt okay about it. Which I’m a huge worrier. And honestly, that last storm we had where we had to put down animals ourselves in the aftermath, well that stays with a person. So does the financial aftermath. I just felt like God was saying it’s going to be ok. Which when I told a friend they said, “well the man upstairs was probably like, ‘I better take it easy on the Fairchild Ranchero this time.’” Then the kind lady in front of us at church, who in a very reassuring voice said, “we’re ok here, it’s going northeast of Gary.”

Ron and I looked at each other. We live northeast of Gary. I thought I was Baptist for a second. Because even if the priest said the angels were coming, he literally was in no hurry to zip that homily up. No shame to my Baptist friends by the way, but your sermons are kind of lengthy. As the Mass wrapped up, we took off. We saw the tornado out of town and we were fielding calls from our adult kids and friends wondering where the heck we were because they’d been trying to reach us for the last hour.

Then a really good friend called and asked how the weather was out by us. We didn’t know, we were kind of scared to leave town. We got invited over to their house to weather the storm. When we were able to go home, we went through flooded roads and were honestly scared to death of what was waiting for us at home. But when we arrived we didn’t even have standing water on the driveway. It was beyond crazy. We had left the overhead door on the chicken barn open and thought we’d have drowned birds because of all the rain. Dry as a bone in there. Incredible. We had three inches but I can’t even explain it.

So I don’t know if this was our “get out of weather scot-free” card, but I’m taking it. Now let’s enjoy July!

Until next time,
Fairchild “you know the
alternative is snow, right?” Farmgirl

Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com. 

Here I am knee deep in June and I feel like I’m running a race and losing terribly. Like I’m at the back end of the pack and am running with a twisted ankle. Ok, maybe a little over the top dramatic, but still. I promise I won’t be a whiny baby my whole article. Just the opening two sentences, then it’s out of my system. Whew. Gone. Let me tell you about our June thus far.

Since our youngest, Tedd, wanted to try flowers again this year, we planted the garden and I don’t know about your gardens, but ours is marginal at best. Admittedly, I’m a set it and forget it kind of girl, and maybe I shouldn’t be, lol, but still. We planted all sorts of flowers from seed, from zinnias, to marigolds, to snapdragons and there’s just a few sprouts coming up. I’d say we are at a 50% average for plants growing. We may have to reseed in some spots. If you could put a burdock in an arrangement or a thistle, man, we’d have something. The weeds are growing in the gardens beautifully. They must have roots to China since we try to kill them every year and every year they come back. Next year (I say this every year) we’re going to start seeds indoors.

Aside from working in our crappy garden, this last week has been a busy one. We needed a break. Since we’ve got a lot of birthdays in the month of June, I decided at the last minute this past Sunday we were going to have a birthday lunch. We had all the kids home but Ash and Rachel who were both working. So the night before I stayed up late baking for said get-together, and then we smoked a pork loin too. That was so much fun. Then before leaving their house, our oldest wanted to know if we needed a different couch, and said he was going to bring that with. People, a party that’s fun and productive? This was definitely my kind of party. And a new couch? You betchya.

Now it’s no secret that our 150 pound dog, Winnie, sleeps on the couch with reckless abandon. Yesterday was no different, she had played all day with the kids as well as her pup cousins and was bone tired. The boys hauled the old couch out and brought the new one in, then everyone decided to go to their own homes. Winnie, the dog, could hardly keep her eyes open. She about staggered to the living room and stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at this new couch and whimpered a little then she found a spot on the floor (very much unlike her). For the next 10 hours (well into the night) she’d stand in front of the couch and huff. About three in the morning I couldn’t take it any longer. I got the old couch cushions out and put them alongside the wall. She side eyed me and turned up her nose. She wasn’t taking the bait. Then I begged her to get on the, new to us, 25 year old couch with a gaudy floral print. “You’ll like this” I tried to tell her. But no. She paced all night. Then she started scratching on the kids’ doors, especially Jessica’s. to sleep in her bed. No one would open their door to her.

After that, you’d hear her come back downstairs, and you’d hear her nails on the wood floor, coming back down to pace and touch her very cold nose on my arm to make sure I was awake, cohabitating in her misery. I finally told her to go lay down. I don’t recall being very nice about it either. When I woke up in the morning, there she was, sprawled out on the new couch snoring her deep Mastiff snores. What got to her? I don’t know, but she is in such a sleep coma right now, I’m trimming her nails, one by one. The vet usually has to put her under. She’s tired. Kind of how I feel about my June so far. Let’s get through this month, I have high hopes for July, and a good night’s sleep for tonight.

Until next time,
Fairchild “get a dog they said” Farmgirl



Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com.

So far April has been busy for the Fairchilds. Right at the end of March, we were down in Nebraska for our daughter’s boyfriend’s prom. First weekend in April his family came up here for Canby prom. So much fun.  All the kids were home with some even staying the night, it was like summer camp. Kids were running to each other’s rooms, watching movies etc. It was awesome. Mom’s like that kind of thing you know. Also, the first of April was special- we celebrated Ron. He’s almost 60!

Speaking of Ron, he’s already been getting calls to till gardens. I’m lucky to have bought some seed for ours. Do any of you have your gardens planned out? What kind of planner are you? I confess, usually I like to draw it out on a paper and have a key to it. I know…NERDY! But so far this year I haven’t had time.

Last year Tedd our youngest wanted a job so badly but was only in the 5th grade. So I helped him grow flowers to sell. We sold in Watertown every Saturday and it was a great learning experience. For example, I learned that I did a lot more work than he did. And we still split the money 50/50. Jokes aside though, it was super fun. We planted, we hoed, we weeded, and we did learn a lot about flowers and what we were going to plant and what we weren’t.

Last year we planted about 10 varieties of sunflowers. This year we are NOT. They were pretty, but they were tall and hard to pull in the fall, and let’s face it…the wind was not their friend. Oh and we are still pulling them out this spring and it’s a pain. There are enough wild sunflowers here on the farm that we can use those in our bouquets. Another flower we will not be planting again is Cosmos. They’re just too delicate and too much plant for the flower, if that makes sense. However, there’s a variety with a double bloom that I’d consider but otherwise no. My favorite flower we planted? Zinnias. Zinnias are such a workhorse. I’m getting them in a zillion colors this year. I love them and they are almost hard to kill.

The most fun we had though? Going filler flower hunting! We would fill five gallon pails and put them in the truck, grab some scissors or pruning shears and take off.  We’d drive slowly around the section and pick wild roses, bunny tail grass, Indian Grass, Goldenrod, seed heads, Snow on the Mountain, and so much more. I was just scrolling through my photos trying to remember which wild flowers were in our bouquets…so maybe I will grow a few breeds of sunflowers. They’re just so beautiful and I did have great luck with some dusty rose-colored ones.

Anyway, I’m excited to try some large Asters that vary from silver all the way to dark purple. LOVE! Oh, am I going to plant veggies this year? That’s a no for me. I can just buy them at the farmer’s market!

Have a wonderful April, until next time.
Fairchild “I’m getting my sketch pad out right now” Farmgirl

Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com.

I’m back from the cities! I was in Minneapolis for a week, and just warning you, this article plays more like a story about stomach flu, emergency car repairs, day workers and marijuana.

You guys, what a week I’ve had! But I can look back and laugh…just a little. It all started with me vending at the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show. I left last Sunday after church and was able to stay at my sister’s for the week. We had a blast (most of the time) and my mom even came for two days. It was magical. The weird thing about that show is you have to be down at the Convention Center on Monday afternoon to load in all your goods, have it set up and ready and then you don’t come back until Wednesday.

At least that’s how it is in the spot we’re at. I also needed my dock parking pass so I could park in the marshaling yard where my vehicle could be secure, and I would be safe after the show each night walking to my car. I had to be there Monday morning at 8 a.m.

After my sister and I bought my pass (and we did a little happy dance since there was only two left), we headed back to her house in Lino Lakes. On 35W North, my truck’s tire started making a flapping sound but it was actually my wheel bearing; $670 later, I was back on the road and I certainly didn’t anticipate that happening. Tuesday was great, but it started to snow and my 10-year-old nephew came down with the flu.

Wednesday I didn’t go into the show but Thursday was a great day. Friday about 7 p.m. it slowly started going south. I started to get a little stomach ache. By 7:30 p.m. I was out of there, but leaving downtown, the strong marijuana smell by Franklin Ave. and other parts of downtown was too much. I’m not going to lie, it almost did me in. If you don’t know what that smell is like, think of burnt dog poop and a skunk getting married. I sang worship music all the way home trying not to puke. My sister felt horrible, and said that she’d watch my booth Saturday. But by 11:30 p.m. I get a text from her upstairs saying that she was throwing up too.

Early Saturday I still didn’t feel the best, but at least the puking was over. I texted my other sister that lives by Hudson, Wis. that I’d venmo her $200 to watch my booth. She got back to me a few hours later saying she couldn’t. I had absolutely no one to watch my goods, so I had to go in. I made sure to wash my hands and spray myself with Lysol, and kept my distance from all. It wasn’t hard, I was about sleeping, and the crowd was down anyway.
The funny thing was on my way down there, my GPS that usually talks to me, was suddenly quiet. I took the 94 and Grant, exit but if you keep left you can get back on 35. So instead of getting in the middle lane to 94, I was so out of it, I got back on 35. I realized it too late and had to get off on Lake Street.

That was wild! I had NO idea that this was where all the day workers and other workers waited for jobs. I stopped at the light and I could’ve had about 10 guys in my truck. But I thought, ‘the only work I’ll have for you is if I don’t get to the bathroom soon I’ll need my truck interior cleaned.’ My GPS cut me through the city streets and some awful neighborhoods. One three block stretch was all washboard and potholes where I had to go about five miles per hour. I did feel tons better by evening though. Sunday was slow and more enjoyable.

I got to talk to a lot of customers, and that was great. One couple I was talking to was so much fun. I giggled and said I couldn’t wait to get back to my husband and family. I also mentioned that the last manly handshake with even a trace of a callous was when I was at church back home the week before. His wife giggled and he throws out his hand to me and says, “Hi, my name’s Tom and I’m from Yankton, S.D.” That bone crusher made me realize how much I was looking forward to going home. By 6 p.m. I had loaded up the rest of my goods and was headed for cattle country.

Now, do I love Minneapolis? Hmmmm…..I used to, so, so much. It really has changed however. But there is still some really great people there, and you know me - I can talk an ear of corn off a plant!
Until next time,
Fairchild “there’s no place like home” Farmgirl

Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com.