Are you in a Christmas rut? I don’t mean sad about the season, (but if you are, I wish I could reach out and give you a hug!), but are you not sure about the gifts your giving? That’s me. What do I get our oldest that has such a great job that they can get anything their heart desires? And you’re on a budget…anyone else follow a Christmas budget besides me, the Christmas present fun killer? As pricey as this holiday can get, I don’t know anyone who runs without one.

I mean, it’s not that bad, but when you set a limit at $50 per kid and over half have a fiancé or significant other? And you’ve got nine kiddos, it gets a little crazy. Although, I will give a nod to Ron, who when asked to make some special gifts in the shop, winks and gets to work. I can’t wait for a few special handmade gifts that we are going to give this year. SO cool! I also love the fact our kids appreciate gifts made with love as well.

So I’ll be honest, I love homemade gifts the best. There’s been some lean years on the ole Fairchild ranchero and we’ve had to get “Christmas Creative.” I remember staying up most of the night making a doll or two, or a stuffed replica of a favorite horse. One of the coolest presents Ron ever gave me was a dining room table, just like I had wanted. It’s beautiful, 10 feet long with an additional three foot leaf, made of hickory and oak. It even has benches. Then one year he made a spice drawer for our island. Another time I found a cow bone and painted a deer on it. It’s one of our favorite pieces and I know Ron was tickled when he opened it up. It’s so fun when he’ll come in from the shop and say, “Now don’t go out in the shop for anything, ok?” It’s always such an awesome surprise!

This year, since I have some daughters that sew, I asked one for a Christmas themed table runner. I’ve never really been a fancy decorator, three reasons for that: money, little kids that would wreck it and time to get things together. Slowly, I’m finding people/family that make things for me and I love that. Last year my daughter Ashlyn made Ron and I a wood burning of our old dog Fluffy. It was incredible.

Lastly, what are you doing for Christmas? I hope it’s with people and family you enjoy and that you have fun/cheesy/handmade/all together special traditions. At our place, Santa will be hiding gifts somewhere in a barn or shed on Christmas Eve since we don’t have a chimney. And as long as you believe, you receive, no matter your age. Everyone will listen for the knock at the door and they’ll get on their warm duds and head outside for the present hunt. Of course that’s after we’ve had our appetizer meal that everyone has to make something for, and it’s Christmas themed no less.
Until next time have a Merry Christmas!

Fairchild “you haven’t lived until you’ve eaten Tedd’s Reindeer Chow” 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 fall ya’ll! I wanted to say that before the snow flies, which I guess could be next week…but we won’t get into that.

I will say it is craft show season, and I’m on par! I’ve got something going on literally every weekend. Which if you do these as well, you know you could be at four shows a week if you had enough hands to help. With me working at school however, it gets a little tough to make products to sell. I’ve got the sales “kids” but I’m usually pretty wiped by the end of the day. The thought of making things until the wee hours isn’t as enticing as it once was. Ah, I remember those days. I could churn out 300 bars of soap per day, make a bunch of needle felting kits, feed lambs, pick, clean and sort chicken eggs from 120 chickens. All the things. Now I’d just love to come home, make a simple dinner and watch Netflix. Wow…I’m feeling very lazy after that paragraph.

So let’s talk November. First, Veterans Day. I have so much admiration for those who’ve served. I absolutely love the Vet’s Day program at the local schools and honestly if you have the time, go. It’s ceremonial, they usually have the high school band play, a great speaker. It is in my top five of favorite happenings at school. I’m always so touched by it. So thank you veterans, and people still serving. Freedom isn’t free and it’s because of our military that we have such a wonderful country to live in and feel safe living in.

And then there’s Thanksgiving, or Turkey day as we like to call it around here. What’s your meal? We’re pretty standard here. Turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, and pie. Oh and this wouldn’t be the Fairchild household if we didn’t have corn as well. Is there any yams with marshmallows on top? No. That’s disgusting. Is there any cranberry jello or cranberry slices from a can? Again no. Yikes, that’s not happening. I do like and appreciate a good cranberry lemon cookie or a cranberry orange muffin on occasion. I also like a plain sweet potato with pepper, salt and butter.

Do you all have any traditions that you do for Thanksgiving? We usually eat the day of at Ron’s dad’s place. Then the next day we have a celebration at our house with our kids. That’s a lot of fun, we started to talk about what we are thankful for which there’s so much! Also after dinner we all get a piece of paper and make our Christmas lists and tape it to the pantry cupboard for everyone to see. That’s my favorite part. I love to see my kids planning. We really encourage not spending much at all. If I had my way my kids would make things for each other and us. Last year Grace made a few quilts, but I’d love some potholders, and a winter table runner. I’m hoping that we can make some of our gifts too for our kids. Anyway, enjoy this month. Hug a service person and love on your family as they gather around the table. 
Until next time,
Fairchild 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.

Tomorrow is the big day. Ashlyn gets married. The fact that these kids are old enough to do that is crazy to me. I mean truthfully, it seems like it was her and I against the world, living in south of the cities in the small town of Veseli.

Picture it, (as Sophia would say on the Golden Girls) a young girl living with her mother in a quiet house on main street, in a town that would take five minutes to walk end to end. Seriously though we had some great times, as poor as I was, lol. After all I wonder to this day if I was the one that invented “paycheck to paycheck” lifestyle. I kid, but truthfully, we were broke.

Once a month we would go do something fun that we could afford. Sometimes it was going to a bigger town and watching a movie at the theater on cheap nights, or we’d go to the truck stop and order pancakes and ask the waitress to light a candle if she had one.

The rest of the month we’d do other stuff, like go for bike rides or walks and pick up trash alongside the road and talk about the environment (because sometimes you need to be inventive when you don’t have a dime to your name). Of course we’d play hopscotch in the church parking lot, go sliding in the winter or watch cartoons. Can you tell I miss that little girl?

My biggest dream for my kids is that they are happy adults and that if they choose to get married they are with a person that’s good to them. I think Jarod is the perfect match for Ashlyn. They dream together, laugh together and take care of each other. It makes my heart happy, and I pray that they will have a lifetime of happiness.

The fact that their wedding is outside, makes me also thankful for the clear skies we’ll be having. They are super unconventional about their wedding which I think is going to be a blast. They’re getting married on Ashlyn’s late grandpa’s farm with only a few friends and all her siblings and mom’s and dads.

I asked her the other day if she had someone make her a cake, to that she replied, “no, we’re just having brownies.” After the meal we’re going to stay for a bonfire, since there is no dance, and then go home tomorrow night.

I can’t wait to see my first born being walked by her dad and brought to Jarod. She’s going to be a beautiful bride…even though she’s still a four year old and we’re eating pancakes by candlelight.
Congrats Ashlyn and Jarod.

Until next time,
Fairchild “love is a beautiful thing” 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 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.