A Weekday in the Country

My cousin Dan, his wife Wendy and their three boys live on a small farm just south of Madison, Wisconsin. We spent an afternoon with them earlier this week on our way to Wisconsin Dells for a short vacation. This is their barn, which houses the rabbits (six fancy spotted ones), the cats (around two dozen at last count) and the horses (six, including two Percherons) in bad weather. In good weather, the horses have an outdoor corral complete with a shade tree that has a low branch just perfect for use as a horse back scratcher.

Wendy is an avid gardener. This is one of the sunflowers from her garden. We were treated to the vegetables from her garden for lunch. We had zucchini, squash and fresh sweet corn! Our contribution was brats from the store. We even had Sterzings potato chips. Turns out Dan had a bag he'd been saving for a special occasion. What are Sterzings? Only the best potato chips ever! We're not biased, either, even though another cousin, Craig, makes them. See www.sterzings.com for more information.

Dan and Wendy live in a beautiful valley. The view from the back porch is just maginificent. We were there on a bright, sunny day. The wind was blowing just enough to make sitting outside quite comfortable. While we were waiting for the brats to cook, the adults sat on the porch and watched the kids play with the cool toys - motorized vehicles. Theo rode their ATV and Brendan rode the go-kart while their cousin Ryan rode the motorcycle.

After a few training laps around the horse corral, they set off over the fields. Lucky for our boys, Dan had cut the hay last week, which meant the boys could range all over the fields that were normally full of hay for their horses. My city boys had a great time playing with their country cousins. Thanks, Dan and Wendy, for a lovely afternoon. Now that we've found the farm, we'll come back soon.