The Farmer

My husband grew up on the farm amongst the cows, pigs, bugs, horses, chickens, cats and dogs. His childhood experiences include sleeping with a pig in his bed, stretching a chicken to death (age 3 - I will have to tell you the whole story sometime), birthing a calf, riding three hours in a small car with a squealing pig, picking up cow poop and throwing it like a snowball, swimming in "tank water" (I don't really think it is water), holding the "shit pole" and much, much more!

As for my childhood animal experiences...I think we owned a dog once.

Although my husband is not a farmer, he is actually a school administrator; his farming background serves as a lens that he filters everything else through. I try to remember this when he wears his muddy boots on the living room rug:). You know what they say... you can take the boy out of the farm but you can't take the farm out of the boy. So even though he puts on a coat and bowtie most days and spends his time trying to improve the quality of education offered to underprivileged teenagers in Oak Cliff, I still always think of him as a farmer.

The part I love the most is his drive for excellence. He never seems to be slowed down by the amount of hard work or time a meaningful project will take, he just keeps reaching for the excellence that will make a difference in the end. I know he gets this from his early days on the farm.

Every year he goes to different classes at his schools and reads Dr. Seuss. However, he goes about it in a way that I would never have thought of! This year he actually rode through Oak Cliff on his motorcycle dressed like Cat and the Hat. I drove over to Oak Cliff to watch the parade down Jefferson Street and to document the event. This picture tells more about my husband than I ever could. I am grateful for his perspective and what it brings to our home.