23 Comments
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Laura Bass's avatar

Love this reflection, Stacy! Life is such a swirl of the hard and the good, and sometimes it’s so hard to figure out how to share that!

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Fay Gordon's avatar

I love the visuals here (your words and the photos) and your humor! Ok, I've been really wanting to apply for Heart to Page, and reading that you are doing it makes me really really want to do it!

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thank you, Fay! YES, please do it!!

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Erin's avatar

My husband is a software engineer and LOVES Clarkson's Farm! 😄

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Oooh! Okay, good to know! Haha.

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Amy La's avatar

Lack of rain might be the worst part, it’s such a powerless feeling. But also a reminder that we are not as “in control” of life as we think we are or try to be. Beautifully written! Your reflections on this way of life are such a gift.

We are fortunate to have irrigation; the downside is that you become a slave to it when trying to make/save a crop. Currently emerging from 2-3 dry years of nonstop irrigating and the rain has decreased the stress immeasurably this year.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thank you, Amy. And thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. I am sure irrigation has its downsides too! Glad to hear you've been getting rain!

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Alyssa Silvester's avatar

I can romanticize my own life too, equal parts seeing the beauty and trying to ignore the hard. Thank you for sharing your story. I just read and loved Broken Country, The Shoemaker’s Wife, and Kate & Frida.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Alyssa! I loved Broken Country and The Shoemaker's Wife! I just looked to see if my library has Kate & Frida, and they don't. :( I might have to buy it. Thanks for the rec!

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Annelise Roberts's avatar

I can relate to this! I do think the romanticizing your life is almost a necessary way of surviving the hard. It's both very beautiful, and very difficult at times. I guess the danger is in presenting only the romantic side? I don't really know.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

That's always been my frustration with Ag and social media: the ladies who only show the beautiful parts. It can feel isolating when you think you're doing something wrong, because your life isn't always as shiny as theirs. But in reality, of course, theirs isn't either... they just aren't talking about it. I don't know, it's a tricky balance, because you also don't want to go around talking about the hard stuff all the time. I have no answers. Haha.

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Erin Mount's avatar

Your pictures always make me stop and marvel. I love them! Also, until I reread the Little House books as an adult (to my daughter) I never realized how incredibly stressful farming can be. Granted, you're not living in the 19th century, but still, I have often thought about how hard it would be to trust God to provide when everything seems to be going wrong with the weather or the crops or the cattle or whatever. So many things out of your control! (But I guess really control is an illusion anyway...)

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

I cannot imagine farming back then! But I guess they didn't know any different. But we still struggle and stress about many of the same things: rain, fires, grasshoppers.

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Heather O's avatar

Love Clarkson's Farm! I'm not exactly in the field of agriculture at the moment, but maybe I've spent enough time there to appreciate it's niche-ness?

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Haha maybe?! I think it's a great peek into agriculture, showing how stressful it can be. But also, they make it funny. ;)

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Christina Doerksen's avatar

Love the words 'to savor the golden hours, the golden minutes.' I understand all this so well.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Christina!

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Kathryn Partin's avatar

My husband & I haven't even had our farm for a year yet, but we've learned rather quickly that we need to stay on our toes. Change can happen fast, and you need to learn to adapt just as fast. Happy to hear the correct wheat was indeed planted last fall 🌱 What a relief!

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Yes, things change so fast! Thanks for reading, Kathryn!

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Callie R. Feyen's avatar

Beauty and stress. Now isn't that the way it always works? (And really, that's the "true romance" of it all.)

Also, those sliders look amazing.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Callie! And yes, so true.

They were really good, and easy too!

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Erin Strybis's avatar

"But isn’t that real life? Whether you live on a farm or in the city, each day is a mixture of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the challenging." Yes! Always love reading your words 💗

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks so much, Erin!

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