Back in the day, when I woke up to the quiet sounds of birds chirping in the trees and the warm serene light of morning streaming through my curtains, and the warm secure feeling of family wrapped around me like a blanket, I knew the absence of fear.

I walk the Corrib often. I’ll stroll its banks if it’s a nice day, or sometimes at night, if I happen to be feeling contemplative. The River Corrib is supposed to be the shortest and fastest river in Europe. The water crashes out of the spillway in the heart of Galway, Ireland, and rushes along the stone walls for several hundred yards before emptying into the bay.

I remember the call like it was yesterday. I was on a business trip to Pennsylvania and took a quick jingle from my husband as I waited for my lunch to arrive. “I’ve got some bad news,” he started. “Roofus is down; she was in heat, got rode wrong, and we think she’s split.”

To most people a dog is the family pet. A dog on a farm is a working dog. That’s why you never see a poodle or a dachshund on a farm. And if you do you see one, it’s not for long. Small dogs tend to “run for their lives” back to town after meeting the barn cats.

With the county fair now a memory, we’ve set our sights on the first day of school. Well, Mama has a countdown on the calendar; Tucker is in denial; and Cassidy, who starts 3-year-old preschool two days a week, is cautiously excited.

Well, with one exception: That many dollar bills would be nice. And dairy producers could use a stack of money about that high right now. I can always tell when milk prices are painful, as the number of letters to the editor increases and the blame for low prices gets shared more widely.

Back in the day, I studied Greek theater. As many of you know, the Greeks performed in huge outdoor amphitheaters, so they used gigantic masks equipped with megaphones to portray their characters. The modern word hypocrisy came from those masks.

Working in silos. No, not the kind that hold feed – the metaphoric kind we do unconsciously where we stay in our comfort zone, in our own little area of the world, doing the daily grind in the same place and surrounding ourselves with the same people, day in and day out.

The American Rabbit Breeder’s Association or, more commonly, ARBA. If you say ARBA out loud enough, you realize it sounds like a sect. Little did I know – it was an even more dangerous organization.

Rodeos are a showcase for cowboy abilities. Everyday work on the ranch is put on display, including the new guy they dressed up in a clown suit and put in a barrel for his initiation. However, people are not showing up by the busloads purchasing tickets to see farmers’ abilities.