Farm Smells

Today I am grateful for safe travels for family members as we traveled back to our hometown and farm(s). I am especially grateful to my brother Artie for the patience he shows and the opportunities he gives to my son Sam to truly experience farm life.

I am also grateful for farm smells. Yes, all of them.

Farm smells. My husband Darcy and I enjoy going to the county and/or state fair just so we can walk through the livestock barns and smell that combination of smells that can take us right back to our childhoods. Darcy grew up on a crop and livestock farm in South Dakota and I grew up on a dairy farm in Iowa. We moved to a different farm when I was 15, but both farms are still in the family.

One of my favorite smells on the farm came a handful of times each summer-freshly cut hay. Sam and I got to enjoy that aroma on this most recent visit. Here is a picture that may spark memories for some of you and heighten your sense of smell if you have been blessed with farm days similar to mine.


I grew up watching and helping with hay baling. Sam has seen some of the processes before, but he enjoyed soaking it up on this visit. And he got his first taste of helping unload square bales into the barn as he helped his uncle and cousin get a couple loads emptied. I remember cold water never tasted so good as it did after helping unload hay on a hot summer day.

Sure, not all farm smells are kind to the nose, but they are all part of the amazing cycles of growth and life we get to witness. Farm smells, even the unpleasant ones, spark pleasant farm memories for me. For that I am truly grateful.

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