Farmer's Retreat

by Dick Hudson

Title

Farmer's Retreat

Artist

Dick Hudson

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

The Farmer's Retreat is a necessary place. It may just be back porch or a corner of the barn, with a table, but often it is a building of its own, with a pot belly stove or a newfangled electric one. This one was on a country road near New Reigel, Ohio.

This is where the farmer plans his day and greets friends. They discuss the business of farming, the almanac, the upcoming storm, and catch up on the baseball game. The farmer is more likely to plan a visit from the veterinarian than to go to the doctor himself.

Farming is hard work, especially for the small farmers with the small tractors and the small fields that don't leave much room for error. It is a man's work, for the most part, and it takes great effort to coax life out of the ground. That work is planned in the Farmer's Retreat.

The Farmer's Retreat is a sacred place, like the country kitchen is to his wife, who often has go to the retreat and remind her husband to come back into the house. Farmers don't talk of retiring, they just talk of the next year's crop. Their quiet relief is in their retreat.

Uploaded

January 19th, 2015

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags