Farmer's Wife Friday--Clear-Eyed and Clear-Hearted

Friday has rolled around again, and I have to smile at the title of today's letter from a farmer's wife in Cheshire County, New Hampshire...

I really think it's a typo, because the quote that the title is taken from reads, "When someone offers my daughter love, marriage and a home, I would much rather it would be a clear-eyed, CLEAN-hearted, penniless farmer than a city man with a white-collar position and large salary."  But you know, CLEAR-hearted wouldn't be a bad thing either. There's room for a lot of love there, I assume. But, lookout, future son-in-law, if you happen to hail from the city-side of the tracks and have a dime....you'll have to prove yourself with this lady first!

 The author doesn't mess around, beginning her letter with a detailed report of all the hard work she does to help her farmer husband keep things going. Her main source of recreation is reading, she says. I'm imagining her sitting in front of a big box fan as she is transported somewhere else within the pages of the eighty books she claims to read each year.

 Box--Block # 9

 Prairie Queen--Block # 70

She is positive that the long hours and hard work are worth it but"in spite of these [drawbacks] and because of the purity of thought and depth of understanding gained by the comparative isolation of farm life, I most emphatically would wish my daughters to marry farmers." She speaks highly of caring for the "many forms of farm life from the earliest infancy to full maturity." I'm thinking that includes, like me, a bird feeder outside the window and perhaps some bee-hives at the edge of the field.

 Birds in the Air--Block #7

 Honeycomb--Block #49

I like how this wife is honest, but not defensive, about her life on a farm. She sums it up this way, "It seems to me that a farmer usually has what it pleases me to call 'vision'. Months and years of daily association with nature uplifts him, gives him a vivid idea of God in nature and brings him nearer to what God meant His people to be. What is there in cities that can give a man or woman this ever-widening vision of the meaning of life?"

 I paper-pieced two of the four blocks this week. For some reason, I'm not very excited about the way they turned out. Maybe it's the fabrics I chose. The honeycomb block didn't match up quite right in the center, but I decided that it was 'good enough' and left it. Here they are with their cousins from last week....

 I'm trying hard to keep this as my motto as I work on these fiddly blocks every week! I'm heading over to Cindy's place now to read her comments and see her blocks for this week's Farmer's Wife Sampler. Join me?