My Uncle Randy called himself a farmer. He raised hard, red winter wheat on his farm in Montana. He wore bib overalls every day except Sunday or when there was a funeral or wedding. After his children were grown he learned to take some time off from the farm, in the off season. They purchased a camper and they traveled after the wheat was in the bins and the next year’s crop was in the ground.

My cousin Russ, his son, called himself a rancher. He did some farming, but he also raised cattle on the land he bought in the Missouri Breaks adjacent to his father’s farm. He raised hay and the cattle had to be fed over the winter. Most winters had as many chores and hard work as the summers. Russ’ main entertainment was attending farm and ranch auctions to see if he could pick up a bargain. He was a talented mechanic and he could make a machine work long after others had decided to discard it.

I grew up with the basic notion that agricultural properties that focused on raising crops were farms and those that focused on raising animals were ranches. Of course, most of the folks I knew had mixed operations. Even though Uncle Randy was a farmer, they had chickens and most of the time they milked a single cow and raised her calves. Even though my cousin Russ was a rancher, he had a combine and raised wheat and lentils and a variety of other crops.

I was thinking of them and of the way I used to think of farm and ranch country yesterday. For the last couple of years, I’ve called our son’s ten acre property their farm. They have an orchard and extensive gardens. They grow berries and vegetables. They keep chickens for eggs and raise additional chickens in the summer for meat. Right now there are 40 or 50 chickens on the place with the attendant chores of providing feed and water every day. They have an arrangement with a neighbor to mow and bail the hay in their north pasture and they sell the hay for income. Their property produces enough to qualify for the tax rate applied to farms.

An added bonus of the farm, which is just a couple of miles from our house is that they have a large dairy barn with two big shop bays. I have all of my tools in the shop and there is room to store my canoes and kayaks and our camper as well.

Yesterday was a big day at the farm. With all of that pasture and good fences in place they have decided to raise a few beef cattle in partnership with a neighbor. The neighbor has experience, a trailer to transport the animals, and other equipment, but is a bit short on pasture space. They aren’t going into the cattle business big time. Three heifers are exploring the pasture, which is green a lush. They won’t do a second cutting of hay this year and they have plenty of bales in the barn to carry the cows over the winter.

At dinner, I joked, “Do I have to call your place a ranch now that you have cows?”

It is a surprising and delightful turn in our family story. Although I grew up in ranch country, my parents businesses were operating an airport and selling farm machinery. We had a few acres and raised a few hobby animals, but I never thought of myself as a farm kid. I headed straight to college and from there to graduate school and have pursued a professional career. Neither of our children appeared to be heading for farm life in their young adulthoods. Our son went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to earn a master’s degree after college and his wife earned hers as soon as he graduated. Our daughter has become an air force wife, living in several locations around the world and often working on the base where her husband is assigned.

Then, in the midst of two busy professional careers, our son and daughter in law decided that they wanted to grow more of their own food and become less dependent on stores and supply chains. After turning all of their half acre yard into food production, they began to shop for a larger place and just as we were moving from South Dakota bought 10 acres that was the home place of an historic area farm, moved into the century-old farm house, and began to expand their capacities at raising food. Last year they added meat chickens to their chores and filled the freezers with chicken to carry them and us over the winter. I still have one chicken from last year in the freezer, waiting for the right day to cook it. Neither we nor they have the freezer capacity to handle a whole beef. There are some details of this new ranching venture that are yet to be resolved.

Yesterday, I finished what turned out to be a pretty big renovation of their wood shed. The building probably was originally designed for some other purpose. It was completely open on the west side, which is the side from which the weather comes around here. Last winter the rain blew in on the stacked firewood and they ended up putting tarps over the wood. The building is a pole barn and the cedar logs that had been set directly into the ground had rotted through and the building was leaning. I got it jacked up and nearly squared up and poured new concrete in the corners. I set new posts and added siding. I cut two new large doorways into the building to allow easy access for stacking the wood and getting it back out to feed the stove.

I was at the farm when the cows arrived. Now, in addition to their regular chores, the children will need to check the cows’ water trough. They will also need to remember to always close the pasture gate when they go to pick blackberries. It is a new adventure for the farm.

One of the fun parts of this phase of my life is that I have some time for farm chores. It certainly is not something I expected, but it feels pretty good. And I already own cowboy boots and have a couple of pretty nice cowboy hats.