Quite a few years ago we took our first trip to Upstate, NY, to visit my Grandmother.  She was living in an old farm house at the time with my Uncle B.  I was about 12 or 13, of course not wanting to go.  At that age you don’t want to do anything with you parents, and of course I would be bored to death.

As we drove up the long dirt driveway, the big white old farm house appeared.   To its right was a big red barn (actually a dairy barn with real cows) to the left was a small pond.  Great I thought what the hell I’m I going to do here?  Not that I did not want to see my Grandmother, I loved her dearly.  Of course I was also her favorite. LOL.

That night I slept like a baby, it was so utterly peaceful and quite.  In the morning I woke to the smells of Grandma cooking breakfast already.  The smells of home fried potatoes and bacon engulfed the house.  The smell made me so hungry I rose from bed ready to eat, only to be told I would have to fetch the fresh eggs and milk. WHAT I thought, shouldn’t they be right in the fridge?

As my Uncle B brought me to the barn, we actually had to hand milk the cows.  Surprisingly the smell did not bother me with all those cows.  Also in the barn were tons of cats and kittens running around.  I wanted to take them all home.  After we skimmed the top of the milk and brought it to the house, we went to get the fresh eggs from the coop.  That smell did bother me.

In the afternoons we would hike and fish.  Hopefully catching something to be cooked for dinner.  A lot of times not.  But just sitting there for hours, so peaceful.

By the time we got home, dinner was already cooking, leg of lamb. Grandma would be there rolling out fresh dough for home made noodles.  I could smell it now as I right about it.  I promised I would be back to visit more often.

On our winter visits, we would hook up a sleigh to the neighbor’s horse and bundle up underneath blankets and go sleigh riding at dusk.   Absolutely beautiful.