A Time When "Manure" Smelled SO GOOD!

Most people, when you say you've lived in New York, think of the city.  Think as far from that as you can, and you come to some of the most beautiful country farmland God has ever made!
I was commenting to another blogger about my take on "manure" - she said it would be good to write it down here in my blog, so I will :) 
My husband is originally from Western, NY.  He lived in a little town called Pike, close to Bliss, close to Warsaw, but so you'll really understand where it's located, it's about 50 miles southeast of Buffalo.  When we met, he was living here in Western, NC.  That's a whole other story about God's divine working in two peoples' lives.  I'll explain about that in another post.
We had often talked about going up to NY to live.  At the time, we had a young son 18 months old and I'd never really been anywhere except close within the confines of western NC.   We decided to move up and give it a try!
I got a big western NY welcome when it snowed on Mother's Day :)  We had only been there a few days and were moving into the old farmhouse that belonged to my husband's grandfather, and was, indeed, the place where HIS mother was born (in a little tiny room off from the bathroom-was the birthing room).  I used it as a playroom for my son after we had moved.  This sweet little Southern gal was ready to rough it.  lol......oh ignorance is such bliss!  I grew up in a factory village where there were lots of houses close together and always enough kids to make a ball team, or play "rock school" or "kick the can", or hide and seek.......well you get the gist.....things most of today's kids would think were "lame".  lol 
Ok, back at the farmhouse.......our closest neighbor was at least a half mile to a mile away.  When it snowed, nothing stopped, everything kept on going as usual.  But the snow plows were always out, everyday, several times a day. 
From my perspective, I think it snowed the most up there the three years we were there.  By roughing it, I mean we totally heated with wood, there was no other form of heat in the house.  I also cooked on a wood cook stove, for which I was responsible for keeping MY firewood cut, while my husband kept the larger chunks cut for the big huge stove in the living room.....which by the way, heated the whole upstairs as well.  One day a man came to our back door holding up a big fat Canadian Goose he'd killed while hunting on the spread.  He wanted me to have it as a "thank you" for allowing him to hunt on the property.  I didn't know anything about dressing out anything!  So, my husband did the dirty work when he got home and I found a luscious recipe for cooked goose with bread and apple stuffing.  That was the first and last goose I've cooked. :)
We spent our last winter there when the weather was the harshest.  I can remember going through a blizzard with winds sustained at 70 mph, gusts more than that -- watching our windows bow in until we thought they would burst.  I wanted to totally experience this blizzard, so I took a walk outside, right into the wind and it didn't take long to get back inside because the snow blown at that rate made it feel like little needles were being pierced into my legs and body...lol.  Ok, it was probably a little dumb, but I'd never been in a blizzard before and I wanted to "experience" it.  I did, I went back into the house, and I'll never do that again. 
There was farmland all around us, I mean hundreds of acres as far as the eye could see.  The first year we were there, beans had been sown into the leased fields around us.  Gleaning is such a wonderful thing......goes way back into the Old Testament when the Lord was giving his rules to the Israelites.  They were to always leave a little around the edges for those who were without, to go in and pick what was left over.  That year we had no need to plant beans!
I became pregnant with our second son while living in New York.  I remember he was born April 12th, and a week before he arrived, it snowed so bad, my husband had to climb out the window to shovel enough snow to open the front door.  And yes, I was still hauling wood that late in my pregnancy, but only small pieces and very carefully.
Ok, I know I'm going on and on, now down to the manure.  After close to 3 years of living in an area where you saw nothing green from sometimes late October until April or May, I had super cabin fever.  I went out onto the back porch to enjoy the sunshine and then I smelled it!  Manure!  Oh boy, it smelled so sweet.  It meant the farmers were out, getting ready for Spring, getting ready to plant, getting ready for green!!  So, to this day, I always love the smell of manure and thank God for it!!  mimito5