The Rural Route

The rural route... country rounds, the scenic route, back roads, dirt roads, farm to market roads... 

It's tree lined black tops and wisteria climbing the trees. 

It's chickens crossing the road in front of you and the intoxicating smell of honeysuckle in the springtime. 

 It's old churches and cemeteries dotting the communities, along the way.

 It's breathtaking, unforgettable sunsets and the stars are brighter at night.

It's old barns and farmhouses, surrounded by fields of livestock. 

 It's driving 17 mph hour behind a farmer driving a tractor and knowing they are working hard, feeding the country, while probably barely making ends meet. You wave as you finally get a chance to pass as a way of saying thank you for your hard work and saying we've been there too. (Although, I've had cigarettes thrown at me, while driving a tractor down a farm road.)

Sometimes you take the dirt road and sometimes your boots are muddy.

It's a raised flag on the mail box and leaving a note and the mail lady pulls in and you visit while they scan in your boxes. (Oh how we miss our mail lady that retired! Can't wait till her replacement is officially confirmed.)

It's no matter the weather, you must get out and take care of business. No snow days and staying indoors all day. 

Sometime's there's cows out and in some places they actually have the right of way, due to some old free range laws still in effect. 

 It's bluebonnets and windmills in the springtime.

 It's farm to market roads that really do take us from the farm to the markets.

It's being broke down on the way to the market and having these pretty mules watch you change a tire on the farm truck. 

It's ice cream at the DQ after getting your load safely delivered and sharing with your best dog.

It's wildflowers in the summer time and praying hard for rain, because drought can be devastating out here. 

 It's rusty tractors and rustic wedding bouquets. 

It's cute baby calves and selfies. 

When you see daffodils blooming, without a nearby house, you ponder who lived there before and know there has to be an old well nearby. You wonder what the yard looked like, when the house and place was tended to on a regular basis and see how strong the daffodils are, to remain without any care or attention. 

Yes, it takes you longer to get where you're going, but that's more time to listen to the radio and enjoy the scenic route. It's less red lights and horns honking are either to say "howdy" as a neighbor passes by or to call the cows up from the back forty. 

It's time to think and dream. 

It's a raised hand on the steering wheel, as you meet someone.

It's where we learned to drive, way before they "officially" taught us in driver's ed. 

It's front porches (gazebos) and lightning bugs. 

It's what inspires us.

It's where we work.

It's almost all we know (Save two years in a college dorm and the only time in my life where we had pizza delivery. That town was 5 times my home town where I came from and my roommates thought they were in the boonies, and I was like "y'all don't even know what that is!" By hometown, I'm referring to 12 miles away.)

It's home.

It's simply where we belong. 

This new shirt was inspired by my life on the Rural Route and it's for all of you who enjoy those same things. It has a old red truck, star, sunflowers, burlap roses. a rooster, cactus, a Farm Road sign, and a distressed red, white, and blue damask background.

I guess I should also tell you about my new website, that I've recently launched. It's called Rust and Romance and well, it's a boutique for those who appreciate the rural lifestyle and things of the past,  with a little rust mixed in, all while enjoying it with the ones you love. 

Let me point out that our etsy shop, GypsyFarmGirl is STILL open and will remain open. This will be an additional stand alone website that I run and offers more opportunities for you to shop our goods. It includes being able to shop directly on Facebook and we have some of our items on eBay as well. Fingers crossed, we can eventually link it up with our Instagram account, as well. The new website is still a work in progress, as I get it all set up and figured out, so if you experience any glitches, please, please let me know. 

You can find this new Rural Route shirt on the new site right now, along with lots of other vintage style graphic tees. We've got most of our ready to ship items added to the new page, although the custom made to order items haven't been added yet. 

I needed this...

Over the past two weeks, it's rained, sleeted, rained some more, snowed, iced, rained again and again, we briefly saw the sun, might I add briefly, it came a monsoon, ok, just rained a lot more, iced, and snowed again. I've been deprived of sun and sunsets, which are crucial to my well being :) 

Now, I try really hard not to complain about rain, because all life depends upon water, we pray for rain all summer, it's a necessary element of life... But I missed the sun and gosh, it's been cold. 

Today was fabulous! Beautiful sunshine and mid 60's. This afternoon, clouds started to roll in (more rain forecasted for the next two days) and I was hoping it was going to set up a beautiful painting in the sky. I was on the way home from the farm and wasn't disappointed! 

This is not a lake, it's a creek bottom flooded by all the rain. The sunset and reflections in the flood water made all the rain worth it! 

It's a less travelled back road and I was able to stop and take several pictures with my phone and enjoy the moment. 

I got my sun fix, so I think I'll be able to deal with the next rainy spell with a better attitude.  And hey 50 degrees and rain is way better than in the 30's and rain, sleet, and snowing...

The daffodils remind us apring times coming y'all! 

Spring on the Backroads

Come ride the backroads with me for a few minutes. It's spring and the rural landscape is showing out!

We may not have many Texas bluebonnets in our area, but the Indian Paintbrushes have been beautiful this season. We are happy to see our field of paintbrushes thicker than ever this year. 

Wisteria and red clover growing along the fence line.

I've loved this little rustic shed for a while and always intended to stop and photograph it. Last weekend I carried my big girl camera along with me, snapping photos on the dirt road. The dogwood was blooming by the shed, so this time I stopped. 

Spring green, is there a prettier color after a long winter? 

These steers looked at me like what are you doing taking our picture? Part of my trip was rainy and drizzly, but I've decided we must look for the beauty in our everyday life. Beautiful things are everywhere, not just at location x, y, or z. One person would see a patch of yellow weeds below, while another sees a field of wildflowers. 

More wisteria. 

Dogwood trees are one of my favorite spring blooming trees. 

Our sweet girl loves to travel along with us. She's definitely a back road girl. She prefers 20-25 mph, with the window half down and the wind in her face. My camera was in the seat and I looked over and had to snap a picture! On Instagram, I said this picture had four of my favorite things: dirt roads and pickup trucks, puppy dogs and fields of wildflowers. 

Thanks for traveling along with me. I hope you are enjoying spring in your parts.