Small Town Girl

Full Moon 

So in celebration of the full moon and fall time, or harvest where I am from, I would like to talk about my home. I grew up in a town of about 2,000 people. The town just north of me has about 5,000 people. The county that I live in as a whole is about 20,000 people. So pretty much I come from a place where everyone is related in some way or another, most people know each other, and nobody ever leaves. The main thing that supports our tiny economy is farming. If you are really interested this website has just about every statistic about Minidoka county that anyone could ever think of.
It is so peculiar to come to a place where people do not even know what a feed lot, a pivot, or combine is. I realize that they didn't grow up in a farming community and that it isn't their fault, but it is just weird. Here in Logan people actually have to pay money for potatoes, in Heyburn and Rupert you just pick them up out of the field. Here are the lyrics to a song by Jason Aldean that simply explain it all a lot better than I ever could, it is called Fly Over States, click here to see the music video.

Harvest Sunset

Jason Aldean - Fly Over States Lyrics

Couple guys in first class on a flight from New York to Los Angeles
Kinda making small talk, killin' time, flirtin' with the flight attendants
Thirty thousand feet above what would be Oklahoma

Just a bunch of square corn fields and wheat farms, man it all looks the same
Miles and miles of back roads and highways connecting little towns with funny names
Who'd wanna live down there, in the middle of nowhere

They've never drove through Indiana
Met the man who plowed that Earth
Planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me
Or caught a harvest moon in Kansas
They'd understand why God made those fly over states

I bet that mile haul in Santa Fe freight train engineer's seen it all
Just like that flat bed cowboy stacking US steel on a three day haul
Roads and rails under their feet, yeah that sounds like a first class seat

On the plains of Oklahoma
With a windshield sunset in your eyes
Like a water-color painted sky
You'll think heaven's doors have opened
You'll understand why God made those fly over states

Take a ride across the Badlands
Feel that freedom on your face
Breathe in all that open space
And meet a girl from Amarillo
You'll understand why God made...
You might even wanna plant your stakes
In those fly over states
Yeah

Have you ever been through Indiana
On the plains of Oklahoma
Take a ride

My drive way. 

I love this song and the meaning of it, it brings so many memories. One of my favorite lines is "Miles and miles of back roads and highways connecting little towns with funny names." I like this because it is true, there are tons of small towns with weird names, like where did the name Heyburn come from? Also there are thousands of roads that you can just fly on and they will take you to anywhere, or no where. That is something I miss the most, no other cars on the road and you can go as fast as you like for as long as you want. I would want to live in the middle of no where, I love it there. It is so peaceful and so beautiful. Also your neighbors can't hear every word that you say. Around this time of year in Minidoka County the sunsets are beyond gorgeous due to all of the harvest dust in the air. I like the part that says "Met the man who plowed that earth, planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me." It really is true those farmers work so hard, all year round. Especially in the summer and the fall they hardly ever get to see their families. You can tell a good, hard working man when you see one because his hands are very rough and calloused. There are so many good memories of jumping in the river, or water well, long drives, walks, and rides, climbing stacks of hay and straw, listening to trains, sitting around a bon fire, and much more.  
Some people will just never understand. But a have added some pictures to help, I actually took all of these pictures.

Straw Bales