If It's Messy, Barn Boots Are The Best

When we moved out to the country we lived across the street from a hog farm. The couple had three children and they were all a bit strange. They were nice enough people, but they did weird things. The couple had met when he purchased the farm. The land he purchased adjoined the woman’s parent’s farm. Within a year of him moving there they were married. This meant she lived less than a mile from her parents.

Because farm work can be messy and barn yards muddy many people wear barn boots. This type of boot is made of rubber so you can hose them down when they get dirty. Many barn boots also have reinforced steel toes to protect your toes if something falls on your foot. Due to the material they are made of and the steel reinforcements, barn boots are quite warm and heavy to wear. Barn boots are meant to be worn as convenient and safe footgear when working around the barn. This family wore barn boots everywhere.

The family would walk to her parent’s house often. The two families shared in completing much of the farm work. No mater what time of year it was the family would be walking the mile between the two farms in the barn boots. The woman and her mom would also walk for exercise and the woman would have her boots on. In the summer she would wear the barn boots with shorts.

Because she did not work outside the home and farm the neighbor woman would like to come over and talk with me when ever she saw me outside. I worked as a social worker so I spent my day talking with people about their problems. In the evenings I wanted to work in my garden and have quiet time. My husband would laugh at me because I would sneak out my back door to avoid her seeing me. I think she would use binoculars to see if I was in the garden because it would not take long and she would be over in our yard telling me about all her troubles. I tried explaining to her several times that I needed quiet time, but she did not get it.

One day I had an extremely bad day at work. I told my husband that I needed to be outside. I knew that if I tried to go for a walk she would follow me and eventually catch up. I had my husband call to the neighbors so that she would be in the house and on the telephone. I then went out the back door and cut through a hayfield to get to the road. As I was walking off my frustrations from work I began to feel better. As I was walking back home I noticed my husband cutting across the hay field to join me. We laughed about the extremes we needed to go through to avoid the barn boots people.