Thursday, I was to set up camp for a photo shoot to go with a story in the outdoors section of a Southern Oregon Newspaper.

The site selected was Hanley Farm, a 39 acre farm that now belongs to the Southern Oregon Historical Society. The Barn and House was built back in 1850...today; a part of history.

Richard, the farm manager has a small crew that maintains the property that still grows wheat and other crops for income to pay for the upkeep of the farm. http://www.sohs.org/properties.html

Anyway....the reporter called and said she was running behind in her schedule and wanted to come by early. I had a fire started the the chili was cooking; so I said sure. Now normally when I have a reporter do a story, they eat and I send them home with whatever leftovers there are.

Today however, the meal would not be done in time for them to enjoy it. I had not started my cornbread, and I did plan on having fried apples as well. Richard came over and I told him what was happening and he asked..."so, what are you going to do"?

I told him I'd most likely do the story then pack it in for the day...he told me that he had 5 farm hands working and they sure would like a good lunch. So, I stayed after the reporter and the camera man left and finished cooking the chili, the cornbread and the fried apples...and told richard to tell them to come and get it.

Now I told you all that to tell you all this...there was something nostalgist as I watched the guys come in from the field and a couple from the barn over to the campfire as I was setting out the food for them. I imagined for a moment that this was how it was at the farm in the old days.

We sat around the fire and had our lunch as we talked about life. Nothing to serious...one talked about the best dog he ever had, another spoke about an old tractor he use to own, another told us that he built a cathouse for his cats outside...we all got a chuckle about that one. Another joked (seriously) about how I should start doing this as least once a week...

No one spoke about the Oil in the Gulf, President Obama, Arizona's immigration law or what has happened to the youth of today...for a short time; we all took a break from the world outside to a time when things were a lot simpler

Something we should all do once in a while.

Will McLaughlin
Cowboy Cook
www.thatsgoodcooking.com