Young person’s view of show cattle, on the Indiana Prairie Farmer website in February, featured a poem I found while cleaning a closet. It was written by our youngest daughter, Hayley, now 23, when she was in elementary school.

In all fairness between my girls, here’s another treasured memento found in our oldest daughter’s school-age folders. Lillian titled it, “Where I’m From?” This is the unedited version, grammar errors and all:

“I am from a farmer and a writer,
where family comes first and cattle
shows come next.
I am a third-generation farmer,
the two girls are in the county 4-H.
I want to be a lifetime sponsor of the FFA
that we make a lot of hay for little pay.
But I’m proud to say I’m a God-fearin’,
hard-workin’ combine driver
hogging up the road on my plower
chug lug lug 3 miles an hour
on our International Harvester
I am like the sun always sunning when it’s up
happy when I win and happy when I lose.
My room color always makes me feel happy
and excited to be alive today.
I am the trees, the fields.
Ready for spring to come so I can bloom,
Ready for the fields to be planted,
so I can grow and reap.
I am the tractors ready to get out, and do my job.
I am the semi ready for corn, soybeans,
wheat and manure to be hauled.
I am the one that hears,
“Be quiet or I’ll stick you in the barns for the night”
or I’ll hear and “obey your authority.”
I am at the table when the dinner bell rings,
cheeseburger pie, mommy’s homemade biscuits and gravy, fresh bacon right off the belly.
I am Lillian Ruth Hayhurst,
Cowgirl up is my sign,
And that’s where I am from.”

At 26, she still feels that way, and is proud to call herself a cowgirl and farmer’s daughter. Cheeseburger pie, anyone?

Hayhurst writes from Terre Haute, Ind.