On our franch, there is a small cabin only about 25 feet away from our back patio. \u00a0I really needed it to be a ranch hand house. \u00a0But, I can\u2019t afford a ranch hand. \u00a0So, it has become a guesthouse for my in-laws and parents. \u00a0This year, they both let us know that they were planning extended stays with us. \u00a0So, I came up with a perfect plan. \u00a0They could be my\u00a0part-time ranch hands. \u00a0This would work well for two reasons. \u00a0First, extra franch chores that would take our family weeks to complete would be accomplished sooner. \u00a0And second, I figured posting a long list of chores on the door of their guesthouse would eventually exhaust them, keeping their stay to a reasonable length. \u00a0Apparently, life\u2019s too good on the franch. \u00a0One month ago, my in-laws arrived. \u00a0And, they\u2019re still here. \u00a0During this visit, it seemed the more they lived each day on the franch, the more they wanted to stay. \u00a0And I couldn\u2019t tire them out\u2026they helped our children show chickens at the junior livestock show, helped butcher a second batch of chickens, helped prepare delicious meals from our garden harvests and with our homegrown chicken and lamb, assisted in training our border collie, cleaned out the barn, and delivered our goat to a fellow rancher to breed with his buck. \u00a0And, my father-in-law was even upset with us that we didn\u2019t have a goat milking \u2013 he said he was looking forward to\u00a0spending hours milking and making goat cheese! \u00a0Well, I am very blessed to have wonderful in-laws, but you all know what\u2019s it\u2019s like to have guests for after just three days. \u00a0And, it\u2019s been a month! \u00a0Ironically, it was my father-in-law who first told me years ago the old truism found in Benjamin Franklin\u2019s Poor Richard\u2019s Almanac, \u201cFish and visitors stink after three days.\u201d \u00a0The idea is that fish left out start to stink, and so do visitors who keep prolonging a visit. \u00a0My in-laws promise they\u2019re leaving on Tuesday, but I\u2019ll believe it when I see their taillights at the end of our driveway. \u00a0I get why it\u2019s hard to leave. \u00a0I agree, life\u2019s good on the franch. \u00a0I\u2019m ready for them to go. \u00a0But, the catch-22 of family visits is that I know as soon as the gate closes behind them, I\u2019ll miss them. \u00a0This past month, life has been especially good on the franch.<\/p>\n
*Note: I received permission from my in-laws to write about them in this way! \u00a0Thankfully, they have a sense of humor. \u00a0And they agreed with a smile, “Life’s too good on the franch.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On our franch, there is a small cabin only about 25 feet away from our back patio. \u00a0I really needed it to be a ranch hand house. \u00a0But, I can\u2019t afford a ranch hand. \u00a0So, it has become a guesthouse for my in-laws and parents. \u00a0This year, they both let us know that they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}