One of the mixed blessings of having moved to Colton, South Dakota (population about 700 or so) has been that mail delivery in town …isn’t actually a thing. Mail is delivered promptly by 9:30am, Monday through Saturday not to a box on our front step, but to a box in the town post office, about a ten-minute walk away, if you’re going at a leisurely pace. Sam and I normally trade off going to get the mail, but since I returned from our latest mother-son road trip to Wyoming, I’ve been stuck on Mountain time and I’m still in wake-up mode. Not proud of that confession, but there it is.

So, one of us –lately Sam– heads off at 9:30 to the post office. It’s been hot here the last few days, but not too bad at that time of day. We had about a weeklong reprieve of pristine June weather –crystal clear blue skies and 70 to 75 degrees, the kind that makes the grass grow enough to need a weekly mow. But now, we’ve returned to humidity and 90’s since Wednesday. The kind of late June / early July weather that makes the corn grow, or so I’m told.

This morning’s sole piece of mail was a postcard advertisement for a farm open house. Not exactly a novelty around here, I thought as I turned it over. Most of our congregation by a large margin are farm families. For most of them to “See Baby Calves – Watch the Milking” as the postcard suggests would be what my mom would call a “busman’s holiday.” Or maybe something like when my dad came along with my mom (who got her driver license at thirty-something) to the grocery store. If he came in with us, it was usually to do sales research. He worked for a place that printed a lot of food packaging labels, so a trip to the grocery store meant the possibility of finding a new local customer. I could imagine some of the local farm neighbors dropping in to see what new equipment or technology this “modern dairy farm focused on sustainability” has –or doesn’t have. Size up the competition, possibly? Do farmers do that sort of thing? I haven’t been here long enough to know.

At any rate, it struck me as an odd thing, getting a farm open house invitation out here. Not sure how far and wide into Sioux Falls these invitations flew, but if I were to go, I’d be most interested in their claim to “capture Renewable Natural Gas from cow manure.” Farmers:1, Vegans: 0 on that scale, I guess. I am encouraged that this local farm is reaching out to the ordinary public, probably the sort that couldn’t explain how the meat that comes in plastic packaging gets in there, or whose kids might think milk comes from a plastic jug or a paper carton instead of from the underside of a cow (ew!). Yes, those kinds of people live in South Dakota, too. They’re just harder to find. And more education can’t be a bad thing in that case. Especially when it comes with free ice cream.