12 Ideas for Summer Fun on the Farm

Sitting close to the water, feeling the warm sunshine on my face, tracking the clouds: these are things that help me feel renewed by nature. Farmers are a lucky lot as they are in nature every day. It just depends on their mindset, whether they are being renewed or riled. Summer 2020 will breeze by quickly. The key question for many farm families is, “How are we going to make this summer fun?”

12 Ideas for Summer Fun on the Farm

The Great Pause has canceled overnight summer camps, limited family gatherings, delayed weddings, and the list go on. The challenge is to come out of our funk and get creative. This year, if you want summer fun on the farm, you are going to have to create it yourself. Not sure where to start? Check out my list of ideas.

1. Create Your Own Nature Art Camp

Prairie people can order Prairies North magazine, a great treasure of local adventures, and off-the-beaten-path ideas of how to have fun in Saskatchewan. The summer issue talks about “Art in the Forest.” This reminded me about how I used to go to Jan Layh’s Art Camp in Shellmouth and hang out for a week with my good friend Jan and her artistic friends. 

The ‘Great Pause’ pivot on this idea would be stocking up your art supplies and creating your own art camp with your family, grandchildren included. Ask your woodworking buddies to build you some easels and think about the places you can visit to do art “en plein air.” I plan on painting watercolour cards to mail.

2. Get a Pen Pal

Yes, another forgotten activity is re-establishing pen-pal relationships. I saw a social media post where a mom was flabbergasted that her teenager did not know how to address an envelope, nor where to place the stamp. Amazon is getting lots of traction at Canada Post. This summer, let’s bless folks with old-fashioned mail!

While you are packaging, attack your pile of books and pay them forward. One friend is excited to get photography books that I inherited at our lake house from the former owner. Consider sending your old books to a friend who might enjoy them.

3. Time for a Picnic

For some summer fun this year, how about preparing a picnic with gourmet food, a checkered tablecloth, and local fare? Some farmer’s markets are open with online ordering, or some walk-up traffic with guidelines. Can you collect a great assortment of goodies locally to have fun doing a themed picnic? 

You can dress the part too. A speaker friend in Calgary has themed suppers with her teens and her hubby, dressing up for dinner while posting the results on Facebook. I think many young children would be happy to dress up like the Calgary Stampede crew and ride out to a pasture spot to have some fun roasting wieners, s’ mores, and making new memories.

4. Let’s Go Fishing

Angela Jones, a young farm mom, is going to use her son’s new fishing rod that did not see much action last year. Fishing can be done easily with social distancing, so maybe it’s time to make flies, dust off the old equipment, and refresh the tackle box. Maybe Grandpa could do a filleting lesson on Facetime or Zoom if he lives too far away.

5. Enjoy Zoom Chats

Grandparents are keen to find ways to connect with family. Many of them have lived through hard times before, so perhaps they never did take socializing for granted as the younger generations may have.  Southland Church in Steinbach had a great video story of a grandfather who did devotions with his grandson every day on Zoom. This is a powerful mentoring relationship-enhancing spiritual growth, done in a creative way.

6. Have Fun with the Neighbours

Get your neighbours to have boat parades, canoe regattas, or truck shows this summer. It will take some thought and planning, but the memories made will be very rich. Recall all the birthday drive-by parades this season has sprouted, and then translate that to how that might work to spark some summer fun in a campground or lake setting.

7. Explore the Local Area

Dig out the local history books and do your own heritage tour. Maybe it’s time to visit the rock pile, paint the rocks, and create a scavenger hunt in your own farmyard. 

The Manitoba Geocaching Association is Manitoba’s gateway to the worldwide adventure sport of geocaching. If you are new to geocaching, you will want to visit their website for information on how to get started, to find local geocaching events, and to learn about the benefits of free membership in the provincial organization.

8. Cleaning and Repurposing

You may not think of cleaning as summer fun, but it just might be the right day to clean out the shed and find historical farm tool treasures or cream cans that can be given new life along with the story of the original owner. Repurposing farm “junk” can give joy to the person who appreciates the tales that accompany the treasure. I’ve seen metal bed frames welded into garden benches, window frames strung with jute, and clothespins to create shabby chic photo displays.

9. Make Some Extra Cash

For those people who have “eBay whiz kids” in the family, you might want to monetize the things that don’t give you joy anymore (Marie Kondo style). 

10. Watch Old Family Videos

Our son has found a machine that transfers VHS tapes to a computer file, and we’ve enjoyed re-visiting old family videos that give delight to the new parents.

11. Canning and Preserving

Grandma’s garden this year has a sugar snap pea fence, lots of zucchinis, cucumbers, and hopefully some gladiolas. In our area, the number of chicks ordered was over 7000, double the usual amount as folks are keen to have food security and grow their own food. Maybe this is the summer you dust off the canner, and teach the next generation how to make jam, can peaches, stew rhubarb, and freeze the veggies. If you want more support in this adventure, seek out Getty Stewart Home Economist on Facebook. Getty has written books on preserving Manitoba Fruit, and she loves cooking. 

12. Create Family Traditions

While you’re feeling good about paying things forward, how about creating a family favourite cookbook this summer? You can enlist the next generation to make it digital and get it printed at Staples. It could also be like a journal to capture the thoughts and feelings of your family during the Great Pause of 2020. Way back in 1983, I purchased “Let’s Make a Memory: Great Ideas for Building Family Traditions and Togetherness” by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson. You can get a used copy for 99 cents on Amazon.

This summer will be different from those in the past, but it gives us the opportunity to create our own summer fun on the farm and build memories that will last a lifetime. Increase the fun factor on your farm this summer and let me know what memories you’ve created!

For more amazing tips for farm succession planning, visit Elaine Froese blog and check out the Elaine Froese podcast.