For some reason, beyond any level of common sense, I blurted out that one of my favorite smells was a freshly spread field. Despite my inexplicable declaration of liking the smell of manure, she did not go running in the opposite direction.
Here we are almost eleven years later. We built a house in the middle of a large field and the local farmers hay all around us. This past winter and spring they have been fertilizing in front and now beside the house, filling the air with the overwhelming and ever-present smell of cow poop.
In memory of a time when I said I liked that smell, I wrote a verse that can be added to the song 'Favorite Things'.
Gray shirts and kisses and long-distance phone calls
Talking 'till midnight and ring shopping in malls
Noisy old tractors with spreaders that fling
These are a few of my favorite things
When the egg rots
When the milk sours
When an accident 's had
I open my window to my 'favorite' smell
and then they don't seem so bad.
It is safe to say that today a spread field is not one of my favorite things.
Some advice: If you are ever in the situation where you are asked to list your favorite smells here are some great smells that should come to mind well before a freshly spread field: fresh baked bread, Spring, perfume, flowers, and pretty much anything else.