For six months last year, once a week between May and October, I put on a pair of overalls and played farm girl as a volunteer on a goat dairy near my home in Boulder, Colorado. I’ll soon start shifts for this summer. The experience has taught me a lot: That everything on a farm has a purpose. That nothing on a regenerative farm is wasted. That hard work is rewarding, as is caring for others, even if (especially if?) they’re goats. And that overalls rock as workwear.
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When my stint on the farm started last year, my husband bought me a pair of Dovetail Freshley Lightweight Overalls as a birthday gift. I’d owned a pair of super-baggy denim overalls in my 20s that I really wish I’d kept. But I hadn’t worn a pair of overalls since. Despite feeling a little, dare I say, sheepish about looking like I was playing dress up to rake some urine-stained bedding, I stepped into my new overalls, pulled the shoulder straps over a grubby t-shirt, and reported to my shift.
Dovetail Freshley Lightweight Overalls
, to aerate my lawn like the goats in the fields, and spread weed and feed. (Crampons may not be as good as an actual aerator for this job, but hey, I’m more gearhead than landscaper.)
Dare I say my overalls inspired me to sand and stain a picnic table—and they worked great for the job. My list of chores I plan to do in my overalls is growing. They inspire work. They inspire me to get shit done.
Sure, I could play homesteader in regular shorts or pants. I could work on the goat farm in other clothes. But, built for any job, my overalls make me work better, and more often.
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