Editor's note: This article was originally published on Amy Engberson's blog, Little Dairy on the Prairie. It has been republished here with permission.

Before I start telling you about my date nights, I better give you a little peek in to the window of my life. I'm a farm girl who's madly in love with her farmer husband and three wanna-be farmer sons. Living on a farm gives me lots of opportunities that I couldn't get anywhere else. I get to drive tractors, feed baby calves, drive a manure truck, process payroll, make lunch for the vet, pre-wash laundry with a hose and any other job that nobody else has time for. On this little dairy of ours, we milk about a thousand cows. That means we spend most of our time stuck here, taking care of the daily operations on the farm. It's not uncommon for my farmer hubby to be stuck on the farm for weeks at a time, and he doesn't mind! Once in a while I mind!

Sometimes I beg Justin to take me on a date night. He is so busy I find it hard to get on his schedule. Every once in a while he will come in the house and ask me if I want to have a date night. Of course I do! Although, I have quickly learned that if he is asking me on a date, there is a catch! Last night he asked me to go to dinner ... and there was a catch!

He needed to deliver some bulls to a dairy near town. Justin came in to get ready to go and I started getting ready too. I had been at the school and visiting friends earlier in the day. That means I had make up on and "town" clothes. I drug my jeans out of the laundry basket, threw on my hoodie, pulled my hair back and brushed my teeth. Just like that, I was ready to go. See when I go on a date night with my husband I get "un" dolled up. I know what's in store for me. I think he needs me!

As soon as we get in the pickup his phone starts ringing and ringing and ringing. Yesterday, he was arranging an Eagle Scout project for a boy, talking to an employee, negotiating a contract, talking to his Dad about the farm, ordering some corn, talking to an employee and coordinating a meeting.

I have learned to prepare myself for that part of the date. I always bring a good cookbook or magazine along. I have to entertain myself while he is conducting business.

Before we leave, I always ask if I'm going to have to help. Should I pack yucky shoes? Gloves? "Of course not," is what he always says. So I pack some yucky shoes and gloves. And off we go.

I got a job, which I knew I would get! Yesterday I had to stand in a little hole and hold the gates, so the bulls wouldn't get out on their way to the pens. Sometimes I have to direct him while he backs up. Sometimes I have to help load a bull that doesn't look quite right back into the trailer. No matter what, I get a job. Like I said, he needs me!

He checks each bull over one last time just to make sure they are all healthy and ready to be sold. He checks the gates to make sure they are all securely closed. I change my shoes and we are off.

I have learned to take date night when I can get it. If I never went with Justin on a date when I have to hold the gate open, I would never go on a date with him. Honestly, I don't mind one bit! If we are together that is the important part.

So "¦ if your hubby asks you to go on a date to the parts store, or some other manly errand place, just go along! That's his way of saying he needs you. Not just to hold open the gate, to be his friend. He really does want you to come or he wouldn't have asked!