It's not unusual to wonder what might have happened if you had taken another path. Peggy Cole, Bluestone’s new Office Administrator, might have left some roads untaken, but that hasn't stopped her from having two completely different lives at the same time.

Born in a small town in Iowa, Peggy lives on a small acreage, close enough to her parents to help at harvest time. She has three brothers, two of whom still farm and live five minutes away from their folks. “So I'm the black sheep because I moved away,” though she’s still less than a half hour “from everywhere.” 

While it’s common knowledge that agriculture does not make for an easy path, don’t make the mistake of thinking Peggy is burdened by farming. “I love cattle and I love tinkering. We always have calves. . . I love driving tractors, raking hay, just helping. I like to help people.” She used to bake cakes for graduations, birthdays, and weddings. “My grandma did it, my mom still does it.”

Peggy is also a reader, especially of historic fiction. “The Paris Daughter, The Winemakers Wife, The Women, Wintergarden, The Great Alone were all wonderful reads.  I love the author Kristin Harmel and Kristen Hannah.” Currently she’s reading The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah, a novel about a Texas family surviving in the Dust Bowl era.

A house full of teenagers, two girls and one boy, could qualify as a third full-time job. However, it sounds like Peggy has fun no matter what she's doing. She used to roller skate when she was younger, but not so much now that she has adult bones. “The older you get, the more timid you are, but in the winter I still skate with my kids.” 

Just in case administering an office, mothering three teenagers, and raising calves isn't enough work, Peggy has a new occupation: restoring gravestones. “This guy who owns a gravestone engraving company asked if I wanted to restore. All the letters have faded, and I repaint them.”  As someone who loves nature walks, she finds spending time in cemeteries peaceful. “People might put their favorite recipes on the gravestones, or a saying, or poetry. I love looking around at the stones, the old names. That's where I got my daughter Annabelle’s name.” 

Her busy lifestyle doesn't allow for much travel lately, but her ability to sing allowed for a lot of travel when she was younger. “In high school, I went to seven different countries with a band and choir. . . We'd sing in old churches with 400 people, it was so cool.” She would gladly go back to Switzerland, and we hope she can find the time someday. Maybe once the kids are grown and she's down to two or three jobs.