I know there is coming this day that I figure out just how hard farming is. I get it. I know that I am blissfully ignorant right now. But yesterday I took down barbed wire fence. I expected it to be terribly difficult. It wasn’t. Call me OCD, I am a little bit, but I enjoyed rolling the wire into neat rolls and storing it away for another day.
When my family first moved back “home” to West Virginia, I remember observing my husband and my step-father working together on a large project. It was striking to me the difference in how they saw materials. We moved from a “town” of 50,000 where Walmart and Lowe’s were 10 minutes down the road to rural Boone County where Walmart is easily 40 minutes and Lowe’s easily 30. We cracked up at my step-dad Bobby several times and made cracks that whatever we needed, from a screw to a $50 specialty tool he had it in his “building” in triplicate! If he could find it! Don’t feel too bad for Bobby, all this joking around was always a two way street! And – it was true!
Jim, the now farmer, was always buying new materials because 1. He could find them easily 2. He knew they were the right size and shape 3. He didn’t like putting an old fitting into new plumbing etc. Bobby was always saying – I don’t know why you bought that, I had three!
We did manage to get the big project done and had a good time of it. I’m sure we drove Bobby crazy, but we loved the stuffins out of each other.
Now working on a farm that does not have V-Mart down the road, our thinking HAS to change – more into the “Bobby mentality”. Why waste a trip to town, losing half the day working, spend money etc when I can use what I have on hand. DO NOT Throw that away!!! We might need it one day.
I’m sure we will buy new. I am sure we will buy things that veteran farmers will laugh at us for. I am beyond sure that we are more than entertaining to my sister and her husband who have, thank God, adopted us a bit and are trying to teach us something. BUT – I will not throw away pieces of barbed wire fence that we might be able to use later. I will store things I would normally throw away. I will become like my Grandma Sharp and keep butter bowls and pickle jars etc. Actually, we should always be thinking like this. We would be a much less wasteful society.
Maybe those old-timers had something right!
Hahaha, those would be new work gloves, new fencing tool, old hammer, old barbed wire fence
And, I didn’t even scratch myself up too badly!
brandnewfarmers 