Farmers Notes

It’s the little things that count.

Have you ever had an old clunker car that needed constant pampering to drive? I remember lending one of mine to someone once and it took about half an hour to tell them that they had to hold the key just the right way, and jiggle it just so to make it start. Also, don’t forget to check the water because it has a slow leak. And there’s the power window that if you forget and roll it down, it won’t go back up again without taking it apart. Don’t worry about that slight burning plastic smell if you have to turn the headlights on, it’s got some kind of short, but it’s never actually caught on fire, so it’s probably OK. Also, the back brakes vibrate sometimes, but only if you brake really hard. Then there’s the loose battery cable, if it won’t start, it’s not that you need to jump it, you just need to open the hood and jiggle the ground cable which has a stripped bolt holding it on. If jiggling doesn’t work, try tapping it with a screw driver or wrench, there’s one in the trunk if you need one. And one last thing… the sunroof has a leak, but only if it rains when you are parked on an upward incline, so if rain is expected, please park the car in a spot with a slightly down pointing incline and it’ll be fine.

Today, we were moving our portable turkey shelters with a tow rope and tractor. It was my job to drive the tractor, Will’s job to hook up the tow rope to just the right place, and Sam’s job to help out. I noticed that Will had taught Sam all of the little idiosyncrasies of the towing process. One of the shelters required bending the roof at a certain spot in order to hook up the tow line. (This is of course, because the nails that were placed in the right place to hook the tow line on have long since bent over or come out) Sam was standing inside the shelter at a ninety degree angle pushing with all his might to bend the roof just so. A casual onlooker would think, “what in the world is that little boy doing?” But as I observed, I saw a skilled laborer efficiently applying a necessary workaround to get the job done! Each shelter had its own little tweak that was needed. Almost none were the same. I would venture to say that every job on this farm is filled with little things that if you are not skilled at finding unusual solutions, you would be hard pressed to get anything done. I’m thankful to have an environment where my children can face less than ideal conditions head on, and come up with creative solutions to real world problems, and develop what we hope will be a can-do attitude toward the many problems they’ll face in this life.

-Scott Wilson