Northern Farmer

Well, we finished combining last evening and as of now the straw is baled. And no breakdowns! I did plug up the old combine last evening though which is good for an hour of hard labor. But it’s all done. Now to continue on with making hay and the daily battle of wits with the angus cows on pasture.

During combining the past few days it was in the mid 90s all the time and it’s the best weight loss program a person could ever ask for. It’s called a the water diet, drinking it by the gallon and sweating out more than a person takes in. It’s hard to eat much in the heat. Before we went out in the field a couple of days ago we were taking a break under a shade tree in the yard and a relative drove up into the yard with her huge Suburban and had to go into the house for a second. Her 6 year old son was in the huge thing and never even looked at us but I could see him eating in there. That’s a sight to behold because I’ve never seen him eat anything other than a slice of white bread at the table in his lifetime. I was wondering what was keeping him so busy in there and asked when the relative came back outside to go. She said, he’s watching a Star Wars movie in there and eating candy and thought that was so cute. But she had to be off and drop him off at an activity for his age group somewhere. Her kids have activities every day that they’re being carted to. Well dumb me just doesn’t understand it I guess so I’ll keep raising our children as we have been. Even if the world figures I’m doing it all wrong.

Our children activities included shielding Dad from a one ton angus bull today. The bull was on the warpath and I had to get a one strand electric fence taken down out in the middle of a grazed hayfield where he and his cows were. So 13 year old daughter drove the pickup along side of me as I was taking down the fence. She does pretty good on the stick shift and clutch. That’s the way I learned to drive, out in a field with a stick. She did a good job keeping between me and ol bully. He sure had the evil eye for me today but the job got done with out me being made into peopleburger. When all was finished he challenged the truck and I show Rachel how to fight bulls with an old half ton Chev. Kinda fun really. But yes I know, she wasn’t able to watch Star Wars while sitting in the truck, poor parent I guess. I wonder what the university “experts” would say about our farm and family? And I also wonder which method of child raising will make a better adult. The totally pampered spoiled brat or children that have responsibilities from early on. I wonder if I could trust that 6 year old when he turns 13 to take on the responsibility that my child took on today?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2005 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.