Just Plain Tired
March 6th, 2008 by Northern FarmerI’m really tired tonight, musta been all the coffee I drank last night at church and then stayed awake half the night, one of them things. But today we stuffed and smoked about a hundred pounds of sausage. I think it was eighty five pounds of pork and fifteen pounds of beef mixed. Just had us some a while ago for supper and I must say that this was a good batch! Nothing I love to eat more than our home made sausage, that is unless its our home grown pepper bacon which I’m heavily addicted to. Good stuff! I always figure that the best foods have a little spice in them to give it a little kick. Just me I guess. So other than that things are still on cruise around here, to cold to clean pens and the pack is getting deeper everyday. Its been a few years since winter has hung on like it has this year. But when it changes it can come fast.
Just got done with my nightly lesson, Bible lesson that is. This second schooling that I signed up for is more my style of studying, the only textbook is the Bible. And it really gets down verse by verse. I never realized there was so much stuff in all these what I thought were simple verses. But there’s a load of wisdom in every one it seems. This is how I like to study, in the book that really counts. I still read books and books every night, mostly the smaller books by Kenneth Hagin, some Smith Wigglesworth sermons, things like that and they are so, so good. But the Bible is thee one I’m really drawn to. And with years of studies ahead of me I don’t have to worry about what to study next.
Sometimes I ask myself and I’m sure others sometimes wonder how come I always want to be studying these things. I don’t rightly know, except that I do know that there’s such a hunger and it never gets satisfied. I mean there’s no way that I’ll ever finish and know it all, more than likely won’t know all to much but just keep on pluggin. just got done telling my wife how much I think this all fits into the way we live our life here. Just like when I’d mention the old farmer/preachers of years gone by. I think its a natural fit. Sometimes I wonder how come there ain’t more of that anymore until I realize that people are more segmented in their lives nowadays compared to years ago. Now it seems like a person gets done with the job that they figure they are called to do in life and they plop their butt down in front of a TV or something. Call it a day. Something that I never could do.
Work all day and talk with our Lord and when the work is done just get back into more of Him through His Word. And a couple times a week head for church and get together with the saints for worship and fellowship. It fits, it fits more natural than anything else I could imagine. And soon will be the spring crush of work, in fact that crush doesn’t end till next winter starts, but these last few years it seems like its gone better and easier even though we rarely miss a church service and continue studying the Word in the late evenings. I do believe that God takes care of those that seek Him and He ain’t gonna let us down because we are spending that little bit of spare time seeking His presence. So bit by bit I’m starting to realize that there can be a very good life seeking God, preaching the Gospel, and still farm full time. I’da never believed it if a person would have told me that even a couple years ago.
But like I say, I’m really tired tonight and I still haven’t done my nightly Bible reading in the Book of Numbers, (egad!), and if I can make it through two chapters of that without nodding off I figure I’m really doing good! But at least in looking ahead one can see the end of those books in sight near the end of March. Got me some pocket Bibles, ordered ten of them. They’re the full Bible, old and new, “easy to read” version, really that’s what they’re called, although I must say you do need a pocket a little bigger than one a snuff can fits in comfortably, but they’re still smaller than normal Bibles. That way I can read them in the busy season on the farm during the day, here and there when there’s a moment or two. Got ten of them for now, you never know when there’l be an opportunity to give one to someone. And it helps when a person is given a Bible that they can easily understand it. These ain’t for some deep theological studies, just the Word getting to the regular folks. Maybe soon I’ll set up a thing on my blogs to give them away to some folks that really don’t have any Bibles around. And a person would be surprised how many folks don’t have any nowadays.
Well I was going to write a short one just to let folks know what I’m up to, but just rambled on here tonight about nothing earth shakingly important. That’s OK, we all have our days and today’s one of mine. Tired, tired and tired! Hopefully I’ll be all rested up for tomorrow’s cold day.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Tom, I think we aren’t too far apart in age (I’m 51) so I understand what you mean about being tired at the end of a day, especially as this winter hangs on, it just kind of drains you! So, here I sit looking at a February 1946 Country Gentleman and in the letters section I read something that makes me feel ashamed of my complaining about being tired! A reader had written in about a family in Ravanna Township near Hastings Minnesota. Three brothers (ages 81, 75 and 73) and one sister (aged 77) with the help of two sons and a single daughter had farmed thru the war and raised pigs, milked cows (increasing milk production 50%), farmed 600 acres, 459 of which were corn, flax, soybeans, hay and other crops. They did it without electrical service on the farm and with old equipment (new equipment wasn’t available during WW2). As the writer noted “eight pair of untiring hands”, I hang my head in shame.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Brent,
I was just trying to figure out how old I am, weird how at this age a person doesn’t keep track as much anymore. I’m 52 so yes we’re close. Yup, an article like that’ll make “me” ashamed of the complaining I do! But in my defense I declare insanity, (I’ll try anything to defend myself). Just the long winter blues. But that’s another thing about the past, in the long winters it wasn’t all that rosy much of the time. I hear about my grandfather sitting around the potbelly in winter almost going nuts. When the chores were done, there wasn’t anything else to do during a hard winter except bear it. Add the fact that there wasn’t a dime to be had and that could get awfully long eh.
But what you wrote about is something I’ve dwelt on for some time now, the misconception that years ago everyone was just a real small farmer. By that I mean just barely producing enough to feed themselves. As the story you mentioned states, those folks really farmed. Family farming and producing quite a bit. All without the help of modern conveniences. Who knows, with $24 wheat maybe the time will come when families can hook up some strong teams of horses and make a durn good living again on the farm without the worry of tightening fuel supplies and skyrocketing input prices. Just this year with the wheat scenario there’s a glimpse into the future where farm families could tend the land again the way it was intended to be tended and make a living on some of the crops off the place besides the livestock operations already in place.
I’m just dreaming here a bit. But I can see where it’ll cross the hump and those grand old farms might make a reappearance someday. In reality there’ll be very little choice as far as I can see.
One other thing for any readers, folks working on farms around here at the ages of those people Brent wrote about is not really uncommon. You’d be surprised how long some of these folks last on the farm, and in pretty decent shape too!