#1.YOU MUST HAVE THE CORRECT TOOLS FOR THE JOB. I have figured out that pretty much every day I work on the farm I need to have the following items-Pocket knife (never know when you will have to cut twine), cap (essential to fight off the sun. Dad thinks my hat is dirty...I just think it is broken in ;-), leather gloves (helps keep the blisters away), sunglasses (these protect my eyes from the sun, but have also saved my eyes from many flying objects-including diesel-through the years).
#2. MUST KNOW HOW TO OPERATE A STICK-SHIFT. We started learning to drive a stick-shift at a pretty young age. Dad would put it in a low gear while feeding or loading pipe, and we would have to operate the clutch, brake and gas. We killed it a lot, but I have it down pretty well now.
#3. PHYSICAL FITNESS. I might not be the most fit person in the world, but I have to have a certain level of coordination and fitness to do most of the jobs on the farm. For instance, today I was running a pitch-fork. You have to figure out the most efficient way to do the job, especially when you know you are not as strong as a man. I figure out different ways to do things to compensate for the lack of strength (although, a lot of times, I just have to have dad do it because I simply can't...I'm never too thrilled when that happens).
#4. PATIENCE. Dad and I sometimes have different ideas about what a job entails. For instance, today he told me the amount of feed (from feed bales that had sort of fallen apart in the field) that I would have to pick up by hand was "not very much." This is the picture of his version of "not very much." Took me well over an hour and a half to get it done and I probably didn't get all of it.
#5. APPRECIATION FOR NATURE. I have lived around wild turkeys all my life, but seeing one of God's creatures out and about while I was out working today still put a smile on my face. This one kept me company for just a little bit while I was picking up my last bit of feed.
#6. FINISHING A JOB ALWAYS GIVES YOU A SENSE OF SATISFACTION. Today it was much easier to get the feed off the trailer than it was to put it on. I had a little bit of help.
#7. MUST KNOW HOW TO BACK UP A TRAILER. I had to learn to back up a trailer when I ran the grain cart during wheat harvest in high school. My uncle was a merciless teacher ;-) I still struggle with smaller spaces and I rarely get it right on the first try, but I was pretty darn proud of my job today.
#8. MUST KNOW BASICS OF OPERATING A TRAILER HITCH. I am proud to say that when I worked maintenance at a sports complex in college, I was the only one out of five of us (including two city boys) that was comfortable backing up the van to the car trailer and hooking it up. Pretty proud moment that day. On the farm, I like our car trailer the best. It is the newest trailer we have and the easiest to hook up. When I hook up other trailers there is frequent yelling complete with sometimes throwing things because they are rusty and not very easy to work with. Thank goodness none of that happened today ;-)
Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great Easter week ahead of you!
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