Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. -Thomas A. Edison
I absolutely love that quote. It is true, often times people miss out on opportunity because they are not willing to do the work. That is one thing you cannot say about farmers. Farmers do not have the luxury to just not work, if they did, they wouldn’t have a farm.
Every morning my farmer gets up before the sun is up and heads to the barn. Every morning before he eats breakfast every animal on our farm has been fed and before he makes it back to the house, the cows are milked and the morning chores are complete.
His day doesn’t stop there. Before afternoon milking everything else has to be accomplished. Equipment repairs, maintenance, fixing fence, tending to livestock, etc. There is always a task that needs to be accomplished and it all has to be done between the end of the morning milking and start of the evening milking. Many days there is simply not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything that needs to be done.
Most nights he is in after dinner, in after the kids are in bed, in after I can keep my eyes open any longer. I honestly cannot tell you how many nights he has only received 3, 4 or 5 hours of sleep before he had to get back up again.
So why does he do it? He does it because he cannot imagine a life without the farm. He cannot imagine a life without cows. He loves cows and he loves the work. He has worked in many other occupations but none of them made him happy. Farming is the only thing that makes him happy. On days when everything goes wrong, when he has to put down one of his girls or when he is flat-out exhausted he still pushes forward. Even when it takes a heavy toll, he still couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but on the farm.
He doesn’t do it for the money and there is no fame in raising food for this growing population. He does it because he loves it and he is building a future for his family.
So today as well as every day. I am thankful for my farmer that goes out every day to work hard to give us this amazing life of living on the farm. In addition to providing for his family, he is doing his part of feeding this growing population.
Krista Stauffer
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Well said Krista, your farmer and so many more others doing what they love in agriculture. Many are also working an outside job or two so they can do what they love. It’s supporting those in our lives, friends and neighbors with love and understanding so they can do for us what they love and for this growing nation. Bless us all.
AND thank you for all your hard work!
Great post! So many people can not understand our way of life and how hard and stressful it is but that we would not change it for the world. It is great that we can always find support in each other!