FARM LIFE FAMILY LIFE BALANCE 2020 Husband: Hey, honey I’m not going to be able to make it tonight. Husband: Yea sorry I just have to finish this field before it rains this weekend. Husband: Yea I know I said I could make it but I just have to get this done. We all have had these conversations, whether its harvest, planting, hay season, broke down equipment, or as simple as just finishing up a project in the shop or barn. We all have decided that whatever we are working on is more important than that night with the wife while the kids are gone, or there will be another baseball game for your son. Maybe its tee ball for your oldest and there is 10 more games still to go this season. But what if there weren’t any more games, or you never got another night alone with your wife? Farm life Family Life balance can be one of the hardest things to wrap your brain around and to keep in check. This is coming from a Midwest farmer/tile drainage contractor. I am very aware of the millions of excuses we all can use to why we miss big events for the kids, school functions, family dinners, maybe even as simple as church on Sunday. But, the word that can get us all in trouble and we all love to use. We all have reasons on reasons on reasons to justify our mindset. I mean the first and foremost is probably well our dads did it this way and rarely went to my stuff as a kid. I can say I was that farm kid that was lucky. My dad did come to most my stuff. I was not an athlete by any means. Unless you call one season of basketball in the 5th grade. But there is a reason there was only one season. Dad was very present in all my 4H activities and our church. That is where we spent most of our time off the farm. I write this from lessons learned some might say the hard way. With having a wife working a full-time job and 4 daughters close in age 9,7,7,3. Yes the middle two are twins. We went from 2 kids growing up having no idea what we were doing to being thrust into the crazy life of kids. All the while farm and drainage business were seeing its own struggles. So, when I say I have learned things the hard way. I literally mean it. Excuses, you know those things we use to justify to ourselves why we need to stay in the combine that night, or to skip church and work day 7 of week 8 in harvest season, or the reason we choose to stay out all night plowing a field, or sitting next to the
BY JAMES RAMSEY
dryer in the truck for hours on end as it runs flawlessly but the wife is 8 minutes down the road and would love to have just 5 minutes holding onto you for the first time in 3 days. The definitions of excuses from the internet are: attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense); seek to defend or justify. Release from duty or requirement. These definitions might seem a bit brash but at the end of the day they are exactly what we all do. The status quo for ag is to just know we have long days and well make it up when were not so busy. But what if something happens and that day does not come. Now I am a firm believer in worry about today and let tomorrow worry about itself. But what if you use one to many excuses and tragedy in any form strikes? First off there is no reason to live in fear, but the other side is God calls us to take care of his world, this does not just include the land and livestock. He is also talking about the blessings he has placed in our lives. As the song from Thomas Rhett says, “we only get one trip around this world”. So, don’t you think we should make it count? I tell my guys all the time no matter what we are working on the “the little things are what make the difference”. This could mean I spend 30 minutes talking to an elderly customer about his wife that just passed, it could be the way we install a fitting just slightly different to make our the connection in a drainage tile stronger, it could be cleaning the mud out of the drive behind the grain cart as we leave a landlords drive. Those things can make a huge difference that most will never realize. But what if we took an hour or two and went to the tee ball game or soccer game on Thursday evening while the combine sits still. Maybe it is taking a Sunday off to take the kids on a hike or hunting. Maybe it is calling the wife on a rainy afternoon saying we’re taking the kids to the in laws and you to spend sometime together. All I can say is the little things can make a BIG impact on life, not only your life but your families, employees, and maybe you never know how that ripple effect will guide you to something better. All this to say we all can be better at life, there is nothing wrong with striving to be or do better for the family or business. Let’s just not forget all those that we are working to make there tomorrow better by pushing their priorities down the to do list, all in the name of success for them to live comfortably. At the end of the day we can’t take it with us and they will value the memories over that next 80 acres if history tells us anything. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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