Chapter 21--Find Your Smile, No Matter What You Are Doing

Chapter 21--Sacrifice And Dedication Is Worth It When Its The Right Thing

Good Morning Everybody, How The Heck Are Ya? Here it is again, Sunday morning and I'm dutifully writing a blog post and getting ready for my podcast Monday evening. Sometimes I struggle with what to write about, because I've lived here on this farm for so long I think everybody should know everything about farming and this kind of lifestyle.  But, in all actuality very few have an idea about what daily life is on a farm and how much of a joy and how much of a pain in the butt it can all be, literally within 15 minutes and why we do it.  Maybe a little insight will help.

Does anybody watch the show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on The Travel Channel? I love that show.  Now I could do without the bug eating or rotten food ingesting, but I tell you, I love to see the different cultures shown on that show and how the people live their daily lives. I watch the show religiously and my favorite show is when he went down around Mexico City.  One of the segments in that show had him going to a poor farmers home.  This farmer was beyond poor, in todays sense anyway.  He and his family lived in a shack. He had made a crude tank where he kept fish he had caught to sell in town.  He raised a few pigs and chickens to help feed his family and he literally wore worn out shoes on his feet.  His kids were running around barefoot and his wife was busy with laundry, cooking and keeping their shack presentable.  This guy had nothing.  By our bloated requirements to live today, this guy wasn't living at all. They had no vehicle, no electricity, no internet, no Tv, no iPhone, no computer, no fancy or even average clothes and really no house.  It was constructed like I built it.  It would probably leak rainwater in a downpour and the dirt floor would certainly become a muddy mess.  Sounds like a great life huh?  How do people even live like that, you might ask?  Well I'm sure some people in those situations really don't, but this guy and his family were living.  

They didn't have a house, but  they sure had a home. They didn't have electronic gadgets pulling for their attention.  They did things together, sometimes just surviving is fun, when you do it with people you love. They ate meals together, outside around a rickety homemade table, not in their den, or on the couch or in their bedroom in front of a TV.  They played outside till it was time to go to bed and then they got up the next morning and "survived" all over again.  This gentlemen had nothing and yet he really had everything. Even in my somewhat slow redneck mind I figured out pretty quick,  he  was broke but certainly wasn't poor at all. While his situation could be taken as a negative, the thing I will always remember about that show and him in particular, was the gigantic smile he always had on his face.  His face never wavered,  a tremendously big grin was always on it. You could tell, even though he didn't have much, he thoroughly enjoyed taking the crew around his meager existence and showing them his lifestyle.  I told my wife after that show, that is what I want.  She said, "you want to live in a shack?" I said, "No", I want that smile!  I'm not saying you have to be poor or on the down and out to be happy.  That doesn't make sense either.  I'm just asking you, do you really smile when you think about your life and how you are living it? Do you make the best out of what you have or are you always wishing you had more? More things, that when you get right down to it, don't really matter at all 

 Everybody isn't made for an agrarian lifestyle anymore.  Mores the pity on that one I think.  A lot of times we become drones in this world.  Off to work at 8, home by 5,  at least 5 days a week, making money for somebody else or some large conglomerate.  Doing this for 20 years or more then retiring  and realizing how you spent your life wasn't what you wanted to do at all. I was in that rut.  Working an off the farm job, 50-90 hours a week sometimes, then coming home to do what I needed to around the farm.  I was also that mindless numbing drone that I mentioned earlier. Till I said to myself, there has to be more to life then just going to work, paying bills and dying. The company I was working for was implanting some changes that I didn't agree with at all.  The funny thing about that whole situation was I never feared for my job, although if my production numbers suffered enough I would surely have been fire.  I feared for my health.  Its amazing how much stress affects your health. I really think I would have had a heart attack by now if I stayed there. So with my wife's blessing I quit my off the farm job.  I don't talk near enough about my wife in this blog, one of these days I just going to have to write about her.  Her own chapter, even though she deserves a whole book. For today though, lets just say I wouldn't be where I'm at without her.  I wish I could say its been peaches and cream since then but I would be lying if I did. Our plans for a market garden this year were kicked in the butt by three hail storms and a biblical horde of grasshoppers. But we kept replanting.  My very part-time off the farm contract job never materialized like I thought it was going to and times have kinda been lean, but we keep going on. We make plans, change the plans and then usually change them again.  No two days on a farm are the same. That's what I like about it most of the time. From day to day you never know what you will be doing.  Will you be fixing a water well or fixing fence or treating sick animals or griping about all the things you didn't get done? Well, you don't know till that day arrives.  Please don't construe my comments to mean you should just quit your job, or not take one because it might not be what you want to do.  Make double damn sure it is or isn't what you want to do.  There is a huge difference there for everybody.  I'm also not saying like some people do, that money is the root of all evils.  For some people it is and for some people it isn't. Look around you, into your family and friends life's. Maybe into your own as well.  Are you or are they happy?  You can tell who is and who isn't and also the ones that are faking it. We all know those people making $20000 and paying their bills and seem to live a very content life.  We also know those that are making six figures, can't keep ahead of their bills and are utterly miserable.

 In todays society we put to much stock in material things, money being the biggest one.  Its our own fault really.  I can even see it in my own family. My generation grew up and while we definitely had everything we needed we never got everything we wanted, well most of us anyway.  I think that translated into our kids, getting way more then they needed and helping grow this entitled millennial generation that we have to put up with these days. I'm seeing it in spades with them.  When they get out in the real world they just don't seem to have a clue on how to cope or handle life.  That's our fault.

 I love technology usually.  After all I couldn't write this blog or do my podcast or keep up with friends on Facebook or Twitter, if the only technology we had was a rotary dial phone and a party line. Yes, I do remember both of those.  But we, as a society,  never have been good about taking things slow.  We, as a society, go all in when we want something, even when its something we don't need.  Would we be better off, if we worked outside on something we enjoyed instead of being glued to a Tv, or phone or computer screen?  Well sure.  Would we be better off to have our hands in the soil, or greasy from working on a tractor or our skin worn down from working with animals?  I dare you to argue against that one!  So why doesn't the majority of people do that anymore?  Sounds so easy to do, right? Well the biggest reason is hardly anybody even lives on a farm anymore, let alone is connected to one.  Look at all the people that don't even know where our food comes from. While I feel that's the biggest reason,  the most important reason is, people don't know what's important.  If they ever had their smile, the lost it and I'm betting most of them never had it! Its so easy to get lost and lose your traction, especially when you don't have any skin in the game. Find something where you have to be dedicated, where you have to sacrifice something of yourself to make something else better.  On our end, besides money its the lack of time away.  Now its always been that way but its gotten harder and harder to get away, even for a day.  If we get away for an afternoon now it seems like a vacation to us, not much of one though. Some people might even say we are stuck but I wouldn't classify it like that.  We are tethered with a pretty good sized rope though, but that's ok.  Just like people are tied to their office jobs or to their vehicles traveling from customers offices to customers offices.  I'm guessing I might smile more then they do. because I enjoy what I do.  I've found my smile.  I encourage all of you to find what makes you smile and just do it. Whether its on a farm, starting some kind of small business or taking that office job if that's what makes you happy and smile. Find it, grab ahold of it and don't let go for nothing! 

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings. If you enjoy what you read, please share this with your family and friends.  We have grown a lot but still need to grow and get this blog out in front of even more people. I also want to remind people that you can catch my podcast on The Prepper Podcast Radio Network every Monday evening at 7 PM, CST.  I discuss random topics that interest me at that time and also let you know what's going on around the place.  You can also find me on Facebook at OKredneckfarmer or on Twitter @OKREDNECKFARMER.  Please like, share, retweet anything and everything you see on those pages.  You can also email me at bodarkspringsfarm@gmail.com.  

Until next time everybody, have a good rest of the day and a better tomorrow.