We have now been on the farm for nearly six and one-half years. There have been happy times and sad times, productive times and less-than-desirably productive times, times of elation and times of despair, times of exhaustion and times of rest and through all of those ups and downs, there have been a lot of lessons learned…life lessons…that go beyond the scope of farm life and yet envelope it completely.
This will be the first of several posts in a series called “Life Lessons Learned on the Farm”. I hope these posts will make you laugh, smile and even possibly relate to your own life lessons.
SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LAUGH TO KEEP FROM CRYING!
To be honest, I am still working on this one…but I have been able to implement this lesson a few times! You have heard the old saying “Don’t cry over spilled milk”? Well, the person who said that obviously hadn’t just spent twenty or thirty minutes in preparation for, and milking that cow who decided to shift her weight, or scratch an itch, or kick at an annoying fly, or any number of other reasons and as a result, KICKED OVER THE BUCKET of fresh milk.
Of course, there is the chance to be thankful that’s all she did…because you can salvage the milk left in the bucket, but when she firmly plants her foot INSIDE the bucket of milk, the whole thing has to be pitched! Believe me! That has happened on a few occasions and laughter was NOT what came out of my mouth!
Then, there are the incidents that cause more work; incidents that could have been avoided…but weren’t, and the result is more work. Fussing and fuming doesn’t undo the damage, but finding the humor in it definitely can lighten the stress load.
For instance, leaving a gate open behind you inevitably and eventually will result in a bovine finding their way out of where they are SUPPOSED to be and into a place they ARE NOT supposed to be! One morning, I realized there was manure ALL OVER our back yard, and I am talking eight to ten piles! I couldn’t figure it out because everyone was where they were supposed to be…and then…I saw it. THE OPEN GATE! Obviously, at some point during the night, Mocha and Jersey had discovered the gate was left open and they took a midnight stroll around the back yard (so thankful our back yard is fenced in), eating to their hearts’ content and depositing their evidence all over the place. But, they had been “smart” enough to find their way back to their pasture before milking time the next morning! They acted all innocent but the proof was in the pudding, so to speak!
And then there is the most recent occurrence of this negligence when a gate was left open (do you see a familiar theme here?) and Elsie made her escape into the newly greening pasture. Now, this is a little scary, because too much of the richness of the spring pasture could actually be deadly to her…but 1) she actually made her escape while we were out there and so we could shut the gate before anyone else could escape; and 2)because we were out there when it happened, we put all hands on deck to get her back in. Three humans and one amazingly intelligent Odin (Great Pyrenees, just in case you are new to following my farm antics) worked together and got her safely back into the pasture where she belonged, even though she was trying every avenue available to her to further her adventure!
I think we all had a huge adrenalin rush as we tried to outsmart her, block her passage to the rest of the pasture and then watch Odin exhibiting a magnanimous adrenalin rush as he ran circles around her in an effort to keep her contained to one area. It was an amazing rescue and even though there were some harsh words in the heat of the moment, once she was safely back in her space, and we could all breathe a sigh of relief, the humor of the situation began to explode!
Along with finding the laughter in things, comes the realization that the laughter may not come immediately. Sometimes it takes some time and space from the situation to be able to see the humor in it.
For instance, when Fred and Barney first came to the farm, Fred was a little high strung. He escaped (with a lead rope on, thankfully) from the first person who had a hand on him…leaped through the electric fence INTO the pasture…ran around and seemed to settle down then as soon as we relaxed…he ran THROUGH the electric fence on the back side of the pasture!
This could have been REALLY bad! there was nothing but neighbors’ 5-acre lots and a road and a cornfield facing him. I have to admit that I panicked! Jeff went under the fence and I walked/ran around to hopefully head Fred off if he headed for the open road! As we got to him, ever so slowly so as not to spook him, what did he do? He hopped BACK THROUGH the electric fence back into the pasture where he was supposed to be! WOW! It was scary while we were going through, but as we retell the story to others, we laugh and joke! It IS funny! It just wasn’t funny in the moment!
So, what can we learn from this? Find the laughter. It won’t always be present in the moment, but eventually, you may be able to laugh! The other thing is “this too shall pass”. The spilled milk gets absorbed and cleaned up. The manure gets picked up. The cattle get back into the pasture behind a closed gate, and on and on. Trying to remember that as long as it all ends well, you will have a funny story to tell…may help you get through it, if you can’t laugh in the moment!
And, please know that I realize that there isn’t always laughter. Some things just aren’t funny; they are hurtful…we will address that as well in an upcoming post!
So, in the meantime, laugh! It’s like good medicine!
