People choose the husbandry lifestyle for many reasons . Maybe agriculture is patrimonial , a fellowship tradition habitation - baked into a the husbandman ’s genetics . Sustenance , too , is a salutary impetus — farming provides an first-class agency to touch personal needs in an more and more dependent world .
Overall , though , I see one irresistibly uncouth trait among those who choose to spend fourth dimension take trough and working the land — problem . Namely , farmers like solving them and have sought the life-style that guarantees everyday challenges . Whether it ’s replace a belt ammunition on a rugged tractor or assisting in a complicated calving , farmers are at their best when things go wrong .
As a result , most of the content around land — articles , volume , county extension category — focuses on problems , most often in the form of DIY how - tos . These are keen , and I ’m not just saying that as a writer for Hobby Farms Magazine . I ’m one of those people who loves a serious job , and I learned most of what I know about stock factory farm from books and clause . ( I also enquire questions of veteran farmers — a stack of questions . )
The Piglet Show
But recently I paused while checking on our grunter to watch nine new-sprung piglets rollick in the open pasture and realized one drawback to being a problem - solver : I sometimes forget to stop and love when things go right .
I forget to observe the bee ’ frantic dance between hive health bank check . I forget to stare at the ship’s boat picayune flower of a blossoming love apple plant and treasure its simple beauty . I forget to laugh at the piglets when they jump and tumble over one another , micturate that zany little squeaking haphazardness that only baby pigs make .
A Fannie Merritt Farmer ’s problems , for a certain type of mind , are beautiful chance . But so is the serene autumn daylight when everything ’s exit perfectly and chores are over in a snap .
I know well the idiom , “ There ’s always something that needs doing on a farm , ” and I ’m as liable as any to go pick out the storage barn or reconstruct a compost bin , but sometimes the something that really needs doing is just taking a walkway in the pasturage with your boar , sit in the hen yard ( my married woman calls this “ chicken TV ” ) or , yes , giggling over piglets .
A Pretty Special Thing
Because — and this is the affair — not everybody buzz off to do this stuff . Not everybody is able to tread outside and see cows playing in the grass or chickens awkwardly trail bugs through the dope . Very few mass can look out a mom sow gently nose her piglets while they skitter underfoot . And all we have to do is step outside — that ’s moderately particular .
There ’s another grounds to take a beat and enjoy a go farm — sometimes it ’s easier to see what you ’re not looking for . Whether it ’s a weird tone in an animal ’s gait or a troubling discoloration on a peak , many proceeds are intimately direct before they become full - eager problems , but spotting them is sometimes easier when your mind is n’t hyperfocused on troubleshooting . Also , sometimes the job you demand to see is n’t the one you go out appear for but , rather , the one that get you where you stand , watching .
