I mentioned in my last post about the blizzard and the drought, but I didn’t really manage to explain how they relate to the Weird Week that Was. Don’t worry, we’re getting there.
So, the drought was bad. Epic and arid. And our irrigation allowed us to break even. Just barely. When I say barely, I mean it. There was actually no money left over after paying our bills for the year. That means that there wouldn’t be any groceries or new shoes for this year if my husband didn’t work off.
Well, that may be an exaggeration. We could have bought on credit (although a year of groceries might have strained our credit limit a tad) or taken out a loan to cover our living expenses for the year. We didn’t have to, because my husband works off.
I can hear the question from the non-farm community (and don’t feel badly, twenty years ago, I would have had the same questions - I was a city girl when I met my husband. My knowledge of farm life comes from having lived it for the last fifteen years) “What exactly is ‘working off?’”
Working off is what farmers call it when you have a traditional job working for someone else in addition to your farming operation. Back in the day when my father-in-law was alive, he encouraged my husband to work off, so that he could start building a nest egg young. He felt that farming was losing some of it’s security (many family farms have been driven out of business), and recommend to my husband that he work off.
My husband got a pretty good gig working for another agricultural company (a large poultry production company), and he’s worked his way up the ladder there over the last fifteen years. He’s now in charge of the company’s feed production facilities in the northeast portion of the country. Dobby’s a hard worker, and pretty damned smart, so his rise through the ranks was inevitable (if I must say so myself).
OK, I hear you, back on track. Working off allowed us to have enough money to live off of for this year. It will allow us to scrape by for another season (many farmers talk about working off. I often hear them say that they work off so that they can afford to farm - many years, as much of 70% of farmers don’t show a profit. When they do, it is often not enough to live off for the year).
And now I slip off track again. You may wonder why farmers do it. Why do they continue to farm if they have no guaranteed job security and no guarantee of showing a profit? Well, that’s an easy question to answer, but the answer is complex.
Most farmers, at least the ones that I know, will complain from sun up to sun down about never making any money. They will complain about the weather. They’ll complain about the price of seed, chemicals, fertilizers. They will complain about not making much money. They’ll complain about being underappreciated. They will complain about a myriad of other things.
But, they will not stop doing what they are doing. It’s all true. We can’t control the weather. The cost of doing business continues to rise, while the price of the goods we produce rarely rises enough to offset inflation. We DO tend to be underappreciated. And the job security is, well, not very secure.
The fact of the matter is that for most farmers, it’s not just a job, it’s a way of life. More than that, it’s not just a way of life. It’s a mission.
There is something inherently romantic and honorable about providing for others. About working hard to provide a basic need for mankind. And every farmer that I know, regardless of how much they do or do not complain, regardless of whether or not they work off, regardless of how much money they make, is an honorable person.
They work hard doing something that they love. But, the fact of the matter is, they love it because of how it benefits you. And your family.
The romance, the nobility, the honor, and the simplicity of farming get into a farmers blood. It gets into their soul. It becomes a part of them.
So, please, the next time that you get stuck behind a tractor in traffic and are forced to drive 15 mph in a 50 mph zone, don’t curse them in your head. The next time that you see a farmer and his or her family out wearing well-worn clothes that came from a thrift store, do not mock them (even mentally). Remember, they are driving that slow for you. And their family does without new things because they are willing to sacrifice for the greater good.
And, again, how does this relate to the Weird Week that Was? I’ll continue on in my next post.
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Christy Parker is the author of two blogs: Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.
Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day: The First Twelve Lessons
For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.
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