Farming & Life

Have I told you that we farm..... well we do, and this is one of the times of the year that we are busy, busy, busy!

The other day I was on the swather, that is the machine that cuts our hay crop.  I normally enjoy cutting hay, its just a time when I can go back and forth in the field and think about things without any pressure.  I can enjoy the view of the mountains and watch the clouds float by.   I enjoy watching the tall crop of green leafy hay being swept up into the 'header' and cut into rows where it will dry over the next few days and then my husband will come late in the night when the dew is just right and bale it into large ton bales.

Well that was not what happened on this day.  I started out just fine, back and forth, back and forth. Then I glanced in the mirror that lets me see behind me where I just swathed, and I was leaving a narrow row of hay that was not cut.  Then mud got gummed up in the knives that cut the hay, and more hay was left uncut.  I have to tell you this went on for 5 hours,  I had phoned and told my husband the problems so he knew that something wasn't right, but the hay needed to come down so he said to just do my best.  Its kind of  hard to explain all that was happening to someone that doesn't know farming so I will just tell you that by the time I was finished, the field was a mess.

Uncut hay sticking up all over, clumps and piles that had balled up in the machine and come banging out the back.  It was not my finest job!   Now this was a serious no, no!  because;  #1 It looks bad to have all those uncut pieces still standing in the field, after all, the neighbors fields around us are cut to perfection and we don't want them to think that we are sloppy farmers.  #2 It makes it harder to dry the rows when there is still green hay in the middle of it.  #3 Your husband will come out and say, "I thought I taught you to cut better than that... do you need me to take over?  Yeah that is the worst one.... I can cut hay with the best of them, as long as 'he' has the swather greased and oiled and aligned correctly.  And so when he says #3, well, then I have to bring up this little detail that, obviously he didn't do something right and so now look what was happening!!

Well that was what I expected that day. I could see as well as anyone that it was a mess.... then my husband drove into the field.  I turned the swather off and watched as he looked at the field and waited for me to get out.  He said, "Someday's just don't go the way you have planned, do they.  The good news is that this field will be as good as new again once the second crop has grown back."  Well I could have kissed him! .... I think I did!  Twice!

Life is like farming, there are days and weeks and months and sometimes years that come with unexpected events and trials.  At those times we look in dismay at the 'wreck' we think our lives have become.  "What happened?" We ask ourselves, "How can we deal with it?"  "What can be done?"

Its at those times we need to see things in the perspective that life goes on, that the sun will shine tomorrow, that it may be hard now but there can still be a light at the end.  I heard a quote once that said, "Rainbow's are made with rain and sunshine"  It takes the rain to come down hard in our lives sometimes to appreciate the sunshine and rainbow that it eventually produces.

So give yourself a brake, look hard to find the good, and always hope and pray for the strength to live each day better than the last.  The hay always grows back! and your life always has a new day. Express gratitude for that renewal and...... breath deeply..... enjoy the beauty of your life.

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