Farming Is Hard

Farming is filled with beautiful things, like picturesque red barns and rows of corn and silos that stretch to the sky, and farming is filled with interesting things, like the colors of chicken eggs and the history of heirloom vegetables and the work habits of honey bees. There are satisfying things, too—like a healthy calf born on a sweet spring morning and a basket of summer squash to share with your neighbors and homemade strawberry jam on your toast at breakfast.

But, admittedly, farming is hard, too. Not just hard work—because everyone knows that farming is hard work—but sometimes farming is hard because it requires tenacity and motivation and resilience and courage and an unlimited sense of humor.

There are weeks when it doesn't rain when you need it to, and there are days when the rain won't subside and the water rises along with your anxiety. There are days when you laugh at the antics of your new farm puppy, and days when the puppy has chewed 47 holes in your brand-new garden hose and—oops—you didn't need another soaker hose. There are days when you're so tired that every muscle in your body aches, and there are days when you're blissfully satisfied with the fact that you got everything done and there's still time to watch a show or read a book before you fall asleep.

There are days when a dream goes to pieces, and days when you pick up those pieces and refashion them into the beautiful mosaic of a new dream. There are days when you harvest crops, and days when you harvest intangibles like faith and hope and triumph.

And there are days when moments of refreshment arrive; when all of the summer flowers have burst into brilliant bloom, when you bite into a vine-ripened tomato that tastes like warm sunshine, and when a new foal's first whinny echoes through the barn to a chorus of praise-filled cheers. And that's when you'll remember all over again that farming is worth every single moment, regardless of whether that moment is magnificent or mundane or even mud-splattered.

Farming is hard—of course it is!