Being a farmer isn't always just being a farmer.
Sometimes it is being a woman too.
I am not sure what other women's experiences are, but for me it is a challenge.
My husband is not a farmer, despite what most folks think when they come here.
He is a successful businessman, and often a travelling one at that.
He works an hour- plus a bit- away from our home and spends a fair bit of time away for work.
But when he is here, I remain the woman of the house.....and farm.
Women's lib , I love the idea of you, but I think the reality is for most women that we still look after the house and children.
But for me, it is house and children, animals and gardens. I drive the tractor, make the meals and mostly grow the meals too.
It is further complicated I think, by the fact I work here and am my own boss. I don't get a vacation, because when I am on vacation, things don't carry on.
How do you find someone to come in and do what I do? I don't think (I don't mean I am superwoman here) I could afford them! And when you involve the animals, I really have a hard time leaving them.
My family resents the time I put in here a bit. I think it would be easier to be married to someone who did the very same thing as me. My mom and dad were like that. Both teachers by day, but farmers by night. My neighbours are like that. They both work the farm and do what has to be done....together.
Don't get me wrong. My husband is a wonderful man. And he is proud of what I do. But he and my family get a lot less of me because they are not farmers and don't love it the way I do. They like what the result is...but don't love what it takes to get there.
And it is hard work.
It has become what I know now and I don't think retirement the way other folks do.
This is my life.
3 comments:
Hi Linda,
It is hard, my dad is a farmer, which I am sure you know, and at times/ a lot of the times, I wish he was more of a dad and not a farmer. I wish he didn't have to work 24/7 plus holidays, and I wish the weatherman would co-operate and stop making my dad stress, and I wish there weren't all the other problems that are going on in the grape/wine industry, but I guess that's just who my dad is and what he does, and I wouldn't change him for the world. I think your husband and children think the same about you, farming is who you are, and they love you!
(sorry for the run-ons and long comment).
ps. is that a picture of your barn, if so it is beautiful!
Hi Ali-Thanks for that- I got a little teary -eyed reading your comment.
I grew up on a farm like you did too, and that is the barn in the picture..my family's farm.
I think the same about my parents as you do about your dad. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
I think farming gets in your blood.
take care.
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