Once a farmer, always a hand

Some skills are perishable and some skills go out of style, but the level of competence you achieve working as a farmer or rancher tends to be pretty stable.

It is a hard-won handiness that is always in demand, no matter how far you may stray from the path of agriculture.

As we’ve discussed before, the concept of a vacation is quite foreign to the dedicated farmer or rancher, and indeed, alien to the man or woman who is both.

There are those, who, for one reason or another, leave to pursue the lofty idea of a job that is less dangerous, well-air-conditioned, and not only defines the concept of vacation, but may even pay you to not be there for a few days a year.

This dream is usually disappointing in its mundanity compared to the ever-changing challenge of the open field, but sometimes a cushy town job is just what the doctor ordered for a little while.

You do your thing and punch nothing but keys for a while and then the generous two-week, time off for the holidays is finally here. The plan is to not have a plan, but catch up on the neglected sources of joy that you call hobbies, find and conversate with friends and family for longer than a lunch hour, and generally enjoy the freedom of having no job that just has to be done for a few days.

This is, of course, a dream. We all know that vacations do not exist for the agriculturally involved, and once you’ve mastered some aspect of the agricultural arts, your skills will forever be in demand — and convention dictates that you can’t say no to a pleasant request for expert assistance.

And so, you lay out your paint brushes and start to pour a glass of egg nog, but before you can say, “No,” you answer the phone and return to the field to practice your unperished skills. As if no time has passed, you fall into gathering formation with the other pickups and gather the cattle. The sorting alley is a dangerous, quick, but comfortable place. Your vacation is work, but is it so bad to do what you can do so good?

The worst is the eating, as you’ve grown accustomed to regularly scheduled meals … And what do you tell the people who ask that inevitable question about what activates you engaged in in the in-between?

“I saw my family for the holidays and now it’s back to the long vacation.”

Audra Brown is a practiced practitioner of the agricultural arts. Contact her at: [email protected]