Farm work doesn’t make you stronger. It reveals you.There’s gym strong and then there’s farm strong.
They’re mutually exclusive. Hot cold tired and hungry.... farm work will kick your ass until you have no ass left to kick. Every muscle joint and tendon will be strained. Even when fit.... Farm tired is not just being tired!
The toughest women you’ll ever meet spend their days on a farm.
“Well that certainly didn’t go as planned,” is one thing you’ll say quite a bit. Control is a mere illusion. The thought that you have any, at any given time, is utterly false.
Sometimes sleep is a luxury. So are lunch and dinner. And brushing your hair.
If you’ve never felt your obliques contract, then you’ve never tried stopping an overly full wheelbarrow of horse manure from tipping over sideways. Trust me, you’ll find muscles that you never knew existed on the human skeleton to prevent this from happening.
There is no other option & You’ll cry. Sometimes you get so hardened that you stop crying at all because who has time for that shit! There's work to be done! But you’ll never live more fully. You’ll remain present no matter what because you must.
You’ll find yourself saying things like, “we have maybe twenty minutes of daylight left to git ‘er done” whilst gazing up at a nonspecific place in the sky.
You’ll become weirdly obsessive about the weather.
You’ll go out in public wearing filthy clothes and smelling of dirt, sweat and poop. People will look at you sideways and crinkle their noses but you won’t care.
Your entire day can derail within ten seconds of the rising sun.
Farm work is difficult in its simplicity. You'll be drained before you start another day & forget that you didn't shower as you cave into bed.
Socializing is rare because that energy is saved to pull out a foal from their mama. Having time is a luxury.
Stamina .... New meaning to the word. Sandwiches will have dirt in them. And fingernails are constantly crusty.
You'll never live more tired and satisfied though. You'll never live more appreciative of the miracle we all call life.
And at the end of the day..... You'll never love more deeply than seeing your faithful horse wanting a snuggle at feeding time.
♥️♥️
