Being just one generation removed from a small dairy farm in northern Wisconsin, this caught my attention. My dad was the first one in his family to attend and finish college. Of his three brothers, only one even finished high school. His grandfather emigrated from Germany and ended up near Colby, Wisconsin. The Colby that Colby Cheese is named after.
Growing up my summers were spent bringing in the cows and baling hay. At first for my grandparents, until they went broke a few years after a fire consumed their house and the bank auctioned off their farm. Then for my father's brothers. At twelve I was exceedingly proud to be able to throw 60 pound bales, just like my big cousins.
More on the flip...
There's something about bringing things forth from the Earth that sticks with me even today, when I spend most if my time behind this laptop's screen, that brings a deep, heartfelt sense of satisfaction. It just kind of happens, like earlier this afternoon when I went out and gathered up a few bucketfulls of decomposing leaves and apples and spread them over the wildflower and sunflower seeds I cast to the ground along our alley fence earlier this fall.
But enough of all that--here's the meat of this diary. My thanks to a good business partner for sending me this. And let's make our anger known together and get rid of this blot on the world known as BushCo in the New Year!
An Old Farmer's Advice:
- Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
- Keep skunks, bankers and lawyers at a distance.
- Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
- A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
- Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
- Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.
- Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
- Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
- It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
- You cannot unsay a cruel word.
- Every path has a few puddles.
- When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
- The best sermons are lived, not preached.
- Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.
- Don't judge folks by their relatives.
- Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
- Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.
- Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.
- Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
- If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
- Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
- The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every mornin'.
- Always drink upstream from the herd.
- Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
- If you always tell the truth, you never have to lie.
- Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
- If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
- Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And leave the rest to your God