To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the News of the Farm, click Here.

 

Archive of Past News of the Farm:

December 20, 2010 Old Folks Farming
News of the Farm >>

December 20, 2010
Old Folks Farming

Greetings Friends of the Farm,

Larry accumulated 63 years of life recently. He remarked, at the end of the day, “Maybe I feel kind of old now.”

This brought a tinge of anxiety to my heart. I wouldn’t mind feeling “older,” for a minute or two; indeed I am older than he by three and a half years, but I generally don’t feel “old.”

Yet.

Seems like all through my life, there has been an occasional ache here and a pain there, and I certainly wasn’t “old” for most of those moments. Old doesn’t have to mean feeling tired, weak or sick. Does it?

Selfishly, I don’t want to hear him say that he’s feeling old. I’m glad I married a younger man as there is a better chance to live more years together. Apparently, women still have a slight edge in longevity. Of course, there was always the chance of him, being younger, dumping me for a hottie, but thank goodness that hasn’t happened.

Yet.


Some friends (average-age farmers, mid fifties) told him, on the weekend of his birthday, that he should start “slowing down.” I wonder what that means? Walk slower? Take longer to do the farm work? Sit around and whittle sticks part of the day? Sleep until 7 AM? Goodness, he’d be comatose after six weeks of that! And anyway, Rusty Roo the Rooster doesn’t allow “sleeping in.”

But if Larry chooses to walk slower, breathe more deeply and smile, that’s fine. Good even, especially if there is no defeat felt in the slower pace.

His dad, 86, visited over the same weekend, and as he left -- to drive himself back to Bryan (note that!) -- he cautioned us both that we should now go easy, slow down. I’ve known him for over 30 years. I don’t remember him “slowing down” 20 years ago. But he warned that we could fall over dead in the field from a sudden stroke, or develop some sort of farm-related misery that has no immediate name. But he admitted he was wanting to make sure that we would still be able -- still have most of our fingers, not be too stove-up -- to be available to him, in his own eventually-declining years. Since Larry is an only child, we (and Larry’s son and his children) are all he has of direct family.

But, his son grew up to finally be a farmer twenty years ago. I guess if we were ditch diggers, or race car drivers, or starting a new business, or planting another orchard, then perhaps we should think twice about our life expectancies. But we work the land, and once bitten by that passion, farmers are known to be farmers their entire lives. Perhaps, as they get more decrepit, they may indeed avoid the most tiring tasks, but they still stubbornly farm.

Some elderly farmers do downsize to sitting-to-farm, in an air conditioned, musically accompanied tractor cab, but most farmers around the world walk a lot, bend over a lot, and are exposed to whatever weather is happening at the moment.

Especially if they are small-scale vegetable farmers. We’ve long thought that the exercise and good food would help us stay active longer than most people. And so far, so good.

We are, in fact, going to plant more Meyer lemon trees, a “new orchard.” And we are ordering seeds for the new year’s crops. We have no time limit on our farming adventure. Perhaps we’ll do it ‘til we stroke out in the field. Just push us under the compost pile so we can continue to be a part of it all.

After all, Aunt DropTail, our eldest hen, will be seventeen next April. I like to think that we are somehow related to her....except that her tail has always been dragging, even as a wee chick!

I’ll have to say, however, that we are looking forward to our first two-day weekend of 2010! And, to achieve that, our Saturday market will change to Friday, December 24th, so you’ll have fresh veggies for your family celebrations. If you can, toddle on out that morning and we’ll try to look perky! And, we’ll thank you for your patronage. It’s what keeps us anticipating the next season.

Happy Holidays and may your lives be filled with health, love and optimism!

Carol Ann

Back