There are a lot of similarities between the farmers around here and me. I am constantly fussing about and with something. Currently, I have a baby quilt on a rack, on my bed, ready to hang up. Poor Joe has about nine thousand hooks to hang in various places in our house (remember the Seinfeld episode…”Imagine! A series of hooks!” We’re there.). I have furniture to move and paint to roll. I’m constantly rearranging drawers, changing pillow placement on couches, fluffing something. Something always needs to be put away or fixed, in my eyes. It’s a nervous habit, I guess.
However, it’s also a farmer‘s habit. It is raining again today, and although just last week the guys were tinkering in the driveway with the planter, lamenting on the lack of rain, it’s now the third (or fourth) day of rain, or the potential, cooler temperatures, and one can hear a bit of grumbling. The grumbling at my house is coming from my husband who has been instructed with chalk lines and a power drill placed on his pillow (not really) to get to work on the honey-dos while the weather is crummy. I’m not naggy…I just have to jump on my chance to get some stuff done while he’s in the house! Other grumblings include the fact that now it is after the “magic day” of April 15th, and there should be something going on around the countryside. Other farmers in our family (i.e., my father-in-law) have worked ground and even planted. Friends have called Joe, asking him the ever present question of the season, “What have you gotten done?”
Answer: Nothing, ground-wise. A lot, fidget and fuss wise.
That’s not entirely true, and I would be in big trouble with my editors (aka, my dad, uncle, and Joe) if I didn’t recognize the fact that the planter is unfurled and ready to roll, the Turbo Chopper 4000 is hooked on and staged like a runner at the start line, and the seed, fertilizer, etc. have been delivered. We are all ready to run our race; Mother Nature is just not necessarily cooperating.
Which leads us to the fidgeting.
I’m hopeful that the rain, although welcome for sure, stops and the temperature goes up to at least 65 degrees…for all of our minds. Kids need to be outside; farmers need to have a glimmer of hope that they will get out there and get going for planting season; and I have a garage to clean…with another series of hooks to install!
There’s always something!