The Rocks.

A simple, quite Sunday was what I had in mind last week. I’d hang out with little man while Daddy was in the tractor planting corn.
This didn’t happen at all but I did get a good bragging picture out of the deal.

It all started with a phone call from my husband, just like most farm jobs, to come over to the field he was in across the road and pick up rocks that had been left behind after some dozer work.

Little man and I changed cloths and got the bale bed cleaned off and off we went to the field. For little man this was a fun job because he got to run around on the freshly tilled ground and up and down the terrace we were working around pointing out rocks that he just wasn’t big enough to pick up.
We were doing well for a while, then my spotter decided it was time for a snack and drink break and left me to the job alone. That was just fine with me since this meant I wasn’t tripping over him anymore.

After his break he came back refreshed and he picked up the small rocks and was throwing them on the back of the truck seeing just how high on the pile he could get them. When he was bored with that he climbed up on the bed of the truck and scaled the mountain of rocks and the back of the truck.
A move of the truck later, and after watching me use the shovel to unearth some of the bigger rocks, little man took it upon himself to pick up the shovel and start unearthing the rocks too. This worked great for me since I didn’t have to fight to get some out of the ground.

All of this was fun and games to him, but what he didn’t realize at the time was the little bits and pieces of lessons of life he was learning.
You’re never too little to pitch in and help in any way you can.

Sometimes in life there are jobs we may not want to do but they need done anyway. If we didn’t pick up these rocks it could mean the senseless tearing up of equipment later; which could be rather expensive.

Completely do the job to the end no matter how tedious it can become. (With the exception of two rocks I left that Daddy will have to use the tractor and loader to retrieve because they were way too big for Mommy to pick up.)

Even a Mommy can do a Daddy’s work. Just because a person is a female doesn’t mean they can’t do the things a man can do.

There is a payoff to completing a tough job. The mental fortitude to know you can do more difficult things in the future because you have already built a base to work from.

All of this to me is otherwise known has having a good work ethic; something that can’t be taught in entirety in a classroom and will hopefully live on within him for the rest of his life.

So a few life lessons, two hours at least and at least a ton of rocks later we finished up and gingerly made our way back to the house.
These are the things farm kids grow up seeing and doing. I know my little man does not understand all of these things now but as he grows and matures he will start to see and understand these things. My hope is that he will be willing and able to continue in his father’s footsteps upon the foundation we are building today.

Later,
Stephanie
The Moderately Involved Kansas Farm Wife