It’s never really a vacation
I was filling out a vacation time card today. Not to spend it lounging on a stretch of sand being served fruity umbrella drinks basking in the Caribbean sun.
No, I’m taking one of my precious 14 days of vacation per year to stay home and work on house projects.
Pretty boring vacation, am I right?
I’m not the only one who does this, though. If you’ve got family still in agriculture or children in 4-H or FFA, you, too have to decide how to spend your precious 14 days a year from your career. And if you’re actively farming and working a full-time job, it’s even more critical. Planting, spraying, harvest, branding, calving, lambing, shipping and even continuing education through day-long conferences or field days all have to be accounted for to Human Resources.
Mother Nature and livestock just have no respect for a time clock or a calendar.
If you’re an off-farm child living and working in the city, you figure out how to finesse the farm schedule so you can return home and help the family at the most critical periods. You try to cram as much in on the weekends as possible, so you don’t miss work, but you can only do so much. You’re trying to build a career but you’ve also got older family members who count on you to do the labor and later on be their caretakers. So you trade weekends networking on the golf course for a Saturday or two running field equipment or on top of a horse in a sorting pen.
But it’s a good trade off.
If you’re a parent with children who show livestock or participate in 4-H or FFA competitions, you quickly learn to get your vacation requests in as soon as you know the dates of shows. Your after-five life doesn’t include a Happy Hour with the girls, but the smell of sawdust and the sound of kids and animals in the show barn.
But you wouldn’t have it any other way.
If you’re one of the thousands of young or beginning “active” farmers, chances are you and your spouse are not only trying to build your farm or blend into the established family farm, but you’re also trying to start a family, build a home and plan for your future. So you’ve got a two-income household, both of you working 40 hours a week in town just to subsidize family living expenses, provide insurance, pay off student loans and hopefully plan for retirement. Vacation time to you may mean loss of income, so that weekday seminar or field day to continue your education about new crop varieties or livestock handling. Well, it had better be worth the time off so that you can keep the dream of a farm of your own alive.
But that’s a dream worth your sacrifice.
It’s never really a vacation day is it? The work doesn’t stop just because of the label on the time card. If we’re lucky we have employers who understand not only the work/life balance, but the work/farm/life balancing act that we have to juggle today.
But do yourselves a favor. Carve out at least a few minutes to pause and appreciate the fruits of your sacrifice. Take a beat and smile at that happy calf kicking up his heels. Be proud of your kids in that show ring. Pat yourself on the back when you see that crop hit the bin at harvest.
You’ve earned it.
Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached at 620-227-1807 or [email protected].
