Finding Balance in Farming

Our discussion shines a light on the transformative power of slowing down in the farming lifestyle. As we navigate the busy seasons, it is essential to prioritize health, relationships, and well-being, ultimately leading to a more productive and fulfilling farming experience. 

• Exploring the misconception that hard work is the only path to success 
• The importance of recognizing the need for rest 
• Sharing personal experiences with injuries and their lessons 
• Strengthening relationships through shared breaks 
• Improved mental clarity and decision-making from adequate rest 
• Encouraging team-building and supportive practices on the farm 

Listen to our episode to discover how to incorporate slowing down into your farming routines for improved relationships and productivity. Join us and share your thoughts on how you prioritize health and well-being on your farm!

Transcript

Introduction to Our Farming Philosophy

Speaker 1 0:16

the farmer's greatest asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer, their knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.

Speaker 2 0:41

And I'm Dr Leah.

Speaker 1 0:42

Today we're talking about slowing down a little during the busy times and the value that it brings to our operation.

Speaker 2 0:49

So, jesse, when you look back at what happened to you, do you see your farming injury as a curse or a gift in disguise?

Speaker 1 1:01

I mean, at the time I probably thought it was a curse. But again, you always told me it's happening for us, not to us, absolutely 100%. Now see it as a blessing in disguise. I think I've said that.

Speaker 2 1:16

Well, and you can either make lemonade out of the lemons or you can just be sour.

Speaker 1 1:23

Right, so I was always probably wasn't great, I don't know, I don't remember.

Speaker 2 1:30

and I remember having some moments, some days where it was just bad and I only remember like three bad days, like there were weren't days that you were really bad when you toward before you had your hip replacement, like there were. You were very much in pain, although you would deny having pain, but like you could go out for a couple of hours and then you had to sit, sit in your chair the rest of the time. So you were a little cranky, but it was really more that you were just having so much pain, like we could see it in you.

Speaker 1 2:08

So I mean the whole thing. You know, for that first fall it made me teach not just Henry, but everybody around me, but mainly Henry, our son. It made me teach him and it made me slow down, or made me realize that things taking a little longer is okay, because I guess I can't say I had to slow down because I literally couldn't do anything, so I guess that's just it. It made me realize that taking a little extra time is okay.

Speaker 2 2:38

Well, it didn't. It didn't change the bottom line, right? So it. I mean, maybe it took us a couple more days.

Speaker 1 2:47

I doubt it.

Speaker 2 2:48

Probably not even that you worked shorter hours because physically you couldn't do it. You couldn't just go from sunrise to 11 o'clock or midnight every day and push and push and push and it was far more tolerable for you and really for our team. It was good having you guys home by nine o'clock at night so you could get some rest.

Speaker 1 3:13

Well, that first fall we were home at a decent time, but I was spent I could remember not even having a voice at the end of the day, like probably even middle of the afternoon. Again, the realization was finally there.

Speaker 2 3:27

So why do you think that you, prior to that, would push yourself to that burnout point? I feel like so many farmers. They just feel like they have to go and they have to get it done and it has to be this way. Even thinking about it, they choose to burn themselves out in each season. I've see it with planting and I see it with fall, but mostly with the harvest.

Speaker 1 3:53

It is just because it just literally takes longer to start with. So the longer it takes, the more you get burnt out. I don't know. I guess we always well, we got to beat the weather, or if my crops aren't in by X amount a day. So, yeah, I know, early planting, yes, and I still try to bust it out and get it in as early as we can. So I don't know, I guess it's just we always try to pride ourselves, I guess, on oh, we work so hard, we have such good work ethic and we do, and that's why everybody wants to hire a farm kid, or even interviews I've had some job interviews, just like you have. Yeah, they want to talk about farming and what you did on the farm, or Right, so my medical school interview.

Speaker 2 4:35

you would think they would ask about me working in the hospital or what my experiences were. No, they they asked me about the year that I had a market garden, basically like I was raising tomatoes and sweet corn and selling it at farmer's markets and to the local grocery store, and that is what they asked me about at my medical school interview, like that was what they were interested in. They had probably never had a medical student that had done anything like that before.

Speaker 1 5:10

Had a market garden Right.

Speaker 2 5:12

And funny enough, here we are back at the start. Full circle, full circle, yeah.

Speaker 1 5:18

I don't know. So I guess, yeah, it's just take pride in saying we have, we work hard because we have good work ethic. So then it's just telling ourselves we got to beat the weather, we got to get it in before may 1st and we got to get the crop out before. You know, I always tell myself I want to beat halloween. We always set these. I guess they're goals, but I don't know, I guess we just want to beat the neighbor too, like that's. People around here anyway will joke well, he's going to get the first. Who's going to get the trophy for the first one done, first one in. You know, you always see the memes and everybody the farmer's out checking the field and then the neighbor goes by and it's like, oh, we got to scramble, we got to go. Neighbor's going. Because that's totally how everybody operates. I try not to, but you see the neighbor go on and you're like, oh, I got to go, I got to go.

Speaker 2 6:04

So those are are, I think, good qualities as well as some bad habits just bad habits, right.

Speaker 2 6:14

Because it is actually those, those things within us, because I I grew up on a farm as well and I have that work ethic and I was defined by being a hard worker and how it actually can, and got to the point where I was a definite workaholic, like not sleeping but less than five hours a night, working all of the time in the middle of my obstetrics life, and it really can begin to eat you up. That workaholic, really, just like any other vice, can get to a tipping point where it affects your health so significantly that you have to change right.

Speaker 2 6:59

so we would really like to talk with people about how we can keep from getting to that point Like when, when does that being a hard worker start becoming a bad thing?

Speaker 1 7:10

Or don't let it be too late, like.

Speaker 2 7:12

I did.

Speaker 1 7:14

It took a pretty serious injury to to make us realize.

Speaker 2 7:18

That we had to change. That we had to change. So you, you know, we went through the fall where the fall, where you were out in the combine, injured but in the combine, and just really had no choice about stopping early because you just couldn't physically go anymore Right and like most farmers, you were not going to have somebody else doing your combining. And I get it, I get it it was the best thing for you and your mental health, but I don't, it was not good for your physical.

Speaker 1 7:52

I was in the combine right your mental health was improved by that well, right, I said that was the best therapy I could have had because I was so tired of sitting in a chair. I didn't watch TV because there's nothing good to watch anyway, but I would watch some YouTube videos or Facebook. But I got so tired of that too, I couldn't focus on reading.

Speaker 2 8:16

Yes, you didn't have the mentition to focus on anything.

Speaker 1 8:20

So then we went and actually bought a golf cart so I could hobble out to the golf cart and at least tool around outside and go check on Henry, you know, washing his 4-H calves or whatever. So at that point I felt completely useless. I don't want to say worthless, but I just couldn't do anything. And I felt useless, I couldn't provide, I couldn't. I could remember laying in bed the one of the first nights because I couldn't get out of bed by myself. I couldn't hardly even roll over. I remember laying there and being like I can't protect my family, whether it was there that night or just in general, like I just I don't know why that feeling come over me, but I felt like I couldn't protect my family or provide for them. So it got to the point where I was just pretty down.

The Importance of Slowing Down

Speaker 1 9:14

So we bought a lift to get into the combine, we modified it or whatever so I can get in there. So I'd hobble over on my walker, I'd get on the platform and it just slowed me, raised me up the ladder, so I'd take my walker and walk off with it, but then I'd get up there. There'd be I don't even know if it was a foot, you know, being fully capable. Now, if I rode that up I could, I'd step right over to the platform and walk across, but then it was maybe a foot gap between the platform of the lift and the platform of the combine. I remember riding up that first time and just looking down, like that was the Grand Canyon, like how am I going to get over there? I honestly don't remember how I did it. I'm glad you weren't there because you probably lost your mind.

Speaker 2 10:03

I would, I, I would have been like get your tushy down here. You're not getting in that thing.

Speaker 1 10:08

We had that fight, but that's a whole nother conversation. So I got across that gap and I was able to put a hand on the railing over here and kind of hobble over there, got to the buddy seat, swung my legs in and then kind of slid over to the seat seat and the whole idea that day, when we got that thing put on there, was like okay, we're just going to see if this thing works, see if I can get in there. And, to be honest, I was there and I was like I don't want to get down. I was scared to get back down, I didn't know how I was going to get down. So I was like, all right, I guess we're going to go combine some corn for a little bit because I want to try it out. I'm here, yeah, and mom took some pictures because you weren't around at all.

Speaker 2 10:56

No, I wasn't very happy that you were doing it.

Speaker 1 11:01

I knew I could not be there I was scared, scared to get out of there, you know, but every day I did it got a little easier. I guess that was like I said always. I've always said that was the best therapy for me. That was just mental therapy, because physically and even mentally I was probably not, probably't have been in the combine.

Speaker 2 11:25

No, because I you know, in retrospect, mentally I think it was over probably over a year, maybe longer, before your true decision-making capacity actually returned and I didn't realize it until you pointed it out to me. Probably I don't know, September or October of 24, which would have been you know 15 months after the injury, when we were talking about our grain marketing for that year and you told me that it was like it was, just it was. You just couldn't make a decision. You just couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 12:04

I couldn't figure it out.

Speaker 2 12:05

You couldn't think it through and figure it out and all I could think is oh my God, why didn't you tell me that you never voiced that to me?

Speaker 1 12:16

Because we're farmers and I didn't want to admit it.

Speaker 2 12:22

So you went through harvest of 23 when you were injured and had to stop because I physically, mentally, whatever couldn't, couldn't do anymore so we went through the fall of 23 and you couldn't you couldn't physically work late, so we didn't really have much of a choice in that and then we progressed to the harvest of 24. And then we decided for health reasons really focusing more on our health and wellbeing and that of our crew, our team that we were going to stop early and actually made that a choice and chose to not work late. Do you think that really affected your timeline much and how did that feel? How did you feel physically, how did that feel mentally, to be able to have the time to recharge at night and to get a good night's rest and have some healthy food Because that was another thing that you would stop and eat real food, not just junk food and sugar high to sugar high and coffee high to coffee high.

Speaker 1 13:36

So we never actually made I mean, I made just a mental personal decision like, okay, we're going to not work so late every night. I don't know that I actually told the guys that or you, but I made that decision and we would still work until.

Speaker 2 13:52

Eight or nine yeah.

Speaker 1 13:54

I mean it wasn't like we quit at five o'clock every day, but we still would stop. There were a lot of days we stopped at six, seven o'clock. We also had a monster crop, so then the bins were full, so that was kind of the other thing.

Speaker 2 14:05

But I don't remember a night we worked past eight o'clock well, so like we wouldn't get home until nine or nine thirty like the combine shut down, but then had all of the other stuff after that.

Speaker 1 14:16

Today, sure, but we were still. I bet I was in bed every night by 10 o'clock.

Speaker 2 14:21

Oh, for sure.

Speaker 1 14:23

So just being able to get home and unwind a little bit and eat a little something that was not a lunch meat sandwich or whatever, Well.

Speaker 1 14:35

I usually brought food out to you, yeah, but when I got home, like I wasn't just home and then just so tired, like I just said, I'm not even taking a shower, I'm just going to crash. I'm just going to crash on the couch Like I used to do that, like I would. There were nights at the shop, so the shop is separate from where we live. I'd sleep on the couch in the shop. There was one night I slept in the sleeper of the truck, the semi. So then if I come here there were nights I would just crash and not even take a shower.

Speaker 1 15:00

My Uncle, mike, would run the grain cart for us in the fall and some nights I'd say well, you know, meet us here at 5.30 in the morning or 6 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 1 15:07

His joke always was well, sleep fast. I still say that some days sleep fast. So this fall, last fall, I was able to get home and unwind, take a little breath, you know, get a couple glasses of water, a decent meal of some sort. If it weren't what you had brought out, if you didn't bring a good meal out in the evening, I was at least able to get home and get something nutritious in me, take a shower and be in bed by 10 o'clock and then not have to get up until five, six o'clock next morning, like that's seven, eight hours of sleep, or you know, laying down and resting. So then we were able to start the next morning at eight o'clock and I can remember just feeling more ready every day to tackle the day rather than just dragging ass, coming in there wanting more coffee or wanting a Mountain Dew or whatever for that quick sugar high. So just being able to wake up every morning and feeling rested was huge.

Speaker 1 15:58

And then in the end, I don't even think it made the fall last. I think we probably did beat Halloween the end. I don't even think it made the fall last. I think we probably did beat Halloween this year. I don't remember If we didn't beat Halloween it was only that's why we need the planner.

Speaker 1 16:10

Yeah right, we look back and see when we quit. If we didn't beat Halloween, it was only by a day or two, and that was on a monster crop, the best crop we've ever raised. So that meant we had to move all the grain and then we still quit at a decent time every night and in the end we didn't last any longer, and I think that we were all healthier because of it as well.

Speaker 2 16:32

The relationships seemed to gel and jive a little bit better. There wasn't all the strain.

Speaker 1 16:40

Everybody was in a good mood.

Speaker 2 16:41

Yeah, you know, for so long when you were farming you would tell me about how much you loved farming.

Speaker 2 16:50

But when you were in the middle of the really busy times it seemed like it was so hard on you and you were so irritable that it didn't really feel like you loved it. It didn't look like it and it didn't feel like it because you were just on edge from all of the fatigue and I could only think is this really what we want our life to be? Because we should be attempting to enjoy this and I've wanted that for our family for years and I feel like this last fall we finally achieved that. We finally achieved that and it was through the process of slowing down, taking some time together, reconnecting in the middle of the day around lunch, and even if we didn't stop for a long period of time, we stopped, said hi, had a little bit of interaction, slowed down and it wasn't much. And then you also slowed down in the evenings. I came and rode with you quite a bit when I would bring you dinner and that really helped our relationship and the communication process with the kids as well.

Speaker 1 18:04

Right. So also we started the check truck. So that meant you were bringing healthy meals out and we would try to stop as a whole team, Whoever was working that day employees, family, everybody would stop and set up a picnic on the pickup.

Speaker 2 18:16

We brought out chairs so we could kind of sit down and talk a little bit and just enjoy each other's company, even if it was 15 to 30 minutes. Our truck drivers would just kind of stop in and out. They didn't always have the opportunity, but we as a family tried to connect at least in the middle of the day. That helped us all a lot in our relationships.

Speaker 1 18:37

Helped our personal relationships, absolutely between family, but also it was a good team building exercise kind of too, with our employees. So when they did get the chance to park the truck and come over and sit with us, it was just good talk and conversation and I think they enjoyed it. They surely appreciated the food but the opportunity to take a breath, get out and stretch your legs. And for all of us in the tractors and the combine we got to get out and move around. But then those guys driving the trucks it's hard work but it's also work even though you're sitting in the truck, is you got to get to the bin site, dump, move, dump, take off, you know. So it gave them a 30 minute break too to just get out of the truck and stretch their legs and take a breath. All around.

Learning from Injuries: Blessings in Disguise

Speaker 2 19:17

It was good for everybody it makes going into the spring seem so much easier. We're going to continue the chuck truck and we'll be putting out some different videos on how we're prepping to make meal time easier and to bring healthy meals out to the field. So basically, the month of March we are going to be prepping a lot of the meat and some of the vegetables that we'll be taking out to the field to the guys, because it was so successful for our operation to improve our physical and mental health and improve our relational health that we are definitely going to be continuing that practice and not pushing ourselves so hard because it takes such a toll on the team.

Speaker 1 20:03

Right. So it made us slow down and it just made us realize it's actually worth it to slow down. Take that 30 minute break, take a breath, and not only did it create some good team building, it created better relationships in the family, and then we just all felt better, probably because we ate better.

Speaker 2 20:18

Well, and there was a break.

Speaker 1 20:19

And you got a break and it was good, good stuff Made me really, really realize it's okay to slow down. I actually remember as a kid we kind of did that every once in a while. We'd take a break in the middle of the day and have a picnic if we were in the field or something. Then, as the farm grew and everybody got busier, we never took that break.

Speaker 2 20:36

Productivity became a big issue to the world and push and push, and push and push, and this fast fall was definitely evidence to us that you don't have to continue to do that, that you can really stop and enjoy what you're doing and not just keep pushing to just get it done. That's how we have found it worked on our farm. We would love to hear from any of you who have other suggestions and maybe we can kind of keep this dialogue going with other ideas that people have. So share with us any ideas that you have, how you guys slow down on your farm, any traditions that you have to build the team and build each other up, especially during those busy times. We'd love to hear from you.

Speaker 1 21:22

Okay to take those little ones out there with you and take the time. And ours aren't so little anymore, so it's even more important for us to take that time.

Speaker 2 21:30

It would be hilarious to get a picture of all of us in the combine, like we used to used to when the kids were little. I don't think we are six foot tall children. I don't know if we could all get in there. We'd probably have to sit on their laps, jesse right. So on that note, we'd love. We'd like to say thank you so much for tuning in and sharing this time with us.

Speaker 1 21:55

Don't forget to subscribe, follow us on all the socials and stay in touch. You can send a text. You can send an email to farmersgreatestasset at gmailcom. So it's a good day.

Speaker 2 22:06

It's a good day to have a great day.

Speaker 1 22:08

Thanks for joining us.