Growing up on the farm

When I was young I lived on a farm. We had livestock of cows and pigs to take care of. Living on the farm was very hard work with the upkeep of the animals and their pens. Life lessons were taught at a young age that stick with me today. When I was big enough to ride a bicycle my father got me a dirt bike. I was the happiest boy in the world, but little did I know my father had other uses for me and that dirt bike. It was around that age my father started waking me up early summer mornings and taking me to the barns with him to feed and water the animals. He explained to me that the animals were our life and there life was ours. If the animals got sick, wasn’t fed or watered then all the things we love and enjoyed at the house would not be there such as my new dirt bike. So making sure all the animals were healthy was the first and foremost most important thing on the farm. After many years of taking care of the animals, some do get sick no matter how well they are taken care of. Spending hours in a pen with a sow till she gives birth was boring yet exciting at the same time. Then taking care of them, watching them grow you start getting attached to the animals. It was hard at a young age to care for and love the animals to watch them grow and let them go. The lessons I was taught living on the farm were harsh. I get attached to animals I took care of for years knowing that they were food and what kept our family alive. Even knowing that did not make things any easier the day my father took me to the part of the barn that was off limits. It was were other farmers would come and take live stock and where my father would bring more live stock in. well that’s all I thought was involved in that section of the barn. I was really attached to a certain hog that I raised since he was born. He was smaller than the rest and needed a lot of attention, bottle feedings, medicine to stay healthy. After several years he grew up to be a healthy happy hog until the day he got trampled in the pen and broke his leg. A few weeks later my father instructed me to round up the hog and bring him to barn 3 for processing. Barn 3 was the barn that was off limits to us kids, so I thought he was involving me in the trade of livestock since I had been doing a good job with the farm. In the back of barn 3 was several empty pens, very clean, which struck me odd for the amount of animals I have seen, go through this barn. That day I watched the hog I cared for and raised since birth get butchered for the meat that fed our family. I tried to fight back the tears and be strong in front of my father but I could not. He comforted me and explained living on the farm had many trials and lessons to be learned about life.

Being grown up, I understand the lessons my father was teaching me on the farm. Having nice things come with a price at some point. The price I paid for the dirt bike I got was sweat, exhaustion, and long hours of work. My father rigged up a hitch to the back of my dirt bike which could pull a trailer. Well with livestock comes waste, and this wasted needs cleaned and removed from the pens. In order to keep my freedom I felt being on my dirt bike I had to use it to haul the livestock waste to the garden and waste bins. That was just the easy part, shoveling the waste into the trailer I had to pull was one of the worst jobs I have ever had to experience. There was times I felt I could not wash the smell away. To this day driving past a hog farm reminds me of cleaning the pens and wonder if that farmer has a son, teaching him the lessons I had to learn. This was just one lesson I learned as a young child. There are many sacrifices that are made, and hardships that can happen for the better good of the rest.