OT Family Farm/Fun day. Kinda long.

To keep this tractor related we use John Deere tractors and Oliver combines.

Today was one of those unique days when you are able to combine family time and farm time. My oldest son is 10 and I am making him help me with more and more things on the farm. Today I had him help me put up some temporary fence to help move some cows and calves from a pasture on the south side of a higway to pasture on the north side of a highway. We have a gate on the south side about 50 feet from the highway and on the north side about 400 feet from the highway. We put up the fence to keep the cows and calves from going into a patch of winter wheat. After we had moved the cows I had my oldest take up the T post while I used the tractor and moved hay rings and partialy eaten bales of hay. After moving these he helped me load a creep feeder (5 gallon bucket at the time) for the calves. I then gave him the tractor to "go get a new bale of hay". He did this with a large smile and great attitude. We finished this and then when to the house for dinner.

My two sons are involed in Cub Scouts. My oldest is trying to complete several units to work towards a badge. After dinner we started on his "handy man" unit. I often fix things and do not think about making him do it or having him help me. Today was different.

.I made him change two light bulbs in the dinning room over head light. Then we started on the fun stuff. I got my tire guage out and explained how to check the pressure in each tire on the cars, learned I was 3 pounds off in my car. We then had to put air in each of those tires. We then moved to checking all the fluids in the cars: oil, coolant, washer fluid and brake fluid. The oil, coolant and brake fluid were fine but washer fluid was low. Here is his question: why don"t you have any onhand? Then we had to wash the cars.
Next we moved to repairing a broken water line from the ice storm last week. We dug up the line, put in a tee and a union. We put in a water spigot at the point, checked for leaks and moved onto the next project, burning limbs and debris from the storm. We kept using the tractor and loader to keep the piles pushed up.

At this point I was ready to sit on the tractor and watch the fire, but my sons had other ideas. They wanted to see who could work the hardest at using the water hose from the newly installed spigot to try and but the fire out!

I have said all this to get to this point. We all need to take a break and involve our family in things we do, especially if we have children that are not yet grown. Today my oldest was receptive to what I was trying to teach him, even though I had tried to teach him alot of this before. We had a great time together, doing farm chores and things around the house.

I hope for many more days like today.

J, not only that but the kids can be a lot of help, and you are teaching them a work ethic. You should try to get them to do things that's repetitive and other things to keep them challenged. Its worked for me with my children.

Good for the boys and good for you, Ole Dad!
(and, probably good for Mom to have all of you out of the house!)
Measure their height often - -If they are growing, they are Learning!

But please be careful!
John

Good job J! Enjoy them while you can. In a few minutes they'll be driving, and in an hour or so they'll be gone and on their own. I speak from experience.

Paul

GOOD parenting!!! You kids will learn more than you think working right with you. Enjoy it while your doing it too. I focused on work a little too much when my kids where young. The time will fly by and they will be adults before you know it.

When I was a kid, that was just part of life. When I was nine, Dad put me on one end of a two man crosscut and I learned how to cut wood, that spring, he stuck a hoe handle in my hand and taught me to keep the weeds out of corn and tobacco. It was work, but it was rewarding also, when you picked your first ripe watermelon, or tomato, or dug the first new potatoes.
Working together helps build better family relations and I commend you for it, you will not regret it.

Kids need to learn how to do things. I had an aunt & uncle that didn't try to teach their kids anything. Their daughter grew up and got married - and she had never washed a dish in her life!

Children need an involved parent in their lives. They need positive role models. Use their happiness as a gauge to measure what they can handle. Smile and tell them that they did a man size job today. Tomorrows father/son partnership started yesterday.
SDE