Peach Season is in the final weekend with Autumn Star Freestones.
The Full-Season Apple Orchard features pick-your-own Blondee, Gala, Fuji, Jonee, Macintosh, Red Chief and Smoothee.
Get Cider, Donuts, Honey & More in the market, too.
Orchard & Market Hours: Mon-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-6PM
Winery Hours: Sat 12PM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM
Maize Quest: Sat 10AM-4PM, Sun 1PM-6PM
“Worry robs the present and bankrupts the future.”
A lot can go wrong in farming. A lot can go wrong in farming. That might be an understatement, but you can imagine the potential for disaster. Seeds that don’t germinate. Weather too hot. Too much rain. Too little rain. Too much sun. Too many bugs. Too many weeds. Not enough guests. Too big a crowd. And on and on and on.
If anyone should get a free pass on being a worrier, it should be a farmer!
That, however, was not my life growing up. Yes, all those things were happening around us, but my parents were not worriers.
Worrying robs the present. It robs the present of joy, of focus and of effectiveness.
Have you ever felt great whilst you were worrying about something? Nope. Worrying about something that might happen, prevents you from enjoying activities that are currently happening.
We have limited brainpower and limited hours of creativity each day, then we get tired. Each moment spent on worry subtracts from the amount of good work and focus we can manage each day. Worry limits focus.
Splitting focus, limits effectiveness. Life requires decisions. Worry piles needless information into your brain. Decisions require sifting through data, analyzing, then forming a conclusion before taking action. Worry heaps useless information into the process slowing down decisions, and thereby limiting effectiveness.
Why were my farmer parents not worriers? My only answers are two that I cling to now:
Faith. We believe in God and pray. A lot. On the tractor, walking the maze, pulling weeds, everywhere. Not in some wild hope, but for connecting with a power beyond ourselves. If the power to persevere comes from outside yourself, it relieves the stress of generating all the power on your own.
Perseverance. As generation #5 in a family farming operation, we have family stories that have become legends of the perseverance past family members employed. They took risks and lived through the consequences, good or bad, with a will to survive and move forward.
When I fall into the worry trap, I like to think of all my ancestors went through to provide me with the chance to make this farm my own, come hell or high water, and that knowledge puts today’s trials into perspective.
Yes, we could use a rain, but this is not the Great Depression. Yes, corn price was down last year, but I still have my Dad working beside me each day. (My Grandfather died when my Dad was 18 years old.)
Bankrupting the future. Worry has a lasting effect of souring one’s outlook on the future. With a sour outlook, it can be had to stay positive in the moment. When you aren’t positive in the moment, it can be hard to treat people, both staff and guests, well. If you don’t treat people well, it can be hard to stay in business. Your worry could bankrupt your future, figuratively and literally.
How do you, how do I, stay positive? In the video above, Mr. Worry writes down a list of all the things worrying him, and it could be a long list for you, too! Once written down, the worries have less power over Mr. Worry. I like to write things down.
Recently, my daughter was worried that she, in a driving situation, had eluded the police and she would promptly be whisked off to jail. She spent a sleepless night worrying about her potential felony before she talked with her mother and me about it.
As it turns out, the police had their sirens and lights on merely to clear the road as they went somewhere else and had no interest in her. We assured her that the police would have found her quite readily and, if they had wanted her to pull over, it would have been obvious.
Worry cost her a night sleep because she kept it to herself. If you are worrying, write down what’s bothering you, and, perhaps, talk through your worries with someone you love or trust.
I still have concerns. Worry doesn’t magically disappear. It is a ‘tension to manage, not a problem to solve’ as Andy Stanley puts it. There will never be a moment when you are worry-free, but you need not be paralyzed with worry every day.
Take it from a farmer, it is better to fill your present with joy, focus, and effectiveness working on things you can control than to lose time, energy and sleep worrying about things you cannot.
See you soon on the farm,
Farmer Hugh
PS The “Farmer Hughpon” special is LIVE online for just SIX more days. This is the BEST discount we offer all year – It’s like Groupon direct from us.
