Where I Come From It's Cornbread and Chicken

{me with the pigs}

If someone were to ask me what experience has shaped my life and personality the most, I would say, without the slightest pause, growing up on a farm. There is a certain sense of pride that comes from having your dad work with his hands and your mom take care of her family. As far back as I can recall, we've always had cattle and enough land to keep us more than busy.

Lessons learned on the farm were countless. Such things as

• I was born knowing how to drive a truck and a tractor.
• It is important to know how deep and thick something is before you cross it.
• The better you treat an animal the more they are willing to give you.
  
• Everyone feels hot and sticky and miserable in a 2pm sun --you’re problems are not unique.
• There is always going to be another solution. You can't do it one way you can do it another.
• A piece of twine will do some amazing things. (It is similar to duct tape.)
• You can't start it-- push it. You can't push it--pull it. You can't move it--ask your brother.
• The best time to sing at the top of your lungs to Dixie Chicks and Tim McGraw is while driving a tractor. Country music doesn't belong anywhere else.
• It isn't always easy to find "this size bolt" from 6 five-gallon buckets of rusty pieces of metal.
• And it important to always have a lot of duct tape and WD-40 on hand.
• You don't get to take a hour lunch.
• Machines talk. They tell you when they are feeling normal and when something is amiss. STOP if anything sounds bad.
• Go to bed when you have the chance.
• Run everything to the dirt and then some.
• An most importantly, the harder you work at something the better you feel about yourself.
  
  Family and your stories are part of who you are and what you stand for. Dad can fix anything and mom knows how to make everything good. The habits you keep for years are as strong as life itself. We are part of the land we work. Pray a lot because it all depends on Him. However, work like it doesn't.
  
  No other experience in this world can offer the satisfaction I feel when I watch the sunset after a day of sweat and hard work and the realization I've "done some good in the world today."