Mistakes I've Made
Nobody ever wants to tell you they failed.
And I get that. But sometimes it’s not so much a failure as a lesson. Those are the things, among many others, I plan to share. The lessons we learn, sometimes even through failure.
You might have a wonderful network of mentors, and I hope you do. But I didn't, still don’t. Yes I have my dad, who i think knows EVERYTHING, but let’s face it, he doesn’t. (sorry dad). I’ll start an insta highlight of all the stupid questions i have text to my dad: pictures of things asking.. “should this fit there”, “how does this work”, and “where can I buy this spring in town”. Dad’s are awesome. But unless you are literally taking over his operation the answers aren’t all the same, and even if you are, as time passes, equipment and technology are changing so again, sorry dads but you don’t know everything. And please, for all that you do know, tell us. Just tell us, through storytelling and the likes. Impart your wisdom down to the next generation. And you, the younguns, open your ears and listen, you also don’t know everything.
Let’s be clear, I certainly don’t either. I never will.
But what I would like to share are the things I do know, the things I didn’t know and the mistakes I’ve learned the hard way. I hope to provide a safe place for others to share and question things. Whose with me?
So, shall we start with the time I improperly balanced the water trailer and lost the trailer off of my truck on the way home from the well, or the corn crop we planted that was a joke, an utter failure, and not for lack of trying, that was by far the most expensive failure to date, or the one (er, eight) times I forgot to unhook the lights and had to rewire the trailer.
We all make mistakes, and I guess all I’m saying is; this is my promise to help, and answer and share with you and everyone else my honest experiences. I’m so sick of hearing only about the bumper crops, and people being too proud to say “this didn't work for me because of this, or this didn't work for me and i don’t know why”. Sometimes the toxic positivity and the sharing of good experiences and successes leaves the younger generation failing or at least feeling inadequate. If you're too proud to tell me the honest results of the new oat variety you seeded, then I might follow suit and plant it too. I’ll get the same tonnage as you, but since I'm comparing it to your ego’s tonnage and not the honest tonnage, I’m left feeling like a failure, losing money and sanity. So please, for the sake of mental health, let's all be honest and helpful.
So yeah, corn in the sandhills doesn’t work well. At least not for us, between a dry year, a rare sandhills hail storm, the wildlife eating what did grow, we got approximately close to zero tonnage. There you have it folks, we fucked up, and I’m gonna own it! In the meantime, you’ll find me here, trying to save you from the mistakes I’ve made.