In the grand scheme of acquiring, establishing and
running your homestead, you will be paying A LOT of people.
You’ll be paying the sellers of the land, the bank
you get your loan from, the county for various (and seemingly endless)
permits, contractors, insurance people, moving people, utility people,
livestock sellers, your friends and family (although you can usually get
by with paying these in either food or beer…), and there will be many many
days when you will feel like having a good shrink on retainer would be
money well spent.
But all the above will be wasted effort and cash if
you don’t follow the most important rule: Pay Attention.
We now live in a society where anyone living in even
remotely "modern" digs is literally overloaded with mental, visual and
audio stimuli. If you are like most people, take this little test.
Stop.
Close your eyes.
Listen.
What do you hear?
Computer running, of course. TV on somewhere? MORE
than one TV on somewhere? Radio or CD player? Refrigerator? Furnace or air
conditioning? Kids playing (fighting)? Dogs barking? Traffic outside?
What’s the first thing you notice if the power goes
out? (After the DARK…)
It’s
So
Quiet.
Take driving. Think of everything you must keep track
of, visually and audibly. Now add the stuff we do on TOP of that- talk to
passengers, referee the kids in the back seat, answer the phone, eat,
drink, and sing along with the radio… It’s amazing anyone gets anywhere
alive.
Personally, I can’t stand noise. At work, it’s quiet.
No radio, no music. Just quiet. Same at home if I’m here by myself. I use
the vacuum cleaner under the greatest of duress cuz it’s just too dang
LOUD. I’ve made a rule to my video-lovin’ boys that they can have ONE
thing on at a time- no playing a computer game while watching something on
the tube. Makes me insane. Our new place has no cable TV connections, and
I refuse to get satellite. We will have one local station, and PBS. Ahhhhh……better.
Kids born anytime after about 1970 or so grew up in
front of the color TV. From an early age they have had images and sounds
paraded in front of them without having to do anything more strenuous than
blinking. Once these kids got to school, school was boring. So schools had
to keep up. Short, fast lessons that jump from one thing to another is the
norm, because these little people just don’t have an attention span any
longer than it takes to get from one commercial break to the next. THEN
they go to Chuck E Cheese for relaxing entertainment. I hate Chuck
E Cheese. The place makes me all twitchy and I have to take a migraine
pill 20 minutes before entering…
What does ANY of this have to do with farming???
