LOLLYGAGGING

The first thing the Farmer said to me this morning was “Another day, another dollar.”

This is true, even this year of extreme heat and hap hazard rains, because we no longer put our own crop in.  The secret to making money at farming is to rent your land out to someone else and leave the expense, gamble and stress to them.  If you enjoy working the land and the feelings of pride and fulfillment associated with putting in and taking off a crop (which he does) it is easy to get a job doing just that.  The really neat thing about farming this way if you get a guaranteed pay check for your work without having to worry about the futures markets, crop insurance or the latest insect or disease to come along and cost a crazy money to deal with.

They are well into harvest, the swathing and combining and baling and fixing goes on day after day, but he will get his dollar – it’s a sure thing.

That’s not to say he isn’t getting worn down with the long hours and demanding pace.  There is no such thing as a day off when the weather is good in September.  He leaves the yard by 7:30 in the morning and I don’t see him again until after dark unless I’m called to help him move to the next field.  I have explained the concept of retirement to him on several occasions.  He doesn’t get it.

As we lingered over our second cup of coffee he asked “So, what are you going to do today?”

I listed off a whole bunch of things on my agenda: we are having company overnight so I had bedrooms to prepare and a supper to plan, it’s the Labour Day weekend when I usually wash windows, the gardens all needed clean up, I should go into town and visit his mother, the grass needs mowing again ...

I ended off with “Any or all of these may or may not get done today, who knows?”  I’m retired and actually understand the concept.

“So, you’re going to lollygag then?”

Well, that’s not the way I would have described it, but okay, maybe I am.  As I said, I am retired and have a good grasp of what that means.

He’s been off to earn his dollar for two hours now and so far I have made up the beds, decided on the supper menu, cleared up the breakfast dishes, wandered around the flower beds, weeding as I went, and now I find myself at the computer writing this blog – something that wasn’t even on my list.  I also spent some time scrolling through Facebook (that genuinely is lollygagging).  It’s not as much fun as usual with all the election propaganda these days and there is only so much time in the day to spend deleting the anti-vax posts.

I am left pondering what my next move will be.  I just got a text saying my company won’t be here till suppertime so I have a good block of time to get something done, or I could carry on with my lackadaisical lollygagging.

I kind of like the sound of that.