Timing is everything on a farm and it does not matter if you are sick or tired or sore. If it is July and the sun is shining, you make hay. If the canola has finished flowering and the seed is ready to be plucked and the weather is just right, you harvest.
But I wasn't raised on a farm and so I have struggled with this early learned beahviour of my husband's.
My children however are being raised here and so when we were gifted with a load of white birch that had been knocked down already, we gratefully drove the tractor to the neighbour's coulee and began to load it and haul it home. We proceeded to have the neighbours over for dinner the next evening and gave them a bottle of their beverage of choice. This is how life works here. We piled the birch high and today, even though it is +32• Celsius outdoors, my 15-year old is chopping firewood for the winter. We cannot have this lovely wood rotting and time is of the essence.
My 15-year old Max never complains, does every job I ask of him, asks if there is anything else that he can do and continues to marvel at the wonders within a job and so I am always puzzled about how to "reward" him... Or should I?
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| My Marvellous Max! |
Max receives an allowance for being a part of this family, because he is a teen and needs to have his own money for stuff. He does not get money for specific work at all. He was asked to work for a wage at a local business for the summer but I actually voted, "No!"And I was adamant that work for a wage will come soon enough. So as he chops away at the wood, and works for all of us, he calls to me, "Hey mom, look at the rings on this one! I wonder how old it is?" and "Hey cool, I can actually see my name in the lines of this one." I smile and enjoy his wonderment and am grateful to have him home lots this summer... Work will come soon enough.
...Ellyn
