Hello, farm family!
When I was a kid, we had a couple of old beam balance scales in our barn. A single scale could weigh large pumpkins during our annual Pumpkin Festival and farm kids the rest of the year. When we started growing cabbage and butternut for processing, we would place the two scales facing each other and straddle the bins between them so we could record the weight with a Sanford’s marker.
Those scales fascinated me. (Still do!) The metal wheels, the wooden slat platforms, the hanging balance and the weights. I loved those round, cast iron weights with the slot that held them in place on the hanging plate.
The best part was getting the scale to balance. It felt like a mixture of luck and strategy once the weights came into play. How much weight was enough and how much was too much? I always felt quite successful when the metal arrow hovered in midair between the bars that indicated “too heavy” or “too light.”
That balancing act was the perfect metaphor for the farm life. The responsibilities and workload are constantly changing, requiring greater or lesser counterbalances.
As we move into the growing season, the weight you’re carrying is likely increasing as quickly as weeds after the rain. The farm is demanding more and more of your time: seeding, transplanting, marketing, selling, delivering. The kids want you at sports events, end-of-year concerts and plays. Family and friends are inviting you to outdoor parties that begin well before daylight fades – and often on the sunny day you really need to make hay.
Like a beam scale under a heavy weight, you need some counterbalances of your own to bring you back into balance.
Below are some quick and easy ways you can support your farm life balance this season:
- Breathe. This is seriously my go-to strategy for restoring balance in the middle of a crisis. (Like the morning when my frost-free didn’t work and water filled my basement instead of the garden hose that I wanted to use to find the leak in my barn roof. I did LOTS of breathing then!)
Not just regular breathing though. Breathe in deeply for four counts, hold it for four counts, breathe out for four counts. Repeat four times (or more, depending upon the depth of the water!).
- Make a list. Write a list of off-farm people and things you want to invest in during the busy season, even if you think you don’t have time. Just writing them down makes you 42% more likely to actually do them! Pick the top three to five that are most important to you and prioritize those when life gets hectic.
Accomplishing these things doesn’t have to take a lot of time. For example, one of my priorities is keeping in touch with friends from college. Sometimes it’s as simple as texting a GIF that says “Thinking of you” or “Happy Memorial Day!” A small gesture is better than no gesture at all.
- Give yourself an hour – a week. I want to tell you to set aside a whole day each week for supporting balance, but I know you better than that. To put it into perspective, an hour a week is less than 10 minutes a day.
Use that time however you like: all in one chunk or spread out over the week. Go out for breakfast with a friend. Play a game with your kids. Take your spouse for a walk in the woods (perhaps followed by a one-on-one tick check). Read a book. Do something non-farm-related to offset all the on-farm work you’re doing.
- Get your ZZZs. Sleep and distress have an inverse relationship. Increased stress can decrease the quality and length of sleep. A lack of sleep makes your body react as if it is under stress. What does this mean? Good sleep (seven to nine hours for most adults) is necessary for a balanced farm life.
How do we get good sleep this time of year? There are a few key ways. Maintain a schedule: go to bed and get up at the same time. Keep your bedroom free of distractions like TVs. Only use your bed for sleeping – and one-on-one tick checks (see #3). Keep your room cool and dark. Prioritize sleep over that “one last thing.”
- Feed the farmer. Keeping hydrated and eating healthy food on a regular basis is a really basic health tip, but it’s one that farmers too often ignore. If you’ve ever sprayed your apple trees before eating breakfast, gone a couple hours between water breaks on a 90º day or become lifelong friends with the pizza delivery person, I’m talking to you!
Drink water. Consume fruits, veggies and protein. We used to eat corn raw in the cornfield, snack on cucumbers while hoeing weeds and nosh on apples while picking up drops. If you’re growing it, eat the good stuff!
- Check your balance. If you read this list and said “I’m doing all that!” then congratulations are in order. If not, it’s okay! Now is the best time to start. Wherever you are on that scale, the important thing is to keep checking in with yourself every week or so and adapting as needed.
For example, every Monday I preview the week’s schedule and priorities. Recently I had a choice of two times to schedule a work call. One option fit in an already jam-packed day. The other followed the jam-packed day but required me to get up an hour earlier than normal. I decided to add the event to the jam-packed day so I could work hard during the day and benefit from a full night’s sleep.
How do you create a more balanced farm life? Let me know at kcastrataro@pen-light.org or penlightfarmers.com.
It’s your time to grow!
