Farming and the character trait of Industriousness go hand in hand. Did you know that?
The Wife had first discovered this during childhood while talking with her Grandma the Amazing Farm Wife. When Grandma, while hanging laundry on the line, said,"A gardener doesn't go hungry. It's hard work, but it feeds the family when others might go without." She had said this to The Wife when she lived in town. Her garden consumed the entire side of the corner lot the house sat on, and it also shared the space with the walkway from the ally and the clothesline. Looking back, it was a Norman Rockwell moment, but at the time, it was just barely appreciated. One simple sentence and it planted the seed of Industriousness in The Wife for the rest of her life.
Living on the farm now we have no choice but to be industrious at times...the cows got out and there was no gate to block the road, we had to figure out how to make three people seem like a very large deterrence at the road side...things like this happen often enough to make you prepared at a moment's notice.
Then there's times that we choose to be industrious...to heat with wood, to milk a goat, to make soap, or to boil down bones for broth.
We see our children taking industriousness to the next level...knitting hats, gloves, dishcloths, crocheting blankets, stuffed animals, and slippers, making gifts with wood and nails, and training goats to pack-goat so they don't have to carry the heavy loads.
Recently we spent time with our Uncle Intelligentsia and his wife, Aunt Intelligentsia. It was fantastic to hear Aunt Intelligentsia tell us of her process to insure the city where they live in be educated and funded for the community garden project. She has had to be Industrious to see healthy lives restored even in the city.
It's not easy, not always fun, sometimes barely appreciated...but it will change lives for generations.
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