Building a barn
Farming life
by Tom Martin
“What’s the best old farmer advice… you’ve received?” asked the Ontario farmer Ryan Campbell on Twitter early this March. Clearly, old farmers give good advice—or at least give lots of it—as demonstrated by the more than 150 responses his tweet accumulated within 24 hours. The suggestions ranged from well-known nuggets such as: “if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got” to the Norwegian “mann trenger å ha is i magen”—meaning “you need to have ice in your stomach,” which apparently means be patient.
My favourite piece of advice offered by several farmers was: “a barn can build you a house, but a house will never build you a barn.” This is a simple encouragement to spend on what brings a return; investing in your farm (the barn) can bring you comfort (a house), not the other way around.