An Old Farmer's Advice

[SkyPup]

An Old Farmer\'s Advice

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered--not yelled.

Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.

Don't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

 

[Marlowe]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

Now that's a good list. I particularly like the last line.

I've got an old farmer story I like to tell. The old gentleman came into the dealership where I work years ago. He was dressed in his best, clean overalls and appeared to be in his eighties. His daughter had been in earlier and picked out a boat they wanted to buy. I sell boats for a living. He asked if I could take a deposit from him and, on his word, hold the boat for his daughter. I assured him I could. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a dime. One thin dime, and handed it to me. He asked if that was enough. It was for me. Of course his daughter came back in and consumated the purchase. To this day, that is the best deposit I've ever taken. I would have settled for a handshake.

You just can't beat an old farmer's handshake.

Tom

 

[SkyPup]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

When I purchased our first Kubota Grand L 3130 a couple of years ago, I had shopped around at JD, NH, MF and a few other dealers in neighboring counties, but did not go by the Kubota dealer because I hated the dealer from previous tractor hassles over the years.

Anyhow, one day I was driving by and decided to at least see if I could get a Grand L brochure from him since I had brochures on all the competitors.

I walked in and asked for a brochure and lo and behold, a new salesman was talking to me? He asked me if I'd like to test drive one on the lot setup with all the acrutements I wanted. After the test drive he asked me how much I would pay for this rig. Since I had been checking it all out for months in advance, I said I'd pay him $20,500 for the rig. He walked me over and introduced me to the new owner (who had purchased the dealership from a total sales and service deficient ignoramous) and he asked how much I would put down. I said I would write him a personal check right now for 1/2 the price if he could deliver by Friday (it was Tuesday afternoon). He said okay, I wrote him the check and gave him the other 1/2 when they delivered on Friday.

He had never met me before I walked in the door that afternoon and trusted that I was bonifide without even examining my drivers license (and I was dressed in my hardcore motorcycle outfit from head to toe). Since then I have done over $75,000 more business with him in the same manner and will continue to do same.

 

[deere_x475guy]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

Thanks for posting this. I just printed it out to hang in my shop.

 

[DrRod]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

I really liked it too. And I'll add another story (since I'm kinda getting to be an old farmer).

My father was a small town car dealer. Back in the early 60's, a rather scrawny fellow walked into the dealership dressed in coveralls with loose, smelly dirt on them. He just walked over to the Imperial sitting in the showroom and stood there looking (for those of you too young to remember, the Imperial was Chrysler's Cadillac). The salesmen didn't want much to do with him but my father went over to see him. He asked "how much is this" and my father told him. Then he asked "how much for two of them" and he told him. And the next day the guy and his brother came and bought one each. Turns out they were the Imler brothers who started one of the most successful turkey farms in the country -- even marketed their own brand of bird based on the feed (the Lovelace Turkey) similar to Frank Perdue's approach. That was a great lesson to me on not judging someone on the superficial and treating everyone with respect.

 

[erich]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

I heard this from an old yankee farmer down the road. An out of town fellow was thinking of moving into the area. He stopped and asked Bob a lot of questions about the area and finally asked" What are the neighbors like around here?" Bob just asked him what the neighbors were like where he came from. After listening to him complain about them for quite sometime he wisely told him, " Well I guess the folks around here will be alot the same".


Eric

 

[deerefan]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

Very well put. If the world adopted this as their motto, how wonderful it would be....

 

[deere755]

Re: An Old Farmer\'s Advice

Well said.