What is wrong with us?

[N80]

I hate to be politically incorrect, but I have some theories about this myself. I think this has a lot to do with most of us being men. I don't mean that we are males, there are lots of males out there who aren't men. Now I realize I probably sound like Tim the Tool Man, but I think there is some truth to this.

And I think part of being a man is not being afraid of a little physical labor and even being able to enjoy it.

My Dad tells a story of working on a Habitat for Humanity house one weekend and there were a lot of good intentioned guys out there. They were doing some digging around the foundations and this young guy in his 20's had been digging a few minutes and came up to my Dad and showed him a red place on his hand. He wanted to know what it was. It was a blister! His first one ever.

And while I'm rambling, I heard a radio DJ say something very funny but true about 7-8 years ago when a hurricane had missed the SC coast and how disappointed all the men were who had gotten chainsaws for Christmas!

Again, don't get me wrong about all this. I enjoy the projects I create for myself. They might be 'work' technically, but to me they are play. I still probably need to spend a little more time on the front porch though. Or maybe I should make the porch bigger and better............

 

[hunterridgefarm]

How many of us have jobs? How many of us work hard at our jobs either mentally or physically or both? And then how many of us spend all the work week waiting for the weekend so that we can finally sit back and........WORK?

It took me a few years but I finally got my log cabin in the country finished up, at least to the point that we can enjoy it. Still a little trim work, finishing a couple of closets, etc. But it has a nice wide front porch looking down the hill to a pond and a hardwood ridge across the pond. There are comfortable rocking chairs on the porch and ceiling fans overhead. There is almost nothing in the world as gratifying as sitting on a porch in a rocking chair sipping a beer.

So its finally done and each weekend we can head down to the cabin and rock away and the porch, right? But where will you usually find me? On the porch smoking a pipe? Nope. Usually I'm on my tractor, or messing with the tractor or thinking about what I can do next with or too the tractor. And it isn't just the tractor. Even before the tractor I was always coming up with the next project and usually the next project involved some sort of physical or manual labor. The tractor has definitely made things worse. Bigger toy, bigger projects.

And I'll bet a lot of you are the same way. You have homes in the country or hunting property or estates or hobby farms. And as soon as you finish your day job, you start on the weekend or afternoon job rather than relaxing on the porch. And our wives think we are nuts (unless we are doing their bidding).

Now I'm not complaining. I'm clearly having fun and apparantly you think you're having fun too. But I bet that most of the time, if we were forced to do the things we are doing on the weekend.....we wouldn't think they were fun.

So what's wrong us?

My job is mentally demanding and stressful. I look forward to physical labor when I get home in the evenings and on weekends. The tractor is my stress management therapy. I actually measure how great my weekend was by how much work I was able to accomplish on projects. I have had people tell me they look froward to driving by my house to see what kind of new projects I have started.

My wife knows she did not marry a man that likes to lay on the couch. She is worried (or hoping) that once our house is complete on the 44ac site we are building on that she may not see me till it gets dark.

My dad was the same way, he was always outside doing something. Now most of his projects were never completed but he would work hard to get things he needed as well as helping others.

I think most of us get more satisfaction out of doing something ourselfs than hiring the work out to someone else. I just love to get out in the woods walking or in a field on the tractor and sometimes just stop and listen to the birds and sounds of nature and just take in the beauty that God has blessed us with.

People look at me with disbelief, and there jaws drop open when I tell them what I did over the weekend, or that I cut down 70+ trees where we are building our house, or that I would give up this white collar job to be a farmer.

Whats wrong with us.....NOT A THING....I am a happy and blessed man, I am physically able to do the things I love to do, I have a God that has blessed me, and a wife and son that loves me. What more could a man want. (I know a 3 day work week and a bigger tractor )

 

[hudlow]

I think a lot of us are just following the examples that were set for us as kids.

My folks worked all the time. If they weren't on their regular job, they were in the garden or doing something around the house. They also believed that a kid with nothing to do was likely to get into trouble.

I know there are a lot of fine kids out there but will this "thing" that is wrong with us carry over into the next generation? When they give up the skateboards, snowboards and the activities popular in their generation, will they prefer to spend Saturday evening clearing the streambank or fixing the fence like we do?

hud

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I think a lot of us are just following the examples that were set for us as kids.

My folks worked all the time. If they weren't on their regular job, they were in the garden or doing something around the house. They also believed that a kid with nothing to do was likely to get into trouble.

I know there are a lot of fine kids out there but will this "thing" that is wrong with us carry over into the next generation? When they give up the skateboards, snowboards and the activities popular in their generation, will they prefer to spend Saturday evening clearing the streambank or fixing the fence like we do?

hud

We spend our lives thinking things we value are slipping away. We fear our children, and our grandchildren won't have what it takes to carry on. But they do. My kids are in their mid 30's. They're turning out just like mom and dad. Serves 'em right

 

[N80]

Someone mentioned the word 'workaholic'. That isn't really what I was referring to. When I think about a workaholic I think about someone who works real hard, maybe even too hard, at his primary paying job. That's very different from getting the paying job done and then doing the weekend 'jobs' that we do for fun. What we do for fun my look like work to other people, but for us it is recreation. I don't think of that as being a workaholic. In fact, its almost the opposite. I think of a workaholic as someone driven by money, or at least some money making objective. On the other hand, my weekend work might be productive, but it still usually involves me spending the money I make on my day job.

I think that there are also people who are in love with their work. When they go to work on Monday morning they look forward to it as much as we do our weekend tractor projects. I'm not one of those people. I have a great job, and I like it and I never dread doing it. But it is not what I live for. Sometimes I envy people who do live for their job. It would be nice. But often times those sorts of people are missing a balance. They love their work so much that other important things get left out, like family and friends. These types of people are often 'great' people who do 'great' things. Politicians, artists, athletes, military leaders, a select few doctors or scientists. But there's a cost to that too.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Someone mentioned the word 'workaholic'. That isn't really what I was referring to. When I think about a workaholic I think about someone who works real hard, maybe even too hard, at his primary paying job. That's very different from getting the paying job done and then doing the weekend 'jobs' that we do for fun. What we do for fun my look like work to other people, but for us it is recreation. I don't think of that as being a workaholic. In fact, its almost the opposite. I think of a workaholic as someone driven by money, or at least some money making objective. On the other hand, my weekend work might be productive, but it still usually involves me spending the money I make on my day job.

Yesterday I had to work few hours to cut grass in our local hunting club. I was able to get this old Kubota with 3 point mower started - and it was the firsts time i used such a mower since my own Kubota has MMM.

I had fun and enjoyed myself a lot cutting grass - and I think it is time to buy a brush hog. I will definitely find some use for it cleaning our land and save my MMM for the nice lawn only.

I think this experience goes well along this thread, work well done is my fuel for life, it keeps me going.

 

[mikim]

"workaholic" -- someone who lives for his work rather than works for a living -- as N80 said it might be nice to have a job you love so much it doesn't seem like work .... but then what do they look forward to in retirement? I've seen these folks who dread retirement because they've lived for their jobs and have no interest outside of it. They usually die soon after retirement because 1. they worked to an age that they were too old to perform the job anymore and thence too old to do anything else & 2. with no interest outside the job their stress levels go through the roof with nothing to do except sit on the couch & eat & drink themselves to death. I spent 20 yrs with the military, 20 yrs in my current job, and I have another 20 yr career waiting for me that I am REALLY looking forward to starting. The first 10 yrs of projects are already planned..... figure the second 10 will evolve soon enough.

 

[1bush2hog]

Very Interesting Subject -

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas A. Edison

On the otherhand, if you are like me and not as smart as everyone else, you have to get up earlier and work harder to stay ahead. Growing up with very little is a great inspiration to work hard if you ever want to have anything.

My parents taught us to work hard when we were growing up and they at age 68, can still outwork me and most 20 year olds I like to do the things I like to do - some people just call it work.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

No two people are the same. That's a fairly accepted concept. No two people enjoy the same ideas on what work is, what part work plays in their life, and what importance work (time) is in the grand scheme of things. Peoples needs are different. A choice to send kids to an expensive school can grossly alter your perspective, as an example. Our upbringing USUALLY has some influence on how we look at work. Ambition is the desire to succeed coupled with lack of fear and/or loathing of hard work.

MOST of us need a balance between work and play, even if that "play" is someone elses "work". Find a hobby.......

All things considered, I HOPE I get to work 'till the day I die. Work has been good to me. Brought me much in return.

 

[rogdan]

My life seems too much like this with my only concern being time spent with my kids. I too no longer know what the prime time TV line up is and could do without all of it except some news and the Encore Western channel.
I catch myself treating work around the house as just that "work" rather than labors of love. I get to driven to have everything completed at our new house site.
Someone tell me how to keep the right perspective?