Humans are a strange species

[cross_7]

I'm opened minded and value others opinions and as the old saying goes I try walking a mile in their shoes.

I recently had a conversation with a family member that asked the question why do you keep buying these places, working like a Hebrew slave fixing them up, then selling them and doing it again ?
My mother inlaw thinks I'm crazy and I know that's what she thinks because she said as much
I at first didn't understand the question and didn't know how to answer it. Then I thought that was the dumbest question I have ever heard.

Then I looked at the persons life that asked it
They have a house and a car, that's it, no worries or responsibilities and can leave for any place anytime and nothing to worry about while their gone and they are satisfied

I'm wired different I have to be working on something, not physical but I feel like I have to be building or improving or growing. If I don't have something in the works then I drive myself nuts looking for something.
I never understood how the people I used to worked with in the office how they would spend all weekend working in their yard and planning all week for the next weekends project, but I get it now, it's their way of occupying their mind and coping with the boredom.

Then I thought about my Granddad and everything he built and left behind.
Did he think he was helping out his kids and grandkids and great grandkids ?
Knowing now what has happened with his property would he have put in the blood, sweat and tears ?

How can some people be contend with just living free and easy and others the opposite
I know a guy that has build an empire in the fertilizer business.
He owns his owns private island and sold his prop plane foe a jet cause it was too slow and just keeps growing his business.
Why ? He has more than he could ever need, but he just keeps going
Then another guy lives in an apartment and lives paycheck to paycheck and is happy and content

Which one is better off or who's right and who's wrong ?

 

[bbirder]

To each his own, Cross. I lean towards your way of thinking, but I have all I want and relatives think the same of me.

 

[highgrit]

I always wanted more and the only way to get it was by working harder. If I knew then what I know now I would of made do with less. I have a son that I missed growing up and it was not worth it. Spend as much time with your kids as possible when their young. It will be worth more than what you leave them. And the only reason I work now is for my kids and maybe grandkids someday.

 

[cross_7]

I always wanted more and the only way to get it was by working harder. If I knew then what I know now I would of made do with less. I have a son that I missed growing up and it was not worth it. Spend as much time with your kids as possible when their young. It will be worth more than what you leave them. And the only reason I work now is for my kids and maybe grandkids someday.

That's crept into my mind
My boys are grown and doing well and they don't have any interest in land or cattle
Knowing now from watching what others have left to their kids and grandkids and seeing what has happened I'm rethinking things
I could buy a little place grow a garden, bbq everyday, sit in the shade and drink sweat tea
No worries just taking it easy

 

[jedstivers]

I always wanted more and the only way to get it was by working harder. If I knew then what I know now I would of made do with less. I have a son that I missed growing up and it was not worth it. Spend as much time with your kids as possible when their young. It will be worth more than what you leave them. And the only reason I work now is for my kids and maybe grandkids someday.

That's crept into my mind
My boys are grown and doing well and they don't have any interest in land or cattle
Knowing now from watching what others have left to their kids and grandkids and seeing what has happened I'm rethinking things
I could buy a little place grow a garden, bbq everyday, sit in the shade and drink sweat tea
No worries just taking it easy

That would drive me insane.
I don't know why other people don't have the drive but its a good thing because the world isn't big enough for everyone in it to be like us.

 

[jedstivers]

A good example is I have all sorts of things going on. Four or five different crops, several thousand acres but now I'm kind of on the small side. Hay operation, a few mama cows, 4-500 stockers a year and planning on more. Then just tonight I rented a small pecan orchard, know nothing about growing pecans but I'll learn.

 

[cross_7]

A good example is I have all sorts of things going on. Four or five different crops, several thousand acres but now I'm kind of on the small side. Hay operation, a few mama cows, 4-500 stockers a year and planning on more. Then just tonight I rented a small pecan orchard, know nothing about growing pecans but I'll learn.

Could you be happy taking life easy and enjoying the fruits of your labor ?
No land, cattle or crops

 

[jedstivers]

A good example is I have all sorts of things going on. Four or five different crops, several thousand acres but now I'm kind of on the small side. Hay operation, a few mama cows, 4-500 stockers a year and planning on more. Then just tonight I rented a small pecan orchard, know nothing about growing pecans but I'll learn.

Could you be happy taking life easy and enjoying the fruits of your labor ?
No land, cattle or crops

No way. Running wide open is the only way I know. I hate vacations too.

 

[Kingfisher]

My neighbor told me last year " you'll fix this place up and be gone soon" last year..he don't know me too well.....I might stay just to piss him off..z

 

[jasonleonard]

I think a lot of the way we have a drive to have things in life, comes down to how we were raised, and what we saw growing up.
Here in Pa, people living in the govt housing projects only have a few dollar a month co-pay for rent. A fat snap card, and get their utilities all paid for -including electric , heat sewage and water bills. I recently heard they even get their cable or satellite bills paid!

All of these kids growing up in govt housing will only know what they have seen growing up. Pretty scary to me!

 

[cross_7]

4.A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more

stuff

[youtube]JLoge6QzcGY[/youtube]

 

[greybeard]

Then I thought about my Granddad and everything he built and left behind.
Did he think he was helping out his kids and grandkids and great grandkids ?
Knowing now what has happened with his property would he have put in the blood, sweat and tears ?

Pretty sure he would have. He and you not wired much differently at all. It's not the having--it's the doing.
Anyone with a little credit or a lot of $$ can have--not all can do.
I'm one of those that places no real value on things I build or achieve and once done, I rarely even acknowledge to myself that I did it or have it.
I just do it, because I can. You stop doin--you start dying.
Those people that cash in and seem to be living 'the good life'? They aren't dying--they're already dead, they just haven't been pronounced as such yet.

 

[cross_7]

Then I thought about my Granddad and everything he built and left behind.
Did he think he was helping out his kids and grandkids and great grandkids ?
Knowing now what has happened with his property would he have put in the blood, sweat and tears ?

Pretty sure he would have. He and you not wired much differently at all. It's not the having--it's the doing.
Anyone with a little credit or a lot of $$ can have--not all can do.
I'm one of those that places no real value on things I build or achieve and once done, I rarely even acknowledge to myself that I did it or have it.
I just do it, because I can. You stop doin--you start dying.
Those people that cash in and seem to be living 'the good life'? They aren't dying--they're already dead, they just haven't been pronounced as such yet.

There is lots of truth in that
Once you lose interest in doing(living)and start lounging your headed down hill.
There was a man I really looked up to that got old and was slow to get around but he did everyday
He farmed his whole life and was very wealthy but he loved it.
When he died they found him after driving the tractor and had quit for the day and was walking to his pickup and just fell over dead before he got there
That's exactly like he would have wanted if he could have planned it himself.

It's funny how different people are.
I have two sons raised exactly the same, side by side and they are as different as night and day.
My oldest son says no matter how your were raised you are who you are the day you were born, you'll become who you are no matter where you come from.
I told him genetics play a role in that and lots of times genes skip a generation so chances are they are going to end up with some redneck kids

 

[Nesikep]

I'm pretty young still, and have busted my back along side my parents for years already... I've also seen a complete lack of public interest in what we try to do, but constant demands, and if possible working against you... so until someone of these city people are willing to meet us halfway, we're staying put and running at idle... we don't expand, take up debt for a pie-in-the-sky idea, and etc...

I definitely keep myself busy nevertheless... never a shortage of things to fix

 

[Nesikep]

I'm pretty young still, and have busted my back along side my parents for years already... I've also seen a complete lack of public interest in what we try to do, but constant demands, and if possible working against you... so until someone of these city people are willing to meet us halfway, we're staying put and running at idle... we don't expand, take up debt for a pie-in-the-sky idea, and etc...

I definitely keep myself busy nevertheless... never a shortage of things to fix

 

[Bigfoot]

Everyone's life experiences are not mine. I lost every worldly possession I ever owned once, and had every minutes worth of manual labor that I had ever done erased in an instant. I now spend a whole lot of my time with my kids. I used to get real carried away tightening wire, and clipping pastures. I figure in 10 years from now my kids will be about grown, but I'll still have loose wire here to deal with. I might as well pull the roping dummy for them, or take them hunting. Me and my son were checking cows this afternoon, and a big old fox squirrel ran up a tree in the middle of the pasture. I sat under that tree half an hour while he went and got his .22. The old me would have waved that squirrel off. The new me videoed him shooting at it 7 times before he hit it.

 

[dun]

Age and health have a tendency to throw a monkey wrench into things. I've spent all my life buying shabby places and fixing them up then selling and buying a bigger shabby place. I also did every thing I could to set things up for the easiest way to get the stuff done that needed doing regularly. I've always been prject driven, always had to have a couple of major things to do at the same time. With any luck I'm now on the last place I'll be. Born in a chicken coop in Duck Creek, WI and hopefully will die on a 400 acre farm in Lebanon Missouri. Still drives me nuts that I can;t do the stuff that I did even just a few years ago and find it depressing, but knowing I'm on the down hill slide makes it almost acceptable.
Other then maybe being able to be a positive affect on some one I've accomplished about all I ever will.

 

[inyati13]

Before I retired, I faced the prospects before me and sought to identify a pursuit that had purpose and was noble, entertaining, motivating, rewarding, valuable, etc. I never found the "Grand Plan." What did I do? I came home to Kentucky, got a dog and started raising cattle. Many days have I sat in my tractor mowing pasture and contemplated if I should have found a higher role. I have concluded, "No." All I really do is live out my time.

I look at the question posed by your original post. Each man has the time that the natural order of the Universe gives him. Few of us will ever leave a mark that will not be washed away in only the blink of an eye. Our labors will be "dust in the wind." We all have a time of reaping coming. Better to enjoy the precious present. Reap the satisfaction in the everyday pattern of your life. Enjoy your dog. They fill the idle moments with simple joy. Watch your cows and their calves. Smile at the simple joy a cow reveals in being scratched on the tail head. Watch the sunrise and sunset. Enjoy the sky and turning of the seasons. The smell of the woods and fields. Take walks on your own land with your dog. Enjoy the fruits of your labors. At this point (my son is raised), I have no higher calling to aspire to. There is no role out there that I can say, "that is what I should be doing." So I am content to do what I am doing.

I would change all of this based on one circumstance. If I had faith in the prospects of a spiritual existence, I would pursue it with unconditional devotion. But I cannot profess with my lips what my heart and mind cannot embrace. So I will take the mortal life I have and run out my time.

 

[Deepsouth]

Before I retired, I faced the prospects before me and sought to identify a pursuit that had purpose and was noble, entertaining, motivating, rewarding, valuable, etc. I never found the "Grand Plan." What did I do? I came home to Kentucky, got a dog and started raising cattle. Many days have I sat in my tractor mowing pasture and contemplated if I should have found a higher role. I have concluded, "No." All I really do is live out my time.

I look at the question posed by your original post. Each man has the time that the natural order of the Universe gives him. Few of us will ever leave a mark that will not be washed away in only the blink of an eye. Our labors will be "dust in the wind." We all have a time of reaping coming. Better to enjoy the precious present. Reap the satisfaction in the everyday pattern of your life. Enjoy your dog. They fill the idle moments with simple joy. Watch your cows and their calves. Smile at the simple joy a cow reveals in being scratched on the tail head. Watch the sunrise and sunset. Enjoy the sky and turning of the seasons. The smell of the woods and fields. Take walks on your own land with your dog. Enjoy the fruits of your labors. At this point (my son is raised), I have no higher calling to aspire to. There is no role out there that I can say, "that is what I should be doing." So I am content to do what I am doing.

I would change all of this based on one circumstance. If I had faith in the prospects of a spiritual existence, I would pursue it with unconditional devotion. But I cannot profess with my lips what my heart and mind cannot embrace. So I will take the mortal life I have and run out my time.

This is one of the saddest things I've every read. I'm glad that this world is not the end.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Everyone's life experiences are not mine. I lost every worldly possession I ever owned once, and had every minutes worth of manual labor that I had ever done erased in an instant. I now spend a whole lot of my time with my kids. I used to get real carried away tightening wire, and clipping pastures. I figure in 10 years from now my kids will be about grown, but I'll still have loose wire here to deal with. I might as well pull the roping dummy for them, or take them hunting. Me and my son were checking cows this afternoon, and a big old fox squirrel ran up a tree in the middle of the pasture. I sat under that tree half an hour while he went and got his .22. The old me would have waved that squirrel off. The new me videoed him shooting at it 7 times before he hit it.

You have things pretty well figured out Bigfoot. Good for you sir, you won't regret it.