By Stephanie Strothmann
I’ve gotten more independent as I continue to run this little farm.
If something breaks, needs to be built, etc., I know I need to figure it out on my own or probably go to YouTube and start searching how-to videos.
I’ve also discovered I possess a lot of pride that I don’t ask for help even though it would make things easier.
This pride was never more evident than in the past week from two instances of help I received at the farm that certainly lifted my mood and made the sweltering heat of the recent days more bearable.
I was first contacted by a wonderful group of young adults who were from Calvary Baptist Church, Reddington Christian Church and The Point. They were looking to do service projects in the community and had asked if there was anything they could do for me on the farm.
At first, I proudly said “no,” but after realizing this was part of their summer Bible school studies, I sheepishly agreed to their help and said the front flowerbed of my house needed weeding and tidying up badly (resembling more of an abandoned home instead of a tidy homestead). My focus with limited time is, of course, on the chickens and other animals of the farm, not on keeping flowerbeds.
The group arrived early on a Monday morning and went straight to work after getting a brief tour of the farm and how it began, what animals were there, etc. Within three hours, they had completely cleared the flowerbed of small saplings, unruly vines and broken pieces of brick that were originally used as a border for the flowerbed.
They then asked for another project, and once again, I hesitated asking but told them if they could just start on pulling tarp off of the back garden, that would be wonderful.
Once again, within a very short time, they had completed that job, as well, and by mid-afternoon, the youth and their leaders were back on their way home to clean up and ready themselves for Bible study that evening.
Then a few days later, I thought I would mow a small piece of grass for a friend next to a field of corn. The tractor had started to cut through the 5-foot-tall grass for quite a distance when all of a sudden the machine came to a sudden halt.
The mower deck had gotten caught on something, rendering the tractor to resemble a turtle that has been placed on top of a post with its feet dangling. The turtle is able to move its feet, but it can’t go anywhere. Such was the case with the tractor.
As I sat in the blistering sun on the rig trying to figure out what I was going to do, I called my father, who said he would be out in about 30 minutes or so to try and tie a tow strap to the tractor and pull it with a truck. This call was made, though, of course, after I had unsuccessfully tried to get the beast loose and only spinning tires in very soft earth.
After my call and wondering what I was going to do for 30 minutes, a utility farm truck drove by pulling two empty hay wagons. I guiltily hoped it would stop to ask if I needed help but listened as it pulled past where I sat and then suddenly realized it had stopped and the man was getting out of the cab to approach where I was.
Sure enough, I was asked if I needed a pull, and at first, I refused, quickly realizing the only way out of the heat was to accept the help. I discovered the man’s name was Charlie Fox.
Charlie went right to work unhooking his hay wagons, grabbing a tow strap from inside his truck cab, hooking the hitch of his truck to the tractor and then gently pulling the tractor from its grassy prison. After thanking him multiple times, I discovered I had inadvertently mowed right over a drainage pipe, hidden to me by the tall, dense grass.
Thankfully, no damage was done to the pipe, the tractor or to the truck and I was given a good lesson on being extremely humble and asking for help when I need it.
If there’s one thing I can say for this week’s article, if you ask someone if you can help and they say “no,” maybe they just need to be asked a couple of times before they realize they need the help more than they know.
Until next time…