Time to Work

Every spring I find myself dabbling in a book written by Gene Nunnery called The Old Pro Turkey Hunter. And according to the calendar and all of the signs outside, it is spring. Once again I find myself picking up the book and reading a chapter or two. Now it's not so much a book about turkey hunting as it is about three old turkey hunters that influenced Gene. And these old guys seemed to live very simple lives. With a few “patches of corn” and a big garden, somehow these guys eeked out a living, and still had time to hunt, fish, and tell stories at the country store.

I often think about how great it would be to get up, eat your bacon and eggs and then hunt or fish a little and spend the rest of the day digging in the garden and putzing around in the backyard. Did the old timers really have it as great as we think, or did they struggle with figuring out how to balance their time as well? It used to be that you could get by without much money if you had a big garden. And so a hundred years ago practically everyone had a big garden.Nowadays you can get by without much of a garden if you have a lot of money. And even if you have a big garden, if you don’t have money you are really going to struggle. And so we spend most of our time toiling for money.

Back in the day, hunting and fishing were an important part of keeping food on the table. Even then it wasn’t enough. So much of a family's livelihood came from the garden in the form of vegetables and grain. Growing enough corn and wheat to get you through the winter was hard work. If you had a horse or mule it made the work easier, but then you had to feed the horse. Making clothing from flax or buckskin took lots of hard work as well.

  I wonder, did the ole timers wish they had more time to hunt and fish? Did they hoe the corn a little later in the evening so that they could fish in the morning? I bet they did. 

I think that I better put down my pen and head to the shop!