Posted by JD Seller on December 23, 2013 at 21:53:14 from (208.126.196.144):
After we got the electric back in service on the rented farm I had a chance to get all three of the youngest sons together.
We went over what need to be done ASAP and what needed to be done longer term. Some of this was a surprise to me. They just did not have the whole picture in any of their minds.
1) The older son did not think about how deadly the cold/snowy weather could be on livestock.
2) He also did not "get" the seriousness of heavy cattle being without water. Luckily it was not summer. The least little thing can throw fat cattle off and make them finish slower. I always tried to feed on a real rigid schedule also.
3) The youngest needed to think about how his actions effect everyone around him. The generator issue cost me and my one son a half day of labor. That is a loss of a measurable amount.
4) They all needed to think about WHY I have those generators. I do not just throw money around for "EXTRA" stuff for the fun of it. Many things are for emergencies. I asked them how it would have been if their homes had been without electric when it was below zero out side?
5) The youngest got to see the cost first hand on not watching how he does things. There are two working generators in place tonight. That cost him about 3K to do it on short notice but he CAUSED that short notice. I think he will THINK before using/loaning anything else out.
6) The other son needed to assert himself more in the day to day stuff. He was allowing his "educated" brother to "manage" him. HE has a better day to day out look/plan.
7) All three need to think as a group not as one boss and two employees. NONE of them have the experience to be "boss". They all know PARTS of the operation well but not all of it.
8) I needed to show them the "why" of some things. We spent some time this afternoon writing down some "check lists" of things to do everyday, week, month. Example: Check the waterers daily, the generators weekly, The oil levels on the silo unloaders once each month. We came up with pages of this type of stuff. Things that I have always told them to do when it was needed. I thought they would have put 2+2 together and done them on their own. They all have done the actual work but none of them remembered when to do it. The son that had the rough day yesterday was great at organizing this. Told him so too.
HE asked me what had PO me so much when we got the PTO generator going. I told him the setting on his butt in the cab PLAYING on his smart phone while the generator was not doing what we wanted /needed done. He tried to defend the "playing" on his smart phone comment. He "says" he was checking the weather. LOL I told him we did not need to know anything else about the weather right then. It was COLDER than heck and going to be colder than heck for awhile.
The funny thing is how the times have changed. The older two of them set down and started to setup schedules of some of the stuff. IN THEIR smart phones. LMAO I would have grabbed a calender and wrote it down.
The youngest is steamed at his friend right now. HE says that his friend cost him $2K. LOL. His reasoning is that the friend should "help" out on the cost of the generator. (Finding a 10K one on short notice was not cheap) I told him to sell one of them to his "friend" to recover some of his money. I think he will find his friend is not that good of a friend. More like a BROKE blood sucker. He does not have many friends that can help him with much. It is usually the other way around. Them sponging off of him/me.
So it will be intersting to see what they learned and will remember.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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