A>------steps-------->B

One paw in front of the other, it’s as good a mantra as any.

Gone are the lazy mornings. Breakfast happens and then it’s to work. Every bit counts. Every step. Every paw.

I don’t know a single farmer, at least in this cross section of farming, who wears any kind of fitness tracker. I think we know that if we did, our step counter would be telling us to stop.

“You done got your steps in at 9 am!!” it would say to us, “Go watch some Netflix for Christ sake!! Think about your knees!!”

I think if farmers had Fitbits, they would go on strike, “Oh no!! If you are going to get this many steps in, you must have one on each wrist! We can’t be expected work 16 hour shifts!”

When I get up in the morning, and take a look at what needs to be done, most of it implies traversing this little plot of land dozens, maybe a hundred times, at least this time of year. This has to get over there, and this where we left it in November, has to be put back where it will be useful and ready. The greenhouse must get clean, the tools must get organized, the tractors all at the ready. The shopping list gets long; tractor parts, little missing screws, pex clamps, a back stock of motor oil for midseason oil changes, and plenty of beans and rice for making plenty of crew lunches.

One paw in front of the other. It all looks so inefficient, and it probably is. I try to remember with each round trip to have something in my hands, from point A to point B, to make each traverse of the place counts. But I’m not that good. I forget, and for that I make many extra trips. If I had a fitness tracker, it would be so pissed at me, “You are so ineffICIENT! How many wasted steps are you gonna make anyway? You are overworking us BOTH!!”

It’s best I just leave that option by the wayside.

For a hot minute it looked like Mamma Nature was going to hurl us right back into summer. But she’s pulled back on the reigns, and probably we are the better for it. Droughts aren’t confined to one year. We will need some more moisture to soak in, some more rains.

I will make many steps and get the irrigation set up before we get to that point, in the hopes that Mamma Nature will see my efforts, laugh at them, and send rains, as if to say “Now what did you go do that for? I got your back.”

“Do you? I mean, do you really?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Go take a break or somethin’. You got your steps in.”