SandHill Plum Memories & Work Ethic

Our sandhill plums are finally coming to the stage of ripeness.  This makes me almost giddy!  I can't wait for them to completely turn and I can start the process of making jelly! Although it is a long process, I know the people that eat my jelly appreciate it.  So putting a smile on their face is well worth what it takes!

On this evening, we headed to the plum thicket to check them, we do this about every other day when they are beginning turning pinkish.  They won't all ripen at the same time, so there will be several days of picking.  The ones we did pick tonight we laid out on a door screen to ripen further and I will begin work probably Friday with them.  The thickets have small thorns so wearing jeans and old clothes is important! Ours are beginning to make their way into the Milo field.  We will have to do something about that in the near future.

This year looks to be an abundant amount of plums in our thicket! Where there are several together we find them smaller but still useful.  We will take all that we can get!  The best part about this evening's happenings were the family memories that were made and the work ethic that was being taught to our six year old daughter.

The one photo in particular, where she is carrying the bucket full of plums to me, some probably think that this is child labor being displayed.  Or how about this post when we cleaned out the chicken coop!  They probably want my husband and I punished.  Recently I have seen a post or two where farmers and farmer's wives defend raising their children how they do on the farm.  The work they are required to do and so forth.  So when I watched PV tonight, it reminded me of those posts,  and henceforth came this post and me on my soapbox for a few minutes!

I'm proud to say that PV is a farm kid, and I hope she takes away at the very least work ethic.  You can take the child and put them in college to get an education  and they graduate with a degree, but they will still need work ethic to get them through life.  I personally do not feel you are a pure success by just having a degree or lots of money or running a company from a cushy seat in the office with a view or a tractor seat for that matter.

If you lack work ethic, you lack the core base of what you need in a professional and personal life.  For everything takes work, and I'm not just talking about a job. I'm talking relationships, displaying values and morals, raising a family, and heck running a budget and grocery list is work!

I have to admit, my farm kid has it easier than alot of farm kids I have read about and know personally.  I think we are raising her with a combination of farm kid things we know and things I have brought by living off the farm so many years.  I'm not saying all the kids raised off the farm do not have work ethic ( I raised two no where near a farm and I'm proud of them and they both have work ethic I believe). What I'm saying is that the world needs more children (and adults) WITH work ethic, on or off the farm. They need guidance and to know that working hard is a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. That accomplishing and working for the end result brings an amount of pride within.

Creating these memories tonight cost our family nothing but time.  I have that to give my family now and I hope to make many more years of memories in this thicket!  When I am gone, and the kids are gathering information for my funeral, I hope they remember the times of me in the kitchen, in the thicket, or anywhere else I smiled alot with them. That's what matters and I think my girls will do that, they won't be stating how I made them work their rear ends off!

How do you feel about work ethic in today's times?  What is your favorite way to spend time with your family making memories?

Thanks for stopping by!
Julie