Marriage is not for the faint of heart or the love blind. It is the wide-open eyes of commitment intermingled with acts of charity. Like the old saying, “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.” 

Farming and sports both require some grit, brains and luck. Being physically tough is important, but being mentally tough makes a bigger difference. In farming and sports, if you give me a choice between talent and heart, I’ll take heart every time.

Successful transition planning begins with a first and formal transition conversation, and how the first conversation goes often sets the stage for the entire process. Get off on a good foot, and the entire process is smoother.

Every year, Christmas time seems to roll around a bit faster than the year prior. As a child, waiting for the elusive Dec. 25 seemed to stretch an eternity, whereas now the costly and busy holiday seems to come around faster than ever before.

If there exists a chink in my armor, a crack in my carefully curated veneer of manliness, it is sentimentality. Truth be told, it’s less a chink and more a gaping hole that leaves all my vital organs unprotected.

I led the freshly shod and saddled little buckskin mare around the front of the pickup and back to the trailer. I smiled to myself as she jumped up into the trailer, and I casually slammed the door shut.