For anyone who grows crops for a living or gardens as a hobby, this past “spring” will be hard to forget. Throughout most of the Midwest, it’s been an unusually long, snowy winter and short, wet spring.

It’s probably fair to say that you’re busier now than you’ve ever been, right? So what are all these activities that keep you so busy? Now be honest … are all these things really that important?

When you think of all the contractors involved in building your house, which trade do you think was the most important? I know a guy who says it’s the insulation guy. Take a guess at what he does.

I spend a lot of time on the road, traveling from dairy to dairy, hotel to hotel. And I’ll admit, I don’t always eat as healthy as I should. It seems that every time I have lunch, I have one hand on the steering wheel and the other on a sandwich. The other day, I stopped at a fast-food place at the top of an exit ramp. I decided I would treat myself to a small shake. The young lady who took my order barely said five words. And the other girl that poured the shake ... she just set it on the counter without saying a word or even looking up at me.

Chances are when you were growing up, your parents were a lot like mine ... strict and frugal. The first time my dad took my brother and I fishing on Lake Michigan, we were about 10 or 11 years old. A friend of my dad invited us on his boat that he kept in front of the McDonald’s in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

It’s finally that time of year again ... trade show season. It seems that once everyone realized how slow the months of February and March are, every company and organization in the dairy industry started scheduling their meetings, seminars and conferences to fill in all the open dates. Now, it turns out that February and March are just as busy as the spring and fall.

There’s a Spanish saying that goes: “Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo.” It essentially means: “The devil knows more because he’s old, not because he’s the devil.” In other words ... with age comes wisdom.

When it comes to delegating your work, what’s the main reason you hesitate handing it over to somebody else? If you’re like most people, you’ll probably agree that it’s usually just easier doing the work yourself than having someone else do it for you. And if you’ve been doing the work for a long time, that makes perfect sense. With a lot of first-hand experience, you’re probably pretty good at what you do and most people don’t measure up. But that’s the simple answer.