“We didn’t have electricity until I was in high school,” Grandpa explained to all the grandchildren. The youngsters stared sullen-faced with no context for this information. They looked like a horse or a cow when you explain any concept, unable to process the words … lacking the part of the brain necessary.

So the question you are all asking: What is a tail on a calf worth? The answer was surprising; a tail is worth $400. At least the calf without a tail was worth $400 less than the other misfits.

I had a friend in college who felt lethargic and fatigued. She went to the voodoo village, which was our nickname for the student health center, and the “doctor” diagnosed a vitamin C deficiency.

I run on Three Creek time. Few people run on Three Creek time, but only because there are just a few Three Creekers. We all run on Three Creek time. This time system is not unique, some of you reading this article live on – insert your redneck town here – time. I see some of you nodding in agreement, the rest of you are normal.

My favorite ag-related cliché is, “Make hay when the sun shines.” I use this phrase to encourage my children to complete a task when the opportunity is ripe. I also use this phrase to encourage my baler operator to plant his keister in the seat of a tractor when the weather is prime. Ag clichés have a poignant meaning both on the farm and in polite society.

“I believe in the future of farming.” If you are an over-50-year-old FFA alumni, you recognize this as the first line in the FFA Creed. If you are a younger FFA alumni, like myself, you learned “I believe in the future of agriculture.” I know this distinction because I lived the transition.

Imagine the solutions a trained civil engineer could brainstorm if they actually valued farmland as farmland. Folks from the rural parts of Idaho and America must continually convince city planners of the intrinsic value of farmland. We must maintain farming systems as they are … as dirt.