"What Do You do for a Job?"

While Jack and I were swimming in carpet and Magnatiles the other day, he asked me that question. He is nearing three and I suppose already his brain is firing with such curiousities. That itself is a curiosity to me. JOB?! I know that he is very well immersed in our work, but I couldn't believe he was already breaking life down into categories of energy expenditure. Maybe it is from the stories he hears read aloud or from his may-as-well-be-an-adult sister who regales us with stories from that other realm off the farm: school. It also could be that I have been so conscientious myself about our idiosyncratic life as farmers...as land managers and small business owners; I've been seeking to maintain a balance between the work and the play, which is interesting when a good amount of my work is play. Perhaps his absorbent eyes, ears and mind have been sopping up my effort to put work aside here and there to set a tone for the next generation that work isn't life.
In our case, our 'work' is a lifestyle. How does the 5th generation farmer do it, I wonder? We are recreating the wheel in a way...not having grown up observing farmer parents or aunts or uncle or grandparents rise, shine, and eventually close out the day. Is it like the back of their hand, like a flow that they have cultivated: engaging in the work and dipping out to give their energy and attention to family matters in between...closing up projects by dinner time and directing their minds fully to down time after dishes? Or do they also dabble in intermixing work and play, each day being completely unique from the next? Do they also worry about their kids coming away with an understanding that work is life?
Well in answer to Jack's question, we are farmers and bakers and mom and dad. We take care of our farm which takes care of us and other people. We are delivery driver, engineer, mechanic, accountant, public relations, and also forever students of agriculture. "Oh...(brain really working)...MENANIC?!" I think we sold him on farming once I mentioned Rich wears this hat.
I happened to get another question from a bright-eyed kindergartner at May's class' Career Day this week. "What do you like about your farm?" After lots of questions regarding chickens' names and a repeat question: "do you grow strawberries there?", this was the one which elicited a response by which I overstayed my welcome, cutting it close to the lunch bell. Our farm is my favorite playground. We get this place all to ourselves...almost. Really we are in the company of endless birds, bees, caterpillars, a living network of plant and animal species, mycorrhizae and mushrooms. There is a whole suite of sights, smells, textures, and fun experiences you can have as soon as you open that door and step into it. Just as Alice set out into her Wonderland, so do we have the chance every day. And we get to share this with each other...one of my favorite parts of our 'job'.
Maybe when I start to fret how we are demonstrating balance to our kids, I can take solace in the fact that we are certainly including a dose of 'making life your own' and occupying our time with something that on most days sends dopamine and serotonin bouncing around our brains.
A job is (not) a job is (not) a job. Or hopefully not...