Dear old dad brought me up on the farm. I think I disliked every minute of it. He bought the farm when I was about six or seven years old. There I stayed until my stint in the army at age eighteen. Then back to the farm at twenty-one. Marriage soon came into my life, but still I worked on the farm until age twenty-six, when the ministry came up. If my math is right, that is seventeen years of farming.
We farmed forty acres of land, had three greenhouses, and, at times, two hundred pigs and four hundred chickens. I do not remember that many, but that is what dad said. We also had peacocks, pigeons, doves, rabbits, pheasants, and other exotic birds. Once in a while we would have a cow, horse, or rabid dog.
My brothers, George and Dave, and I seemed to work like slaves. Maybe it was my imagination because my step mom always said, “You don’t know what work is!”
Although I hated it then, I would not trade the experience for the world. Now, many years later, I look back to the farm and the family and thank God for the character and discipline it gave me. That is priceless.
Here are a collection of lessons I learned "From The Farm:"
Dear old dad brought me up on the farm. I think I disliked every minute of it. He bought the farm when I was about six or seven years old. There I stayed until my stint in the army at age eighteen. Then back to the farm at twenty-one. Marriage soon came into my life, but still I worked on the farm until age twenty-six, when the ministry came up. If my math is right, that is seventeen years of farming. 
