I’ve said it before that I believe that there is no better way for kids to grow up than to grow up helping mom and dad on the farm or ranch. Learning about hard work at an early age helps children to build character. By the time they are high school age, they understand what it means to put in an honest day’s work, and they appreciate the value of a dollar because they know what it means to earn it. There is no better way for your kids to learn life skills than by helping dad even when he thinks he doesn’t need it. Some of these helpful adventures make for some pretty darn good stories.

                  Its no secret that nearly everything on the farm can be fixed with either baling twine, or with baling wire. The trouble is lawn mower blades and baling wire do not go well with one another. The blades wrap the wire tightly around the spindle and prohibit the mower from actually mowing the grass. Ranch wives are capable of doing anything, but most defer the fixing of lawn mowers to their husbands. This was the case with my mom and dad when I was just about 2 years old. Mom had been out mowing weeds around the yard and managed to find a stray piece of baling wire with the lawn mower. She parked the mower in the garage and waited for Dad to get home so that he could cut the wire out and she could finish mowing the yard. So there Dad was, laying on his back under the mower with a set of wire cutters in his hand, and his sole focus on the task before him. Two-year-old Jade thought that dad needed his help. The 2-foot-long piece of pipe that was kept under the workbench was the tool I was sure Dad needed for extra leverage. I promptly began to beat my father with this piece of steel pipe while he was defenseless under the mower. Turns out I wasn’t near as good of help as I thought I was that day.

                  Center pivot irrigation systems are nothing more than jigsaw puzzles for adults. They are constantly demanding our attention during the summer, and changing tires and gearboxes are something my son learned to help me with at a very young age. Quirt learned how to use the bottle jack, how to tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern so they didn’t warp the rim, and how to walk in the pivot track so that we didn’t ruin any of the crop. On one of my son’s first trips to work on a pivot, I was reminded of his deep love for baseball and especially pitching. I had just finished changing a gearbox on a tower and was cleaning up my tools when I turned around to see my son doing his best Nolan Ryan impression with every socket in my set. He would wind up and fire a socket as far as his little arms would let him throw it. He might go to college one day on a baseball scholarship, but when he makes it in the big leagues, I expect a new set of three-eighths drive sockets.

                  My wife is the sweetest and most mild-mannered person that you will ever meet. She can be very persuasive with her puppy dog eyes from time to time. During calving season many calf crops ago, she used her puppy dog eyes to save a crippled calf from being put down by her father. Despite promising profusely to care for the handicapped bovine, in the end it was dear old dad who ended up with another barn chore to do.

                  Kids learn by doing. They make mistakes, but it helps them to grow and learn. As parents, we learn patience in the most difficult way possible. Some jobs take a little longer, a few more chores in the barn might come about and dad might earn a few more gray hairs. In the end it’s all worth it. That’s all for this time, keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire and God bless.

Meinzer is a fourth-generation rancher raised on the southeastern plains of Colorado. He and his family live and ranch in Oshkosh, Neb.