Life takes practice

Always kind of amusing to sit and watch people try to back up with a trailer on. It's like they have never tried it before and are totally new to the game. Some will twist around and look back. Some look in the rear view mirror and try to back. Some look in the two side mirrors and try to back up. And it quickly becomes apparent they haven't done this very much. All I can say is it takes practice. Lots of practice.

I'm not sure how old I was, but it couldn't have been over 10 years old, when Dad would hook a 12-foot old horse dump rake on the back of an International Cub tractor, and it was my job to rake. I learned a lot astride that Cub tractor. If you aren't familiar with a Cub, it was the bottom of the International tractors as far as power and size was concerned. Maybe 10-horsepower. Maybe 12. I doubt it could pull a single 14-inch plow. Perfect tractor to learn on. So now and then I had to back it up. A short tongue makes for difficult backing but great to learn on.

As I got older, Dad would let Mick, my younger brother, and I handle more equipment. Eventually we got to use the hay sled. It was about 20 feet long with wheels and an axle on each end. Dad would use probably a 20-foot needle which he pushed through the stack and thus he could drag a chain through after it. That way he could cable off a chunk of the stack of hay for the cows. It's almost impossible to back a hay sled. One learned to plan out where you were going so there was no backing needed.

Dad had a heart attack, so Mick and I had to put up the hay. So we did everything from mowing the hay with a sickle mower to stacking it with a Jayhawk that Dad used. Interesting. The Jayhawk was kind of like a giant A laid down with wheels at the bottom. The top of the A was fixed on the front of the tractor on a kind of ball so it would flex like a horse trailer. To turn the Jayhawk right you turned the tractor left and then followed the Jayhawk to the right. It took some practice and thinking. Kind of like backing a horse trailer all over.

When we got married, we worked on a ranch southwest of Arthur. It was a good-sized place so we fed a lot of hay through the winter. It was there I drove stack movers fitted with a hydra-fork. We used the hydra-fork to feed the cattle the hay. We pretty much fed some hay most every day. Also we got to use trailers and stock trailers. We learned a lot about backing and handling equipment.

We moved into Arthur where I started to work for a general contractor who did everything from digging basements to concrete work to building kitchen cabinets. I was able to learn how to run the backhoe and other equipment. Great experience. And since then we have had all kind of trailers and boats and such. Each one is a little different and each situation is different as well. But the best part is the more you practice the better you get.

Probably the hardest thing for me to back is a garden cart on our four-wheeler or side-by-side. The tongue is really short, so there is almost no room for error. But some days I can back it really easy and then there are days I finally just kind of give up.

Life is kind of like this. There are some things we can practice for and others we kind of jump into blind. When Marge and I had our first baby, neither one of us really knew what we were doing. We had been around babies and kids before, but not like 24 hours a day and seven days a week, month after month. I still remember some of those diapers. Marge used the old cloth ones, and at times my first inclination was to toss it. I knew Marge used to rinse them out in the toilet in the bathroom, but that was about all I knew. Nightmares!

When we got our first baby calves to raise on the bottle here in Missouri, I kind of knew how to bottle feed them but not really. Dad was the one who told us how when I was growing up. So we kind of learned by trial and error. I'll never forget the lady at Uniontown who sold us some baby calves telling me to don't feed them too much or they'd end up with the scours or the runs. She said to kind of keep them hungry. Good advice.

When we arrived in Scott City to begin pastoring here, I was privileged to have two older ministers to kind of help me, the Rev, R.C. Stephens and Rev. Bill Dickey. It was such a joy to be around them. Brother Stephens' favorite expression was to say, "Let's pray." No matter what was going on or what the problem, "Let's pray." Brother Dickey was more direct. After a few sermons, Brother Dickey came and he told me, "Phillips say what you got to say and shut up and sit down." I was rambling on and on as I preached. The Rev. Dickey was right.

Our gardens have sure taken practice. We have always grown tomatoes and cucumbers and green beans since moving to Missouri. At first we used an overhead sprinkler and it did a pretty good job. Then I started to experiment with drip irrigation using half-inch black plastic pipe and adding emitters where there were plants like tomatoes or peppers. Eventually I went to half-inch pipe with the emitters right in the pipe. I did that for a bunch of years. Now we use a low pressure emitter tubing with emitters every four inches. Runs at about 10 to 12 pounds of pressure and does a fantastic job. I kind of wonder what new thing is down the road to learn and try.

Life in general takes practice. The first time around we kind of learn the hard way, but with persistence and patience and practice hopefully we'll get better with time. Look at life as a learning experience. Even failures can be stepping stones to the next success.