Hoe to the End of the Row

FarmBoy is the real deal. He calls himself FarmBoy because he was a real farm boy once upon a time, and he had a great mentor, Mr Draben. Mr Draben was a philosopher/farmer, and passed along many maxims to FarmBoy, such as this one, which stuck best: Always Hoe to the End of the Row. This FarmBoy lives by. He always hoes to the end of whatever row he is assigned, whether it be a row of tax-filing paperwork or a row of service to a widow or a row of . . . I don't know. . . dirt under the house that has to be removed so that there is uniform space between the floor-joists and the ground, by lying on his back in the dark, day after day, sending buckets of soil out on a rope. You get the picture? I am ever-grateful to FarmBoy for his example in this area, and for taking such good care of our family, mostly through living by that maxim.

I, too, worked for Mr Draben, for a brief time. Here is a story of something that happened with Mr Draben and me. One morning, Mr Draben drove me out to a beet field in the middle of nowhere and dropped me off . Before he pulled away in his truck, he pointed to a long row of beets which were being choked by horsetails and instructed me to weed the row. (No hoes involved, but same sort of thing.) I diligently did so. I got down on my knees and weeded to the end of the row, which took a considerable length of time, then I sat down for a few minutes to wait for Mr Draben's return. When Mr Draben did not return, I weeded another row of beets, tugging out all the tough, pesky horsetails until the row was clean. Still no Mr Draben. Although parched and exhausted, I weeded another row. Then another. I did this all day. Finally, after many long hours, Mr Draben drove up, jumped out of his truck and exclaimed, "What? Did you weed out all those horsetails by yourself?! I forgot you were out here! "

So, here is my maxim: Hoe to the end of the row, but don't go all crazy, you nut!

Thanks, Mr Draben.