Summer of 2026 – Rewarding Work & Enjoyable Discovery
Foundation of a tree fort, in the pasture with the tire swing and zip line. Per one of the boys: “We’re making a great amusement park back here!”Mounting solution for the frame to the tree leaves room for tree growth and heavy wind movements. $4 for 10 inch lag bolt and a routed channel vs a $140 Treehouse Anchor Bolt at each connection. Added a cattle chute! Will save 30-40 hours annual in loading and travel time for the AI process in the cattle. Took an absolute absurd amount of time to figure out how to integrate it into our sorting system. I mean like 120+ man hour of brainstorming, figuring, re figuring, marriage repair conversations, leveling, and t-posting. Eventually, success, and contented piggies look on. Hot Chickens! Cool Roofs. Used Radiant Barrier wrap to cover the top, added fans, and kept fresh water readily available to maintain a high survival rate. It was dicey! The boys successfully steered their birds-for-sale through the hot season alongside our family birds. The great separation, the buck from his does and the calves from their mother’s udders. In an effort at crosscultural engagement and/or intimidation, Teddy the Buck goes with operation rub-the-head. Mary the Calf is unwilling to rise. Joey the calf looks upon the fracas warily. Repeat daily. Boat on the lake day. These ducks will swim right up to arms reach. Craziest thing. Found an auger bit stuck at property for family moving nearby from out of state. Hungry Tree.A new hinge pin concept at the same property. If it looks stupid and it works, it ain’t stupid. Abundant pears also on the property, with a really crunchy and sweet texture. Best guess is it’s intended for canning purposes.Same pear tree, running a mighty harvest after extensive damage. Amazing. The eldest has been vigilant about harvesting a great many melons. We have great melons at Raising Wood. Mixing concrete in the foreground. Welded pipe and rebar on the ground in the back. Put together inside a tire, add a rope and ball, and you’ve got yourself a tetherball game. Occasionally we’ll stumble into a dinner where everything was home grown. Bush Baby Watermelon, Red Wattle/IPP pasture raised Bratwurst, Peppers from Papa’s garden into Hot Sauce, Brandywine Tomatoes, Red Potatoes.
Practice time at the home range with friends Learned how to replace this cylinder head after wearing out a Stihl chainsaw. That hole on top shouldn’t be there. Homeschool module on a compressed air tangerine cannon with friends. Yes, he’s an engineer. Yes, it worked. Yes, we could reliably hit targets. Yes, we could launch citrus into orbit. Speaking of trees that just won’t quit
Had a conversation with some similar-minded fathers with similar age children this week. One of the concerns raised was “I am still trying to figure out a good way to get my kids to understand the importance of hard work”
This is a common situation. Most children will shirk work when given the opportunity, because up to this particular moment in life, they mostly could shirk a task and someone older and more capable will take that responsibility from them. The challenge is growing out of that.
I sent this reply: “Mine are motivated by a few things. 1, sense of ownership over what they are working on, particularly tasks that require daily engagement, eg animals care. 2. Sense of profit based on outcomes. Eg paid for every egg recovered from the hens, but paid 2x for clean eggs vs dirty eggs. 3. Sense of importance to the task. They don’t keep up with the dog water, the dogs can literally die because no one else is checking it this week. 4. Family practice of hard work, it’s a do as we do rather then do as we say. Lot of dads do their work/productive/honey dos/hobbies away from the kids but they should be apprenticed into them.”
Turns our, what motivates a child to work isn’t all that different from what motivates a man in his job, differing only in the sense of scale.
