Things Grandpa tried to teach me:

1) Life is simpler when you plough around the stump.

2)A yellow jacket is faster than a John Deere tractor.

3) Words that soak into your ear are whispered, not yelled.

4) Meanness doesn't happen overnight.

5) Don't sell your mule to buy a plow.

6) Don't corner something meaner than you.

7) The best sermons are lived, not preached.

8) Most of the stuff people worry about never happens.

9) Don't squat with your spurs on.

10) Don't judge people by their relatives.

11) Don’t interfere with things that are not bothering you.

12) Letting’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it in

13) You can't tell how good a man is or a watermelon is till they are thumped

14) Always drink upstream from the heard

15) Never miss a good chance to shut up

 My Grandpa lived in a different time and in a different world. He was a farmer who lived in rural Saskatchewan, and he did not like the cities and never visited them. As you can see some of what he told me I could never use, but the thought was there. I have put in bold those ideas that I think are important, not only to farmers but to the rest of us as well.

 As we move on in life, we may decide to teach our grandchildren, grand nieces and nephews our views on life. What we need to remember is that they live in a different world than we did and the advice that we give has been learned as we became successful in our world. Our advice, no matter how meaningful it is to us, may not be relevant to our grandchildren. Their world is different, and they may have to learn life’s lessons the way we did, by trial and error. Nothing wrong with that.