I can hear my grandparents telling me this in my head often these days. I remember being so mad every time they would say it to me. Not really getting the point. But now as I do hard things daily I remember those words and the lesson behind them.

I do things every day that I never thought I could or would do. I fix fences, split and stack firewood on my own (I’m gonna learn to cut it too but baby steps), I fix the washer and run the tractor (I finally stopped hitting things with it).

Not long ago I was helping my mom set up for a craft show we were hosting and I had gone and got some t-posts from TSC to put up a fence. As we were putting them in the ground mom goes, “How do you know how to do this?” I kinda laughed and said YouTube. We had bought the pounder at an auction for cheap and it’s probably one of my most used tools. I have t-posts holding fences in place in my orchard and they are holding my current greenhouse in place too.

There have been times when my dad says “Why don’t you do it this way?” I have to remind him that I am a girl and can’t always do things the way that he can but I’m still doing them just doing them my way.

I also find myself saying it to my kids when they tell me they can’t do something without even trying. I want my kids to always try and know that it’s ok to fail as long as you try. I want them to refuse to quit so I will keep telling them “Can’t died in the corn field.”

Farming is hard…..Raising kids is hard….Life in general is hard. But if you quit before you even start what do you gain?