Mom & Pop

What do I appreciate about my parents?  Well, they may have been young and had no idea what they were doing, but I can never say they didn't work hard.  Very hard.  I grew up on a farm.  A family farm that my Grandfather owned and let us live in. (He had moved into a trailer in town; too old to farm)  My father worked a full time job as well as raised pigs for our food and money.  My mom, sister and I cared for them as well, as in we hauled water in 5 gallon buckets in a red wagon twice a day all summer long to them.  But the bulk of the work was done by my father.  Later we switch from hogs to cattle. He also hunted everything he could to provide us with meat year round.  This included the butchering of these animals, processing, etc.  My mom grew everything you can think of and canned or froze it all for the winter.  We grew a huge garden and put everything up in our cellar.  We also picked fruit from other people's trees (they let us) and froze all of that as well.  She sewed all of our clothes and most our food was homemade.  She also ran a day care with approximately 5 additional kids too.  They worked very hard and I am sure they didn't enjoy it very much.  We made it on very little money, can't say that love was especially in large supply either.  But there was a major work ethic that can't be denied.  Especially when you consider how young they were at the time.  I appreciate how hard they worked so that I could have everything I needed.