Anyone who knows me personally can attest to the fact that I am not the best person to have around when it comes to panic situations. I’m working to improve upon it, but, in essence, whenever I find myself in a situation in which shit has certainly hit the fan, I seem to lose all brain function and blank. This, obviously, is not the best coping tactic, as I know, and my dad has seen it occur more than most because I work with him on the farm and has judged me thoroughly each and every time.
When it comes to farming, when accidents happen, they’re almost always bad. You’re working with tools of all shapes and sizes; massive pieces of equipment with many moving parts; heights; weather fluctuations; and animals. When you throw all of these factors into the shit show mix, it isn’t difficult to understand why, sadly, a lot of farm accidents are fatal.
Seeing as I work on a farm, I know I need to improve my panic response. Freezing up in any squirrely situation is not ideal, but especially not in farming.
To give you an example of how to appropriately handle panic when it arises, we will reference my father because he is the coolest damn cucumber I have ever known. A few years ago now, during combine season, he was pulling the baler behind him while driving a tractor. Combine and baler fires are always a risk during combine season because of the wiring of these machines and dry outdoor conditons; my dad was bumping along when he saw smoke coming out of the back of the baler.
Rather than shitting himself, like I would have, he immediately sprang into action. He grabbed the fire extinguisher that resides inside the baler, hopped out of the tractor while it was still rolling, and put the fire out himself, all in a matter of minutes. His level-headedness saved the baler and himself from worse damage, and it is his approach to panic that I strive to possess one day.
Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash
ontheedgeofeverything 