There’s this frequent and irritating phenomenon in farming - especially when it comes to a rapidly growing farm - that never ceases to teach me a lesson or two. It’s what I call the Phenomenon of Inadequacies.

The Phenomenon of Inadequacies is a perpetual companion to the farmer who is attempting to do. To do! Just … to do. Farming involves a myriad of unique tasks (which, by the way, keeps things intensely interesting) that constantly evolve or change to stay one step ahead of the farmer. But what’s life without a challenge?!

Infinite challenge. Farming is infinite challenge. Predictability is scant. Many outcomes are determined by weather, predator pressure, and the quirks of animals and equipment. And, throughout all of this, inadequacy.

Today, my brush with inadequacy involved the building of a PVC duck feeder that I knew was both too narrow and imperfect in construction (cutting PVC pipe down the middle with any semblance of precision is not an easy task … especially with inadequate tools). But I had a particular size of PVC that was serviceable enough, and I had the lumber, and I had the fasteners, and, most of all, I needed to replace that small, metal trough feeder for a particular reason: it was inadequate. Inadequate also was our supply of feeders on the farm.

And so the PVC feeder was finished, fitted, and screwed in place on the wall of the barn where we keep the ducklings. The metal trough - inadequate for 27 3-week-old ducklings but perfect for 30 1-day-olds - was now available for the shipment coming in the next day.

I may be extremely stubborn in learning to adopt the cardinal and theological virtues, but patience is something that I am being forced to learn. There’s always an impediment in my path, and learning to deal with it is the only way to grow: to grow ducks and to grow humanity on this farm.

I’m grateful for the opportunity. There’s a strange peace to the knowledge that, even though I am building a new duck-house now, one day it will need to be replaced. It will be inadequate. It will be too small or it will decay, and evolution will be required. Growth and patience will be required, and so God infiltrates our ordinary lives with this constant knocking, which at times seems rough and even annoying … but it teaches humility and reliance and trust … teaches us to be grateful for our inadequacies.

Avec amour,

Ross