[AT] O.T. - Retiring more than once mentioned recently...

[Indiana Robinson]

I retired in steps and am still doing it. I've always been on the farm and
also worked at several other things, sometimes several at once.
I walked away from a good seed corn research job because it was supposedly
part time but became a 50 - 60 hours a week part time job along with being
on the road working at out of state test plot sites right when I needed to
be in my own fields in the spring and fall.
A number of years later (about 1996) we retired from our store that we
owned for over 20 years. That one was planned...
Quitting grain farming wasn't planned... I was only farming a couple
hundred acres and figured that I could do it for many years yet. Along
about 2003 or so my mother was getting fairly bad with Alzheimer's and we
had also taken in Diana's mom who lived with  us for 3 or 4 years. Her mom
was great to care for but she was legally blind, almost totally deaf and
could only walk with a walker. Nice lady but caring for both her mom and my
mom took a big toll on both of us. I finally gave up on grain farming when
my mom got so bad that I could not keep her from wandering out and getting
lost. I had already quit renting ground away from home and I then cash
rented out about 70 acres to a good neighbor who only lives about 2 miles
away. He still rents that from me today. A good guy who has become a good
friend. I did keep some ground for hay production and baled for several
years. Then one really muggy hot (95 degrees +) July day about 2007 I was
laying under the baler working on a chain, laying on my back reaching up
and streaming sweat when a batch of chaff fell on my face and into my open
mouth. I've had such things happen about all of my life but I guess that
was the wrong day. After I quit sputtering and spitting I said out loud "I
don't have to do this $#1t" and ran the baler in the tool shed and parked
it. One more retirement step.
Around 2008 We started getting into horses... Much of the former hay ground
was land I didn't want tilled or a little of it I just didn't want in corn
any more. I never did like being boxed in around the house. That was about
the time health problems started. I had not been to a doctor for over 40
years but I'm pretty caught up at it now.  :-)  About then I could only
walk about 100' at a time and that was with 2 canes. After fighting it a
year I finally picked out a doctor and went. It turned out to be a simple
thyroid problem that medication pretty much cured in 3 weeks. Don't put off
going to a doc... A quadruple bypass in 2013 "adjusted" a lot of plans for
me... Between Diana and I we now know a "LOT" of doctors...  :-)
Most of our own horses are rescue horses, all 5 are just pets. We have had
more but over the years a couple have died of old age, both about 30. We
pasture board a batch but the count is constantly changing, usually from 6
to a dozen. We currently have no plans to retire from the horses but like
most of life, especially at my age (77) things tend to be a little
unpredictable.
I was rethinking that future retirement from the horse boarding 2 days ago
when I got into a short shoving match with an upset thoroughbred but our
disagreement passed OK.  :-)
Those thoroughbreds will run over you, especially when they first arrive.
The difference is kind of funny. Our own bunch include 3 quarter horses, a
Belgian Draft and a smallish Hackney. I can walk among them with them
milling about and never worry. It is easy to tell that they are being
careful to not hurt us. Sure different from those track horses.

Is anybody else retired but not quite?


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-- 
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Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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