My father was trying to teach me how to run the farm when I was just a toddler.
I wasn’t allowed to use the farm equipment until I was big enough to handle the gears and reach the pedals.
Once I was using the equipment, it was time to work with other equipment around the farm. One of the rules of using equipment, is knowing what it is used for, what you need to make repairs, and which machine worked best for the job you are doing. When my dad told me I could use 16ga stainless rebar tie wire for bundling hay, I was lost. I had only used 16ga used as a shotgun term, and never with the stainless rebar tie wire. He showed me a coil of 16ga stainless rebar tie wire and started telling me what a valuable tool it was on the farm. He explained how they used stainless rebar tie wire to bind bags and rebars. The bags came in a huge bunch and they were used bagging different grains and seeds. We also used 16ga stainless rebar tie wire in the family garden. During the winter, tree branches would come down, and the tie wire was used to bind those branches, secured young trees that were hanging from an excess of fruit or wind damage, and to bundle the branches that were left over from corn crops. He told me that mom used it to support her vines and creepers on the support or trellises, she bound them to. There was so much I had to learn before taking over the family farm.