This is an excerpt from the book entitled "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett. He does a great job of making fun of our clutter personalities. This one really struck a chord with me as I'm sure any of you who grew up on a farm will agree! Enjoy...
"Everything written in this book about clutter can be applied "double strength" to most farm people. Few city or suburban junkees can touch your bumper crop of good old clutter. Don't think I'm judging you harshly or unfairly - you know you're guilty.
Farmers keep everything because room is no problem - old tractors, machines, and vechicles they just park farther out in the field each time. They keep them for parts, of course. And the ancient circa-1880 junk they keep to snare a dumb city slicker who'll come along and pay $500 for a rusty milk can or a warped wagon wheel. Most farmers keep their old work boots so long that the boots can walk off by themselves - and the old gloves, hats, jackets, and coveralls they keep, alone, could stuff a silo.
They have enough bolts stashed somewhere to bolt the cover down on a MX missile, and as for tools, most have a $70,000 inventory. Yet they keep the wire and string from every bale of hay, and every bucket, can, barrel, sack, and container that ever ambled onto the place. (We'd all like to do that, so we all envy them.) They never throw away a worn or broken part, because if the new one breaks, they might be able to recycle the old one even twenty rusting years later.
But the absolute clincher is, once a farmer owns a welder and a blowtorch (which most do), nothing is junk. Everything - even a license plate frame broken in four places - is kept because, with a torch and welder, you can make or repair anything and must have scrap metal around. I've seen hundreds of farmers cut some good metal off an old truck bed, then keep the old, flaking skeleton for years, secure in the thought that they'd be able to pry a 10 cent lock washer off someday...if they need it.
Brethren of the soil, I've struggled with this myself through two generations of farms and ranches, and most of it is clutter! Haul it off and plant something where it was - you'll reduce the rattlesnake breeding grounds and help prevent injuries and divorces, as well as the profanities you utter every time you're looking through it for a part."
