Nothing ever goes away.   The essential nature of a thing does not disappear.  It changes.  Evolves.  That’s how nature rolls.  It is through change that a thing makes itself timeless.  It is through change that it makes itself known.  It may take a different shape, or be reflected through a new reality, but whatever it was that made a thing what it was in the first place will still exist in the world.  For example, Communism may have fallen in the Soviet Union, but it is alive and thriving in every petty bureaucrat, baked into every Bridge to Nowhere, and encoded in every lie told by a government to its people.  Magic Johnson may no longer play basketball, but the exuberance with which he played the game is, today, alive in some gangly kid from a small town in Hunan Province, who’s sharing her own brand of hoops magic with her teammates and fans.  We may lose a loved one, but we do not lose their love.

If only because it invokes a sense of nostalgia in me personally, I’m happpy to report that the small family farm is thriving.  As a rural lifestyle it barely exists, of course.  Most of the economic vitality over the next century will be in urban areas.  The essence of the family farm–call it ‘farminess’–has morphed into something new.  In fact, in my observation, the essence of the family farm is maybe more present in the world today than ever.  Very few of those reading this will have grown up on a family farm, so there is no way for you to recognize this essence.  Not having experienced the change from what it was to what it is, it will be almost impossible for you to see.  I’m writing this post as a kind of guide, to help you see and appreciate the farminess that’s present today in the networked world.

Nobody said it is an easy life.  Your fortunes hang on every harvest, and when the harvest isn’t good, you may have to take a job off the farm for a season or two.  One bad hailstorm can wipe out a year’s crop; one virus can decimate your herd.  It is, however, a good way to experience life.  Your property is  intellectual not earthen, but it is just as tillable, and contains more growth-friendly enzymes and more potential for generating wealth than the sweetest acre of Nebraska farmland ever did.  You get to be around your family a lot, and they get to see and experience what you do for a living.  Everybody pitches in.  The sense of community is strong.  The work ethic is strong.  The food is healthy and delicious.

Here’s a Farminess Guide, seen through the change from what it used to look like, to what it looks like today…

40 Acres and a Mule—>A Server Farm and a Team of Siberian Engineers

Milk Cow —> Computer. (”Give, Asus, give!”)

Quilting Bee —-> Scrum

Hayride —-> Rave

Dead Animal Truck —> Wayback Machine

Manure Spreader —-> Drudge Report

Eating —-> Exercising

Local Bank —-> Kickstarter

Pitchfork Through the Foot —–> Piercing

Seed Planter —-> Twitter

Church Social —-> Facebook

Trips to Town Once a Week —-> Trips to Wherever, Whenever

Trespasser —-> Hacker

Successful Farmer Magazine —-> Lifehacker

Spring Flooding —–> WikiLeaks

4-H Club —-> Club Penguin

The Weather —-> The Cloud

Old Grey Mare Who Ain’t What She Used to Be—> Silver ‘72 Dodge Charger Awaiting Conversion to Biodiesel

Skunk —-> Spammer

Pine Tar Stain —-> Tattoo

Outhouse —–> Biodigester

Pond —– > Hot Tub

Barn Raising —-> Agile Development

Growing Season —-> Year to Quarter

Butchering Day —> IPO

Cropland —-> Network

Whiskey Still —-> Marijuana Plant

Barn —-> Studio

Smokehouse —-> Food Dehydrator

Gas Tank —- > Solar Charging Station

Grainery —-> Database

Windmill —- > Wind Turbine

“We will kill the old red rooster when she comes.” —-> “She’ll be bringing Chinese takeout when she comes.”

Any fellow farm kids have anything to add to this?

Stay farmy, my friends, and I’ll see you around the bonfire I mean at Burning Man.