I Made A Mistake!
#farm #farming #farmlife #farmtok
I made a mistake. A big one.
It started like any other morning on the farm—early, foggy, and filled with the hum of routine. The rooster crowed before my alarm, the cows mooed impatiently at the gate, and the smell of damp hay mixed with coffee as I pulled on my boots. It’s a rhythm you learn out here—one that rarely forgives distraction. But that morning, I was in a rush. We had a vet coming to check one of the pregnant heifers, a delivery truck on the way with feed, and I still needed to move the sheep to the upper pasture.
I should’ve double-checked the gate.
It was a simple task, really. Move the flock, latch the lower gate behind them, and close off the access to the cornfield. I’d done it a hundred times. But in the chaos of the morning—while trying to text the feed guy, answer my dad’s call, and keep an eye on a very moody border collie—I missed it. I didn’t chain the gate.
By the time I noticed, it was too late. Thirty sheep were already halfway through the cornfield like it was some kind of all-you-can-eat buffet. I sprinted, yelling, flailing my arms, but sheep are surprisingly fast when they’re excited—and very stubborn when they find something they like.
I ended up chasing them for over an hour. My jeans were ripped on the fence, one boot lost in the mud, and I face-planted once trying to leap a low irrigation ditch. I was covered in mud and regret. When I finally got them out and back into the proper pasture, I could see the damage. Trampled stalks, half-eaten cobs, and the unmistakable sign that I had messed up big time.
Dad didn’t even yell when he saw it. He just looked at the field, looked at me, and sighed. “Well, the sheep had a good breakfast, I guess.”
We both knew the cost. Corn isn’t just food—it’s income. I had just turned part of a profitable crop into sheep snacks.
The thing about farming is, you can’t hit pause. Mistakes cost time and money, but they also teach fast. You learn that perfection doesn’t exist out here. No matter how hard you try, animals escape, weather shifts, machines break down, and sometimes… you forget the gate.
That night, exhausted and sore, I posted a quick clip on FarmTok—just me, mud-streaked, sheep in the background, captioned: “I made a mistake. Don’t forget to chain the gate. #learnedthehardway” The video blew up. Farmers and ranchers from all over shared similar stories—cows in kitchens, pigs in flowerbeds, goats on rooftops. Apparently, gate mistakes are more common than I thought.
Farming teaches humility. It teaches patience and resilience. That mistake cost us a few hundred dollars in damaged corn, but I gained a lesson I won’t forget. And surprisingly, a community of people who understood exactly how it felt to make a big, muddy, sheep-filled mess.
So yes, I made a mistake. But I’m still here. The sheep are fine, the corn will recover, and tomorrow—like always—the farm keeps moving forward.
