hot under the collar

Well, if you remember my post a few days back on sellin my straw and the whole situation there, this is a little update on it. I finally got hold of the fella who had come down to the farm and picked up his straw without tellin me. I tell you, I felt like the lowest scum when I was talkin to him. I explained the situation and apologized for refusing to sell him any straw. Here's the kicker. He was upset (understandably) and couldn't figure out why we were being so harsh and refusing to sell the straw to him. He said back in the winter when he came and got the straw that he was just "doing what he was told." So, you know what that means? That means my renter flat out lied to me. He said that he had told this fella to call me first. Now, I can tell a lie from confusion and this fella was plain confused and said several times that he didn't understand why we would do that. He also mentioned that his most recent call to the house was a result of my renter mentioning us again. After the initial incident the renter told us that he would have a talk with this fella and gave the impression that he wouldn't be doing business with him either. This really burns me up. The renter lies to me about why the fella comes and picks up his straw without lettin me know, that leads me to misjudge the buyer and wrong him, it also dirties my reputation as well. All the while the renter comes out smellin like a rose, though he's lied and dirtied an honest man's reputation. Were I able to financially handle it, I would take over the farm totally myself. Folks like this destroy trust, especially when they are church-going men who should know better. Being a Christian myself, I find that even more offensive. This is gonna bother me for a while. The only reason I was refusing to do business with this man was because the renter led me to believe that the buyer had been told to contact me and had just picked up his product without any regard to contacting me. Ya know, there's a reason why the Bible says "Thou shalt not lie" and it's situations like this. Nobody wins. Okay, I'm done venting. God bless.

--old fashioned farmer

Sorry for draggin my muddy boots on the site. Just needed some good folks to talk with. To be honest, it doesn't bother me that my renter lied. I don't like being lied to but I'm not gonna cry over it. What hurt me was the fact that it led me to act rashly and hurt the straw buyer when he was innocent. So, it wasn't really a misunderstanding and at the same time it was. I would rather take a bullet than to do someone wrong so you can see why it hurts so much that I did wrong to this straw buyer. All the renter had to do was say that he had told the straw buyer to pick up his straw and not contact me. No problem. If you wonder why contacting is such a big deal, the farm is down the road from my house. It was my grandparents' farm and there is still a good deal of stuff down there. Since the road is under township jurisdiction we don't have a gate. I have to be careful about people snooping around and possibly stealing stuff. That's why I like to have buyers stop in at the house. Plus I like to help them out with the loading and not make them do it all themselves. So, there are good reasons for the contacting. It's not a "kiss the ring" thing as someone mentioned. Just lookin out for my late grandad's things. If that's being ridiculous or is something I shouldn't talk about here because it's not a big world problem, then I'm sorry. That farm is special to me, especially after losing grandad a couple years back. And as far as setting down, as one person suggested. The renter knows now to let me know if someone's coming. The straw buyer might buy some straw in the future, though he didn't sound too enthusiastic about it. And I feel terrible about acting so rashly and will do all I can in the future to make sure no miscommunications lead to anything like this. I apologize for posting this whole mess on here. I know how bad it is to listen to someone when they aren't really sayin anything worth listening to.

--old fashioned farmer