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SW Ohio | My grandpa is 87, grandma is 84. They still have a small herd of cows/calves they raise for freezer beef, down to around 20 acres of hay they square bale. Up at 7:30 every morning and they stay up till 11:30 or midnight every night watching the evening shows. They still take trips throughout the year with no GPS, just going off memory and an atlas. Usually spend a few days up in the Amish country in northern Indiana. Hell last fall i sent them on a short trip one morning to get parts, about 2 hours round trip. 5 hours later they called and said they were just getting home. Took a "small" detour to to get a pair of gloves from an old fashioned hardware store and some lunch.
Yesterday afternoon we had a heat index in the mid 90's. I stopped by after work to feed and saw a fresh calf out in the pasture. I started out with buckets of grain and water for the cow. As i'm getting her to drink i turn around and he has the calf on the ground cleaning/treating the navel. Before that they had spent most of the day at the county fair watching my nephew show. Day before he was out on his Ford NAA he's had since 1956 mowing down ditches and waterways, no power steering or live PTO.
So to some degree old age is just a number as i'm around my grandparents who are still in great health and very active, albeit they are starting to slow down and struggle with some things more than they used to. But on the flip side it seems like every week they lose another friend, neighbor, or family member. My grandpa was the middle of 3 kids and he's had to bury both of his brothers in the last 3 years. Aside from a short period of time in the 60's all 3 brothers lived and farmed within 3/4 mile of each other, and 1/2 mile from where they grew up. Personally i feel like after a while the emotional pain from burying your close friends and family would take more of a toll than physical issues. | |
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How long should you live?
