Farm Etiquette 101: Farm Gate Rules and Square Knots
The Golden Rule of Farm Gates
The first farm rule I learned from my then fiancé (now husband) was: “Always leave a gate how you found it”. An open gate you can leave open or closed, but a closed gate must always be closed after you pass. This keeps farm animals from getting out of or into the wrong areas. There are other rules about gates too: “If you climb over a gate, you do it on the side secured to a post”. My husband doesn’t need to climb over, though, because he can jump most -if not all the gates on our farm. This always impresses me, especially since I can only jump 1.5-2 feet high (#futurefitnessgoals).
The first skill my husband wanted to make sure I knew was how to tie a square knot. Most gates around our farm are closed with a piece of chain or rope, and all the rope ones use square knots.
How to Tie a Square Knot
The square knot concept isn’t hard; you cross two strings and loop one under like you are getting ready to tie your shoes, and then you do it again, making sure to cross the strings the same way as the first time. If you do right over left the first time, you do right over left again the second time.
The only problem with this is that I instinctively switch the order the second time, making what’s called a granny knot. Granny knots don’t stay tied quite as well, but if they do get tight, they can be a bit harder to untie, plus they don’t look as neat as a square knot. I have learned what a square knot should look like, so now I catch myself if I do it wrong.
Square Knot vs. Granny Knot
Right over left, right over left that’s how you tie a square knot. Right over wrong, right over wrong that’s how choose the narrow way by choosing over and over in the little things to follow God’s directions over our own instincts. Attention to little things develops the character to stand for what’s right in the larger things.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14
