For too long, farmers have been stereotyped as coverall-sporting, rubber boot wearers. The real trademark of farmers is rough, chapped hands.
Washing cow udders and other barn and outdoor chores can take their toll. Cold weather only aggravates the problem — red, wrinkled and inflamed looking knuckles and fingers.
I remember seeing a dairy farmer with horrible looking hands. Hands that can best be described as extra-large with cracks imbedded with brown stuff –uh, harsh chemicals. It gives a bad message for the dairy industry. If he doesn’t take care of his hands, what else is neglected?
My mother was very strict when it came to personal hygiene. You didn’t go out looking rough and unkempt. Our hands were kept soft and chap-free with glycerine. Yes, glycerine.
We spelled it glycerine when I was a kid. Now it’s glycerin (that’s the American spelling). It’s a commercial product whose principal component is glycerol.
Mother would look at our hands and know when it was time “to do them with glycerine.” Before bedtime my sisters and I would have to soap our hands and wrists and make them really soapy. She would then pour a few drops of glycerine on our hands, and we’d have to work that in really well, especially the wrists. It could sting a bit. Then she’d give us a towel and we’d wipe the soap into the towel. We couldn’t just wash the soap off with water because that defeated the purpose — the glycerine would be washed off. Mother always kept a bottle in the medicine cabinet. She would regularly do her hands. I never saw her with rough hands.
I make sure I always wear winter mitts or gloves when I’m out in the cold. The condition of the hands depends on the care you give them. For many people, especially those who do manual work, the hands are the most overworked and ill-used part of the body. They are exposed to all kinds of wear and tear due to the effects of temperature, climate, frequent wetting, and onslaughts of harsh chemicals.
For some folks, like the big hands dairy farmer, care of the hands is often completely overlooked. If he spent a few minutes a week on his hands he’d look and feel a lot better. And I’m sure his wife and kids would appreciate it.
Glycerine is a by-product of the soap making process. It is a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture to your skin. It is a neutral, sweet tasting, colorless, thick liquid. It has many uses including making natural soap. Pure glycerine is one of the very best skin and hand treatments that money can buy.
I have to chuckle thinking back to an incident almost 40 years. I was on the board of the local branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) and I was a busy dairy farmer in those days.
The annual VON meeting that year was held at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. Most of the 300 delegates from across Canada were accountants, lawyers, bankers and people in the health care profession. We were assigned seats at tables so we would sit with people from across Canada — not with anyone from our board. At the lunch break, our director of nursing told me that the man sitting next to me had asked her what kind of work I do.
“He’s a dairy farmer,” she said. “Why?” she asked.
“He’s got calluses on his hands!” he remarked.
At least I didn’t have them rough, cracked, chapped and looking like paws — only callused. The glycerine had done its work.
