Statistics

I think Mark Twain had it right about lies and statistics . I made the mistake a while back of actually by passing my answering machine and picking up the phone. Wouldn't you know if was somebody from Statistics Canada wanting me to participate in a survey on employment.
Really , what a poor source of information I am. The nature of this self employment called farming means some days I work maybe 15 hours while others I might not work 1 hour. Winter time on a grain farm is a pretty slow time. The big herd of 8 cattle might take an hour of my time, some days less, some more.
So when the nice statistics person calls up to ask the questions on my work hours for the past month it is a really wild guess on my part.
Time spent driving the tractor pushing snow, running the grain vac to load grain, lining up the auger to unload fertilizer. All work. Driving to town to pick up grain cheques and pay the fertilizer bill. I guess that would pass for work too. But do I deduct the hour spent talking to a neighbour outside the post office from the total?
Helping cut firewood on the weekend definitely felt like work but I doubt it would qualify as part of my self employed farming career.
Really, some days I am sure that the lazy farmer works harder than I do.