What farm task do kids today know nothing about.

[MossRoad]

Using a fountain pen.

I was forced to use a fountain pen in 1971 in 4th grade by a crazy nun. She hated those newfangled ball-point pens. I am left handed and she tried to force me to write under-handed as opposed to the typical overhanded technique that most lefties use.... it didn't go well. My parents had to tell her to knock it off and let me write overhanded. Then I smeared everything and the nun started giving me bad grades for neatness. So my parents told her to knock it off again and I got to go back to ball-points. So did all the other kids once they ran a couple ink cartridges through the wash and their moms all complained. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Picking up rocks to clear a field (or in my case a pasture).
David from jax

My brother-in-laws first paying job was a rock picker at a local farm. Two kids sit on a trailer towed behind the tractor by the farmer. He'd drive slow, they'd jump off, grab the rocks, throw them on the trailer and jump back on. Every spring before planting.

 

[k0ua]

My brother-in-laws first paying job was a rock picker at a local farm. Two kids sit on a trailer towed behind the tractor by the farmer. He'd drive slow, they'd jump off, grab the rocks, throw them on the trailer and jump back on. Every spring before planting.

Only difference for us was you just walked beside the wagon all the time, and we used rock forks. Kinda like a small pitchfork with much closer tines and the tines bent into a "basket" to hold several smaller rock before you threw them up onto the wagon. Many hours in the hot sun picking up rocks.

"Bugging the taters". I spend days going up and down the acres of potato plants killing the "tater bugs" a type of beetle, their larvae, and egg clusters. No spray for us, just mechanical killing. Hours of backbreaking work each day in the sun bent over looking for these things on the underside of the leaves. "your closer to the ground boy, so this is your job".. Yep. Summertime when I was a little kid out of school was NO "vacation".

I often wonder if the hardships and deprivations I suffered as a child have made me the wonderful person I am today. We could go on for hours about the green bean picking, and watermellon plant hoeing... Yeah, I really love gardening today. NOT.

 

[k0ua]

Then there was the "bucking hay". At age 15 I worked on a crew of young like minded lads picking up hay bales (up to 100 lbs for that darn Alfalfa). Picking up the bales and throwing them on the wagon. I got 2 cents per bale. Of course the bad part was unloading them in the barn. We didn't wear masks. When I came out of the barn I could barely breath. Each night laying down horizontally to sleep was horrible. My lungs would fill up with fluid and I would wheeze terribly. One summer of that was enough. I have always had "hay fever" and still have many allergies to this day. Why I thought I could "haul hay" I don't know. I made a fair amount of money considering the times. But I couldn't hack it. At 16 I graduated from high school, and that summer still 16, I started at the University. No more dusty barns for me.

 

[gemutlich]

"What farm task do kids today know nothing about?"

De-tasseling corn.

Hands-down one of if not THE worst jobs on the farm. Sun-up to sun-down, day after day, acre after acre, cold and wet in the morning then brutally hot too soon, but can't take off that long-sleeve t-shirt because yer arms and hands are already tore up from yesterday. Oh yeah, and the endless supply of gnats getting in your eyes and stinging the heck out of 'em while you're already miserable...

One of those tasks that just can't adequately be explained.

 

[TSO]

My boys are still young, but we try to raise them with old school values like WE were raised with. We only have 15 acres, so not a real "farm". But we keep about 30 egg layers (for ourselves and selling about 7 dozen a week to co-workers) and we raise 200-300 meat-birds a year (keep/sell). Also raise Hogs, though not every year. The boys have to help with everything, collecting eggs, helping to muck the coop, water and feed the meat birds, etc. We also maintain a very large garden and the boys help with maintaining it, and also with picking veggies for meals. We like to keep them outside as much as possible, minimal time in front of the tv. Actually, we tie tv time with a chore, like folding laundry usually. We also keep them involved in sports, but not the crazy travel-type sports, not yet anyhow.

Picked up a good punishment technique from somebody on this forum a couple years back... that is, I send them outside to pick up sticks and put them in the bonfire pit. Can't remember who suggested that, but my wife and I love that punishment LOL. The other day I was re-grading a small half-acre area of the yard and the boys pissed me off doing something, arguing or whatever... so I made them spend a couple hours picking rocks out of the graded area and then helping me spread straw over the grass seed.

And even though we don't spend as much time there anymore, we still try to get up to my grandparents Farm in Mid-Michigan and let the kids run around and explore there. Not a huge Farm by other states standards, but not bad for Michigan. 160 acres of corn or soybean depending on the season.

I did Cub and boy scouts when I was a kid, and we thought about getting our boys into Cub Scouts. But with as much time as we spend Outdoors already, and since we already go camping, there's nothing the kids would get from Cub Scouts that we don't already teach them.

My wife and I like to think we are doing our part, adding productive members to our society. Wish more parents thought the same way...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Then there was the "bucking hay". At age 15 I worked on a crew of young like minded lads picking up hay bales (up to 100 lbs for that darn Alfalfa). Picking up the bales and throwing them on the wagon. I got 2 cents per bale. Of course the bad part was unloading them in the barn. We didn't wear masks. When I came out of the barn I could barely breath. Each night laying down horizontally to sleep was horrible. My lungs would fill up with fluid and I would wheeze terribly. One summer of that was enough. I have always had "hay fever" and still have many allergies to this day. Why I thought I could "haul hay" I don't know. I made a fair amount of money considering the times. But I couldn't hack it. At 16 I graduated from high school, and that summer still 16, I started at the University. No more dusty barns for me.

My kids still do this.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Picking and shucking field of corn by hand.

 

[goeduck]

Cleaning a dirt floor.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Use an air hand pump
Use a water hand pump

Use a water bailer in a well