I guess we ain't that kind of farmer.

[MF283]

I'll take the "grunge" work anyday over Game of Thrones, had a paper route & mowed yards at 11 years old, still mowing & quit reading all the crap in the papers these days.
A farm is the greatest tool to teach kids life lessons.

Ronnie

 

[mark02tj]

I'll take the "grunge" work anyday over Game of Thrones, had a paper route & mowed yards at 11 years old, still mowing & quit reading all the crap in the papers these days.
A farm is the greatest tool to teach kids life lessons.

Ronnie

I got my paper route at 11 and kept it for 4 years. Talk about learning responsibility - collect from your customers to pay for your product, 7 days a week delivery (it was an afternoon route 6 of those days), keeping straight what your customers wanted (some Sunday only, some Wed (for the coupons) and Sun, etc.), having to HIRE A SUB if you were going on vacation with your family, etc. The third day I had my route was April 3, 1974. That was the day a string of tornados hit our area! Talk about exciting! And, delivering during the Blizzard of '77!

One of the guys on my route repaired lawn mowers out of his garage on the side. I bugged him about teaching me lawn mower repair and one Friday I got a call from him to be over at his garage the next Saturday morning to start my training. I quit (actually sold) my route a couple of weeks later and learned a new trade. When I went back to school (at age 21), I started my own repair business so I wouldn't have to get a "real job". I learned a lot at a young age. Still learning now. :laughing:

 

[coralhead]

I got my paper route at 11 and kept it for 4 years. Talk about learning responsibility - collect from your customers to pay for your product, 7 days a week delivery (it was an afternoon route 6 of those days), keeping straight what your customers wanted (some Sunday only, some Wed (for the coupons) and Sun, etc.), having to HIRE A SUB if you were going on vacation with your family, etc. The third day I had my route was April 3, 1974. That was the day a string of tornados hit our area! Talk about exciting!

Your story fits mine to the T except the those very tornados (Lou, KY area) were near the end of my 4 year paper route stint. I had no idea the tornados were actually tornados till I got back to the house (157 customers) and saw it on the news. Started when I was in the 5th grade and ended in the 8th. It only ended because Mom and Dad bought part of his families farm and we moved to the country. I hated collecting since people were always putting you off. I still have a check and a note from one person where they deducted 3 days worth of papers since they did not receive a paper those days. It was something less than 40 cents. The paper was not even printed on those days but expected to have one delivered. I'd hate to try and collect from customer these days.
I now have 10 acres out of the Home place and waiting to cut some hay. Stupid rain. My wife's alpacas don't seem to mind though.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I hated collecting on my paper route. I barely made anything on that route but I learned a lot about people.

 

[oosik]

I worked twenty five years for the government until I saw there was a better life (a "late bloomer"). Quit that and moved here in '82. Around here if I don't do it - it doesn't get done. Plain and simple. There is no way I could afford to hire out the work. Besides, there is the pleasure of a job well done and I don't think anybody else could do it exactly as I would want it done.

The beauty of my system - if the job gets screwed up, I know exactly who to blame and I also know exactly who has to fix it.

 

[check]

I love to hear stories like yours. It's funny, I've spent twenty years in corporate USA and make a great living, but dream about the farming life. My wife and I are also working on a part time, hopefully to be eventually full time dream. We've got 30 acres and hoping to start our orchard next spring. Life in the gerbil wheel isn't all it's cracked up to be. I love getting out there and busting my butt. Keeps me grounded.

Hey, to get you started, go back and review a few episodes of the old television show "Green Acres"

 

[farmer2009]

Was raised on a tobacco and beef cattle farm. Dad put me in the tobacco patch when I learned to walk at 6 months. Not that I was much help, but by the time I started school I was adding 4 digit numbers. It was my job to keep up with how many sticks were cut, housed and on frames. Then I became the young back. I did the bending and handed the tobacco to whoever was spearing it to the sticks. By 14 I was leasing my own acre worth of pounds. It was my responsibility to make the management decisions. I did most of the work beside dad as his tobacco was in the same patch. At the end of the year he'd breakout the cost for my share and I owed him that. I got the rest.
By 16 I wanted to farm full time and set a goal of doing it by 25. So I started looking trying to figure out how to go from nothing to full time in 9 years.
Well after some life bumps I ended up on my own place at 25 1/2 full time. I'm raising broiler chickens on a commercial scale and also have some beef cows. I've been here 7 years this summer. I usually hire a high schooler for the summer to help mow, weedeat and general grunt work. I used to do it all but with a wife and kids I find myself wanting to spend time with them so the teen working 20 hours a week gives me that time. Priorities.

 

[jrclark]

While I do not own a farm, my 5 acres of wooded heaven is still a lot of work on the weekends, especially when a tree fell on the house yesterday. This happened after spending most of the day chipping and cutting all over the property. I did manage to carve out an hour last night to watch Game of Thrones with the wife, though

 

[newbury]

"It will blow their minds when they find out that there is no such thing as a frosted flake tree..."

Excellent! Really cracked me up...lol :laughing:

But there is such a thing as a spaghetti tre, isn't there?

Hey, to get you started, go back and review a few episodes of the old television show "Green Acres"

Back to the box

While I do not own a farm, my 5 acres of wooded heaven is still a lot of work on the weekends, especially when a tree fell on the house yesterday. This happened after spending most of the day chipping and cutting all over the property. I did manage to carve out an hour last night to watch Game of Thrones with the wife, though

That's the beauty of streaming.
When I'm done working and washed up I can sit down and watch a Game of Thrones WITHOUT COMMERCIALS or a Green Acres at my leisure.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I grew up working with my Dad on a small farm,100 acres owned, and we rented around that much more. We had cotton pickers and combines that after we harvested our crops, we worked for the public harvesting soybeans and cotton from those who didn't have the harvest equipment. It was hard work during the fall with many days of 18+ hours of work. We never made much money, just enough to pay the bills. I finally left the farm at 24 YOA. There just wasn't enough income to support my parents and me and my new wife. I ended up working construction for 45 years and then bought some acreage to retire on. I don't plan to farm it in no way. I do have a large yard to keep up, lots of fruit trees for personal use and to supply my neighbors with fresh fruit. It all keeps me busy which is what I had in mind when I retired. I didn't want to become a total couch potato nor did I want to have a full time job like I had for all my life.

Most small farmers don't make enough money to live comfortable nowadays without having an alternate source of income which is why I would never want to be a farmer but I do like the country life and like to work my land, mow my grass (and my neighbors sometimes) tend to my trees and livestock and generally keep busy. Nothing I do contributes money to my life but it does contribute a vast wealth of self satisfaction in a job well done.