I guess we ain't that kind of farmer.

[WoodChuckDad]

My wife was asked, at her work, what she was doing this weekend. She said working the orchard. Some of her coworkers laughed and one of them said "she hasn't figured out yet, that farmers hire other people to work". We got a laugh out of it. The Girl who said it is 26 years old, living at home with her parents and engaged to a guy who grew up farming, and they plan to farm some of his family land. I have no idea how big it is. Maybe it is an established farm, large enough to be able to have other people do most of the grunt work while you do the management. But the description of their situation makes me think it isn't quite big enough to make that profitable, and he plans to have 40 hr job in the public sector as well as having the farm. I have a feeling that she is going to experience some pretty radical eye opening.
We are in our mid and late 40's and building our Orchard from scratch. It takes all of our time and most of our money. We are enjoying it and my wife really likes to drive the tractor and gets out there and works side by side with me every weekend. My wife has said a few things to the young girl about running the tractor naming the tractor (she now only refers to the tractor as "Wiley") and the girl made it clear that she has no intention of getting in or on a tractor, ever. She will be keeping house while he works. I'm sure family farms run the whole scale from women owning, working the farm up to managing the house, or working a non farm job and never touching the farm part. Somehow, I just can't imaging living on a farm and not being involved in it at all. Images of that old TV show "Dallas" come to mind, where they had thousands of sprawling acres with beef operations and oil wells. Sounds like a pretty good gig. Where do I sign up?

I have tried to craft this post so I don't sound like I'm begrudging toward someone who has a bigger, established and profitable operation. That's not the case at all. Compared to many people on this board, my 20 acres orchard (only 3 of which has apples at the moment) is little more than a hobby garden. I feel like my situation is blessed and I am constantly grateful for this opportunity.
I am also, just entertained by the combination of differences and attitudes. I have 5 children ranging in age from 13-26 so I think a part of it is my feeling that kids today are detached from reality until they get out on their own and life smacks them around a little.

 

[brasco426]

I'm 35 and amazed at how uninterested in Real work most people my age and younger are. Sounds like that girl doesn't have a lot of life experience yet and has no idea what she's in for. Everything sounds so easy bouncing ideas around inside your head until it's time to put those ideas to work. Farms i.e. Working, Hobby or what have you require hands on work. Unless you are planning on being penniless, most of the work is done by getting in there yourself and doing as much, if not all the Real work yourself. Glad to hear the Orchard is coming along, 3 acres is a nice little project while still holding down a day job. If you keep it up, sounds like your retirement will be accompanied with some additional income from hard work invested now. Donnie

 

[super55]

Kids these days are coddled and myself as parent as well am just as guilty. Every parent wants their kids to have experience all the things we never got to do when we were younger. Kids these days are involved in all sorts of extra curricular activities these days but work is somehow looked down upon like there is no value in working at a young age or you are somehow robbing them of their childhoods.

When I was a kid my dad got laid off from his job for two years before he got called back to work. Back then unemployment only lasted 25 weeks. One summer in order to help the family my mom, brother and I went to work the fields with all the migrant workers. We were paid the same as everyone else out there based on the quantity we picked. I was only 8 years old and by far the slowest but my parents couldn't afford to get us school clothes so we earned them. I didn't have the nicest clothes that year but I sure was proud of them.

I don't know why but for some reason everybody thinks these days that if you do manual labor that you must not be educated or smart enough to figure a way to have someone else do it for you. To me it seems the smart man would do the work himself/herself if it can save them from paying a 30k a year salary.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

There are a lot of cultural notions about work; friend of mine who is a Chemical Engineer, lived in England for several years. He said the he was looked down upon by his neighbors because he did all of the maintenance, yard work, mowing, etc. at his home. Seems that they aspire to progressing economically to the point to where they can pay others to do the menial tasks. I personally enjoy gardening and yard work; there is a physical need satisfied that you don't get sitting at a desk all day.

 

[JRobyn]

There are a lot of cultural notions about work; friend of mine who is a Chemical Engineer, lived in England for several years. He said the he was looked down upon by his neighbors because he did all of the maintenance, yard work, mowing, etc. at his home. Seems that they aspire to progressing economically to the point to where they can pay others to do the menial tasks. I personally enjoy gardening and yard work; there is a physical need satisfied that you don't get sitting at a desk all day.

You nailed it. What happened to pride in workmanship? Especially a nicely self-manicured yard!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

People who live on a farm, but hire out all the work aren't farmers, but managers.

 

[BigCountry1689]

I am 31 and my wife and I are both from rural communities. I was raised on the families 2500 acre beef ranch. I was taught from a young age to work for what I want. I wanted a cell phone I had chores, and we wont even get into my first truck, that was 125 acres of fence I will never forget. My wife was raised on a smaller lot and instilled with the same work your own mentality. After I finished college I moved to south Florida and started my own mini farm (20 Acres) I am in the process of purchasing another 30 from the neighbor who has decided that 87 is old enough to move. While I don't consider my farm anything like what I grew up on there isn't a day goes by I don't appreciate all the lessons learned at my parents expense $$$$ that allow me to run my operation. As for my wife, we work together with everything. I plant a 5 acre garden every year, mainly for our consumption and the neighbors. She will not run the tractor just not her thing, but I can't keep her out of the dirt. I work in the public sector, and run my farm part time. I have no helpers except the 2 I'm raising and right now their not really much help (3mo. and 3 yrs.) I go to work and people see my hands and arms scraped up and ask me what happened. When I explain that this weekend I was building fence, or cutting trees, or any number of other things they look at me like I'm crazy. Of course I ask what they did...."Oh, well I got caught up on Game of Thrones." and I say "That sounds nice." I'll stick with my life I just cant imagine my life revolving around a box. And there is no better sleep than the sleep you get after working outside all day. People today think everything is grown from a box. It will blow their minds when they find out that there is no such thing as a frosted flake tree...:laughing:

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I am 31 and my wife and I are both from rural communities. I was raised on the families 2500 acre beef ranch. I was taught from a young age to work for what I want. I wanted a cell phone I had chores, and we wont even get into my first truck, that was 125 acres of fence I will never forget. My wife was raised on a smaller lot and instilled with the same work your own mentality. After I finished college I moved to south Florida and started my own mini farm (20 Acres) I am in the process of purchasing another 30 from the neighbor who has decided that 87 is old enough to move. While I don't consider my farm anything like what I grew up on there isn't a day goes by I don't appreciate all the lessons learned at my parents expense $$$$ that allow me to run my operation. As for my wife, we work together with everything. I plant a 5 acre garden every year, mainly for our consumption and the neighbors. She will not run the tractor just not her thing, but I can't keep her out of the dirt. I work in the public sector, and run my farm part time. I have no helpers except the 2 I'm raising and right now their not really much help (3mo. and 3 yrs.) I go to work and people see my hands and arms scraped up and ask me what happened. When I explain that this weekend I was building fence, or cutting trees, or any number of other things they look at me like I'm crazy. Of course I ask what they did...."Oh, well I got caught up on Game of Thrones." and I say "That sounds nice." I'll stick with my life I just cant imagine my life revolving around a box. And there is no better sleep than the sleep you get after working outside all day. People today think everything is grown from a box. It will blow their minds when they find out that there is no such thing as a frosted flake tree...:laughing:

Good for you, BC...I believe you have a handle on what's important in life and you and your family will benefit tremendously. As the F.F.A. creed says, "I believe that to live and work on a good farm is pleasant as well as challenging...".

 

[gwstang]

"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:

 

[Cjm005]

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.

 

[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.