What farm task do kids today know nothing about.

[buckeyefarmer]

[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.]


Just my humble opinion -- I would still recommend the Scouts if you have a "good" troop nearby. There's lots more to it than camping. They earn a lot through the advancement and merit badge programs and they also learn something about teamwork and belonging to a group, getting along with a variety of people, etc.

2nd that. My 2 are Eagle Scouts. Went thru cubs also, but it was more crafty stuff. Boy scouts more about creating leaders.

 

[Cub 7274]

Carrying pails of milk...no pipelines in my uncles barn until the 80's
Stooking hay round bales weren't invented yet
My grandfather used to dig potatoes with a team of horses I still have the plow, also watching a thrashing machine operate
Sitting in a planter planting row after row of vegetables
Running a hammer mill to make "chop" the list goes on and on

 

[TSO]

[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.]


Just my humble opinion -- I would still recommend the Scouts if you have a "good" troop nearby. There's lots more to it than camping. They earn a lot through the advancement and merit badge programs and they also learn something about teamwork and belonging to a group, getting along with a variety of people, etc.

I didn't mean camping was the only reason we didn't put them in scouts... Was trying to keep my response as quick as possible.

Between all of our outdoor (and minor farm) activities already mentioned, and shooting at home, building fires at home, teaching them construction and repairs, sports, extracurricular school stuff, family events, various summer camps, etc etc ... Not only would we not have time for scouts, but they wouldn't have quite as much to gain.

I think the Scouts program is still very important, especially for kids who might not have the opportunity to experience those types of activities otherwise.

 

[Bird]

We didn't make any maple syrup in southern Oklahoma, and I never knew of folks detasseling corn in big fields, but I think I had a little experience with most of the other stuff in this thread.:laughing:

 

[smstonypoint]

Carrying pails of milk...no pipelines in my uncles barn until the 80's

My Dad never upgraded to "Grade A." "We" ("I" after I got old enough ) poured milk from the milkers into milk cans that "we" ("I") then hauled to a water cooler. That cooler was great for chilling watermelons in the summertime.

Steve

 

[RSKY]

What tasks/skills to kids today know nothing about?

Anything to do with a smokehouse, salting and curing and smoking meat.

Nearly anything to do with a garden such as planting, cultivating, and harvesting vegetables.

Figuring out how to 'make do' when something breaks and you are in the middle of a field five miles from the shop.

RSKY

 

[mjarrels]

Trying to tame barn cats.

mark

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Operating a 14 ft. open cab Baldwin-Gleaner combine, 90 degree weather, wind blowing, using pick-ups to combine 7ft. moldy rye that is lying on the ground, eating dirt and chaff all day...waking up in the morning with your eyes swelled and stuck shut; showering after dark beneath a 500 gallon water tank and freezing your...b...butt off.

Sleeping in a converted school bus with 8 or 10 other poverty stricken country boys, telling jokes all night and trying to get some sleep before getting up before dawn to grease 'em up, gass 'em up and start all over again. BTW, ever pull into a full section of Kansas wheat with three 14 foot combines? Felt kinda like the mouse battling the eagle.

 

[orangeandgreen]

Walking through soybean fields with a corn knife, chopping down the corn that came up from last year.

Tobacco plant bed prep .

Sitting is shop class and having local farmers pull up to the door and looking for "hay hands" and "tobacco hands" for the afternoons and weekends. And actually getting volunteers.

Pegging tobacco plants by hand when you didn't get a good "stand".

 

[Ken]

What tasks/skills to kids today know nothing about?

Anything to do with a smokehouse, salting and curing and smoking meat.

Nearly anything to do with a garden such as planting, cultivating, and harvesting vegetables.

Figuring out how to 'make do' when something breaks and you are in the middle of a field five miles from the shop.

RSKY

From Kentucky and smoke houses and "making do" here the Mt. Dew included learning how to get the mash started some called it feeding the hogs.
Maintaining a almost smokeless fire to keep the liquid at proper temperure.
Just joking with you but it was common here until the Feds. wanted the taxes and the juice.
Now no one even mentions using.

Left handed cigs. and cell phone the youth is contented.
ken