Anything at all to do with farming, a Blessed thread, (no literally as you will see!)

Becky1951 said:
We had a farm and raised cattle, cut, baled and stacked hay in our barn, yes lots of work plus milking a cow for our milk, and butter, bottle fed some calves, raised 3 kids, kept house, cooked. Had to give that up when I was 48 due to health issues. I was raised around livestock and now just have chickens and the horses and donkey and 2 of my dogs. The other ones passed due to old age. Working on a our farm I didn't even think about paying into Social Security, prior to that I did work but not long enough to draw Social Security. And I get very irate at people who think that if you get S.S.I. you were lazy and didn't work. :rolleyes:
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I know different, it is hard work! I bet your children loved growing up on the farm. The experience is something that is irreplacable. I can just hear their stories around the dinner table now.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I have lived on a farm for 35 years. Where to begin. At first we had to clear the land for vegetable gardens. Hard work. We planted about 1/2 acre of a large variety and harvested it, then preserved as much as we could. Then we wanted to start raising chickens. We bought 12 chicks of various breeds to start with, and then maintained about 1 rooster per 18 hens. Roosters are a handful, but we had a great rooster for 8 years.
( the dates are not right )

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Then we wanted to raise a special kind of hog . The American Guinea Hog that was in danger of going extinct. So we bought a male hog first and then his female partner. Which lead to years of raising hogs.

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Then we bought a male and female goat...

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We are down 2 2 chickens 2 goats and 2 cats. Living on a farm has been a daily adventure, plus lots of work. :)
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Do you still garden? We had about a half an acre in our backyard that was all garden. Plum and pears trees. We preserved about everything. I miss it. I do have a small garden at home now. This year I only planted lettuce and squash.
 

My dad wanted my sister and I to experience of working in the dirt. I think I may have been like 9 or 10 at the time when my dad announced at the Sunday dinner table in March that since my sister and I were out of school in early June, we should have plenty of time to experience what it’s like to grow vegetables. He told us that he was going to turn over a plot of soil about 50 yards from the back of our house so we could start our garden. At first, it didn’t excite me, but knowing dad, he wasn’t going to cave and tell us never mind.

He started telling us that we have to find out when we have to plant seeds because not all seeds get planted at the same time and not all vegetables come in at the same time. We had a grocery store nearby and I remember seeing a seed rack, so I thought that would be a good place to start and I was right. On the back of the seed packets, the information told us what time of the year we should plant the seeds and how to care of them. I think the company name was Burpee.

I told my sister about these seeds, so she went down and grabbed her seeds. She took peas, which she said because they could be planted now and the sooner the better because she really didn’t want anything to do with this job. I went for potatoes and sweet corn. My mom told my sister to also plant some tomato plants. She said no and my mom said ok, and she looked at me and asked how about you doing it. I told her yeah, I would do it. I would have walked on coals for my mom or dad. My sister used to call me a brown-noser, which I never paid any attention to.

Once my vegetables started coming in, I really got excited. By the end of summer, I had produced a lot of different veggies. About a month later after everything was harvested, I asked dad if he would double the size of the plot next year. He asked why and I told him that I wanted to plant a lot more and try selling some. Right away, my sister said I could have her part of the plot as well. So, I did. A packet of seeds back then was only a nickel. I did really well. Potatoes were the easiest and I should have planted all potatoes, sweet corn and tomatoes. I ended up with a lot of squash leftover and gave some of it away. I think I made around $40-50 that summer. What I didn’t have luck with was cantaloupes, watermelons and cucumbers. I found out that you have to water these 3 items a lot, which I didn’t do.

Years later, I tried this with my kids. My daughter wanted no part of it and I couldn’t even bribe her to just try it. Talk about being a girly-girl, that’s her. My son is very talented with a lot of things, but he doesn’t have a proverbial green thumb. The whole thing flopped.
 
Blessed said:
I know different, it is hard work! I bet your children loved growing up on the farm. The experience is something that is irreplacable. I can just hear their stories around the dinner table now.
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OOOOPS.

Blessed said:
Do you still garden? We had about a half an acre in our backyard that was all garden. Plum and pears trees. We preserved about everything. I miss it. I do have a small garden at home now. This year I only planted lettuce and squash.
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No not any more. I have very bad allergies now and all the rest that has slowed me down quite a bit. I have the memories and they are vivid. You sound like you were doing something very similar to us. I really enjoyed it. :)
 
My father was born in a sod house on the prairie a few miles from Havre Montana. Nothing I ever experienced, but I gather farm life back then, and a midwinter morning visit to the outhouse at 10 below, wasn't much fun. Anyhow, I can't honestly say he ever expressed any remorse at leaving that farm. (-8
 
morgan said:
Great pictures. I spent many school holidays on my uncle's farm and at one time thought I might want to try my hand at it, settled for geology instead.
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I've got some mates who came into farming without the usual background of being born on one, and have done very well, (often getting qualified too before starting in earnest), though tell by maybe sounds a safer option! :)
 
Blessed said:
Do you still garden? We had about a half an acre in our backyard that was all garden. Plum and pears trees. We preserved about everything. I miss it. I do have a small garden at home now. This year I only planted lettuce and squash.
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Lettuce and squash is better than nothing of course, (I'm growing nothing, only my own waistline at present!).
 
jujube said:
Maw and Paw, greatgrandparents, had a farm in North Carolina which I loved visiting. Paw had a favorite saying, "Only old men and fools are farmers!" He was an old man but certainly no fool.
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You do need your head screwed on to avoid getting taken advantage in any business, but my father used to say "farmers took some knocking out", meaning it could be difficult to shift them in any direction if they didn't wish to go, or give up!
 
oldman said:
I told him about these wasps and he said you have to spray this chemical that they mix up in a sprayer before you collect the eggs.
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Dawn (regular, original, blue) dish soap diluted in spray bottle 9 parts water or more to 1 part soap
has often worked , and doesn't hurt any people or animals like toxin sprays might.
 
grahamg said:
You do need your head screwed on to avoid getting taken advantage in any business, but my father used to say "farmers took some knocking out", meaning it could be difficult to shift them in any direction if they didn't wish to go, or give up!
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I don't know if they gave up or not, but family farms in the usa became so few in number that the agencies that counted them for a hundred years stopped counting them at all, I read a few years ago.
 
oldaunt said:
We don't call it "trouble". We call it "participating in fun".
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You're right, they all seem to enjoy doing it so much, but halter training a young bullock or heifer for six months or however long it takes, so you can safely handle such a vast animal when fully grown is no small matter, and them washing or brushing them each day of the show, (Royal Cheshire Show here for next two days, and one of my mates judging the native beef breeds!).
 

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