Any other farmers/homesteaders out there - Page 7

Digging4Truth · #61 12-23-2011, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margies3

I would NEVER want to go back to living/working on a farm. However, I do wish that my sons could have been raised on a farm and learned their work ethics the way we did as kids. Kids today don't have any idea what it really means to WORK. They complain if you ask them to dust the living room. Please!!! give me a break!

The trick is... it's hard to have one without the other.

Digging4Truth · #62 12-23-2011, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Hutchinson

I can't grow anything except corn on my feet.

Have you tried lately?

You might want to give it a try. If you own your own land you might at least try planting fruit or nut trees.

Every little bit helps.

Digging4Truth · #63 12-23-2011, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titus2woman

We are very fortunate with our boys. While they did not grow up on a farm but in suburbia playing sports and video games they have always had chores and responsibilities. My husband believed that I should not have to wash my own car, carry my own groceries or scrub my own toilets as long as the boys were home. When my oldest son went in the Army he called home from boot camp... I was so worried about how mean I'd heard the drill instructors were to the young men I asked if he was OK... He said "Oh mom, don't worry. They can't do anything to me except yell and make me do chores, just like at home. LOL!!!!

Twice each year, once in summer and once over Christmas break, since we've been on the farm, all our boys come home, and they work. They are responsible for all the fence, my milk parlor, the new chicken coops, the new electrical and central air and heat in the house. And while they are here I get my car washed and groceries carried, although I do now clean toilets.

Our oldest son (Dr. Ken PhD) is a great worker, the next Mr. Jay the MBA cooked his way though college and always makes us something wonderful while he is home. Our Joe is the handyman supreme. Each has unique talents and the youngest who is still at TAMU is the most hardworking kid around and knows the animals and the farm since he is the only one who lived here.

Give those boys more to do than dust

Isn't it amazing that kids grown in the same home still end up with such differeng talents and strengths.

Digging4Truth · #64 12-23-2011, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titus2woman

OK... it's a good thing I work in medicine... You guys are a crack up! No harm no foul Scott... If you could only hear what the nine gynecologists I work with talk about all day you wouldn't even bother to wonder at your corns and ingrown hairs!

You know my husband's grannie was highly offended to hear a preacher say 'pregnant' over the pulpit... and even my husband frankly hates the word gyne-anything...They would be horrified to hear what I listen to in my work every day... I guess it's all just context.

Indeed... and I wish I knew where the right line truly is between the standoffishness of the past or the over familiarity of the present.

Titus2woman · #65 12-23-2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

Indeed... and I wish I knew where the right line truly is between the standoffishness of the past or the over familiarity of the present.

Me too sometimes. I personally think that as long as proper terms are used and one is not being salacious, provocative or taunting it is pretty much OK.

The comment I removed from the other thread said 'one good thing about farm kids is that you do not have to tell them where babies come from or how they got in there either'. To me that is just a statement that fits the topic and where it had drifted to farm raised kids verses city raised kids... But to someone else or coupled with the comments on sowing wild oats it seemed kind of... well... inappropriate. And I find it better to error on the side of caution so as not to damage my witness. I hate to hear "I thought Christians weren't supposed to do or say _____________." because it makes me feel as if I have disappointed God.

Sorry for the drift

Digging4Truth · #66 12-23-2011, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titus2woman

Me too sometimes. I personally think that as long as proper terms are used and one is not being salacious, provocative or taunting it is pretty much OK.

The comment I removed from the other thread said 'one good thing about farm kids is that you do not have to tell them where babies come from or how they got in there either'. To me that is just a statement that fits the topic and where it had drifted to farm raised kids verses city raised kids... But to someone else or coupled with the comments on sowing wild oats it seemed kind of... well... inappropriate. And I find it better to error on the side of caution so as not to damage my witness. I hate to hear "I thought Christians weren't supposed to do or say _____________." because it makes me feel as if I have disappointed God.

Sorry for the drift

Agreed. We live our lives with others in mind. We seek to please our God and to be a good representative of him everywhere we go.

It is true that farm living is an education of it's own in the ways of husbandry. And, I think, it not only facilitates education but it also helps bring about a balanced view on things. Things like where babies come from etc are seem more as a natural part of life than some far off taboo subject. It's a part of yearly life on the farm.

Life on the farm also teaches us that death is a part of life as well. I just can't say enough for the balance that it can bring to a child growing up and seeing all the facets of life as well as the understanding that whatever we have only comes from the work of our hands and a little prayer along the way.

aegsm76 · #67 12-23-2011, 08:57 PM

A conversation that I had at 6 am with my 5 year old.
Me - "put on your socks and shoes so you can come help with the animals"
Him - "I am going to stay inside"
Me - "are you a country boy or a city slicker?"
He then goes and gets dressed and goes outside with me!
He takes great pride in being a helpful country boy.
My older two were raised in the city, as was I!

Digging4Truth · #68 12-23-2011, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aegsm76

A conversation that I had at 6 am with my 5 year old.
Me - "put on your socks and shoes so you can come help with the animals"
Him - "I am going to stay inside"
Me - "are you a country boy or a city slicker?"
He then goes and gets dressed and goes outside with me!
He takes great pride in being a helpful country boy.
My older two were raised in the city, as was I!

LOL... That is classic. "City Slicker" is a deragatory term here as well.

Titus2woman · #69 12-23-2011, 09:16 PM

That is precious!

I was once called a city slicker... My first cow lost her calf. She was in milk at 6 gallons a day and I had not only not figured out what in the world to do with that much milk and had not the physical strength to milk it (Yes I have forearms like Popeye now)... so... I put an ad on craigslist looking for a calf to foster. A fellow answered my ad and said "That mama cow aint gonna take no other cow's calf, you silly CITY SLICKER"..... I was furious! So upset in fact that I emailed him back from my own email address.... My level headed husband pointed out that this might not be the smartest thing I'd ever done, lol! He also mentioned that I was not nearly as mad when I drunk guy in the Walmart parking lot had called me a COW.... Yep... City slicker... a world class insult around here!

Jay · #70 12-23-2011, 09:17 PM

No shame in being from the city or the country. If I lived in the country, the only thing you might possibly find me running would be a few dogs, and the rest of the land would be for walking.