I feel like I'm a dying breed

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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We sold our dryer last year, it hadn't been used in over a year.

Steve

 

[Katy]

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Unfortunately that's how too many people think.

 

[Ladybirds9]

My mom grew up on a farm and her mom raised all their own chicken. Mom hadn't eaten home grown yard bird in probably 25 years though. BUT last week we butchered our own chickens for the first time and she was going on about how she had forgotten what real chicken tasted like. So we have already made plans to order more meat birds next year AND the other day I caught her looking at the turkeys in the McMurray catalog. Next thing she knows she's going to have a goat in her backyard...

 

[rancher hicks]

YEAH SO WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT? The way I see it is.

I've learned more than a few things on this forum and read to many, if you ask me, books, mags, and whatever I find on poultry and stuff. What I don't find are people willing to give "hands of experience". Sure we've got "Food Inc". but as one co-worker put it, "Why should I grow a garden when I can work enough hours to buy it?" I don't even know why I grow a garden, it's August and I picked 3 tomatoes. For 29 plants? It's just not worth the trouble. I got plenty of summer squash. No Sweet Peppers though. Cukes are spent.

So that's the way it is.

And as far as today's youth is, no one wants them. Kids are a bother, they just get in the way. I can do it myself, I ain't got time to teach them. The make mistakes fixing things I ain't got time for that. They get left home or in front of the tv or worse. Apparently Gramma and Grampa can't be bothered cuz thanks to Viagra their gettin it on. Or so we're led to believe.

As an educated man don't even get me started on the public school and what they tell our kids.

One thing that annoys me is that there are never any Poultry people at the "Farm Shows". Just cows, cows, cattle, cattle and huge machines. I hate it.

Now there are farm museums like the Garfield Museum in Chicago and we have one here in Cooperstown and we have the NYS Fair but no one to teach these important skills.

There are also "Hands on Farm Vacations" but those aren't advertised.

We could use a volunteer set up at the NYS Fair. The number of people who go through the poultry building is huge.

Fact is, After all is said and done, more will be said than done.

Love ya all

Rancher

 

[ducks4you]

GREAT thread--I had to read ALL of the posts. I thought I'd respond to some of them.
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Actually, an education can be a good thing, too. "A" students earn the grades. NOTHING else teaches you how to doggedly research a topic.
They will turn out just fine. Here's what DH and I did our three DD's (now 22, 27 & 30 years old)--they couldn't get driver's insurance unless they paid for it themselves. All three have worked since they were 16 years old.
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I found MY place because I looked for it...for 12 years. Just go out there and look. I even changed Real Estate Agents 5 times before one really understood what I was looking for. My 5 acres, AG2 zoned, WITH a house, a barn, a 4-car garage, and two outbuildings AND fencing was less than houses in town cost.
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My DD's all cook, clean, and sew (and ride the horses.) In fact, my 27 year old DD is making a wedding dress for a friend right now--very accomplished with 3 sewing machines and one surger.
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ABSOLUTELY!!
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Pshaw!! You're NOT clueless. Did you ever read any of the "Little House on the Prairie" series? Laura once made pies and used salt in place of sugar. And, the family was so-ill prepared to farm in the Dakotas, that they had to move away. Everybody learns, so don't feel bad. Just take out your notebook and write things down!

OH, and Rozzie, DVD lose data with use. Now, they've discovered that videotapes are longer lasting. HOWEVER, if you really want to, you can store your stuff on a stone DVD--
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/...Stone-DVD-Claimed-To-Last-1000-Years?from=rss

 

[Q9]

You guys don't really have to worry - a good portion of the country will end up an awful lot closer to agriculture pretty soon. My dad and I got into home-growing food last year because of the economy. We've dramatically increased from last year - last year it was one tomato plant and one pepper plant. Now it's oodles of okra, peppers, and tomatoes, as well as squash, cucumbers, green beans, lima beans, failed potatoes, and sweet potatoes, not to mention our 4 RIR hens. We've had a heck of a good time doing it, and more and more people will as the economy continues downward.

It's sad. I'm 15 years old, almost 16, and got my first gun last November - an old, but very nice, .22 rifle. I've never hunted, while my dad grew up hunting. I'm increasingly disliking being stuck in a neighborhood like I've been for the past ten and a half years. Nothing I can do about it, though.

 

[sourland]

Yes you can Q9. Make your plan, set your goals, and work towards them. I still believe that anything is possible if you are willing to wait and work for it. Everything doesn't have to be instant gratification. Now, if I could only get my grandchildren to buy into that! RancherHicks, there are involved grandparents, but our involvement can go only so far.

 

[michickenwrangler]

My daughter and I spent an hour today harvesting the potatoes. 30 lbs and we still have one more row to do in a few days (it was planted later)! She had lots of fun bragging to dad about how she worked in the garden and how good the potatoes tasted. Of course we HAD to have some for dinner! Then I had to can some blueberries. When I use that to make cobbler in the winter, we always save the leftover blueberry syrup for ice cream. The heck with Hershey's chocolate!

Q9, I was raised in the suburbs too. Took off as soon as I graduated high school, even though I wasn't 18. Just some determination and ambition will get you through.

 

[Q9]

My dislike of being in a neighborhood only started recently - last year, actually, when I visited a local farm store for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE. Then and there, I acquired my dad's desire to live in the country. It doesn't help that we both got guns last year and have almost no place to shoot them. There's a little patch of "woods" at the edge of our neighborhood, but in the winter you can see straight through to the highway. When you have a really loud shotgun and a .22 with a dangerous range of a mile and a half, woods that small just don't cut it.

What really bothers me is that I spend most of my time indoors on the computer or reading, not because I don't like being outside, but because there's very little to do outside. No one my age lives near, and the houses are way to close together to shoot anything. I swear, if we lived on any decent amount of land, I'd be out all day practicing my marksmanship on squirrels. Like my mom says, though, if we can't live in the country, we'll bring a little of the country to us.

She REALLY likes the homegrown veggies.

 

[michickenwrangler]

My grandmother and her family before her were farmers in northern Michigan who settled there on the heels of the lumber boom (great uncle even illustrated pictures for a book on the Michigan lumber industry) and even though I was born in suburban Detroit, northern Michigan's always been in my blood. People always ask why I didn't go down to Texas with my brother and why I insist on trying to get a job in Michigan when things here are so hard. It's hard to explain, but my soul and my heart are in the pine and birch forests, among the hills and lakes. Honestly, I don't think I could PHYSICALLY live anywhere else, I wouldn't be happy. There would always be an ache for this land.