We need a 4H or FFA group for grownups

[HHandbasket]

This is just a random thought/idea I had.

I think organizations like 4H and FFA are very, VERY necessary to the well-being of our youth and the farm-folk of the future, as well as getting kids started with basic information about the care and feeding of livestock. However, what if you're already grown, in your 20s or 30s or 40s or even older, and you discover that it's what you want to do? I just think it would be nice to have groups like that for adults to have hands-on learning about farming and caring for livestock, competing/showing animals, etc.

I'd join, for sure.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

A freind and I were talking about this very thing at work last week. He suggested some kind of work shop. I'm interested in where this thread goes....

 

[Rozzie]

The Extension Homemakers Clubs/councils & organizations like the Grange might fill this role in some regions. They aren't available everywhere, and they aren't QUITE what you are talking about, though.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Crazy I was thinking the EXACT same thing a couple days ago!!! I met a much younger 4h girl that shows rabbits and chickens and have been messaging her on facebook for info... lol! I'm so jealous that I can't go do those things! We never had those things where I grew up!!!

 

[33yardbirds]

We sure do need one because we're all kids at heart when we start talking chicken with chicken folk.

 

[salunra]

That would be awesome.

I am doing the next best thing.... Signing my kid up for 4H. He will be 5 this summer and eligible for 4H Cloverbuds

 

[sekinkead]

I would love to have something like this. I went through 4-H when I was young and loved it. Now my kids are both signed up and I live vicariously through them.

 

[Spookwriter]

Growing up 4-H and FFA were not things my father considered as
important. My father was a great dad and I'm not slighting him. His
own childhood in the depression era did not include these things.
Work was all he knew. Dad gave us all he had to give.

But that is also the exact reason that I want my daughter involved
in 4-H, FFA (next year) and other projects that involve her in this
community...To be able to grow as a person in ways that I never had.

*Last year, her first 4-H year, her mother and I had way more money
invested in daughters silkie chickens than they worth as chickens. But
the investment wasn't really in the chickens...

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
Yep. And we get to do it together.
Quote:
This is true as well.

The Kinder Major's got sixteen and counting.

 

[HHandbasket]

Well we had 4H and FFA in our community when I was growing up, but I had an "interesting" childhood, and belonging to groups and clubs was out of the question for us (long sad story that nobody wants to hear & I get a headache telling it LOL). Now in my late 40s, I wanna be a hobby farmer and wish I had had the background in farming as a youth--I feel like I've missed out on a lifetime of doing something I can really be passionate about. It's never too late to start, though, right?

All the more reason we need 4H and FFA-type groups for us older start-ups!

We do have granges here, and I know one of the granges out in Rio Linda occasionally has classes in canning, preserving, and other homestead-type kitchen activities but not farming or gardening.

Hehe wouldn't that be cute, though? Go to the country fair to check out the animal competition, and there's a new "Senior Citizens" category for people 50 and up who are just getting into raising animals and competing with them... I think that would be so much fun! When I go to the fair every year, I head straight to the animal exhibits to see what the 4H and FFA kids are showing and talk to the kids and their folks about their animals, and it just wakes something up inside me... I dunno what it is.

This old broad wants to farm.