Spinoff: Who is from a "Farming Family"

[Vandy]

JSwan commented on another thread that of the 1% of Americans who are farmers, a lot of them seem to be on this BB...it was said tongue in cheek, but it's not really surprising to me.

I am. Really, although a generation removed from the "real" farmers. My grandfather was raised on a farm in Maine and was the first in many generations of farmers to leave the state, go to college, and move to suburbia. My great-aunt (now in her 90's) and my cousin are still farming there, raising cattle and pigs. Farming is hard anywhere, but I really feel for them in Maine - rocky soil, hilly ground, and very harsh winters. Makes caring for my New Mexico farm seem like a cakewalk, though I think I work pretty hard ;)

Much of my family "doesn't get it". My maternal grandmother still asks when I'm getting a real job, and can relate much better to a fur coat than a fur-covered barn coat :lol: My very citified yuppie cousins think it's absolutely crazy (not to mention unsanitary) that I have chickens that like sitting on my lap. I wonder though if it's somehow in my blood as it's what I've always wanted to do since I was a kid.

[bludejavu]

I am. Raised on a cattle farm of 2000 acres and we also grew our own hay, enough to feed around 500 head of cattle and then some. The farm had been in the family for several generations before I came along. My grandmother sold it when I was in my early 20's. I remember signing over my portion of it to her because my parents pushed me to do so. I regret it now but wasn't capable of helping to pay the property taxes when I was fresh out of college. My Dad and his brother were both deceased at that time, and I was the only one to eventually inherit so it was decided to sell it. A boyfriend and I camped out beside one of the lakes one last time. I spent the entire day roaming the pastures and fields, remembering all the good times I had on my little Welsh Pony there. I will miss that farm til the day I die although my husband and I own a fair sized farm of our own. :(

[fsf]

Farm girl here. Our farm sits on some land that was my great Grandparents', and my ancestors homesteaded this area. I grew up with 2000 tillable acres and hay, along with cattle and hogs, and our horses. My folks are now retired and my grandparents have all passed on, so we lease the farmland to other local farmers who still harvest crops from our land. My husband and I just raise the horses.

I used to work with my Grandad on the farm and cultivate, disc, combine wheat and bale hay. It was a wonderful life, and I'd never trade it for anything.

[Auventera Two]

I was raised on a farm, but we had production milk goats, chickens and the recreational horses. We milked by hand 2x a day and sold milk. We have plenty of photos of me were at 3 years old, milking goats into a pail. Also sold eggs and young stock. Later got into rabbits. Bred and competed with show stock, and sold rabbits all over the country (my mother still does it, but I dont.) She has some rare colors and her line consistently wins on the table. We've had hogs and beef steers just for personal use. My mother used to breed appaloosas and quarter horses when I was young and did western stuff and trails, later switched to warmbloods/thoroughbreds and got into dressage. I grew up riding dressage, taking lessons at a H/J barn, later did AQHA stuff with the few QHs we had, TWH for a year (well, one show season), now I do trails and endurance.

So I guess my life wasn't rooted in the traditional working farm, but some variation of that.

[Sing Mia Song]

Not me. I come from generations of city folks, although I was raised in the 'burbs. My mother was terrified of horses and the closest we got to a working farm was the local petting zoo. One brother still lives in the city and the other a short distance away. Meanwhile, I'm living in the sticks on a farm and am surrounded by dairy families. I live in my Carhartt and think a trip to the Southern States counts as "going out." I lust for a tractor and a dumptruck.

I'm what you'd call an "outlier." :winkgrin:

[ThirdCharm]

Farm girl here, but only on a small scale. My mom raised dairy goats in Maine and I vaguely remember riding on a hay mow with dad. We also had horses, pigs, chickens and ducks, I remember helping kill and pluck chickens for dinner when I was a kid and we would take pigs to the butcher. We sold the farm when I left for college because Mom couldn't run it by herself (dad left when I was 15)--mainly due to a 500 foot driveway that was near impassable in the winter, and a 600 foot trek down a narrow trail in the woods across a creek to get to the house and barn from the road..... not fun when carrying sacks of grain. (Actually I guess you would say we kids ran the farm, mom supervised and fed and milked the goats).

Jennifer

[Mali]

My father was a farmboy, but I grew up on the outskirts of a small town in a little ranch house on 1 acre. When I was 12, I announced to my parents that I would someday marry a farmer and have horses. Fast forward 13 more years, and I walk down the aisle with my farmer. We live on the original farmstead of his great-great grandparents, but not in the original house - that belongs to our neighbors now. He works the same fields as they once did, and my horses graze in the very pastures that were once worked by horses. His father passed away a few years ago, and the dairy herd was dispersed at that time. My husband is a full-time mechanic, and now just grows crops and several beef cattle. I love the history, and even now I can look out the window and wonder how many times his ancestors walked past that very window. It's almost surreal how my life has turned out.

[cllane1]

Born and raised on my family's farm, and am thrilled to be back living there now! My family has about 2200 acres and we run about 350 head of beef cattle, harvest pecans from our own orchard, cut our own hay, etc. In the last 10 years or so we've branched out into commercial hunting leases, and built a gorgeous lodge and pavillion to facilitate that.

My husband and I are now living in my grandparents' old farmhouse (where my dad was raised), with our horses right outside. We're the fourth generation on this farm.

This is something I've been pondering for a while: when I was younger (teens), I really hated living out here. We are 30 miles from town, and at that time our phone number was actually long distance from town! So I felt very isolated. But now that I'm older, I am so grateful that I had a chance to grow up this way. I have incredible memories and experiences that other people will never have: pulling calves, riding on the tractor, raising calves on a bottle, working the cattle with our stock horses, etc.

So here's to farm girls (and guys) everywhere! We're a special breed!

[JSwan]

Step-family were dairy farmers in Central Virginia.

I was farmed out as labor - ahem - I mean I went to visit them on weekends, holidays and summer and winter breaks.

[exvet]

My parents were both airforce officers sent to VietNam when I was a baby. I grew up with my grandparents on our dairy farm in New England. When my parents returned (mother first, pregnant with my brother) we continued to work the farm all the while my father earned his MBA and commuted to Cambridge, MA to pursue his goals, ie, climb up the corporate ladder. I remember as a kid being taken out of school to milk the herd when my father was traveling and my grandparents at different times dealt with major health issues. My family from way, way, way back when (ie, owned a few offspring of Justin Morgan) has been in the dairy, apple orchard & morgan business all down through the generations. As a tween when my father relocated us to North Carolina, I worked on a neighbor's dairy, tobacco & bean farm in order to pay for board for my horses that came with me. He was thrilled having only one daughter that I came with full knowledge and experience of driving tractors, milking cows, and even operating a combine.

My husband grew up working his family's Hereford operation. We met before vet school as kids showing cattle. So I think it's safe to say that we're both "of the blood", the sweat/tears/heartbreak type that comes with trying to work with mother nature in order to earn a living. We both became vets as a bit of a compromise to "get off the farm" but not. My father's greatest fear was that I would grow up to be a dairyman's wife. Well that didn't happen but I never did grow out of the horses and cows - still have 'em, work with 'em, on 'em and for 'em :winkgrin:

[bludejavu]

This is something I've been pondering for a while: when I was younger (teens), I really hated living out here. We are 30 miles from town, and at that time our phone number was actually long distance from town! So I felt very isolated. But now that I'm older, I am so grateful that I had a chance to grow up this way. I have incredible memories and experiences that other people will never have: pulling calves, riding on the tractor, raising calves on a bottle, working the cattle with our stock horses, etc.

So here's to farm girls (and guys) everywhere! We're a special breed!

I did not appreciate it as a kid either - I took many things for granted such as the huge amount of acreage I had to ride my pony on and then later, my horses. I thought city kids were the lucky ones because they could live so close together - I sure had that backwards. To this date I still do not ever want to own cows again, feeding those boogers in the winter was a PITA and I hated it :mad:! But I remember when we would fill our hay barn with fresh hay and the smell was just intoxicating. I had a rope swing in the hay barn and once the hay was used up to a certain point, I could really sway across that barn. That barn always looked so huge to me but after I grew up and was gone for several years, I came back to what seemed to be a shrunken barn. Things really look different when you're a kid!

[county]

My mothers parents farmed as did both her brothers but my parents hated farming so never did. I started farming at 15, I rented 40 acres of land with a old run down barn and bad fences. Bought some beef cows and a brood mare and have been at it since 65. My parents told me I was crazy then and they tell it to me yet today.

[sk_pacer]

Farmer here too. Live in the same house I grew up in, and farm with a cousin who lives in the house our fathers grew up in. We both have 'century' farms - land that has been in the family for oiver 100 years - not bad for an area that wasnt settled until the mid 1890's.

[Vandy]

I remember signing over my portion of it to her because my parents pushed me to do so. I regret it now but wasn't capable of helping to pay the property taxes when I was fresh out of college.I am in line to inherit the Maine farm, which started out as a few thousand acres and now is a few hundred due to my own relatives' struggles with property taxes. I am way past fresh out of college, and still don't know how I'd afford to pay the property taxes on the remaining piece, because I'm totally broke trying to support my own farm :lol:

[Daydream Believer]

I am also. I was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania. We raised our own chickens, eggs, and hogs and had a huge garden. My family also hunted deer for meat and it was an important supplement to our diets. We slaughtered our own animals also.

I come from a bloodline of Pennsylvania farmers going back to pre Revolutionary War. I can't imagine what the kids growing up in suburbs and cities today are missing.

[bludejavu]

I am in line to inherit the Maine farm, which started out as a few thousand acres and now is a few hundred due to my own relatives' struggles with property taxes. I am way past fresh out of college, and still don't know how I'd afford to pay the property taxes on the remaining piece, because I'm totally broke trying to support my own farm :lol:

With the farm that my husband and I own, we are enrolled in the land conservation program which reduced our taxes to less than half of the original amount. Unfortunately, not all states/counties offer this program. I have to honestly say that if the problem was presented to me now, my husband and I would figure out a way to keep my childhood farm - his family home is gone too and both of us wish it could have been different.

Those of you posting here besides me, we are a dieing breed of people and a minority. If at all possible, hang on to your family farms and treasure them. The older I get, the more I realize this.:cry:

[vineyridge]

My family has been growing cotton in Mississippi here on this property for many generations. I grew up in the house that I'm living in now.

I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

[Alagirl]

Somewhat...my dad was raised on a farm and turned white color farmer through college. He never missed the hard labor behind when he moved to the city, but we spend every possible free time at grandma's farm.

(Oh, Mom's side of the family was farming, too)

I can't wait to get my hands on a 5-10 acre plot to try out my skillz (probably need a good bush hog first, to clear my gone wild garden...) :lol:

[MunchkinsMom]

Born on a dairy farm in New England. My great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and I all lived in one farmhouse. They had downsized a bit by the time I was born, I recall only having about a dozen cows, and that they would have some calves every so often, that got sold. We had a huge corn field (I got lost in it once when I was 3 - it terrified me after that), and a potatoe field.

It was hard work, my grandparents both had day jobs, my grandfather was an auto-body man, my grandmother worked in a men's clothing store. My great grandmother would hand milk the cows, and my grandfather would process and deliver the milk to the neighbors before work every day. My great-grandfather didn't do anything other than drive the tractor as my great grandmother tossed stuff onto it (lazy, lazy, lazy he was - claimed he had a hernia or something like that).

We did eat well, home milk, butter and cheese, and fresh from the field vegetables.

Then my dad joined the army and we moved a lot, but would spend summers on the farm.

It was a sad day when my grandparents got too old to run the farm, so they sold it to a developer and moved to the suburbs.

Thanks to spending my youth on the farm, I do appreciate how much work it is to run a farm, no matter how small.

I forgot to mention, there were farmers on my mother's side of the family also, but they had all sold the farms by the time I was born. My father's mother's siblings all had apple tree farms, and we would go help pick apples in the fall.

[Trixie]

My parents are city people that are very much into politics. Both work in Washington.

They have absolutely NO idea how they got my sister, a Major in the US Army, who kept chickens and is skilled with a gun.

They have absolutely NO idea how they got my brother, who's idea of a good weekend was hunting in rural wisconsin.

They have absolutely NO idea how they got me, who jumps 1200 lb animals over things, prefers fields to city blocks, owns three chickens, just put in 19 tomato plants, and spends as much time as possible on a farm.

My little sister, they understand. She plays sports and plans to study architecture.

[walkinthewalk]

We had a very small dairy farm - both sets of grandparents were dairy farmers.

The milk cow went in the smokehouse when she quit giving milk and chickens got their necks wrung when they quit laying eggs.

My parents couldn't afford a hired hand and being an only child I went to work for my father when I was 4. I gathered, washed, graded, candled, and packed the eggs for him to sell in town.

The work mare (that I would get occasional rides on) died when I was five, dad sold the gelding and bought an 8N. I was still five when dad put me on the tractor, stuck it in creeper gear and sent me down thru the hayfield so he could throw hay onto the wagon.

Mom churned butter, made sour cream, cottage cheese, and desert was from whatever fruit tree or berry bushes that were on our property.

We couldn't make a living off that little 38 acres, so dad leased it out to the big guns that surrounded us, got his Master Journeyman's card and went to town to work. I was devastated - I wanted to farm.

My paternal grandparents struggled to buy that little farm when they came thru Ellis Island. Today my baby brother owns it (still leases it to the same big guns) and it will go to my nephew when he grows up and is old enough to appreciate the full meaning of his inheritance:)

I would not trade those hard times, sweat, and being laced with the razor strap from dad when I didn't listen, for anything.

I am semi-retired with 4 horses, on 23 acres of dream property in Middle Tennessee. City Slicker hubby has come a lonnnng way when it comes to bush-hogging, stacking hay, building & mending fences:D

Thankfully he is as anal as I am about keeping this place neat, so all our extra time and money goes into the maintenance of the property.

Being a Yankee raised on the OH/PA border, I made a silent promise to the Deeply Rooted folks of my county that I would treasure and care for their land as if I had been born on it. I am grateful for my farm up-bringing to help me do that:)

[BuddyRoo]

We didn't farm per se. We had the horses, goats, etc....and lived way out in the country. (it's not way out anymore...urban sprawl)....

But we were "farmed out" to help. Most of the kids that I grew up with either lived on farms or like me, spent the summers baling hay at whomever's farm, helping with the hogs, moving cattle, repairing fence...whatever needed to be done. we also borrowed sugar and eggs from neighbors back then. It was too far to go "into town" when you'd forgotten something.

"going to town" was something we enjoyed and hated at the same time. It meant an entire day of driving around running errands. To this day, I still hate "going to town" which to me is synonymous with spending a day in a car going store to store and being around too damned many people.

I think the work ethic you develop when you are raised in a farming community (a German farming community no less) is pretty integral later in life if you choose to even have a small farmette.

[fsf]

Farm girl here. Our farm sits on some land that was my great Grandparents', and my ancestors homesteaded this area. I grew up with 2000 tillable acres and hay, along with cattle and hogs, and our horses. My folks are now retired and my grandparents have all passed on, so we lease the farmland to other local farmers who still harvest crops from our land. My husband and I just raise the horses.

I used to work with my Grandad on the farm and cultivate, disc, combine wheat and bale hay. It was a wonderful life, and I'd never trade it for anything.

Forgot to mention an interesting fact: My Grandad tilled the land with teams of mules when he was young. He only passed away last July at age 92 and still loved telling all those inspiring stories. :)

[cloudyandcallie]

I grew up with 1/2 city and 1/2 farm families. We still own the farmland that my maternal grandparents had, in our family over 100 years. I had aunts and uncles and cousins who farmed, plus my greatgrandparents' farm, where I used to visit as that side of the family lives to be very old. I worked on my aunt and uncle's farm summers as a child instead of camp, and I rode my grandparent's and uncle's horses on weekends. I also got to ride my greatuncle's mules a few times.
My father was city born but had come from a plantation family, my grandfather was born on a plantation that was on the backside of the river we live on now, the land was sold off gradually and my grandfather ended up living in town. Daddy hunted all the time. I grew up down the road from a boyscout camp where we were allowed to ride our horses. My 2 horses were in my backyard along with my dozens of bantam chickens, since even though we lived on a river, the other side of the road had a western horse barn (now it's full of houses) and the boy scout camp so we could ride horses and have room to roam. Now it's all developed.

[Debbie]

Another farm girl here. My family raised sheep (200 ewes in the flock), cows, pigs and broiler chickens on a 100 acre farm with some lease land as well. My folks sold the farm when I was in college and we've all missed it every since. My husband and I will never approach that scale, but I have talked him into some hens to go along with the horses and dogs and I've put in a kitchen garden this year to get a little "tilling the ground" fix. Every spring I miss lambing season -- even though it was brutal at times -- and the gang of lambs playing king of the hill and gallivanting around; there is nothing cuter than that.