Nice article, but very high expectations. I don't know a family farm operator who doesn't have an outside job. I waited till I could retire at age 55, and now 7 years later I can't keep up with 30 acres, and that's in timber! I think the advice about small acreage is best, and hothouse farming certainly looks like it might prove profitable, but I shudder to think what it entails in any northern tier state. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
A man's likely to mind his own business, if it is worth mindin' - Eric Hoffer
I to had a dream. A small nursery/greenhouse operation that would provide a modest living. By the time I could afford the "farm" age had jumped on me. I just can't keep up with the work load, if I hire people it's not a small operation anymore. One thing I can always say it, I at least tried it. Go for it, better to try than spend a lifetime dreaming about what if. Good Luck Oh if I could just turn the clock back 25 years.
Mac,
Don't worry about turning back the clock. It's next to impossible to do it all. I spend 2/3 of my life paying for my places. The other 1/3 I spend chasing my tail trying to keep up. Then there's little time for my girls and family because hay has to be made, cows to be taken care of, horses to be shod, etc. etc. etc. Meanwhile my brother and uncle run everything in God's country doing what I wish I was doing. Don't get me wrong I thankt he Lord everyday for what I have but some days a nice house on the golf course sure looks inviting!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
I too have interests in a farming lifestyle, unprofitable though it most likely will be, and have been watching this discussion thread with interest.
Its funny how visions go. I've already had the unique privledge to enjoy the proverbial house on the golf course lifestyle (in a world class destination resort no less) for the past fifteen years, yet I personally spend more time planning for, daydreaming about, or actually physically working on our mountain farm than enjoying life in our supposedly idyllic resort community.
To me it is a personal choice to pursue a far more "real", satisfying, productive and healthier lifestyle and mindset. I consider those rewards well worth the hard work involved.
I may feel differently when the reality of aging muscles and creaky joints meet the real resistance of hard labor, tough weather, struggles and such, but I nonetheless choose to strive for hard fought tangible and intangible returns, albeit potential measly financial ones, over paying to watch the grass on a beautiful golf course be mowed so I can occasionally hit, lose, and or collect little white balls and wonder what might have been.
Not particularly concerned with those that may think we're nuts, we're chasing our dream full bore before we run out of time or lose our nerve. What's the old saying.....be careful what you ask for, because you will likely get it? [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
I heartily concur that one should have eyes wide open before taking the leap, but say go for it if it is what you really want.
Sabi
What's the old saying.....be careful what you ask for, because you will likely get it?
LOL funny you should mention this!!! I've asked my wife that many times. How can I be unhappy and complain when I have everything I ever wanted? The work does pile up for sure. If a guy didn't have a full-time job it would be great. But when you have a full time and a half job plus taking care of 200 head of cattle, 40 horses, and a thousand acres it gets tough!!! I shouldn't complain one bit really. I feel bad when I do. It is alot of work though.
I sleep great when I'm wore out.
Doc, I have wondered for a while now how you hold down a full time professional job and still find time to tend to all those cows and all that land. I know! You must have figured out how to get by without sleeping for days on end! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] You gotta be one busy fella!
Chris
Chris,
It's tough for sure. The days we do hay I usually stay up all night cutting it. Then I'll take the day off if I can't get it done by the weekend. I'm also renting some ground out now where I used to try and farm it myself. Makes much more sense for me to be in the office than trying to farm all of the ground here. I get $150/acre which is about what I was making farming it myself so it works out pretty well. Plus I don't have to keep the combine and all up like I did. Now I just concentrate on the hay and oat ground. Luckily my girls are getting old enough that they can do most of the chores. It's amazing what kids can accomplish when you give them the opportunity. My wife also helps alot. It's a family thing for sure. My uncle and my brother take care of the place in Idaho. We have all bought ground and pretty much just run it as a family.
Doc,
It took 36 years to be able to afford to be what my parents told me I would become if I didn't buckle down, apply myself, get an education, and be successful. Finally, last October I was able to retire early and become a "full time cowboy". Yeah, right!! This week I have cut brush, fixed fence, rode herd on a bulldozer operator clearing three miles of right-of-way for the power company, doctored a dog that thought he was badder than a javelina and has now taken up residence here, checked fence, spent most of one day with a neighbor discussing maintaining a common fence that is overgrown with brush, tried to figure out why a 3/4" PVC line was in a section of old oil field pipe that dozer plowed up, planned repair of forty feet of 3/4" PVC water line to deer feeder that my nephew had laid inside sections of old oil field pipe instead of burying it, and tried for two days to get in touch with power company's line foreman to discuss what they are going to do to remediate buffel grass plowed up by the bulldozer. Oh yeah, a long time ago I read an article by a gun writer who talked about taking a cup of coffee out to his rifle range outside his back door while he did some load testing. When I read it, I said to myself, "One of these days I'm going to have one of those". Since the dozer was out there anyway I asked the operator to cut me a two blade wide 300 yard strip.(That's when we found the water line.) And also, every evening after it started to cool down, I sat in our yard with my wife and our dogs to have a toddie or two and a cigar while we watched the birds and critters and the sun go down.
How much time did I spend wishing that I were back in the comfortable office that I left in Dallas? Not one nanosecond!
Life is good [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Them chores! I remember. Just when a fellow should be out shooting gophers.
Egon
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