Farm jobs as a kid gave we a work ethic

Thinking back the other day about some jobs I did when I was in grade school. My dad would get me after school and we would cut down trees using a crosscut saw. This was to save money and not have to buy coal. Then there were times me & my sisters handpicked ear corn because ground was to soft for the pull type corn picker. And sometimes in the summer having to use a pitchfork to turn over clover that had been rained on after being cut and windrowed. At the time I thought this was a stupid way of life and that I was never going to farm and work in town. So I got a college degree and a good job. But guess what? I ended up farming part time. Many a time as I sat behind my desk at work I thought how easy this money is that I get from my job. The farm work I did as a kid certainly gave me a work ethic. How many of you feel the same?

Yes it did for me too! Take a look at almost any job, most foreman have an agricultural back ground.

Tom, I couldn't agree more. I also sit behind a desk, in front of a computer after educting myself in E. Engineering and paying my dues for 38 years in Electrical Construction in the field and re-educating myself in the operation and use of computers. I was 10 years old when this wonderful old farm couple came to the county home and got me out to help on their 112 acre farm. This was after I was adpted out of an orphanage(pre WW II) in L.I., New York and brought to Penna twice, and abandoned twice. The third time I ended up in the county home and my "Gram & Pap"-that's what I called them, got me out.
I milked 10 cows by hand, fed the cats and dog (my best friend-"Timmy") and brought the wood in for Gram's cook stove before I went to school. I was an all-A student. She always had a big breakfast for me. Could be slab-bacon strips, a pork chop, big slice of ham, and a couple of eggs and some home fries. Never was allowed to drink coffee so Gram made me hot tea.
I loved doing the things that were necessary to keep the farm going. I followed the horse (Babe) in the furrow behind the plow when I was 12 years old (I was a big kid for 12 yrs). If there is anything in the world better work than making hay I haven't found it yet. I learned about farming, taking care of the horses and cows, and other critters, and how to help Gram keep the weeds out of her garden.
Up until 10 yrs ago when my wife passed away I raised Jersey replacement heifers. Got to be too much to work full-time and raise heifers so I quit.
I too have an excellent work ethic and at age 70, the Engineering Company that I work for has somewhat realized that the day I am done working and retire that they will carry me out feet first.
Joe G.

I agree. I tell everybody the two main reasons I went to college: a scoop shovel and a pitchfork. Now I can make enough money to have a small hobby farm and six old tractors!

Dad would have us kids doing some of the same type things. We would move the bean head rows as he was cutting them, so he could turn around when he started cutting the field. Bailing hay was another chore. I pitched hay into the bailer until I thought my arms would fall off. It was great when Dad started using a pick up bailer. then all we needed to do was pick up the hay from the field. All we did was never much fun, but we did it. Dad was always on the go up until he was around 83. I learned a lot working with him, like no matter what the job is just stick with it. I also used one of those cross saws with Dad. He would always say to me, don't push the saw, just pull it. Stan

I agree with the work ethic. I just wonder if farmers a less satisfied working for someone else. As a whole we are an independent bunch and don't like to be told what to do. Maybe not so much being told what to do, but being told how to do it. I don't work well with a lot of supervision. I don't mind being given a job to do as long as I can get it done my way.

I remember when I was about 12 years old, working for a cousin of my father's, walking cornfields with a 5 gallon bucket picking up ears the picker dropped, for the whole sum of 35 cents per hour.

And he complained about having to pay me that. He always had money for booze, though.

Then, the first two summers I was in high school I worked for a neighbor full time for $100 per month and thought I was getting rich.

The summer between my Junior and Senior year, my father got a job off the farm so I ran the farm and went to high school at the same time. Then the fall after I graduated, my father got laid off from his job so he went back to farming and I joined the Marine Corps.

I've noticed, too, while knocking around Corporate America over the years, that a startling number of high ranking executives have a farm background.

JohnB you're correct about Ag background most of my fellow supervisors grew up on the farm or military. How about using a hoe to remove volunteer corn out of soybeans my neighbor gave me $5 a week to keep his 15 acre field free of corn and weeds because it was close to the road sometimes after loading wagons behind the baler all day. I used to pray for rain so we couldn't bale but knew I would be walking the bean field with about 2" of mud on my shoes and soaked pant legs. Made football practice a cakewalk.

The most successful guys at our shop all had farm backgrounds as I do. The guys that could make any piece of machinery work learned it on the farm, because they had to, there was no money so you learned to make do. You couldn't rely on anyone else to do the work, because there wasn't anyone else. All boils down to a strong work ethic and a lot of self confidence. Must have worked for me too. Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, Journeyman Tool & Diemaker, Master Electrician, & 8 patents. Just like farming it didn't make me rich, just happy!!
Paul

While riding back and forth in a nice warm cab tractor today, I noticed my grandsons 12 and 14 and their father heading for the woodlot to cut firewood. 16 degrees They look forward to weekends when their father is off from work.

I agree 100% I was raised on a small 27 acre farm which I now own. My wonderful dad would work me like slave!! And like I said now I own the slave yard!! I still think back and I would'nt have it any other way.I am a manger of a lumberyard and work at a desk all day evryday I don't have a college education, but I still have a very good paying job and a wonderful work ethic. Any of you out htere that have a desk job and a farm get sick of people telling you hoe easy you got it and don't do any work !!!!!!!!

Dustin IL

Grew up on a small dairy farm. Lots of hard boring work. Went to college, got the degrees, and here I am on the same farm, raising livestock, and crops. The more things change, the more they stay the same! Have had several jobs not farm related, and still teach driving, and substitute in the schools, but I think of myself first as a farmer.

The thing I noticed about farm kids - when there's an emergency, they don't throw their hands up and wonder what to do, they jump in and grab ahold of the problem and fix it.

Paul

I did plenty of the ususal hay baling, fence building, manure forking and other assorted jobs but I think the most lasting thing my Father taught us was importance of being dependable. The livestock were fed and tended to before any of us ate ourselves, he would ask questions about a cow that was due to calve or maybe off her feed a little and it was in your best interest to have an answer. Better be plenty of fresh, clean water. Dad used to say ''you can take care of yourself but those animals can't''.

There were many small farms where I grew up.There was a poultry/dairy farm near us. Friends and I worked on that farm for a long time.We fed hens, picked eggs, put down bedding in the dairy barn.We pushed loose hay down the chutes, clean stalls .We fed a team of work horses.The center had to be swept clean every day and lime spread.I remember loading bundles of corn onto a truck and unloading them near the silo blower.We were not allowed to load corn on to the silo filler.The outfit was powered by an International H tractor.Horses were still used to cut hay.A new baler made haying easier.I have been on the back of a truck picking up hay with a loader before the baler was in use.The farm had two trucks delivering milk door to door.We worked in the milk room after school putting milk thru the cooler and putting the cans into the walkin cooler,We washed bottles and bottled milk.Friday nights were dressed chickens for Saturday run to Boston here the owner delivered chickens and eggs to regular customers.The farm is gone now,There are 100 condominiums where a bunch of kids drove the cows home for after noon milking.I moved away 43 years ago.I worked on 3 farms there from 1950 to 1964.Friends who still live there tell me there is not one farm left.

I missed the crosscut saw and the loose hay by a very few years. I did handle a lot of bales by hand, both before and after the cows used them. I split wood by hand, 20-40 cords a year, depending on how much help Dad hired. Gathered a lot of sap with pails, either wallowing through the snow or stumbling around on snowshoes. My three least favorite jobs were picking stone, picking up potatoes, and planting trees.

I haven't planted any potatoes for sale in twenty years, the trees are ready for the their second or third thinning, I bale with a kicker baler, and most of the hay gets sold. The neighbor's cattle graze the pastures, and he does the fences. The maple trees are all connected with tubing, and I split wood hydraulically. I still get accusations of "abuse" from my boys, because they have to unload bales, haul and stack wood, and repair tubing. I am sure that in time they will appreciate what they learned on the farm.

I was raised on a farm for part of my life. Did hay picken out of the field for 2 cents a bale and worked my butt off. lol Was not real talk or big back then.
Then some farmer offered me 3.00 an hour to set on planter he was pulling. My job was to pull the ropes on both sides of planter to cut of the planter from doing its thing when we reached the end of the line each time. ...Dirty and dusty but I thought! Wow 3.00 out setting on my butt back there. lol
Then a tornado came threw. Tore the big barn up and the cattle inside went nuts. Running all over and my day saying. Stop them if you can! So I tried to catch up to one Swiss and all I could do was grab the cows tail and hang on. lol What a mistake that was. That dang cow drug me a long way threw the mud and my dad yelling. Let go boy! Let go and I at last did. shessssssss like to killed me. ha ha I laugh today but was not so funny back then.