Farming Facts

Before my ex and I moved in with my ex in laws, about 2 years after we got married. The closest I had been to a farm was seeing them off to the side of the road on out in the country. Like your typical drive by on the highway. Not much to see except livestock and the occasional grain.

I was born a city girl in all my life was always surrounded by buildings and amenities that well I had learned to appreciate after I moved to the farm. Living on the farm, I had made so many mistakes, but the wonderful thing about making mistakes is that I can tell people how to avoid them. And how not to deal with the potentially deadly consequences that follow.

Farming is an experience that will stay with me forever. Honestly, it’s just one of those skill sets once you learn you really can’t lose even if you try. But what’s funny is it depends on what farm you live or work on.

For instance, if you live on a produce style farm like with your vegetables, fruit trees stuff like that. You get very strong in your upper body. But more often than not, your lower body will also make even a top athlete jealous when check when you’re chucking hay up on a truck or shoveling manure.

I used to live and work on a horse farm. It was a small farm around 90 acres. 80% of it was forest. and protected.

We had about 33 head of horses total and only a handful wherever switched out nine times out of 10. It and often when the new one came in, it came in with new and very specific instructions. But most of them are your basic just hay and grain. Well, others are so complicated we actually ended up telling the owners to put them together in bags so we can feed them the proper amount at the proper times.

The thing that sucked about it was there was really no adjustment. You just had to do your best every day and hope it was enough. Thankfully, these are my life saving Grace’s. There were and our articles out there on the net or books or magazines that are willing to give you tips and tricks and help you figure out how to work in farming communities.

The one thing I loved about living on the farm is that you didn’t really need a gym to lose weight or get fit. You also were very quick on your feet are you had to be and you also needed to learn survival skills, just in case. The only thing that I had a hard time with when I first started with the barn. Was I was very city.

For instance, there were many times that I would not announce my presence, which is what you’re supposed to do, and there are many times when I didn’t that the horses would spook or something would fall or an accident would happen. So I learned very quickly to be loud in the area.

Another thing I learned is that it takes a very specific type of person to become a farmer or a Rancher and it’s why I don’t think it’s meant for everybody.

Some people are better suited and if you find out you’re not one of the lucky ones then by all means move back to the city and find a better Suited job. I will tell you one thing I think everyone should do at least once in their life. Work at a farm for 6 months. It will help you appreciate how life is out there. Yes it may seem quote unquote slower but it’s not really.

Some of the basic skills they’re going to ask you to help with are pretty easy once you’re used to them for after a while. Like lifting 50 to 90 pill pound Bales into either a truck a tractor or UTV or tossing said bills up into a loft. I’m keeping the animals in line with either a lead rope a whip or your body or your voice. Running an emergency of course don’t do that with cows or horses they’ll run away from you. Instead with them become yet commanding.

A couple of my mistakes were there was several times I accidentally let horses loose. But the nice thing is is that they were the elderly you know very like oh cool looks like grass everywhere yummy. So they were very easy to catch.

The one thing I didn’t like about the farm is we were almost constantly running out of water especially in the winter. I hated having to Chuck out chunks of ice from the troughs. All in all country life has taught me how to be a better person and more down to earth. Whereas the city has taught me to be smart and witty.

The one thing that was weird at first for me was how friendly and helpful everybody was in the country versus the city. You hear a lot in about stories of people in the city stealing and you know what not. Which I’m not saying that at the farm we don’t get that. but it’s not that often of an occurrence that you need to be too worried about it.

It was really weird for me at first to get used to the hard work. Because it up to that point it was the most pain I had been in in a long time. And I was so sore every day I felt like I could go into a jacuzzi and just sleep. Which obviously is a bad idea. But the good thing is is that it took over a year to start to get used to the pain.

Mainly, I was checking bags of feed and hay bales alike. Of course after you work for at a barn for a while you just get used to using certain muscles. So on all if I had a choice I would pick the city. Mainly because I have allergies and I have qualms about being around certain people in that industry.

But if I did happen to find a farm or a place that would be nice to work at or people that I like to work with that work at a farm then you can bet your butt I will be begging to work there. As I live in Florida I don’t think that’s going to be possible. So for the time being, I will happily sit here and write.