Ya know i just relized

That this love for farming weather ya were born on a farm or just bought one and are first starting out plus the love for the iron that makes noise and dust is a habit forming narcotic . Don't matter is ya got a half acre or ya got 50000 acres . My love for it started back when i was five and my granddad took me out to my uncles i was hooked and now coming up on 63 i can not shake the habit.My mother kept telling me to be a Dr. or lawyer Nope i had to play in the dirt in one form or other there had to be machines , I wanted to know what made them tic. I had to be out in the weather i had to be plowing in the spring i just had to be there. And it has never gone away.

Vet: Amen to that, but you also know we are the most addictated gamblers the world has known. Who else would keep dropping little seeds in the ground hoping for a better year, next year.

In every way we enjoy the challenge. From cradle to grave we actually walk the row. No matter how far the fence, or volume of volunteer corn sprouting its ugly head. Jim

I call it a disability. I was born with it and have to live with it. Cousins who grew up just like me were born clean and left the farm when they got old enough. It keeps me from my family and my hobbies because to be successful you've got to hit it when you can: the weather waits for no man.

Now you hear lot's of folks bragging about this and that but I have to keep quiet that I am most proud that I can take old equipment to the field and come home with the job done. Most people have no idea what it means (satisfaction) to understand what you are operating, how it works, and how to patch it to finish the day out, and the satisfaction of having it ready for tomorrow.

Due to the weather this year, I was unable to put a seed in the ground - and it may be the death of me. I'm having trouble dealing with the fact that I won't be there to plant the crop - there is a great satisfaction that comes from making the Lord's earth fruitful and helping to feed the population. I live for the smell of freshly worked soil and the beauty of a crop just starting to come up in rows...

At least I managed to get some equipment ready to go, and found some small problems that would have turned into big problems and repaired them.

Still looking at how many "sick" days I have left to take and thinking I may just get the "flu" as in I "flu" home to help Dad put the crop in...

Vet,I'm 57,grew up on a small farm,went into the military,and then moved to town and got a job,I'm still working that job.7-8 years ago I found myself remembering the old Hs and M I grew up on and decided I would fix up a old tractor,bought a Farmall 200 wide front fixed it up and painted it and wasnt satisfied,Looked at some older F series tractors like my dad used and started collecting them.This year is the first time Ive had a garden since I left home,I have a acre garden and about a acre sweet corn patch And it is a blessing to see the 200 lbs of potatoes coming up,along with green onions,lettuce,radishes and peas so far.Farming is something your born with and it never leaves you

jimmy

I know what you mean. My family ancestors always farmed even back to the old country. Back about 1964 Grandpa and I walked a field he had just plowed and disked and at that moment I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I was 3-4 years old then. He was the last on in my family to farm full time. Sad thing is everyone around me did everything in their power to get me to do otherwise including Grandpa. I felt as comfortable out in that fresh turned earth as I did in a nice chair in the livingroom and still do( but would rather be out in that field everyday and not in the chair). The DR, Lawyer,Preacher,Engineer etc came up everytime I turned around and none of them tripped my trigger. I have tried several different professions so it was not for lack of trying, my heart just wasn't in any of them. I guess it was my fault I never went after what I really felt in my heart but wanted to make everyone else happy. Now I am saving to buy my own land and do what I wanted to all along. I know times are not the greatest, but I would rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable anyday of the week. Of course I would work hard enough that I would not be of want, but know enough to know that it is a tough life but totally rewarding if your heart is in it.

Funny how so many of us have a similar story. Mine starts pretty much the same as James'... grew up on a small Iowa farm, joined the Air Force because at that time we still had the draft and it didn't make sense to get started farming and then get drafted... decided to get that out of the way and then come back to the farm. Well, you know how that goes... got married, had kids, had a young family to support and never got back to a farm. Worked for a hydraulics company for 38 years instead.
I did manage to get 2 acres in 1968 so I could sort of justify owning a tractor. Had an Oliver Super 55 for several years until I stupidly opened my mouth and said what it would take to sell it.... guy I worked with thought that was a good deal. Just had (still have) a JD 140-H3 garden tractor for years until we had a terrible ice storm with a lot of tree damage and thought a loader tractor would be just the thing to have. Guy I knew had this IH 240U with a Wagner loader for sale, so that's where I'm at now. Kind of got side-tracked on cleaning up the mess due to by-pass surgery, but trying to get back in the groove this year. Turns out the ice storm was a blessing in disguise because the clean-up work was what made me get checked out before I had "the big one".
I was lucky through the years to have the opportunity to operate several different tractors, combines, etc., either for farmer friends or through the company. I worked in the engineering test lab and we always had customer's machinery around... much of which needed field testing.

I know what you mean. I've been off the farm 40 years and still miss it every day.

Yep Vet, the first time I crawled up on Gramps's Cub I knew then I would farm all my life. My mother begged me to do something else and I did build houses, barns, shopping malls and so on off and on for years but farmed to. Just built things to have more money to blow farming. Bought my first tractor(Farmall C) at a neighbors auction with money I made cutting tobacco and hauling in hay for another neighbor when I was 12 years old. Mom nearly had a calf. I still have the old C and the implements it came with.

Can't wait to start plowing ground every spring.

Hugh, you are right. Card players have nothing over farmers when it comes to addiction to gambling.

I sure hope this year is better than the last one for all the farmers. Myself included..