I have gone into one my lengthy responses on this topic more than once, and also in this very discussion, but have opted to delete for my own reasons. In my case, like with many others, I could go into a long laundry list of reasons as to why may be viewed as a "poser" rather than a full blown farmer. I used to beat myself up for my not being the 5th generation to make a living off the family farm. I no longer do that. I spent a lot of years being very angry and bitter over that, too, and there are times when the "chip on my shoulder" comes into the sight of others, especially those who I chummed around with in my youth, and were able to get involved with farming, under circumstances which I did not have the fortune of attaining. I do farm on weekends and in my spare time. I enjoy it. It is my "therapy" from my regular job. I love putting the crop into the field and I enjoy seeing how the fruits of my labors and how successful my management decisions were during the prior growing season. To me, I feel most productive in that role. It took me nearly 20 years to reach the point where I could recognize that some things were not meant to be, and apparently I wasn't meant to be a full time farmer. Like others, we all have bills to pay. We have families to tend to and provide for. We do what we have to do in order to make ends meet, and with any luck at all, succeed in own way in life, rather than merely exist. So yes, I may be viewed as a poser of sorts. I also have a fleet of decent equipment that is bought and paid for, and I have nothing to be ashamed or, nor am I embarrassed in who I am, what I have achieved, because I managed to do most of it on my own. When I graduated from college in the late 1980's, all I had was a few hundred bucks in the bank, a 4 year degree, a job which paid $21,600 a year, a car with 142,000 miles on it, the clothes on my back and my closet, my college apartment furniture, and a student loan and some other minor debt amounting to about $12,000. So I could say at that time I had a "negative net worth." A year later I went through a "forced corporate move" which was difficult at best, so I took the next job I could find, which was too hasty of a decision. Looking back, I feel pretty darn good where I am at, what I am doing, where my kids are at, my financial security, and I DO have my farming situation where I am not subject to the drama of the ups and downs of agriculture, with respect to taking care of the needs of me and my family.
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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