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I was a BEEKEEPER and TRAPPER

Tanko

Tanko

Joined
Oct 27, 2021
Messages
55,123
AGE 11-17
...........also helped raise hogs, cattle, chickens, corn/soybeans.
Yep. Did same.
TRAPPING

MUSKRAT, MINK............tried to avoid COONS/BEAVERS
Yep. Did same.
TRAPPING

Check traps 4-7am freezing weather before 730 school bus

WASTE OF TIME/LIFE DAILY
Yep. Did same.

You left off deer hunting and going out at 5 AM to sit in a stand freezing your nuts off to use a bow/arrow to shoot a deer, always hoping to see buck but settling for a doe before the season ended.

Also, bailing hay. Not that large round bail (easy stuff), small square bails that you had to stack on the damn wagon just right to keep them from falling off when you hit bumps/holes.

Yep. I grew up in Iowa too. Cut my teeth on a John Deere 4240
 

BobbyFK

BobbyFK

Joined
Oct 19, 2021
Messages
26,602
Yep. Did same.

Yep. Did same.

Yep. Did same.

You left off deer hunting and going out at 5 AM to sit in a stand freezing your nuts off to use a bow/arrow to shoot a deer, always hoping to see buck but settling for a doe before the season ended.

Also, bailing hay. Not that large round bail (easy stuff), small square bails that you had to stack on the damn wagon just right to keep them from falling off when you hit bumps/holes.

Yep. I grew up in Iowa too. Cut my teeth on a John Deere 4240
you and FISH have lots in common
 

djefferis

djefferis

Joined
Jan 8, 2024
Messages
4,017
Things that to farm kids of a certain age were commonplace - today though even in rural communities it’s a rarity.

It wasn’t just kids either - remember going coin hunting with my dad many nights. He often talked of rabbit/grouse hunting with his dad and granddad. Grandad raised AKC registered Beagles and sold them for big money - dad raised Beagles and Plot coonhounds. Furs were a big business back then and could easily supplement your income hunting. There were points where coon hides touched $40-50 in the late 70s/80s - considering a decent car could be had for $400 - that was big money to guys making $5-8 an hour.

Tanko mentioned bailing hay - I did it growing up and was the last generation to do it I think working as a kid on a wagon and stacking in a barn all damn day. I’ve been in steel mills and on the pot line at aluminum plants and still think standing in that barn is the hottest place on earth I’ve ever been. 3 times a year we put up hay - and 3 times a year we’d have a regular crew of teenagers (both HS kids and college boys home for summer) as well as a couple of local ne er do wells and drunks helping out. Work from 6am until it was done - then everyone getting cleaned up and returning for a big dinner fixed by the women and a night spent playing music and tapping a keg in the garage.

I actually miss those days greatly - not that I’d care to repeat them - just the people I was surrounded by.
 

fishhead

fishhead

Joined
Sep 30, 2023
Messages
4,443
Things that to farm kids of a certain age were commonplace - today though even in rural communities it’s a rarity.

It wasn’t just kids either - remember going coin hunting with my dad many nights. He often talked of rabbit/grouse hunting with his dad and granddad. Grandad raised AKC registered Beagles and sold them for big money - dad raised Beagles and Plot coonhounds. Furs were a big business back then and could easily supplement your income hunting. There were points where coon hides touched $40-50 in the late 70s/80s - considering a decent car could be had for $400 - that was big money to guys making $5-8 an hour.

Tanko mentioned bailing hay - I did it growing up and was the last generation to do it I think working as a kid on a wagon and stacking in a barn all damn day. I’ve been in steel mills and on the pot line at aluminum plants and still think standing in that barn is the hottest place on earth I’ve ever been. 3 times a year we put up hay - and 3 times a year we’d have a regular crew of teenagers (both HS kids and college boys home for summer) as well as a couple of local ne er do wells and drunks helping out. Work from 6am until it was done - then everyone getting cleaned up and returning for a big dinner fixed by the women and a night spent playing music and tapping a keg in the garage.

I actually miss those days greatly - not that I’d care to repeat them - just the people I was surrounded by.


CORN CRIB hotter than barn, at least ours was.
 

BigJay

BigJay

Joined
Oct 28, 2021
Messages
20,980
Things that to farm kids of a certain age were commonplace - today though even in rural communities it’s a rarity.

It wasn’t just kids either - remember going coin hunting with my dad many nights. He often talked of rabbit/grouse hunting with his dad and granddad. Grandad raised AKC registered Beagles and sold them for big money - dad raised Beagles and Plot coonhounds. Furs were a big business back then and could easily supplement your income hunting. There were points where coon hides touched $40-50 in the late 70s/80s - considering a decent car could be had for $400 - that was big money to guys making $5-8 an hour.

Tanko mentioned bailing hay - I did it growing up and was the last generation to do it I think working as a kid on a wagon and stacking in a barn all damn day. I’ve been in steel mills and on the pot line at aluminum plants and still think standing in that barn is the hottest place on earth I’ve ever been. 3 times a year we put up hay - and 3 times a year we’d have a regular crew of teenagers (both HS kids and college boys home for summer) as well as a couple of local ne er do wells and drunks helping out. Work from 6am until it was done - then everyone getting cleaned up and returning for a big dinner fixed by the women and a night spent playing music and tapping a keg in the garage.

I actually miss those days greatly - not that I’d care to repeat them - just the people I was surrounded by.
I think we all long for the days of simpler times Jeffrey

I’ve kind of come full circle. Had great times as a kid and young adult growing up, went out into the world and worked my ass off at mostly good jobs and some bad, but it’s set me up to be in a good position at a relatively young age to work part time and be able to enjoy most afternoons with my godson and family.

I’ve kind of come full circle to simpler times these days
 

djefferis

djefferis

Joined
Jan 8, 2024
Messages
4,017
CORN CRIB hotter than barn, at least ours was.

Yes - people laugh when I tell there is such a thing as summer being hotter down here than in the city - but it truly is.

My house is surrounded by around 8k acres of corn fields - all of that damn corn soaking up and then releasing moisture makes the humidity index higher and it feels 5-8 degrees hotter than what it is easily.

Easy to imagine a building with a tin roof filled with corn letting off all that moisture was pretty damn warm - same phenomenon experienced with green hay being stacked up in a barn.
 
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