coalandcash

Grew up with sheep, had bottle calves for beef, a pig once in a while, and dairy goats I was allergic to formula. Now I live in NE 120 acres in mixed hay and another 130 acres in pasture. 30 hd sheep...lots of babies now, looking to buy cows. Working Border Collies, 2 guard dogs, lots of cats, 2 heelers, 2 horses.....a zoo. Have a hard time leaving home, love it, wounldn't trade it for anything.

Marlys

We ranch, but we live in town. It is about 10 miles to drive to the ranch, but we can see it across the river from where we live. Our town is small, about 2000 people.

We have about 75 sections (48,000 acres) and we run 1800 - 2000 head of cattle. We have 10 horses. We do have a 4 wheeler that we use for fencing, but all of the gathering and doctoring is done on horseback.

There is a big difference between a farm & a ranch. We do have a little bit of hay ground, but we are ranchers not farmers.

Rhonda

I wondered if we had any ranchers. I knew we had a few farmers. It is great to have ranchers represented here!

Lady Diana

My grandfather had a farm where we would visit every summer for two months. Loved it.
My husband and I are still working in the city, but own a ranch in West Texas and a place in Magnolia Arkansas. There are cows on the ranch that someone cares for when we are not there. So when we retire, we will spend alot of time there.
I guess we all want to go back to our roots and what we remember as the good quiet times of our lives. Happy places stay with us always. I often think of the times I collected eggs and got chased by the rooster every time and the time that "Bossy" stepped on my foot and another when she knew I was next to hear and queezed me up against the wall....she didn't like me much. Then of course, there was always the work that had to be done.....we tend to forget about that.
Good thoughts to everyone.
Diana

Shelbie

We live on a farm of 250 acres and grow seed potatoes, seed barley, wheat and oats and even bird seed (millet). We also have a cow/calf herd and grow hay for them and to sell to local horse farms. My children are now fifth generation on this land (first family members immigrated from Ireland during the potato famine) and we are struggling to move forward with plan for the future. We won't farm forever and none of our children want to work as hard as their family has in the past. Farmers don't seem to be valued in Canada, we don't even have a Canadian food policy and input costs are often higher than returns. Who wants to buy this farm?

quilter1943

I grew up on a farm in Central Illinois. Looking back, it was some of the best years of my life. After college I couldn't wait to get to the city, worked on Connecticut Avenue in DC for years. DH grew up in NYC and all he ever wanted was to live in the country. We've always lived in the suburbs since we had children so they knew a little of both, I guess. There are so few small farmers left - you're all amazing people, It's quite a struggle.

craftymatt2

WOW,Everyone has such nice memories of farm life, I spent years in Mississippi on my grandparents farm, We had so much fun, they had at least a thousand acres and farmed a lot of it, I remember sitting in the fields eating what was growing, sugar cane, watermellons, cabbage, tomatoes, peanuts, onions, berries of all kinds, corn,carrots, they grew so much, boy do i miss it, i would hide under the farmhouse and make mud pies, with eggs from the chickens, or play with the pigs in the mud, we had some babies as well. They had cows, I tried to milk and got kicked, so much fun and so little time, when we retire I want to move where its warm and out in nowhere land so I can have chickens. So much fun.

Farm Quilter

I have lived on a farm for 5 years now, after spending my early years in a city. I love the smell of hay when it is first cut and digging into those bales in the middle of the cold winter releases that smell. I don't mind shoveling out the barn because that hill I create will nourish my garden the next year. Oh the smells in the house when I am canning...pure bliss. Eggs still warm from the hens...how much fresher do ya need!!! No noisy neighbors since they are 3 miles away. Pure heaven!!!

callie72va

I grew up on a farm in Virginia, married a farm boy in the same county and still live on the same farm after 50 some years. Couldn't live without my animals. The best life a person could want. Both sons and their families live within a mile of me. Grandchildren all involed with farm life and horses and cows. Love it.

Rhonda

My favorite out of the garden was and is green beans straight off the vine. My dad used to stop plowing and stop and grab carrots out of the garden and eat it there and then or rutabegas. But I hate rutabegas! Love green beans and peas right out of the pod.

Did a lot of canning growing up. And hot days in the garden.

My inlaws raised an acre of sweet corn as well as several acres of other stuff like watermelons onions green beans tomatoes potatoes etc as they had 9 kids and when I married into the family 3 of the boys were married with families. My nephew when he was little used to say it was going to grocery store instead of going to the garden! LOL
so everyone got together and canned corn. We sat on the porch and shucked corn as dad and some of the boys would bring gunny sacks full in from the corn field. A lot of hard work! My FIL fixed a long board with a cutter on it and made short work of cutting the corn off the cobs. My MIL canned everything in gallon jars. She had a large family and every weekend her brothers or sisters and family would show up or cousins and their families. She always fed 30 or more every Sunday. We were there most weekends. I so miss those times!

My grandpa ate sweet corn with nothing on it and sometimes we ate the corn from the regular fields. If you get it at the right stage it is just as good. I have to have butter and salt on mine tho!!