Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores

As far as the chores part goes, I'll be outside doing anything on a nice summer day before you see me stuck inside doing dishes or vacuuming. Point being farm chores top city kid's "chores" any day of the week in my opinion. Yeah there was some things that I hated doing, but I'd rather be doing something than nothing.

I absolutely loved being in 4h and showing animals at the county fair just to hear stupid peoples ideas on where food comes from like your roommates. One year a lady who was probably mid 20's came up to me and asked what kind of milk my beef steer was going to produce. I couldn't stop myself from laughing and she had this confused look on her face. So I politely explained that it was a "boy cow" and couldn't produce milk. Then she looked even more confused and asked what it was good for if it couldn't produce milk, so I told her it was a beef steer and that this is where her McDouble comes from. Then she finally caught on. She thought hamburger came from a ham. She thought a "ham" was an animal. If Ag related laws like this start to get passed, I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more people thinking that a Ham is an animal.

 

1961 smart ***. LOL I take that back. It had to be 1958..it was between myfreshman and sophomore years in HS. My summers after that I worked in the resorts in the Adirondacks. You know, kind of like the "Dirty Dancing" resorts.

OK...it's official. I'm losing it and getting senial. It was 62. I worked in the resorts in college. Duhhhhhhhhhhh.

OK... that would make it 61.

 

I never got an opportunity to work on a farm, because I was always busy hanging siding, laying shingles, mixing mortar and tending to block layers, etc. From the time I was about 11-12 on, I spent a LOT of time helping my Dad with his construction business, and it has paid off many times over.... I've done probably $50,000 worth of work on my homes, and never had to pay someone else to do it. And right now, I'm in the process of re-mudding the drywall in a house that someone didn't do a very good job at, and the lady is impressed that my work looks better than the original stuff (the her uncle did). I've helped a little on my in-laws farm, put up about 2 miles of fence, and it was actually fun to do the good hard work, and at the end of the day (or 5 or so) see the results... I could use a fencing tool like a fiend after about half a day!!! :D

 

BS lawmakers making more stupid laws.If they would keep their nose out of everything things would be alot better!

 

Next, city kids won't be able to clean their room, mow the lawn, was dishes or anything else. Wow! Just figured it out!!! It's the NEW IMPROVED Obama economy stimulus package. If you can't make your own children help with chores, you will have to hire help. This will not only put people to work, but also drive up farm goods so employers will have to pay their employees more so they can buy food. This will drive up other consumer goods which will encourage more people to work harder to pay for their daily needs. In turn, this all generates 2 times more tax dollars for the government so they can spend 4 times more. These politicians got it all figgered out by golly!

 

I grew up on a farm as a boy and it was brutal in the 60's and 70's at the age of 7 there were five of us brothers and sisters picking crops at daylight until the heat got to bad and you would come back out the last five hours until dark. we made our own dinners and did all the dishes and we had no a/c in the old farm house
life was tuff. Some farms people have kids as a labor force and there was 5 aces of grass to mow with a push mower and wood to cut to get thru winter because a wood stove is all we had for heat something like 15 cords of wood.
This may not be the norm for most farms back then and i hope not in today's world.

 

Vito .... your ignorant statememnts in this thread kill me .... such liberal crap.

I really don't know what to say ..... ignorant .....

 

I re-read this thread and still must be missing something. What the heck is this???????

Tony, I think you have been working too hard on the farm. Get some kids to do alll the work!

 

Come on Tony he lived NEAR a farming community for 6 years man. He knows his ****. Oh and his portfolio is strong, quite strong. Just ask him, he'll tell ya.
Having lived on a hog farm with 18,000 hogs, I too was subject to this slave labor. Cried my eyes out when my daddy died. Guess I hold no resentment towards him for all the hard work we did together side by side.

 

I didn't mind my youth doing chores in the winter and calving season. Fencing, putting up hay for the cows in the summer and pitching crap wasn't always fun but it had to be done. You got to be outside which I loved. There was no allowance but dad bought my guns, bow, arrows, shells and gas to go hunting. You earned it and he never complained about paying for them. I made my spending money from trapping in high school and doing side jobs for the wealthier city folk who's kids were to busy doing nothing but having fun. Didn't mind it a bit as the pay was very good. I didn't play sports in high school but it wasn't on account of working for dad. I had to much fun hunting and trapping and that took all my free time. My brother hated working on the farm so he did the sports thing to get away from it, plus he loved sports. He didn't hunt or trap.

I would work for my uncle on his farm when I had free time from dad's also. Also worked for another farmer when he needed help.

Got a job with Soil Conservation planting trees for another side job while killing time after calving season and before haying started when I was 16. I drove an old school bus they converted for hauling trees and pulling a trailer with the tractor on it for the planting. We put in alot miles of shelterbelts. I drove the tractor while two older ladies sat on the planting popping trees in. The two ladies were a riot. Well until the planter would smack a buried rock. Man them two had potty mouths. :D

Went to college. First summer I got a job through the college planting trees in ND and Montana along the rivers. That was a blast but was only for 3 weeks. Went home and helped dad put up hay. Eeerrrrr let me rephase that... I put up hay and dad sometimes helped me. In his defense, he also had a 8 - 5 job besides raising cows.

The next two summer I worked on a big National Wildlife Refuge putting up close to 40 miles of fence around WPAs. It was just 3 of us. Since I had a good back ground in driving tractors and trucks... I also got the nod for other jobs on the Refuge over the other college kids working there. I spent a lot of time driving air boat for botulism counts. We shined and captured Canadian geese ( honkers ) at night in the two air boats when the adult geese were molting to move them and their young to different areas so the young would establish themselves to that area the following years. It was extremely fun. Well maybe not the fencing so much but the other things they had you doing.

I wouldn't trade any of it. I don't regret not playing sports. I really enjoyed my youth. We were driving tractors, trucks and vehicles when we were old enough to see over the steering wheel on the back roads. My brother and I were driving these things with no parental supervise long before I ever got my driver license at 14. That wouldn't fly today. It was different times. The 70's and the early 80's were a fun time !!!

Tim

 

Tony, perhaps you missed the "hold my beer and watch this" comment?

 

I think I just woke up when I posted that :D

 

Tim, which refuge? We got to play with the airboats at J. Clark Salyer. Grabbing slimy, half-decompsed, floating, possibly botulism contaminated waterfowl from a moving airboat is a great memory for me. Sometimes I'd just get a body part, they got pretty soft in a hurry.

 

Farm Kid Here.

Nuff said?

 

Thanks for killing my argument! :D

 

I can smell you from here.

 

Where do I begin. Let's start with "Picking crops at daylight". And just what kind of crops were you picking old beat up child laborer? And come back out "the last 5 hours until dark"... I guess to "PICK MORE CROPS". LOL You have the language of a do gooder who's never spent a day on a real farm and I know damn well you never mowed 5 acres of lawn with a push mower if you were on a farm. Farmers don't have time for such crap. Wood stoves??? Hell, we all had them. My folks still had them when they died. Nope, fear not, your dillusional farm was not the norm. Farmers don't get to take the heat of the day off.

Oh, and "in the 60s and 70s.... you couldn't have been 7.... That's a 20 year span. You had to be somewhere in between 7 and 27. LOL

 

It's 2012 and there's no A/C at this old farmhouse. We're looking to get a woodstove (or a pelletstove) too... :D


And heck, I wasn't a farm kid and I cooked for myself and my siblings... and I still have to cook for myself AND wash dishes to this day. Darn it all.

 

Me too. I wash the clothes, dishes and my butt.... EVERY DAY. I just ate 3 brook trout for dinner. I had to cook them myself. I even had to catch them and clean them. Woe is me. LOL

 

That was the one. I drove the airboat so I didn't have to grab the " slimy, half-decompsed, floating, possibly botulism contaminated waterfowl " . neener-neener !!!!! :p :D

Was Darrel Wald and big Fred Geise still running the place then ?? We took orders from Bill Berg for the most part the two summers I was there.

Tim