(this is just a joke - of course farmwork still has physically demanding parts)
It’s a mixed bag. So, no, the joke is wrong.
fixed itdamn it took me 10 mins to see the difference
I dated a farm girl for a few years. Up hours before sunrise, you’re always lugging some large container/bag of something or making a million trips to handle it. None of them mechanize everything. It’s way easier than the dumb tractor days but it’s still no f’ing joke.
Automated farm equipment is amazing now. Even small operators can use software that dispenses different amounts of water, nutrients, fertilizer or whatever on different parts of a field, based on a map deveoped from soil testing and last year’s yield - as measured by harvesters that weigh how much material gets harvested from every spot on the field. The operator’s main job is to be there in case something goes wrong.
I know its a joke, but man I just bailed hay yesterday and I’m really feeling it. My nephew had his first time bailing, fella looks like a bit of a twig, and I could tell he was struggling with it. As is usual, I had to pickup the slack, just as my family did when I was new to bailing as a kid. Bet he can’t wait until the next field is ready next week.
You’re trying to spell check a farmer. We simply do not care.
Not caring about spelling is nothing to be proud of. Literacy is important. A farmer who is literate is even more than a farmer who isn’t.
Being a language pedant is nothing to be proud of. The actual linguists don’t take that that position, you’re just performing for Internet points
Professor of applied linguistics here, can confirm, language is fluid, don’t be a goober
It’s ironic that the people who are the loudest about the literacy crisis seem to have such a narrow understanding of “literacy”.
Without fail.
I definitely do not care about internet points. Quite an assumption. On the contrary, I care for his benefit. Is it so odd that someone can give constructive criticism?
Hey, I’m just giving you constructive criticism. Broaden your understanding of language before criticizing the language of others.
A farmer who is literate is even more what?
As I said, is more.
I’m in the best shape I’ve been in about 2 decades, and you know what my hobbies have been since spring of last year?
Amateur farmer, construction worker, and landscaper. And I guess mechanic too, to a lesser extent.
I live in a pretty standard suburban US neighborhood of single family homes, but my little fenced-in back yard is an active construction zone rather than a patch of grass.
My oasis is coming along pretty well. I can’t wait to share it with those around me once it’s more presentable.
If you’re documenting this anywhere, I’d love to see the work in progress.
Some parts of it, especially my pond, are an area where I’ve done a ton of DIY and learning and designing from first principles or close to it, and where other hobbyists often need help. So I’ve taken photos along the way and have pondered making videos at simmer point.
That might actually happen, but my number of projects in flight right now is kind of ridiculous, lol.
If you ever put those videos in an album somewhere, let me know. Doing similar projects on my property, always good to get inspiration
I will do that! It might be a while, who knows.
Do you have anything specific you have started, or have started eyeing up?
Previous owner just laid down hundreds of square meters of weed barrier fabric and then dumped gravel on it. We’re currently trying to re-shape the situation into a US southwestern-style dry garden.
Specifically, I’m in the middle of moving a good deal of the existing gravel, removing the turf grass, and replacing it with a free-draining landscape built around gravel mulch and natural stone. Planting areas are shaped to create an open, desert-inspired feel, with plants grouped in drifts and clusters rather than traditional flower beds. Gonna focus on species that can handle cold winters, hot summers, drought, and wind while still capturing the character of those landscapes.
Rather than recreating Arizona, adapting the look of the American Southwest to the Canadian prairie climate and growing conditions. Small palette of hardy plants like yuccas, prickly pears, ornamental grasses, sages, blanket flowers, and coneflowers.
Goal is an open, sculptural, low-maintenance landscape inspired by northern New Mexico- adapted to the Canadian Prairies. Fire pit and seating area in the middle, so far, so good.
It’s amazing what you can DIY if you’re willing to put in the time and muscle! Oasis made me think of my wife’s cousin’'s backyard outside of Sacramento. He put in a few small shade trees, lots of overhead trellises with vines and stuff on them, and burbling water channels here and there. On hot summer days I swear it’s 10 degrees cooler back there.
Yeah!
I have lamented in comments before that it seems like society treats technology and “success” as things that mean you don’t have to put in any effort to do things or learn things.
Admittedly, I’m an engineer and enjoy learning about the world and creating things starting with the basic building blocks, so I probably enjoy the learning and doing more than most. But I also recognize how engaging with the world around us is good for us, and my experiences keep reinforcing that.
For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another hundred out there who weigh a hundred and thirty pounds—and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling seventy-five pounds of marijuana across the desert.
~ U.S. Representative Steve King (R-IA) in 2013.
The heros we need
*The heroes we weed.
Now that’s a horror story.
Your fake farmer toughness wouldn’t last a day working in an artificially-lit, soul sucking office cubicle for someone else’s profit!
Ha! Gotcha farmers!
Now if you’ll excuse me I need to cry.
The difference between physical damage and psychic damage.
Work in nuclear power! Experience both!
When the boss uses vicious mockery.
You can totally physically damage your body while working in office
bonus points if you have to deal with deeply toxic office politics
I worked in an office environment that regularly interacted with field workers. They would often give us grief about how easy our jobs are (being in an air conditioned office, on chairs, etc). Two of them got injured and in order to keep them earning a paycheck, and keep their sick hours, they came to help us in the office. They were supposed to be on restrictive duty for months I believe. Within two weeks they begged to go back into the field doing anything except helping us. Haven’t heard any grief from them since. Haha.
This sounds like “would you want some torture for your sick period?”
“No, please! Don’t make me troubleshoot the printer again!”
I hope this email finds you well. Just to remind all employees that crying should be through as personal leave and signed off by your manager.
If you are struggling with mental health please use ai
Kind regards Hr
I wish we had a “bring your kid to work” day so I can show my child how it feels to be in four back-to-back 1-hour meetings with the most brain dead takes and people going, “Let’s table that” and “I hear what you’re saying and we’re saying the same thing” And then everyone gets drunk at Chilis before another round of four back-to-back one hour meetings.
That’s real endurance.
let’s take this offline can we have a sidebar 💀
Fun fact: you can have a soul sucking office job AND do farm work! Just get a horse or two!
Hey if it makes you feel any better, most farms are corporate owned and so they get to work in hot, back breaking fields for someone else’s profit instead!
Most farms should be corporate owned in the US if for no other reason than to be a liability shield. The question is who owns the corporation and whether the workers are being adequately compensated.
Who owns farms: overwhelmingly it’s inherited wealth in trust to avoid paying taxes and run by incorporated entities.
Are the workers being adequately compensated… The answer changes depending on what color your skin is and where you were born.
They’ll never even make it to the office, because of all the terrifying minorities in the city who have the audacity to exist.
Day on a farm:
She looks very happy!
Have you ever driven a tractor? It’s pretty damn awesome.
My wife works at a company that auctions off machinery of all types. The week before an auction, they let anyone who registered come into their lot and try out the equipment. You’re not allowed to move it much, but you can try out basically any other function.
I’ve operated all kinds of machinery I had no right to even try. Stuff that dwarfs me and/or could kill me at a moment’s notice. I didn’t usually try the bigger scarier stuff, but even machines like excavators, tractors, party busses, and super cars were enough to thrill me.
My wife’s work wallpaper is of me in the driver’s seat of a firetruck. I feel bad about that one - I accidentally triggered the siren and couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. By the time I was ready to ask for help the yard crew had left. I really tried to figure it out or recruit help, but I ended up just leaving with it still on.
Some say you still hear that siren if you listen closely
Well, that just makes me feel sorry for whomever ended up buying it.
I was told there be goths in IT. Just fat nerds, mostly me.
Be the goth you wish to see in the world
You should have watched the promotional material more closely.
Pale, weird, hidden in the server room, and occasionally some Cradel of Filth, that’s just my office…
I get it’s a joke, but… The strapping-est kids I knew growing up were farm kids. Throwing hay bales gets you jacked. I have also driven the air-conditioned tractor around all day though too.
This is also happening less and less as farms consolidate under disadventure capitalists. I’m in my late 40s, and the town I went to highschool in was the type to have 2 weeks off at harvest and seeding time because so many kids had to go out and help on the farm.
Last year they did not have any time off for that because only one family was left actually working their farms, the rest are working them for a corp and the corp hires transient labour to do the heavy work.
Throwing hay bales gets you jacked.
Those round one are over 100 kg. What?
Because they’re not all the big round ones
There’s different sized bales. The big round bales you move with a tractor and aren’t getting tossed around, but the smaller rectangular bales get moved by hand a bunch.
A typical hay bale is rectangular and weighs about as much as a bushel of lemons. You pick it up by the twine and heave-ho until it’s in a big ridiculous pile on the truck.
Bushel of lemons
Heave Ho
Americans will use anything to avoid the metric system…
You pick it up by the twine and apply the ol’ hectoNewton metre.
They “wouldn’t wouldn’t last”? So they WOULD last. Double negative cancels itself.
Is that what you’re saying?
That’s how I took it. I’m curious as to what percentage of folk saw the duplicate “wouldn’t”?
only semi related but ive been gifted with soft skin, the kind that old men would handshake and say “you never worked a real day in your life!” i work a blue collar job. some people are just gifted.
Lol or you know how to use lotion?
Older gen hated sunscreen and lotion.
I don’t use lotion and still have very soft skin. I also work in a print shop with plenty of heavy lifting and manual labour.
Landscaper, a d likewise. Blisters beget no callous, only fresh pink skin to blister once more.
Honestly if anyone says y’all “you never worked a real day in your life!”, tell them to shut the fuck up. If they get offended, tell them that they were disrespectful as fuck, they don’t deserve your respect.
From Bag Balm:
Originally, it was used for only cows’ udders, but farmers’ wives noticed the softness of their husbands’ hands, and started using the product themselves.
I have baby soft skin, as noted by male and female friends alike, despite working tons of physical jobs including driving fence posts for a summer. I’m pretty sure it’s a condition called Ehlers-Danlos, in my case, but I’m not officially diagnosed, just have every symptom. Learned about it through my DNA testing, there was a gene there that was connected to it.
i had a mini slut phase recently and everyone who touched my skin said it was really soft, like women who i thought had soft skin told me how soft my skin is. this is what finally pushed me to really look into Ehlers-Danlos and learn that i have it. having very soft skin without really trying is one of the features, but there are a lot more. it sounds to me like you might have it too. worth looking into.
But, to be fair, there is a difference between strength you get in the gym and practical strength. Its a lot of factors and i dont wanna write an essay but it is (kind of) true.
For anyone curious: the difference is, that farmers got more endurance with their strength (they can do physical labour all day long), while the typical gymbro can lift heavier weights, but not all day long
Ha ha ha, farming was hard work, like we have no idea, back in the pioneer days. Now? You can’t compete without the industrial operations, unless you have a niche.
These pioneers, they were harder than any of these gym freaks, they weren’t swollen, they were scrawny, wiry, and stronger. Muscle mass doesn’t mean strength necessarily.
industrial operations
True for the corn and soybeans that cover vast swaths of this country, but a lot of fruits and vegetables are still very labor intensive. That labor is usually done by underpaid immigrants, who are definitely not swole, but are definitely in better shape then any of us.
Wouldn’t the pioneers drive boulders?
