Five Seasons

oh I'm still occasionally dumb, but I also don't work this hard not to enjoy what I worked for. I think it's just important that you don't keep upgrading as you make more money and as you noted, keep living paycheck to paycheck.

yep same here. My best friend was part of a farming family. Literally grew up on a fruit farm and now semi-inherited one myself. Food plotting has been a nice way to scratch the itch I have, but I don't have much of an interest in doing more than that. I could easily hire help and make some "tax money" off my orchard, but I just don't have the time and patience. One thing I've learned recently and my wife's grandpa had a good laugh at is that you're spending most of your time fixing something that broke. I tell the wife when I go over that it could be a few hours or it could be 4, depending on what breaks while I'm working lol.

I'd have given one of my nuts for just one week of the paychecks I have now when I was just starting out. I still save the same percentage but it's funny what happens when you just start buying better things lol.

supply and demand and this field is skyrocketing the rates in recent years though. So you're right, not all tades will make that kind of money in a non-OT 40 hour week and of course the wear and tear on the body and dirty parts of the jobs. There is still something to be said that many company's will pay for you learn the skill, so you're not coming out with $100k in debt either. I get it too, i'm college educated. I make good money, I'm not anti-college at all. Just that we should stop pushing EVERY kid to go to college.

I know that wasn't the topic. But if we're bitching about the price of college, it's relevant. These wages were for anyone in the union, including those just starting. He actively cannot find enough people to fill open roles. They wouldn't be paying for radio ads if they were turning people away.

that's like professional ag field stuff there man. Stop making us small timers feel inadequate!

if you're a cubs fan, I now understand you more.

lol what's wrong with lacrosse?

I'd like to see kids that have no desire to go to college, or know what they're interested in, or going to obtain some useless degree be educated more on the trades. I was talking with a guy at football this weekend who is in one of the local pipe fitters unions. His guys are making ~$130k a year. How is that not good money for something in such demand with little to no debt. They're still receiving a technical education in their trade, but their trade doesn't tack on art history 101 as a required part of it. Society needs to stop looking down at blue collar. Literally every time I attempt a new home owner DIY project I gain more and more respect for these guys. Something that seems as simple as laying pavers has all sorts of levels (no pun intended) to it that must be done right. Sure the stakes and complexity aren't up there with heart surgeons, but not everyone needs to be a doctor or a lawyer. Sincerely, an engineer (haha)

honestly I'd love to farm if it wasn't so hard to make an actual decent living doing so. There's a great documentary on amazon prime called Farmland. A little over an hour and an interesting watch.

yes, but will she kill a worm to catch a fish moog. that is also important haha.

yep, strawberries are bigger and prettier but nearly no taste left. I'm affraid to see that apples appear to be going that way too. Hell they spray wax on them now so that Kathy will be attracted to them. A single spot and people wont touch them. The best tasting apples I know of are the 20+ year old trees with the occasional scab and worm hole. Look like crap, but taste amazing.

more glorious rain today and maybe some more friday. My main hope now is that most of my seeds didn't get eaten by birds. I bought some more to overseed, so there's another ~$90 adding to the price of my venison this year...

huh i didn't know you could bait in ohio. Combined with their crossbows, sounds like some of the upstateny gang's dreams haha. We're getting more rain now this afternoon and it's glorious.

you did well and i'm happy for you. I will also admit I thought with the title of this thread that you were looking for suggestions on which camping trip to which mountainous area in the states would be better. haha.

If it's not his full time or even part time job, then maybe it doesn't matter where the money is. Hell even if it is a full-time job, most of us wish we could pick and choose parts of our jobs. In this case he can choose to do a lot and learn a lot versus specializing. I myself am a jack of all trades in my profession. There's a need for us guys too and typically we're the business leaders. We build teams of experts and specialist. Anyhow, to each his own. I didn't take your input as criticism, but just to say that I hope he does what he loves and that's all.

yep nothing but squash, eggplant and peppers left for us. Maybe an ear of corn of the 6 I planted lol.

congrats moog. good look on the age clarification because I was gonna say... haha

both groups are probably right. there is no replacement for good wind and thermals, but there is an edge for those calm days or swirling days where irish spring or cigs is hurting you. Even if it's not helping, the scent free stuff sure doesn't hurt.

Update from webster in 8f. There were storms west, east and south of us all weekend. Got poured on for about 10 minutes at the football field that is about 5 minutes north of the house. Wife said we got a sprinkle at home lol. Last night we got some rain and this morning as well. Hoping for the storms to roll through, was looking at the radar all day yesterday as I was in charge of calling the scrimmage and it looked like a good soaker to my south and I was jealous. Drove by the plot Friday afternoon and quite a few crows out there. Don't know much about crows but I'm assuming they were chewing up my seeds... It will have been 5 days of seed on the ground until we got rain. Probably will overseed soon to be safe.

there is no way on god's green earth I could ever do what I did this year every season. But it was my first year and much of my time was spent researching, buying and learning new equipment. I intentionally did one of my largest plots clover and chicory hoping that to get at least 3 to 5 years out of it. Doing a single acre plot every fall though is something I think I will look forward to experimenting with over the year. Some time here should be saved too in that breaking ground for the first time has some challenges. I too though wanted to maybe put in another stand this year that I don't think will happen because of the time spent on plotting. Might even plant some chestnuts or something next year as a more long term solution.

I'm not an ozone in the tree guy, but felt like I should add that there is some science with ozone. Like, in real industry use of ozone in mechanical processes. I wont type it all out here but ozone isn't necessarily masking odor, but the 03 molecule "mingles" with existing scents to bind too and sort of "destroy" those odors. This is a very high level non-technical explanation of it. There is quite a bit of real scientific data that supports it as fact. Where it gets interesting though is using ozone in the great outdoors with swirling winds vs the controlled vacuum sealed lab. Most would agree that it would be impossible to destroy odor in the outdoor environment, which is why the best selling units have big ass blowers trying to cover as much of the hunter as possible. It's important to note that o3 exposure can also be a safety issue. The bin storage unit and car unit I have are very clear about the risks with using them in a closed room.

gorgeous. great work man! How's the new shop coming along?

I'll add that my wife's 86 year old grandpa things I'm re&*$*$ for planting more "food" haha

I am surrounded by corn and soy as well as apples. My whole goal with plots is some winter stuff and mostly to draw them in to range aka the kill plot. So failure for me is more personal than anything haha.