Question


Hello raiders of all nations! I have a question for you,if i may...of course...i think most of you live on the city,but have you ever consider to change your life with one of a farmer? I did and i don't regret it

reply

My neighbors are farmers, but I honestly doubt I could manage all that work. We do get fresh vegetables in season at the farmstand, sometimes fruit. As a kid, I used to love walking down the street to see the cows and baby animals. The only downside is the manure smell, but that's only occasionally.
I could never live in the city. Too crowded, loud, and polluted. Let alone the crazy traffic to get anywhere.

reply

The manure smell...well,i live...i think are 14 years since i left the city...i got use to itπŸ˜‰

reply

If I was close to being homeless, yes. Being a farmer means that you would be entirely self sufficient. In the U.S., usually farms are what are termed "rural" and have the lowest cost of living. Instead of buying a house for like hundreds of thousands in the city, people on farms get by by paying very little because they do not use up many resources.

Food is a huge resource and if you can make that yourself, you can always write off that expense. If you can live without electricity and water, that would be HUGE!

Of course, to have a farm, I would need to live in a better state. The state I currently live in snows and has HIGH heat days. The temperature is always to one extreme. I would need a consistently moderate climate if I were to work on that said farm everyday.

reply

Well...about electricity...we need that,climate is moderate,still in some years..not often...we have severe heat,but we manege.

reply

Though it is true that you can be more self-sufficient on a farm, I don't think you can write off the food expenses. The expenses you would have for producing your own food, I think would make up for anything you safe up from not buying it from the store. But it sure would taste better!

reply

No, the food thing is just about being able to produce it and maybe even being able to sell some of the excess. Since you would not have to buy it and farming is pretty much like a job, you would be killing two birds with one stone.

reply

I may be missing your point. It would be like a job, and you could sell some of it and make some money. But you still would need to invest it back into equipment, seeds, irrigation, animal feed, canning it for the winter and so on. Not to mention that you still need to buy whatever you can't produce. So I don't know how far ahead you'd actually be financially. But it might be healthier and better quality food, than what is produced by mass farms that use all sorts of pesticides and feed the animals with feed that they shouldn't really be fed with (not to mention the conditions in some of those places).

But, again, I might not be understanding you.

reply

It would definitely be a question for croft.

Maybe you would just have enough to break even.

I know in the U.S., most farmers are bought out by Monsanto and if they do not plant THEIR seeds, they threaten to NOT do business with them. Many farmers barely survive because they end up being outcompeted.

reply

Yup, croft would know better than both of us.

I've seen a documentary that partially dealt with that. Monsanto going around harassing people who specialise in picking the seeds from this year for planting next year. That's racket, plain and simple!

Our farmers are also barely making ends meet with low subsidies and low buying prices for their production (not to mention the weird weather affecting the crops). I don't know how far Monsanto's influence has spread over here (and I hope the EU has provisions in place to limit it!), but it's scary thinking they hold so much power over seed production and even patents and things like this.

reply

Oh...and about seeds thing...no, where i live,in this part of the country,we are not forced to buy seed from a specific...how to say...firm.We can...make our own seeds from the garden or if we don't have enough...we also have problems with the weather...we can go to the market and buy them,but there's not a specific brand controls what seed to use.

reply

Arvin,i just saw your post...do you have something to ask me?

reply

Look at MinaVladimir's posts above and mine.

reply

Me again...to answer this post.I only have a small farm...about 40 acres of land. Me an my family can manage with what we harvest from our garden and animals,but...of course there are also people who have much more land and livestock...yes, for them it's much harder to sustain their farms.They have to invest in their equipment,seeds,irigation....and for them to manage all of this,most of them gathered in...associations.

reply

I grew up in the country surrounded by farms. My parents both grew up on farms. Even though they gave up farming, We did have a goat for a few years and my father raised pigs for butchering. We kids always helped out with the feeding and care of all of our animals. We always had a huge vegetable garden so we helped my mother with that and all of the canning.
I live in a small city now, not too far away from where I was raised. My husband and I prefer it to the country. It's more convenient being closer to stores, businesses, the doctor, etc....
There is something good to be said about both ways of life. Sometimes I miss the quiet of the country. Farming is hard work though. It's also chancy what with the changes in the weather. It's a gamble with the crops. I have a great respect for those who continue to farm. We need farmers!

reply

But you have them...well, mostly in eastern europeπŸ˜‰

reply

I'm from Wisconsin. We are known to be a dairy state. We are famous for our cheese! πŸ˜‰

reply

I'm the north-eastern part of Romania and we are known for our fruits...and other...thingsπŸ˜‰

reply

What other things?

reply

Come on,Mina...we are neghbours...you don't know for what we are known for?...for me it's very embarrasing to say itπŸ˜‰

reply

Embarrassing????? I'm curious!

reply

Is it the vampyres [said in a thick EE accent]?

Or if it's the same embarrassing things we're famous for, it's either gypsies, organised crime or communists lol. /I say this in a humorous way :)/

reply

See,Mina...even MissMargo is curious...not vampiri ( here,i said it in my language ) communists...come on...we suppose to know each other...as country neighboursπŸ˜€

reply

HA! We say vampiri as well. And I was joking about the communists :P.

Potatoes? The Carpathian Mountains is the only other thing I can think of right now, but I don't see how that's embarrassing! But now I'm getting very embarrassed myself for not knowing the answer.

reply

Well,use your...survival instincts...what we as neighbours have in common as...embarrasing?πŸ˜‰

reply

The Danube is not embarrassing. Corruption? Being poor? Immigration? Those are embarrassing things I can think of.

reply

Come on...the only and only bad habit that we have in commonπŸ˜‰

reply

Rakia? We smoke too much? I. can't. think of it!

reply

Well,Mina you got it...it is about rakia ( or rachiu,in my language),i hate that drink.This stuff never misses from the table rather is a special occasion or not....people are walking like zombies around hereπŸ˜€

reply

I took the long way around lol. Where there's fruit, there's rakia!

I'm not really fond of it either, but I wouldn't call it embarrassing. The scottish aren't embarrassed of the whiskey after all ;)

reply

Well..Mina,for me is embarrasing...you know when you hear from someone that is romanian,you think...oh....another oneπŸ˜‰

reply

I know some people don't make a distinction between Romanian and Roma. I've never heard of Romanians being referred to as drunkards and stuff like that. That's reserved for the Russians, and the Poles maybe lol (the vodka loving folks).

reply

Well,Mina...to tell you the truth...i've worked in the western part of my country,and after i told those people.from where i was ...theyhad that look...you know,like...another one.We from the north-east are known for our ...thirst.It's not fair,because not all of us are the same.

reply

An old joke I've always liked :

Q: Why did God create alcohol?
A: So the Irish wouldn't rule the world.

The Germans likewise, are known to be heavy drinkers.

reply

Of beer,yes...but not the strong stuffπŸ˜‰

reply

German beer is pretty damn strong. They also like their Jagermeister, which is downright ass kickin' !

reply

Db,you didn't try our stuff...only 25 mg will put you downπŸ˜‰

reply

I looked it up and yes, it is very potent. I normally don't go for fruity flavored alcohol but would like to sample it at least once, out of curiosity.

reply

Well,db if you ever try a sample of it make sure it is natural not sinteticπŸ˜‰

reply

Ok, thanks for the tip.

reply

πŸ˜‰

reply

I never heard of Romanians being heavy drinkers either. The Irish? I have always heard the jokes about that.
A study has been done on the state I live in. Wisconsin seems to be one of the states here in the US that is known for heavy drinkers, and that's not social drinking!
I guess with nine months of winter, we have to have something to do! LOL!
Seriously though, Heavy drinking is nothing to joke about. It can be a serious problem.

reply

It is a serious problem...in the north-east where I live...this people have this problem😏

reply

I've never even heard of this drink so I can't say your region is infamous for it. I think most Americans would just assume everyone in EE drinks vodka. But then again most Americans could not even find Romania on a map!

reply

Well,there is something similar in America.The native indo-americans call it " fire water "...and of course they don't find Romania on the map,because is an insignificant country for americansπŸ˜‰

reply

Nah. It's not that Romania is unimportant.
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. For our children.

reply

I...have no idea what you talking about...honestlyπŸ˜‰

reply

Watch the youtube video!

reply

What video?...at least make it clickableπŸ˜‰

reply

Years ago, I read a biography of the notoriously tormented artist, Vincent Van Gogh, titled, Lust for Life.

He chose to live in the beautiful, quaint town of Arles in southern France because of the intensity of the sunlight there and how it brought out the colors in nature he was seeking.

Unfortunately, while living there, he became addicted to Absinthe, which was eventually attributed to contributing to his mental decline.

Years later, I came upon an interesting follow-up article pertaining to Van Gogh's time in Arles which claimed that the town had an unusually high rate of psychosis and murders in the populace, linked to the consumption of the infamous liquor.

reply

Well,db...sadly is true...the consumption of alcohol is linked with murders and other crimes.

reply

Tiny superhuman gymnasts?
Porn?
Gymnasts doing porn?

Is it weed?
I have never heard of weed from Romania but I dunno what else would be embarrassing.
I always thought of Amsterdam as the weed capital of Europe.
I know they grow hemp for fiber in Romania, it's the same basic plant species, but it's not really the smoke-able kind though.

reply

We (EE) are famous for porn? First time I hear of it lol. But we do love our gymnastics!

reply

Well there was some story about some former romanian top gymnasts doing softcore porn , Like doing some gymnastics routines in the nude on film.
I think shortly after the revolution, when their sports program income stopped and they needed to make a living. People do what they have to do to survive.

So then what is this mysterious thing that it's famous for , it can't be that famous if nobody can guess the thing.

reply

I haven't heard about that story, but if it was 25/30 years ago, it's a bit before I would've known of such things. But it doesn't surprise me in the least. The 90's were rough!

Anyway, I've guessed all I could about the embarrassing things I think we could have in common. Croft should just come out and say what it is, so to save me further embarrassment lol.

reply

Well,Popcorn Kernel...i think you've.seen too many romanian moviesπŸ˜‰

reply

I never saw the nude gymnastics movie, I just saw the news story about it during the following Olympics.
I am not bashing them for it though. They were offered a big wad of money and they had to support their families. They didn't break any laws. There are worse things that people do for money.

reply

Cheese curds and an Old Fashioned all day long !!!

reply

YUM! Football is just around the corner. I'll have mine with the Green Bay Packers!

reply

Good news is you don't have to wait. If you start now you'll just about be ready for football season.

reply

I don't think I could become a proper farmer. But it would be nice to live in the countryside and have a garden big enough for some vegetables and a few chickens. But I'd still need to work something else, and work in the countryside is scarce.

As for living itself, I like both. I like the clean air and easier pace of the countryside. There's also a more communal spirit there I feel (besides the fact that everyone is in your business). But after two weeks I get fidgety. And since I was raised in the city, I'd miss that kind of life. There's always something going on. There are also more opportunities here and it is more convenient from the perspective of medical care, taking a course or just going out on a whim.

So, it's nice to go to the countryside to recharge, or even retire some day, but I still prefer the city for actually living in for now.

reply

I'm not cut out for it. I can't even keep houseplants alive. The only food I grow is a lemon tree that I do nothing to it, don't water or fertilize it, and it just makes tons of lemons all year around. It gets enough water from rain even though we have 6 months every year with no rain it still lives, it must have very deep roots and finding water down there somewhere!
Most food crops need a lot more effort than my mutant lemon tree.

Farmers life is too hard, too much work, you have to get up too early. I have massive respect for those who can, but it's just not for me.
I sometimes think I might like to have a couple of chickens. I'm vegetarian but not vegan, I do like eggs but I'd feel less guilty eating them if i had my own chickens and knew they had a good life, not living in horrible cramped cages. But then they get too old to lay eggs and you pretty much have to kill them or keep them as a pet... I don't eat chicken and I don't want to kill a chicken. So it's problematic.

reply

Wait...do you have as pet...a chicken?

Hahaha,now that's funnyπŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

reply

Some people do keep them as pets but I meant after it stops laying eggs, it has no value unless you are going to eat it. Pet or meat, those are the choices.
If it lays eggs, then it's livestock. If you keep feeding a chicken that doesn't lay eggs, then it's a pet.

reply

Well,if a chicken gets sick what would you do?πŸ˜‰

reply

that's the issue. I don't eat meat, and I think eggs *Can* be produced humanely (although they almost never are, in commercial egg farms) , so keeping chickens for eggs would still run into a moral dilemma where the logical move is to kill it, but the emotional/moral move is at odds with logic.
Ans that's why I would not be a good farmer. Well, just one of the reasons why.

Although even if I ate chickens, I probably wouldn't eat a sick one.

reply

Many people in Asia have chickens (and roosters) as pets. It's not that uncommon.

reply

My grandma lives in the country, its an hour and a hlaf of drive and I go there as often as I can. (went there this week-end actually) I call it my paradise city. Love the smell and the peacefulness. I ride around with my bike, petting dogs, horses and swimming in the cric. I doubt I could live there though. It would lose its appeal after a while. (once stayed there for a whole month for work and was not yet tired)

reply

I've been living on an inactive farm for three decades, but in a few weeks I'll happily be living in the city. It's not that I dislike the village, but I do dislike the lack of facilities. There's no work, no shops and if you need something, you'll have to travel for at least half an hour. Commuting to work takes an hour, commuting back another hour.

I'm very much looking forward to the city. I'll have a shopping centre on three minutes walking, and my work is literally opposite of my apartment. It'll take some time to get used to, especially the lack views. But it makes up for having stellar public transport. Ten minute tram and you're at the beach. Half an hour train and you're in a natural park. There's more opportunities in activities, and I'm looking forward to not dreading them because everything takes so much time because everything is so far away. :)

reply

Well,Birchwood...i make an hour and a half until i arrive to the workplace,on foot.I was born and grow up in the city,but live there again...noπŸ˜‰

reply

I want to place an order for 2 boxes of πŸ… tomatoes and 1 box of corn 🌽 please! πŸ˜€

reply

Sure...i need the adress,telephone number and e-mail adress...and of course a taxe for deliveryπŸ˜€

reply

Roger roger

reply

I was on a farm once, cows, chickens, pigs and horses, what a stench, it's like living in an outhouse, no thanks,

reply