feeling like the odd one out here....

My stepdad grew up on a farm and was operating a full sized farm tactor unsupervised when he was 7.  Why?  Because the fields needed plowed.

We didn#%92t have a dirt floor, my mom actually did when she grew up, I didn#%92t mention that but sort of implied it at one point with my statement that her and my dad grew up quite literally dirt poor.


  We actually had a trailer, yeah no big farmhouse, a three bedroom two bath trailer. Mom now has a two bedroom, two bath doublewide trailer. Same place I grew up, but the farm, makes me sick, mom sold off a lot of the property after dad died. She had to, she couldn#%92t keep it up without him, and when my sister and grew up and went about our own lives there just was no way mom could do all the work with just her and grandma. Sooo grandma moved back to WV, although she now lives four houses away from me, mom sold off all the animals, kept Cody until he died of old age, sold off the land all around her and sadly the only woods left are the ones directly behind her house.


  Mom and dad were as I said quite literally dirt poor when they grew up, we never were rich but I love my childhood memories.

Billy  

no one here thinks there is anything at all "odd" about me. 

 
Ya Okay.[8|]
 
I have never held a gun. I raise chickens to eat them. I will be raising meat rabbits this year. My husband wanted no part in it and said if I want these animals I have to learn to kill and clean myself. He will help but my butt will ahve to be right in there too. I don't want to do it, but I want the meat and eggs. So I will just have to suck it up and do it.  My boys also want to eat rabbit so they will be helping. My son has seen my BIL clean a rabbit and has been after me for the past year to clean our cute little lop "cocochip".  So I am getting meat rabbits. 
 
I am very protective of my boys and they have 2 best friends that ride dirt bikes, shoot paintballs, clean chickens. These boys are farm boys.  I gave in this year and let them get a few go karts and now the boys and hubby are building a dune buggy. I have no problem with living the farm life. Unless you do it, you have no idea. I never thought I would be raising birds for eggs and meat, and here I am shoveling poop every morning. If my boys wanted to hunt I would let them, once they were trained and everything like that. I ahve no problem with that. Kids that grow up on a farm are sooooooooo different compared to city kids.
 
Trust me, I have been here for only a short time. I get blasted now and then. You just learn as you go. Not everyone will always agree with your lifestyle. You do what works for you and what you know is best. And you take advice and learn from that. No One is perfect.

Siana: If it makes you feel better.

Handling rifles at the age of 9
Handling Rifles and hunting by age 9.5
Handling Rifles and hunting on my own or with my mate of the same age 11
Handling Rifles, hunting and going on overnight camps (horseback) with only my mate age 12
Driving around in the farm ute and shooting roo's by spotlight age 13.

What was hunted, Roo's (kangaroo), foxes, rabbits, possums, wallibies. Did we eat them....hell no, the dogs might but that was about it. Why where they hunted....they are a pest.

So, you see you are normal to some. Your school had 400 students......I wish my school was that big[] But mine only went up to year 7, we had to go to the next town for high school.

ORIGINAL: angeltrudelle

Billy  

no one here thinks there is anything at all "odd" about me. 

Ya Okay.[8|]

 
And THAT, Siana, is what no respect looks like.  []

ORIGINAL: angeltrudelle

Kids that grow up on a farm are sooooooooo different compared to city kids.

 
That is soooo true.
 
My grandparents had a dairy farm up until I was 15. I would not have wanted to grow up any other way. Although I never lived there, I would spend the entire summer with my grandparents. What Siana talks about is not so far fetched and sounds alot like the way my cousin's and I were allowed to run around on the farm.

      hugs romal!!!!



I KNEW I couldn#%92t be the ONLY one!



Hubby just told me I am being emotional because since I found this site I have been pretty much glued to the computer. LOL! That#%92s really unusual for me. Normally I am up by 5am, 8am is sleeping in, I have some coffee, browse the net, then I am off like a rocket!



I kinda fell in love with this site right off the bat, hubby says like everything I do I am going at it full steam. LOL mom always said I never did anything half way! if I was gonna do it I did it all the way done! if I was gonna mess up I made durned good and sure it was messed up seven ways from Sunday.



eh I think my butt needs to get out of this computer chair, before it starts to spread.

add me to the list of people who can relate!!
everything you are talking about sounds perfectly normal to me, I grew up in a very rural community, on a small farm in KS.  We ate *almost* everything we shot, and/or sold pelts, and I was a pretty good shot for a 9 year old girl.  We also raised pigs/cows/chickens and had a very extensive garden and a milk cow for food.  We used horses to bring in cattle-they had to be saddled and tended to every morning-rain or shine.  My Dad's rule was "we don't eat until the animals have been fed", and it was a steadfast rule-they were dependant on us-and us on them.
 
I never had a "store bought" steak until I was about 20, and to this day, I prefer home grown-the quality just doesn't compare.

Siana,
 You have what I refer to as "Life experiences".  I grew up an only child therefore I am the "only son" with my stepfather and uncles and grandfather as well. I learned how to shoot, hunt, shrimp, build and a number of other things that most boys learn when their families are farmers/fishers.
Our civilization has changed much over my lifetime alone compared to what it was prior to and I see we are quickly becoming an "instant society" many people think that shopping is normal and that everything should come in a box...one thing that floored me recently was shopping at Wally world and seeing a box mix of Banana Pudding..BANANA PUDDING!!!! I about snapped right there in the store!! Now we are so lazy we can't slice bananas, mix even instatnt pudding or layer nilla wafers????
Hang tight, there is much diversity here on the forum, you'll fit in, maybe a little different but I'm sure you'll find your niche
 

First let me say - just because I may not agree with a concept, or an action by principle, doesn't mean I think anything bad about you - or that I'm bashing you. A person can disagree with something, without bashing the person behind the post. That being said, I haven't responded to any posts you've been in yet, so that's kinda irrelevant.

I have no problem with hunting when you eat what you kill. I plan, in my 5 year plan, to be raising my own chickens, ducks, lambs, and possibly even rabbits for meat for my family and my dogs. I have a request in to some hunters that work with DH for some deer meat this season. Anyway, I want to make sure what we eat has been raised well, healthily, and killed as humanely as possible. It hasn't been too many years since MY family was standing in the cheese lines in WV.

Your father sounds like he was a really neat guy. Reminds me of my Papaw some, in some ways.

I have way too many control issues to allow my (future) children to have guns without the supervision of I or my husband - and whether they will be taught about guns at all remains to be seen at this point. However, I have to believe that your parents took responsibility for you and made sure you were taught well, and safely. Course kids can be naughty too. Regardless, I'm certainly not going to berate your memories.

I would say that all of us "regulars" try really hard to be conscious of what we post, and keep in mind that there are less experienced owners here, and many, many lurkers. I personally feel a certain sense of responsibility for my words here. Just to keep in mind for each of us as we post. Certain things are controversial here and in a LOT of dogdom, and IMO *most* pet owners are likely to get hurt with these things.

Lastly, I'm glad you're here. I've enjoyed reading your experiences.

ORIGINAL: glenmar

I think that we would do well to remember that even in the richest nation in the world there are still folks living in unbelievable poverty. There are still folks who have DIRT floors, yes in THIS country, no furnace, no inside bathroom, and by golly that they SEND their kids to school is a credit to them because a lot of them distrust authority of any kind. I did some volunteer work when I lived in WV and went into some of the worst kind of poverty imaginable....in WV and in Ohio as well. I felt that I'd been transplanted into a 3rd world country. It still exists. And whats normal and natural for US is not for folks who live that way.

Lots of folks up here don't have water, so yes, many have outhouses. Plenty don't have water or electricity and don't miss either. You ain't lived until you've used the outhouse at 40 below. [8D]

ORIGINAL: jeano

You ain't lived until you've used the outhouse at 40 below. [8D]

 
Bugger that, but try the smell at 40 above[:'(]

Jaime, you're kidding??  Right??  Bananas don't come in a box??[][]

Joyce

ORIGINAL: jeano

ORIGINAL: glenmar

I think that we would do well to remember that even in the richest nation in the world there are still folks living in unbelievable poverty. There are still folks who have DIRT floors, yes in THIS country, no furnace, no inside bathroom, and by golly that they SEND their kids to school is a credit to them because a lot of them distrust authority of any kind. I did some volunteer work when I lived in WV and went into some of the worst kind of poverty imaginable....in WV and in Ohio as well. I felt that I'd been transplanted into a 3rd world country. It still exists. And whats normal and natural for US is not for folks who live that way.

Lots of folks up here don't have water, so yes, many have outhouses. Plenty don't have water or electricity and don't miss either. You ain't lived until you've used the outhouse at 40 below. [8D]

I dont think I have EVER used the out house at 40 below, in fact I thank GOD that I dont think I have ever been in weather that was 40 below! HEAVENS! Thats has to be HORRID!

I will say though, the outhouse is a source of NIGHTMARES for me!

My cousins thought it was funny and pitched a chicken in there, YES DOWN there! I was the poor soul who went to use it and heard the commontion and the air stirring under me some where waaaaay down there! I came out of there screaming and crying! I think I actualy jumped clear out of my pants!

They got a good spanking for that one, the poor chicken had to be shot DOWN THERE!

I never and I mean NEVER used it again! I went in the woods before I would even get 20 feet away from it!

To this very day I cannot even use those porta-potty's!!!!

At one of my daughters soft ball games she said she had to go, I told her NO WAY! NO! your NOT going in there! NO! she really really had to go! I took her to a gas statation.

NO NO NO!

NO OUT HOUSES!!!!!!

I would have taken a whuppin for that one, Siana.  That is funny.