The Official Farming Thread...

[SpaceBus]

I can't imagine how many bales I bucked at $.10 a bale. When my boys did it, it was $.25 a bale.
Kids now won't even talk to you about throwing bales, they say it's too hot and nasty to mess with.
They'd rather play video games and complain about being broke.

I think most people just want a living wage and would rather not work than waste their time for minimal wages.

 

[Hedgerow]

I can't imagine how many bales I bucked at $.10 a bale. When my boys did it, it was $.25 a bale.
Kids now won't even talk to you about throwing bales, they say it's too hot and nasty to mess with.
They'd rather play video games and complain about being broke.

I can’t even begin to calculate how many square bales I’ve handled.

Started when I was 10..

Went to college and got a worthless *f-wording degree.
Put that *b-word in a shoe box, and Started baling hay and delivering it to the harness racing barns near Swartz Creek MI..
Averaged about 55,000 bales a year for 4 years before buying a dairy farm here in SW MO..

The madness continued for a few more years.. took a small sabbatical, and now we’re creeping back into it.. lol

 

[srb08]

I think most people just want a living wage and would rather not work than waste their time for minimal wages.

When you're young and don't have a lot of marketable job skills, you take what work you can find.

If you don't learn the value of hard work as a kid, you never will.

 

[Hedgerow]

When you're young and don't have a lot of marketable job skills, you take what work you can find.

If you don't learn the value of hard work as a kid, you never will.

^^^ TRUTH^^^

 

[amberg]

The happiest day of my life was when I sold my square baler.

Yep!

 

[Mastermind]

When you're young and don't have a lot of marketable job skills, you take what work you can find.

If you don't learn the value of hard work as a kid, you never will.

Amen

 

[amberg]

Finally getting to mow the driveway. Forgot to turn off the porch camera.

 

[SpaceBus]

When you're young and don't have a lot of marketable job skills, you take what work you can find.

If you don't learn the value of hard work as a kid, you never will.

I don't think the hard work is the problem, getting poverty wages for breaking their bodies is the issue. Like many others I know the value of hard work, and it's more than poverty wages.

 

[dall]

I don't think the hard work is the problem, getting poverty wages for breaking their bodies is the issue. Like many others I know the value of hard work, and it's more than poverty wages.

so if you break a nail you want more for it than a paper cut ?

 

[SpaceBus]

so if you break a nail you want more for it than a paper cut ?

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I'm saying that people don't want to do back breaking work for poverty wages. That doesn't mean I don't work hard, I just make sure I get paid for it. I don't hear about any of you breaking your backs for nothing. Ruining your young body for peanuts makes you poor for life.

 

[dall]

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I'm saying that people don't want to do back breaking work for poverty wages. That doesn't mean I don't work hard, I just make sure I get paid for it. I don't hear about any of you breaking your backs for nothing. Ruining your young body for peanuts makes you poor for life.

when i helped in the hay this past week i didnt get paid for it
i did it to help a friend
and if you are saying working makes you poor then you probably never did a honest days work in your life

 

[Sagebrush33]

When you're young and don't have a lot of marketable job skills, you take what work you can find.

If you don't learn the value of hard work as a kid, you never will.

And this would be my wife's 19 year old. Doesn't want to do a damn thing to help himself. Does not know the definition of work let alone hard work.
I'm butting heads with him and the big little cork sucker wants to hold an attitude.
Future's not lookin to bright for that kid.

 

[Mastermind]

I don't think the hard work is the problem, getting poverty wages for breaking their bodies is the issue. Like many others I know the value of hard work, and it's more than poverty wages.

Let me lay this situation out to help us all understand a few things.

My granddaughter's boyfriend Austin....

He is a good kid. Responsible and punctual. He just graduated from high school, and is seeking employment.

Well.....I have a few Mennonite friends and know that many of these folks are hard working, and honest. They place value on hard work, and are willing to pay their help fairly.

One has a company that builds gazebos and sheds. He needed help, so I sent young Austin to talk to him. He and Austin agreed on 13 bucks an hour to start.

I'd spent all weekend trying to teach the boy how to read a tape measure. I'm not sure he can learn it. It just doesn't click to him.

The first day was a disaster. Mr. Kaufmann showed him how to assemble a floor system for a small gazebo. Austin spent the next several hours wasting a pile of treated 2x6s, and building something that wound up being cut up with a chainsaw and pitched in the dumpster.

The next morning, Mr Kaufmann told him that it wasn't going to work out.

So....just exactly how much would you pay to have an employee who is basically untrainable?

Don't get me wrong....Austin is a good kid. But I'm not sure where exactly he will fit into the work force. Upper management probably?

 

[SpaceBus]

when i helped in the hay this past week i didnt get paid for it
i did it to help a friend
and if you are saying working makes you poor then you probably never did a honest days work in your life

I guess you don't know what USA Ret. means

 

[SpaceBus]

Let me lay this situation out to help us all understand a few things.

My granddaughter's boyfriend Austin....

He is a good kid. Responsible and punctual. He just graduated from high school, and is seeking employment.

Well.....I have a few Mennonite friends and know that many of these folks are hard working, and honest. They place value on hard work, and are willing to pay their help fairly.

One has a company that builds gazebos and sheds. He needed help, so I sent young Austin to talk to him. He and Austin agreed on 13 bucks an hour to start.

I'd spent all weekend trying to teach the boy how to read a tape measure. I'm not sure he can learn it. It just doesn't click to him.

The first day was a disaster. Mr. Kaufmann showed him how to assemble a floor system for a small gazebo. Austin spent the next several hours wasting a pile of treated 2x6s, and building something that wound up being cut up with a chainsaw and pitched in the dumpster.

The next morning, Mr Kaufmann told him that it wasn't going to work out.

So....just exactly how much would you pay to have an employee who is basically untrainable?

Don't get me wrong....Austin is a good kid. But I'm not sure where exactly he will fit into the work force. Upper management probably?

I don't know what that kid's problem is, you would have to talk to his parents. Seems that you and I agree that he should be paid fair wages for whatever he does, just have to find what that is. Maybe he is excellent with computers, data entry, logistics, etc. There are more jobs than construction and it sounds like he wasn't raised by a family that placed high value in trades work. You being a farmer and chainsaw wizard means that you probably don't have a lot of connections in non-trades type work so I don't blame you for not finding him a job, that's his and his family's responsibility. I do commend you for trying, that's better than most will do.

 

[Sagebrush33]

Let me lay this situation out to help us all understand a few things.

My granddaughter's boyfriend Austin....

He is a good kid. Responsible and punctual. He just graduated from high school, and is seeking employment.

Well.....I have a few Mennonite friends and know that many of these folks are hard working, and honest. They place value on hard work, and are willing to pay their help fairly.

One has a company that builds gazebos and sheds. He needed help, so I sent young Austin to talk to him. He and Austin agreed on 13 bucks an hour to start.

I'd spent all weekend trying to teach the boy how to read a tape measure. I'm not sure he can learn it. It just doesn't click to him.

The first day was a disaster. Mr. Kaufmann showed him how to assemble a floor system for a small gazebo. Austin spent the next several hours wasting a pile of treated 2x6s, and building something that wound up being cut up with a chainsaw and pitched in the dumpster.

The next morning, Mr Kaufmann told him that it wasn't going to work out.

So....just exactly how much would you pay to have an employee who is basically untrainable?

Don't get me wrong....Austin is a good kid. But I'm not sure where exactly he will fit into the work force. Upper management probably?

That's a tough one, but being responsible and punctual are key. That's half the battle right there.
He'll find his niche.
Recently I've been watching the landscapers when I go into the suburbs. These guys are trailering a zero turn and tossing the grass in their small dumpers. Good money for that service. Plus when you live in the sticks ya get to bring the cuttins home for compost.

 

[dall]

I guess you don't know what USA Ret. means

nope it’s just I don’t give a *f-word
You thinking young kids should be making a wage they don’t have enough experience or knowledge is ignorant
Life experience and knowledge is more of what makes the difference between McDonald’s pay and a job that you can afford to live on

 

[Sagebrush33]

thinking young kids should be making a wage they don’t have enough experience or knowledge is ignorant
Life experience and knowledge is more of what makes the difference between McDonald’s pay and a job that you can afford to live on

That's my wifes kid. Last summer I had him on a small barn roof. He applied himself minimally on the non skilled labor. My wife came to help too, on the 2nd side of the roof. He watched her struggle ripping of a piece of heavy gauge corrugated panel. Did not apply himself well at all to get the job done. At the end, I paid him $10 bucks an hour and rounded the total up to an even number.
I gave him an extra $27 dollars. When I got home my wife said she was only working to suprvise her son and didn't want money. I paid her anyways. She then took $80 of hers and gave it to the kid. She felt he wasn't paid enough. He ain't learnin nothin cept everything gets handed to him. I gave up trying to bring him to my jobs an teach him value.

Now his cousin is trying to teach him and is having the same issues on his construction jobs. His cousin nick named him ''Houdini.''

 

[Mastermind]

I don't know what that kid's problem is, you would have to talk to his parents.

I don't really consider it that he has a "problem". But I see the same lack of "teachability" in a lot of the young men in my orbit.

Maybe he is excellent with computers, data entry, logistics, etc.

He is quite good at holding a cell phone up to his face.

 

[srb08]

I don't think the hard work is the problem, getting poverty wages for breaking their bodies is the issue. Like many others I know the value of hard work, and it's more than poverty wages.

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't sure what point you were trying to make.