A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm • Hacker News Board

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#321

Post by pavel_lishin » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 2:39 AM UTC

clord wrote: post #112

We did this. My wife has a masters in microbio, and I worked at IBM on their C++ and for Fortran compilers for about 8 years (yay std::atomics). I still do remote contract work to help pay for upgrades to the farm. Would be nice to get one of my side-projects finished and start pumping out some income streams, but it's not a big rush anymore. I have a point of sale system built with React and Haskell that integrates…

> I like working from home and having no childcare expenses.

I worry that with a young child, we'd still have childcare expenses - except that instead of paying with money, we'd be paying with our time.

My wife and I discovered, like many parents probably do, that raising a child is fucking hard. We love her, we wouldn't trade her for the world, and it's fun, but it's the kind of fun you have while camping, or hiking, or sparring. It's fun, but it's exhausting, and we would both be complete wrecks if we had to do it full-time.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#322

Post by dsfyu404ed » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 2:44 AM UTC

andyisageek wrote: post #249

JPKab wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a rural community where farming was basically the only industry. It's easy to talk about how awesome it is when you basically are selling insanely overpriced boutique goods (organic, free-range, etc) to yuppies who are willing to pay triple for their calories. Once enough people do this, the prices fall and you're just another farmer, scraping by. I grew up working on farms. It's not romantic to me in an…

I also grew up on a farm... in Maine. It did instill a work ethic that I find it difficult to teach to my own children. But I always joke with people and say it is a great place to visit and a great place to be from. Not so much a great place to actually be.

Meh, still better than the tourism based places. At least with a farm you're busy all year. With tourism you're under employed half the year and shooting up something to kill the time.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#323

Post by dsfyu404ed » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 2:51 AM UTC

PoachedSausage wrote: post #308

ehnto wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look back at it pretty fondly. School in the country was basically all of the people from the town meeting up every day to joke around and learn stuff. We had excellent facilities, it always felt safe, and after school we roamed the town and bits of nature on our bicycles. I had like 6 tree houses I could visit, jump around tall hay bail forts, we even once dug a bunker on someones paddock next to the cemetery. The…

I live in the city but grew up in the country too (minus the beach, although I have lived near once), I would definitely want that for my kids, the city isn't kid friendly. The problem is, as an adult, you don't want to leave the city with all it's cultural charms.

>cultural charms.

I believe you misspelled "opportunities for acquiring wealth" ;)

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#324

Post by MAGZine » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 2:53 AM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #309

driverdan wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could upvote you twice. For some reason many people who have never farmed have this romantic vision of it. In reality farming is extremely hard work and requires a wide range of skills and knowledge to be successful. If you're good at it you can make decent money but someone who's only worked desk jobs is not going to be good, at least not for a while.

Not only is it extremely hard work, but you can't ever get a break from it. There's a bunch of work that needs to be done every single day (things like milking the cows). If you're someone who likes taking vacations, just know that it becomes a lot harder when you've got a farm. Forget about travel entirely during the growing season. Hell, I don't even have any pets because I travel frequently enough that they'd be a…

Depends where you live, and what you farm.

In the case of e.g. cereal crops in the north, there are 4-6 months where you can do little beyond some maintenance, buying/selling equipment, planning next year's crop, etc. that means there is plenty of time for vacations. You are right that during seeding or harvest (especially), all bets for travel are off.

But, it is incorrect to imply that because you farm, you ought to kiss vacations good-bye.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#325

Post by dsfyu404ed » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 2:54 AM UTC

Toast_25 wrote: post #262

godzillabrennus wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

160 hours a month? I remember having a part time job. All kidding aside, I can tell you aren’t American based on that statement alone.

How strong is the overworking culture in America? It's pretty strong here, but not too bad.

It depends. If you've got a "throwaway skill-set" and they can hire any random CS grad to replace you after a month of training you had better answer your phone when they call at 2am. If you're time consuming and expensive to replace then feel free to put your phone on vibrate before you go to sleep.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#326

Post by dsfyu404ed » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 3:16 AM UTC

zw123456 wrote: post #227

Hahaha. Wow, I grew up on a farm and I went to college and got an engineering degree to get away from it! I can't even imagine going the other direction. I still remember bucking hay, mowing the tansy, running the irrigation truck, taking care of the chickens and dozens of other chores I hated. To me, it was not the least bit fun. I wonder how many of these people romanticize the life style and after a few years will…

So much this. I didn't grow up on a farm but I put up with the downsides of a white collar city job so that my kids will never have to pick up a skill because they couldn't afford to pay for the services of someone who had the skill.

Blue collar lines of work are nice and from time to time I do miss the construction, food service and mechanics jobs I had before my current career. There's a lot of job satisfaction to be had from seeing the physical results of your labor but satisfaction doesn't put gas in the tank.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#327

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 3:17 AM UTC

MAGZine wrote: post #324

CydeWeys wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only is it extremely hard work, but you can't ever get a break from it. There's a bunch of work that needs to be done every single day (things like milking the cows). If you're someone who likes taking vacations, just know that it becomes a lot harder when you've got a farm. Forget about travel entirely during the growing season. Hell, I don't even have any pets because I travel frequently enough that they'd be a…

Depends where you live, and what you farm. In the case of e.g. cereal crops in the north, there are 4-6 months where you can do little beyond some maintenance, buying/selling equipment, planning next year's crop, etc. that means there is plenty of time for vacations. You are right that during seeding or harvest (especially), all bets for travel are off. But, it is incorrect to imply that because you farm, you ought t…

Animals need taking care of every day year-round. There's very few homesteaders who don't have at least some egg-laying chickens. I have a feeling you're thinking more about industrial-scale monoculture farmers, but that's not what the linked article is talking about.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#328

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 3:23 AM UTC

JPKab wrote: post #243

clord wrote: post #112

We did this. My wife has a masters in microbio, and I worked at IBM on their C++ and for Fortran compilers for about 8 years (yay std::atomics). I still do remote contract work to help pay for upgrades to the farm. Would be nice to get one of my side-projects finished and start pumping out some income streams, but it's not a big rush anymore. I have a point of sale system built with React and Haskell that integrates…

I grew up in a rural community where farming was basically the only industry. It's easy to talk about how awesome it is when you basically are selling insanely overpriced boutique goods (organic, free-range, etc) to yuppies who are willing to pay triple for their calories. Once enough people do this, the prices fall and you're just another farmer, scraping by. I grew up working on farms. It's not romantic to me in an…

grass is greener.

Kids in isolated tribes or areas are running away from their parents lifestyle as fast as possible. They don't see the beauty in the old ways and are unable to see the lies in modern cities, too much shiny.

Surely nothing is perfect but modern society has reached a point of diminishing returns IMO. Somatic and mental health issues, absurd jobs, absurd structures influenced by remote financial games; etc etc

Whenever I see some guy that bought a piece of land and fixed an old barn I get dreams. All I'd need a bit more mileage in ceramics and electronics so I can get just enough modern science, the rest is already there.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#329

Post by Zarath » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 3:24 AM UTC

nabla9 wrote: post #39

Some commentators here have difficulty of understanding how small farming can be profitable. It's relatively easy to explain. They are not selling just the product. Just like microbreweries, small farms sell for people who want more than just a beer or lettuce. They want to distinguish themselves and buy the feeling of authentic life and values. Consumer pays more for "small farm" even if the product is not any diffe…

Large corporations introduce massive negative externalities (Walmart employees are on welfare, sugar industry hides and fakes scientific research, advertising). If you contribute to small, local businesses, it's very easy to hold them accountable if they do something bad (they don't have the protection of corrupt governments, for example).

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#330

Post by why15characters » Sat, Nov 25, 2017, 3:27 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #2

Their are no "three-acre farms," at best it's a garden. My old boss operated a 80 acre micro farm while holding down a full time job. It was a hobby that at best broke even, but he had fun. PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.

Yes, three acres is a farm. In fact, in much of the world 3-4 acres is the average size of a farm. It doesn't need to be a 1200 acre corn field to be a farm. There was and is nothing micro about an 80 acre farm, that's just a plain old farm. Just because your boss didn't make money, doesn't mean everyone else can't. Around here 80 acres is a normal potato farm that easily provides for a family.