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Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

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Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#161

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Farm doesn’t always mean hundreds of acres and millions in loans. My neighbors across the street are farmers and live in a residential neighborhood. They have a quarter acre in the front yard for growing veggies and own a 1 acre plot just outside of town. At some point sitting at a computer becomes unfulfilling and some point some people can’t take it anymore.

They are not farmers. They have a quite serious hobby (and some savings or other income to rely on probably). It's impossible to make a living out of a 1.25 acre of arable land.

To a great extent that depends on where you live, and what you grow.

One of my neighbours produces 10,000 litres of wine/year on ~4 acres of vines. An acquaintence runs a market garden on less than an acre. Another raises pigs in a barn on half that.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#162
post #66

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I wanna be you! problem is probably 15 years or more until it's feasible to me due to current salary, savings and country.

Never give up - all three of salary, savings, and country can change dramatically for the better.

Start with country. The best tool against inequality is a suitcase.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#163
20 years ago I read a few Wendell Berry essays on agriculture and it changed my life. I immediately believed two things: 1) if it wasn’t for computers I’d be an agrarian and 2) I finally had a better idea of conservatism in the sense that nature selects for conservative agrarians.

These ideas challenged my ideas of “turning it off and on again” and overall system design. I needed to prove to myself that I was more than a brain, and I was more than the “kid that was good with computers.” What was my body for?

I quit my virtualization/sysadmin job and moved to a farm in central Wisconsin, helping a small family with 4 acres of veggies for market, milked 20 goats and 2 cows, turkey, sheep … the whole works.

Farming didn’t work out long term for me but it taught excellent lessons and gave me a better foundation for understanding my satisfaction of being human, e.g. is the grass greener on the other side of the fence?

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#164

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Concur. I cannot believe we've gotten to the point where the tech elite poopoo one of the last remaining jobs that actually keeps people alive because it doesn't make the stock price go brrrrr. Maybe... maybe some things are worth doing not simply because there's a dollar sign in the result. Let's ponder that this Juneteenth.

This has nothing to do with tech weenies. The enemies of the American farmer are: - declining reliability of seeds - increasing variation in climate - Ron DeSantis, according to Donald Trump

While those things are true, the real enemy of the American farmer is in fact the American mentality. Of which, one component is the incessant need to get high ROI on low effort projects. We're obsessed with it as culture. This website revolves around it. It's our social network that creates an environment where farmers aren't valued. We value web advertisements. Plain and simple. Look what jobs pay the most.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#165

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The woman who ran PR for Chicago Tribune did the same thing with her husband. She now has a small farm in Michigan. She runs a PR agency from the farm. I personally couldn’t do it… I prefer loud noises and bright lights but I lived in Rincon Hill and Times Square at various times…

> I personally couldn’t do it… I prefer loud noises and bright lights How old are you? You don’t have to answer, but I’m guessing you’re probably not past 45. At some point, you start to prefer quiet. I haven’t lived in a really large city, but have been around noise enough that I’m hoping our next move will distance us from neighbors and highway noise. And yes, maybe we’ll have a farm animal or two.

[dead]

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#166
post #49

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I was the only grandkid interested in the family farm at all and stood to inherit the whole works. I went to college instead and work a regular job. Grandpa has been on that farm since he was born in 1922. Until he retired in 2006, he took two days off work the entire time. No. Thank. You.

Two days off sounds bad but when you’re working for yourself and don’t have to answer some prick manager, suffer on a commute, sit hunched unnaturally at a desk, it could be much better.

yeah instead its 12 hour days with animals that can and will try to kill you, rain or shine, in the snow, dark, and mud.

i've herded cattle on an aussie ranch as part of a working holiday. fun experience as a young man, but absolutely convinced me that IT was the right choice.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#167
post #54

Every time this topic comes up I say the same thing. If you've never worked on a farm and have some kind of romantic idea about it then you shouldn't do this. Farming is hard work. Modern farmers have college degrees, millions in equipment, and a vast amount of knowledge and experience you do not have. If you're thinking of doing this and do not have experience go work on a farm for a year before you buy in.

Maybe they have saved enough from working in tech that they can grow vegetables for themselves in a very low scale way. Its nice to escape from the career you've had for decades. Sometimes its not even an escape from the career, but the career and the city you've lived in. Moving to the forest and growing some vegetables and raising chickens isn't that difficult. You certainly don't need "millions in equipment". Its…

Michigan might be cool in summer, what about winters? I need find a place for summer as I'm getting older and texas is just darn hot for 4 months in summer.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Farm doesn’t always mean hundreds of acres and millions in loans. My neighbors across the street are farmers and live in a residential neighborhood. They have a quarter acre in the front yard for growing veggies and own a 1 acre plot just outside of town. At some point sitting at a computer becomes unfulfilling and some point some people can’t take it anymore.

They are not farmers. They have a quite serious hobby (and some savings or other income to rely on probably). It's impossible to make a living out of a 1.25 acre of arable land.

> They are not farmers.

This seems like an unnecessary distinction with no purpose other than to gatekeep. A bartender is still a bartender if they only work weekends. An artist is still an artist if it's not their dayjob. A barber is still a barber if they have to work another job to make ends meet.

No, you shouldn't delude yourself into thinking that farming an acre or two is going to replace the income of most 9 to 5 jobs, but at a time in history where we absolutely need to be working to preserve and promote small-scale farming, we shouldn't be gatekeeping people.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#169
post #111

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Funny comment about it being dark in Michigan. My feeling here in the summer is like, will the sun ever set (somewhat light out until almost 10pm depending on location)? I know what you mean, of course.

I grew up in Michigan. I live in Berlin now, and it’s light to 11:30pm and I can read on my balcony in natural light at 4:30am.

Well, seeing that most of Germany is further North than Michigan (southernmost latitute of Germany ~47°, northernmost latitude of Michigan ~48°, that sounds correct.

If you think about how most of Europe is at the same latitude as Canada, you really start to appreciate how important the Gulf Stream is for our climate...

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#170
post #96

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Lol he got caught in a piece of machinery, which stripped the skin off of his arm from his elbow to his armpit. One day off for ER one for recovery.

What a trooper. They don't make people like they used to.

There are plenty of people like this. They bust their asses doing thankless work every day so people like us can argue on forums about the decline of society.
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