[AT] Farming

[Indiana Robinson]

On 11 May 2006 at 14:24, Greg Hass wrote:

> 
> After reading Farmers post I am beginning to feel like the Lone Ranger. 
> First let me say I am in no way questioning any decision people make in 
> regards to what they do. I am just saying that as one who farms 110 acres I 
> miss more and more the smaller farmers that are not farming. 



	Hi Greg:

	I have felt that way for a long time. I feel more at home talking with the folks
 that are trying to subsist on a few acres than talking with most of the local farmers
 that farm 2,000 acres.
	I did make my rental arrangements very specifically as a one year rental. I 
don't know if I will extend it later or not. We have had such terrible weather the 
last couple of years with stuff either burning up with drouth or drowning in the 
field that making any profit at all has been difficult. Last fall corn was down to 
$1.60 a bushel. We all know what fuel cost are and fertilizer is of course tied 
to oil. Fungicides to battle the "new to us" problem of Chinese rust in soybeans 
is high so I didn't grow any last year. I figured that this year the corn would 
develop "mad cow" or something.    :-)
   Diana's mom who lived with us the last three years (90, legally blind and gets
 around with a walker) is now in a nursing home and as happy as a lark there
 joining in all of the activities she can.
	My mother who has advanced Alzheimer's has been in a home since last July 
except for a short stay in a mental facility last fall at the same time that Diana's 
mom was in the Richmond IN hospital being operated on for colon cancer. Sadly 
sometimes you have to just admit that your own mother is just not always a nice
 person. Altzheimer's didn't make that situation any better. My last visit a week
 ago consisted of being verbally attacked for an hour... I told Diana then that next 
time maybe I will just stay home and pay someone to horse whip me instead... 
She is always negative and lives to complain (for a long time now). Diana asked 
me this week what we were going to do about mother's day this year and I told
 her that I would go visit her mom and she could go visit mine.   :-) 
	Rather than do the battle this year I decided that getting $120 an acre while
 looking out of the shop window at it just made more sense.   :-)   Next year kind
 of depends on how far I get this year. If I can get things cleaned up well and get
 the little stuff caught up I may plant orchard grass for hay as the fields empty 
out this fall. I simply have no desire to grain farm any more. On the other hand I 
just may decide I like looking out of the shop window at it.   :-)   I was afraid that
 I might be a little like the old fire horse that tries to gallop to the fire every time 
the bell rings but I have found that I am naturally lazy enough to sit it out just fine.
	My favorite farming joke is about the farmer that walked into the hardware store
 and bought a new claw hammer. He came back a little later and bought another one.
 Soon he was back and bought still another. Finally after a number of trips the hardware
 store clerk had to ask him what on earth he was doing with all of those hammers. The
 farmer told him that he was re-selling them. The clerk asked him how much he was
 getting. The farmer said "$8.50 each". The clerk said "But you are paying us $9.95 each
 for them. You are losing $1.45 on each one!". The farmer said "yeah, I know... But it 
still pays better than farming...".
	I have a similar situation with a rental house. I have left it sitting empty all winter. 
I'm trying to decide if it is better to spend a few grand on it to get it ready to rent to
 someone that will live in it a year, tear it up and move out owing money or just let it sit... 
Decent renters are really getting hard to find. Some years ago I tried renting another place
to a young couple that wanted to do work on that place in exchange for some rent.
Shoddy wouldn't begin to describe their work and they lived in filth like absolute trash. I 
bounced them out in a month and the place was a disaster. Would you believe that they
 had good references? I have found over the years that often good references are an unhappy
 landlords tool to get someone moved out.   :-)
	I still wouldn't mind finding the right person/couple to rent a house to that would like to
 work off some of the rent but they are really hard to find. Maybe someone needing space
 for a horse or two. Renting is as bad as farming.   :-)   If we find someone good they end 
up in a divorce and the one still in the house can't afford to stay. I think I will try selling claw 
hammers...   ;-)


--
"farmer"

I try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days attack
me at once.   :-) 

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Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net