To be a farmers boy - great

So I became a farmer! Well that is incorrect. The farm existed (17^th Century) and I renovated it with my wife and with the help of two young lads (17 years old). The farm renovation came first, and the father of one of the lads owned quite a lot of land around the farm. Well, we bought it off of him, the farm that is, so it followed he would own some of the land. Well he was renting the land to a large farm nearby. They sold up and we had the possibility of taking on the land he owned. At first he was dubious, he said, ‘You know nothing about farming? ‘I knew nothing about renovation, and with your sons help we have renovated a farmhouse and turned some pig sties into a cottage,’ was my reply. ‘O.K you can rent the land, what are you going to do with it?’

Actually I was quite disillusioned as to a farmer’s lot. No rising before the cockerel for me. It was all book work. The seed merchant arrived and said what crop they wanted each year, tested the soil and said what fertilizer I needed. The contractor was hired to till the ground, put on the fertilizer, and sow the seed. I had to lean of the fence and watch the crops grow – exhausting work leaning on a fence. That’s it – well not quite, weeds appeared as well as the crop, so back came the contractor with the weed killer, and then back to fence leaning. Well not quite, I had to keep an eye on the weather, nothing I could do about it but one has to watch the weather. I was never sure why as it was beyond my control until the crop was ready to be harvested, it had rained on time, and the sun had appeared to order. Great but then a problem – rain. Now we wanted it to make the crop grow but now it was harvest time, time for it to stop. But it kept going, not a lot, but enough to keep the crop damp. ‘Need to dry it’. That was John the contractor. ‘You can use my barn and dryers – cost a bit but it has to be dry!’ So it cost a bit, in fact I made very little money after they had all been paid. But I was a FARMER, and I was expert at leaning on the fence – Oh yes and drawing money out of the bank! Still I showed a profit each year – well apart from the bullocks I decided might be more profitable! Oh and the tick beans. But that can wait for another blog.