farmcntry

There are some skills that I truly believe that when my son gets older, he will be the only one around who possesses them.
Let’s start with the basics. Growing a garden. How many 8 year olds today will learn how to grow a garden? Not many. (Unless it’s an instructional video game on PS3 or X-box.)

Now after you’ve grown something you need to freeze or can it. Freezing isn’t that big of a deal, but how many will know how to can in the years to come?

Then to go with the vegetables we need some meat. How many will know how to slaughter a cow or pig and how to properly process it? Yeah right.
With the processing of meat you need to keep it for the winter. How do you freeze it? Can it? How do you cure a ham? What should you cold pack and what should you pressure can? Think many will be able to answer these questions?

This roles over into hunting, fishing, survival, etc. I’d love to be able to do a survey on one hundred 8 year olds today and see, in twenty years, how many bow hunt. How many grow gardens, process their own meat from livestock. How many process their own deer.

I believe that the heritage of the American farmer/country boy is slowly but surely dying.

What are some skills you think your kids (or those around your kids age) will loose?

Vabowman

I watched my father lose our 400 acr. farm here in southeast Va. We had wheat, corn, soybeans. Always a struggle to make his dream come true. Progress some say or I saydestruction,whatever you want to call it, took its toll. I saw him many times fight back tears and swallow the fact that he was told he was going to lose his house and all the equipment if he barrowed another dime. For 23 years I planted, sprayed, bailed, disced, plowed, and sweat for a his dream, our dream, only to have it destroyed by developers and greedy men who do not understand the meaning of a way of life. No, I don't think children will learn these things, Im a teacher, high school. It is scary what I see.

mauser06

your right on farmcntry...

alot of dying hobbys/lifestyles etc out there.

i might not be a TRUE born and raised country boy, but thats where my heart is...and the farm is where i spend my free time..my buddy has a dairy farm...im "not on the pay roll" as they say, so i dont aint allowed to do a whole lot except BS with the farmer lol...but i learn alot and help when i can..helped drop a calf last deer season...im still amazed by that.."grab this rope and pull boy!" i just love the lifestyle and the work and atmosphere of the farm..grandma takes her milk right from the bulk tank...STILL sales chicken eggs cheaper than you can buy them at the store AND delivers them every week!!! i learn a little bit of everything from bee keeping to farming to working on trucks and tractors to pouring cement and all kinds of other stuff just by hanging out there and getting dirty...i love it.

i see the future is most likely going to be ALOT different in most parts..sure, the state owns their farm and it will ALWAYS be a farm...but people from the mini major town ALREADY complain about manure on the road that falls from the spreader..its hardly any, but they dont wanna drive their BMW over a little cow manure...cops were down the farm not long ago over that..they cant do anything about it...but the farm across the road is already sold to a developer...hes just waiting on that city water to come through...they blacktopped the roads this year just because so many people use them to get to that major town...guess tar and chip wasnt good enough for the yuppies??

in the end, society as a whole is getting SOFT. im convinced most people dont even know where the meat comes from they are eating...let alone beable to take it from the pasture to the freezer to the table...

dont really know what to "blame"...i think the thing to blame is technology and advancedments...my great grandmother used to can everything...dad always wanted to learn...she would never teach him because "it was a pain in the butt and he wouldnt need to can food" which is true...these days canning meat and such and growing gardens and everything really isnt needed...goto the big ole Walmart and buy your vegitables and meat and go home and cook it..WAY less time, and plain out easier and more convinient...

i want to learn how to can...my buddy cans deer meat and MAN is that good stuff...funny thing is, he doesnt even know how! he cuts up the meat and puts it in the can...his mom takes over from there and he has no idea other than they go into boiling water...

i often wonder what would happen if all the convinences were GONE. no walmart...no grocery stores...no internet...etc etc...there would be millions and millions of people that wouldnt have a clue on how to survive....hunt for food??? "ya right!!" plant a garden for your vegitables?? "where can you buy a garden?"

ive always been interested in stuff like that just out of plain intrest..back in the day EVERYONE know how to butcher a deer...can meat..etc etc...but now its not common..and thats why it intrest me...and, if the time comes and our conviniences ARE gone, i aint rolling over and dying...

"i got a shotgun, a rifle and a four wheel drive...a country boy can survive!"

GMMAT

I think America's "PC" society today is instilling into our children (and our masses) an entitlement mentality. We're not rewarding hard work. Hard work = success = you're taxed more than the guy who sits on his ass and coasts. In my son's America.....You're supposed to be "entitled" to helathcare; a home; an income; etc... .

I'd like to think I could overshadow this indoctrination my son goes through in everyday life in the US. It's tough, though. Lisa and I fight it every day.

Vabowman

Guys you wouldn't believe the stuff I hear from parents. No wonder the kids are this way. I mean they can't live without their every move being monitored.

RugerM77.270

I'm a youth pastor and I see what you are saying. May of the kids I see can't make their own dinner much less raise it kill it clean it and cook it. It isn't their fault it is their parents. May parents don't discipline their kids anymore so the kids don't learn. I learned to tend a garden, raise livestock, and butcher I didn't want to but I did. I love that today. 19 out of 20 kids on riddelin don't need it they need a whoopin' (Said by a pediatrition in my church).

Self discipline is a key to life and kids these days are lacking it. But as long as I live I will continue to change that in this generation. They have more potintial than any genration before it.

shed33

Farm, I couldnt agree more. I like you have and am teaching my children how to process deer, elk, bear, turkey, you name it. We too grow a garden and my wife and I are pushing very hard to get back to 100% home grown or harvested foods...., wild game or raised animals...foods filling our kids stomachs. I hunt for several reasons...one very important reason and ingrained motive to provide for my family. I absolutely detest the NOTION that we all can "just buy meat at the market"..I call total BS on that.. today we cant always trust what we are BUYING tobe raised naturally. Animals fed high doses of corn feed versus natural pasture feed have been scientifically proven to contain much higher amounts of OMEGA 6 fatty acids.. those the raise all of our risks for Heart Disease.

We just finished cutting up my buck and making him into burger, jerky and steaks. We did it all our selves..every last bit of it. We have another whitetail to cut up and an elk now...I am stoked about filling our freezer for the year! I find that entire process very satisfying. My 4 year old helped me skin my buck and feed the grinder... my 6 year old is a great help with almost every aspect of the butchering these days and he loves to do it...for hours he never gets bored. I love that my wifeenjoys joining me for 4-5 hours helping cut, package and grind burger...make jerky etc.. We both feel a satisfaction after the work is through...

As a school teacher, this year in my outdoor ed class I introduced jerky making, sausage making, outdoor skills etc.. The city KIDS absolutely loved it. They often commented...I wish we could do more of this stuff.. They liked getting their hands dirty, working through the process and seeing a final product.

We are allonly a product of what we know/what we've been taught... Parents are the key to what society will become.... I hope more people go back to whats truely healthy....Like you are doing Farm...the basics..eating and raising critters off the land and that come from nature... The true healthy way..

Good stuff Farm... Good post..

bawanajim

I don't worry about skills its the over all knowledge of the great out of doors. These kids live in black top worlds so their parents can try to make a living. They live their entire life in a concrete jungle where the only activities are homo soccer and video games any other activity is reason to medicate for A.D.D or A.D.H.D.
They are taught to worry about a rain forest in South America while the forest in their back yard is bull dozed for a Wal-Mart super center where their mother can buy cheap toys for them from China.
Environmentalism will run wild taught buy city dwellers that would not know the difference between an ash from their a$$. Peta will have a Field day ,woman with more toxins in their breast than a super fund site will explain to children how eating chicken Mc nuggets constitutes murder and that the only use for gunsis to kill inner city kids.

Rosy picture huh.

kshunter

I agree that in many areas, the country boy is slowly dieing mainly because parents aren't growing them up in that kind of an environment, whether it be the parents themselves, friends, activities, or their lifestyle. For kids to grow up knowing how to do many of the items you listed, they need to be in an enviroment that promotes those type of teachings. A kid may have parents who attempt to give them the country skills, but if the rest of their daily life besides their parent involvement involves everything towards the Big City and PC & TV Society, it's going to be tough for the kid to keep those country skills.

Being from a small town with a county-wide highschool class of about 90, I look back and see how many are now in the big city vs rural America... over 3/4 are now out of rural America. And I can't completely blame them because it's very tough to get out of the city, especially whenwhen you're starting out after college. I lived in the city for about 7 years and it amazed me, the lack of common country skills, processes, terms, etc., that majority of the kids or even adults had.

My wife and I made it a priority in our new lives to live in rural America and raise our kids in that type of enviroment.We finally made thathard stepthis year, and it hasn't been easy...but we didn't expect it to be. But in the long run we know it'll be worth it.

farmcntry

Our whole family farmed tobacco for over60 years. It's no longer available today and was dying as I was coming along. But there was always some hardwork to be done. Hay fields, killing hogs, something that was mandatory before you ran off and had fun.
I've heard my son say that "chores" are a thing of the past (as taught to him by his teacher). WHAT? Boy, get in there and clean your room up, wash dishes, then take the dog out. Chores have changed, but they are still alive and well in my house.

Just talking to some of the young people I deal with; their idea of "canning" is the aluminum cans of green beans in the grocery stores. Their idea of farming is a grape vineyard. (No offense, but after it's planted and upcoming, your done.) Then you give them chores and the whinning and complaining sets in. I asked if they knew where steak or sausage comes from; answer: Sagebrush and Jesse Jones.