RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

I grew up a rural area outside of St. Louis. My parents had 1 acre but my grandparents live next door and they had 25 acres to roam. Plus all of the neighbors.

I helped my uncle and cousin farm in the areawhen I was 13 years old-High School.

The city is fast eating up all the open land around here now. The only thing the farms grow now is HOUSES. We live on 3 acres kinda out away from the hustle and bustle. As soon as my daughter moves out for good, I am moving to the country again.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Yea the whole expansion thing sucks pretty bad!! Michigan, baseball really is a great sport isn't it! Maybe all the Michian guys should have a get together and come down to Adrian to watch a ball game so we can all meet!

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

I'm small town. But lived at the edge of town while I was younger and had all sorts of smaller critters in the yard. Skunks possums, coons, etc. I had a fascination with snakes too, we had em all over our yard. Caught hundreds as a kid. Spent alot of time hunting & fishing, but never really had the bigtime exposure of farm life. Went to college in both a rural small town campus, & then down to Pitt in the city. Bit of a culture shock but I am just as comfortable making my way around the city as I am the woods, but that is only from necessity.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Grew up in South Central PA, In the suburbs of a village that consisted of 12 houses and a Bar, and old one room school house and an old no longer in use church. The little village of Carsonville (about 1/2hr north of Harrisburg, PA) was located 10 miles from the nearest town in 3 directions and 20 miles to the nearest town to the south.

Grew up working on farms and spending as much time as possible in the woods and the outdoors, Never bowhunted until I went away to college in the fall of 1996. But I had been shooting a bow since the age of about 8. Played just about every sport immaginable and was a 3 sport athelete in HS. Captain of my HS football Team and all that fun stuff. Graduated in a class of 113 and proceeded to college in Williamsport PA at the Pennsylvania College of Technology to study Advertising Art and Graphic Design.

Have livedin Central PA for the past 10yrs just outside of State College PA the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions, where I have recently become divorced and am employed as a Graphic Designer for a local school district.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

PA, sounds like a great place to grow up!! Wish I was equally as goodat getting around the city as I am in the woods!! I mean my last name is Woods so it only makes sense!!

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

It was a great place to grow up. A lot of people couldn't wait to get out of the valley, But honestly I loved it, You had all the pleasures of the country and small town life but still was close enough to a major city to be able to enjoy all of that too. It really was the best of both worlds. But honestly I feel most at home in the wide open spaces of the country. :D

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Started out as a farm boy, grew up on my parent dairy farm in upstate NY until I was about 12 years old when we sold our cows. Worked on a local dairy farm throughout highschool though. All the farms from back home are empty now can't make a living milking cows anymore it seems like. Seems like there are only a handful now when there used to be so many, breaks my heart.
Anyways I grew up hunting with my dad, uncles and cousins first on our farm and now on a lease we have. Through high school and college I hunted every chance I got. I went to a local college and lived with my parents so it wasn't too big of a change. After I graduated I moved to Springfield Massachusetts, to go to law school and that has really cut into time spent in the woods. Living in the city sure makes you appreciate living in the country. It was a real culture shock, had to lock my doors at night for the first time in my life.
Despite pursuing a real white collar career, I still feel like I will always be a farm boy though.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

I too grew up in a small town where everybody knows everybody (and their business). Right now I live in Roanoke, Va which probably has a population close to 100,000. I moved here to work for the power company. We've been looking for a house somewhere in the country or close to it. As long as I can shoot my bow and pee off my porch with no complaints...I'll be happy.:D

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

100% Country boy here!!! Never had any cattle or livestock but raised some pigs and owned a few horses. My dad was the milkman for 30 some years so it didn't take long and I was working for a bunch of the dairy farmers my dad picked up milk for. I think I've thrown more hay and straw bales then most people. Thats where I made my money between 10 and 18 years old. On the average I would throw between 3,000 and 5,000 bales a weekend if the weather was decent. And after that it was off to milking the cow's at night. 120 hour weeks were the norm for me back then and I loved it! I now own my dads milk hauling business. My folks split up and got divorced 9 years ago after 25 years of marriage so I then bought the house and business that I grew up with and in. My 1st 5 years in the Milk Hauling business I didn't get much time off. Many a times I'd go 3 and 4 months without a day off. My job is 365 days a year, 7 days a week. These were 16 hour days, sometimes even longer! I finally got smart and hired some employee's so I now have some freedom to do what I want. Just recently I picked up another future hunting buddy! Her name is Lydia, she's my pride and joy, she's my daughter and she's 8.5 months old. She's something else!!:D

Here's a picture of my g/f and I with my future little huntress!

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Me too PA alot of my friends wanted to "get out" but hell I want to "go back"! I never wanted to leave just wanted to play ball! gmil, you really can't make a livin' milkin' cows any more, damn near makes me cry every time I see a farm parceled off!

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

I grew up about two miles outside of a town with a population of 49. The next nearest town was 1200 and 10 miles away, and the nearest 'city' of 60K was an hours drive away. My HS graduating class had 44 in it. I have spent the last few years all over the place (gotta see the world when you are still young) but am finally married and a semester away from finishing my Civ. Eng. degree.

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Amen to that. I feel exactly the same.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Grew up in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Could catch walleyes and throw them in the front yard. Walk out the back door and start hunting. It was rural, dirt poor living but great. We planted about 3 acres of garden every year. 5 kids. No freezer or any of that. My mom canned everythinng imaginable. Our basement was a dirt basement built around 1900 where we stored lots of potatoes. We raised our own chickens(50 a year)for eggs and we canned them when they were older. We canned all our venison. Partridge, rabbits and all that were eaten the day they were killed. Fish were eaten the day caught. We raised a couple hogs for food. We picked everything wild like blue berries, black berries and wild grapes for jams and jellies. Our chores every Saturday were hoe and weed the gardens and then you could go fishing or whatever. In the fall we hunted. I started hunting alone at age 8. We trapped in the spring for muskrats and mink for gun, ammo money and things like a bicycle. Worked on a neighborhood farm every summer.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Schlutzy, that is an awesome picture and I can't wait to hear of your hunting stories with your daughter! The milk man job is a 365 day a year rain snow or shine job!!Being from Minnesota i bet you have driven through some snow a few times!!

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David, that is a hard way of living but you will never forget your roots and sometimes i think i would like it that way if you still could i bet its probably much harder to do it now-a-days, but people do.

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You ain't a kidding there! I remember a few snow storms where I was hitting drifts that were 5' in height and I was worried as hell on breaking the grill on the truck. Some of them bad snow storms I worked 2 days straight getting my milk picked up and helping other milk haulers. It's been 6 or 7 years since we had a bad one. I hope it stays that way. Thanks for the compliments P@Y!! I really appreciate it!!;)

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City slicker by birth, country boy by choice . . . born, raised and still living in Columbus, but my family has always had a little bit of land and a good huntin' cabin in SE Ohio (Muskingum Co.) Definitly leaving the city before my daughters (7&8) reach middle school :eek:. . . P&Y, where's Nashville? . . .I've never heard of it

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I'm pretty much countrier than corn bread. I'm very uncomfortable in the city, really don't like driving in them......Shoot, the "town" I live in is 13,000 strong and I'm getting claustrophobic. The quieter the better. The only thing that keeps my sanity is where I work. I work way out in BFE, in a warehouse all by myself.

Tomorrow morning I'll sit on my front steps w/ a cup of coffee and listen to the turkeys gobble, and that's after I run all the deer off the road when I drive through. It's terrible I tell ya, just terrible. If I get really lucky, I'll see my family of bald eagles, or maybe the turkeys will be in the bean field.

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I can remember a couple of times when i was in high school that we got some bad snows and every milk truck that tried to get through to us got stuck are farm is way off the beaten path and our road drifts bad. We wneded up pouring two full bulk tanks down the drain that winter![:o][:o][:o]I almost cried that was a tight winter in the pocket was hard to get caught up on the bills after that! I was working 120 hours a week and playing ball that spring to try to catch up!! And yea school work at that time was non-exhistant!! The farm staying a-float was a bit more important to me!

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Josh, exactly!!!:DNo really it is in Holmes county, yea yea where the Amish live, but my farm has land in Knox county and Holmes county.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

POPEand Young, it wasn't hard at all. It was a blast. My brother, the retired Marine, now lives in our old house. He screwed up though and put concrete on the basement floor. LOL The house is an old post and beam house built by my Grandfather and his brother. My dad was born in the house in 1902. I now live 200 yards up the hill from my brother in a new house. To clear my lot to build last year I had to cut down pine trees I helped plant when I was in 7th grade in 1957. We lived in the woods or on the creek. I logged a lot of hours swimming and hunting. My time in the woods served me well in Vietnam.

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That does sound like a blast David!! I guess it wouldn't be a whole lot harder than growin' up on the farm. That is quite a tradition you got there, yea he shouldn't have poured the concrete!:D

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

I have your typical outdoorsperson upbringing.
Grew up on the edge of an armpit of a city. My mom came here from Japan in the 50's. Her and my biological father divorced when I was about 2 years old. My step-dad got messed up in drugs and he and my older brothers were the biggest drug dealers in the area. We had a drug raid in '77, complete with a helicopter and dudes storming the house. My step-dad left the country for awhile. (I'm like in grade school during this time) My mom had to work two full time jobs. So, I was kind of onmy own. Thankfully, my house was in a 'nicer' area with woods and for a brief time, we even had a lake across the street. I spent all day and half the night out in the woods, by the lake and along the river. It was my escape from the 'real world'.

My biological father was a violent, abusive alcoholic, but he was also an outdoorsman. I saw him very rarely but he taught me how to skin critters, brain tan and the basics of hunting.

My mom grew up in a fishing village and taught me to fish and had me filleting fish when I was four.She was always supportive of my outdoors pursuits. So was my step dad before and after the drug years.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

I grew up in the suburbs on Minneapolisand spent most of my time playing sports, hunting and fishing mostly in Central MN (Staples area).

Played JUCO baseball in Mpls then finished college in Central PA at Susquehanna University in the early 90s.

Now I am marriedand have2 girls (3 and 7) and live back in the burbs of Minneapolis. I still manage to hunt and fish a bunch all around Minnesota and work at an IT- Telecom Consultant.

RE: What are ya'll's Backgrounds?
 

Christine i commend you for growing up and becoming the great person that you have!! The outdoors really are a great way to leave the real world behind, i wish more kids would realize this instead of turning to drugs and such!!

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Johnny did you play ball at susquehanna?

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That explains a lot.:DNow I completely understand you Christine.

So why do you hate Carp so much???:D

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Good on jm!!

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Good post!

I too play baseball in college. I am a sophomore. Hunted my whole life as well as fished. Love them both! Grew up hunting just about everything!

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ICALL2MUCH, where do you play ball and what Division?

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Here is what I wake up to every morrning....

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Give or take the snow.....and YES I Bass fish off my deck....

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Ranger must be a great thing to wake up to!!! Awesome setting!!

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Worked hard to have this...Thanks.....

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Happy for ya man!! I just hope i can do that well.

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Yes. I pitched for Susquehanna.

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Awesome johnny, Right or southpaw? What Division were they when you were there and now for that matter?

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Knox? :). . I have permission for a couple places in Knox, but every time I haed up there, I get sidetracked into Delaware. . . got a 10 point (160-ish)on a bean farm thats been teasin' me for a couple years now -lol

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Yep it is a good place to hunt! I know how deer can sometimes callyour name! They do thatvery well!!!

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I have always been a right hander but switched last year to shooting lefty with the bow. The dominant eye thing. Having my stronger arm hold the bow helps the shooting as well.

Susquehanna is a D3 school. My JUCO team was very good and we played in the JUCO world series but went 2 and out. Played town team for a few years after school but gave it up due to the fact that it took too much time. Keep my arm in shape casting now.