Sonny,
I've read your thread @
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=19413 and followed along with it since you posted it last year on Farmallcub.com. Believe me it was very
captivating to watch you and other’s grow garden(s) from scratch. Some of the fascinating things were; (other than watching the gardens grow) the tools you and others made to make things easier, the real world problems a Farmer goes through with the weather, insects and crop failure(s).
A few years ago, as an experiment to show my two younger sons the reality of life, I put aside six acres of ground for them to farm and see if they could make an income off of it. The ground being typical Missouri clay never grew corn or beans very well. Of course mom and dad pumped them up saying "if you work hard and do it the right way, good things will come." I let them use my small tractors like Ford “N’s and Cub Cadets to do their plowing, disking and cultivating. They begged their Grandpa and me for our Farmall Cub’s but they are off limits because Grandpa uses his all the time and I don’t want any
scratches on mine.
Naturally it was rough on them the way they had to plant and do things. I made it rougher on them for example; when a tractor was required to go into the field they had to pay for the time and fuel. I naturally put this “on the cuff†but it showed them what the machinery cost and cost to run machinery. They set up a road side stand, advertised with signs along the local roads and sold at flee markets on the weekends.
So for, they have broke even and made a little extra money with help from mom and dad.
But most of all, it has showed them what work is and what a farmer goes through each and every year.
This year they hope to join with permission, the 2007 addition of
http://www.mytractorforum.com garden thread to display their progress and learn from the Garden 2007 thread posts.
Things are off to a slow and late start this year because of the weather, but the plowing and the disking are done. As soon as it warms up they will start planting.
Thanks Sonny for making me aware of this link and thread.