Stoic bunch farmers

[whitefox]

Keep on ranting, especially if it makes you feel better - I do

It's what makes you 'stoic', IMHO.

Without that 'valve' to 'let offsteam', I'm sure things would get me down but I've got to the stage where I don't care what I say to anybody and if they don't like it/can't take it, then that's just 'tough bananas'.

Mrs YB gets a bit embarrassed if she's there when 'I go off on one' but I don't bear fools gladly and feckin eejits, even less.

That sounds just like me, when having to deal with my couldn't care less landlords and parasite agents ,and they don't like it,and then go in huff,but when someone is pissing down my back,and then tries to tell me it's raining, they verbally get both barrels!, doesn't get me anywhere, but truth is, even if I was licking arse, they still wouldn't meet any responsibility, does my dignity a world of good though

 

[whitefox]

In 1987 we had another terrible summer and harvest
Duals on combine again and hay bale's still out in October.
Sent all the wheat seed back.
I finished contract combining on nov 5th with frosted barley, drove the combine into the shed and got on a plane to oz
And i wasnt coming back.

I did the same in 86, came back in time for highland show,I went back again in 90 and stupidly came back again for spring work 91, because it was expected of me , last number of years I have really regretted taking that return flight

 

[tractorsandcows]

All very well to rant and rave thinking you’re the big man doing it and it’s ok as it’s ’getting Things off my chest’ or ‘it’s good for my mental health’ (the modern catch all term to excuse all kinds of behaviour).

Reality is someone is on the end of that ranting. It ain’t much good for them.
Anyone who spends time screaming and shouting at people is just a bit of a twit really.

Instruments of state tyranny richly deserve it. Nothing to do with being a big man
With your approach you should run for office in the NFU

 

[Baker9]

It’s become an industry.

Through most human history adults would have had to contend with losing multiple children at a young age, possibly losing a spouse early in marriage, all while living in grinding poverty in overcrowded accommodation with the ever present threat of infectious disease and starvation. Anyone who tells you we have it hard now is talking utter bollicks.

To put things in perspective, I was looking at the 1911 Census when my Great Grandfather was head of the household. Two of the questions were as follows How many children born alive in this marriage answer was 10, how many still alive, answer 5. These were by no means a poor family, there were 3 boys in the family and two girls who never married. Of the two younger boys one became a teacher and the other was ordained. Today if that question was asked there would be a total melt down, at the time the question served a very useful purpose in finding out about the scale of child mortality. They had to be tough people to survive.

 

[jondear]

If you have your health and family that's a positive .A friends dad was diagnosed with mnd and was gone in less than a year !
Farming is just a hobby /lifestyle that we quite enjoy when it goes wright and the sun's out .But the constant wet does get you down .

 

[Nearly]

We're all solar powered.

 

[Bald Rick]

To put things in perspective, I was looking at the 1911 Census when my Great Grandfather was head of the household. Two of the questions were as follows How many children born alive in this marriage answer was 10, how many still alive, answer 5. These were by no means a poor family, there were 3 boys in the family and two girls who never married. Of the two younger boys one became a teacher and the other was ordained. Today if that question was asked there would be a total melt down, at the time the question served a very useful purpose in finding out about the scale of child mortality. They had to be tough people to survive.

And yet there are moves afoot to scrap the census completely

Makes you wonder what future historians will think of that idea

 

[Nearly]

And yet there are moves afoot to scrap the census completely

Makes you wonder what future historians will think of that idea

People willingly share more information than on the census every day but it's all in different formats.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

A family member is a manager in "the big organisation ".
Whenever she has cause to speak to an employee about their performance, ( or lack off ) they take a couple of weeks off work claiming stress. - on full pay FFS

I know someone that’s a consultant in ‘the big organisation’. They were left utterly fuming recently because they were expected to cover waaay too much during the junior doctors strikes, to a point where they believed that the level of cover was unsafe for their patients. They had ‘strong words’ with their manager/s (described by the consultant as ‘passionate’), as they argued that more senior staff must be drafted in to give a safe level of cover.

Management’s response? Oh, you sound stressed/ depressed to be talking like that, we insist that you take 2 weeks leave .

He insists he wasn’t at all depressed, just that he wasn’t happy to be so overstretched as to be unsafe; after all ‘I was overstretched’ would not cut the mustard in any professional negligence proceedings. Making him stay away for a fortnight would only make matters worse.

 

[Bald Rick]

People willingly share more information than on the census every day but it's all in different formats.

True but a lot of that is ephemeral and easily lost.

If the Pharaohs had used email ….

 

[czechmate]

2012 was ‘the year from hell’ in this area, it just peed it down from April to the following May, with a merciful break in August for harvest.

When the combine broke in October, and when it was too pee wet through to do anything, Mrs PSQ dragged me away for a few days to London, and it saved my sanity. 4 days away from the farm and its problems and I felt completely refreshed. Finished harvest on bonfire night (first and last year of spring beans) and mauled some late wheat in that would have been saved by a half decent spring, which turned out to be atrocious.

Point being, if it’s getting you down and there’s nothing doing in the forecast, pull the pin and get away. Go somewhere nice for a break, build yourself up for a few days, and recharge the batteries. Staying put just to stare at the wet ground and the long term forecast for another week won’t change a thing.

Who looks after the animals?

 

[PSQ]

Who looks after the animals?

I don't know, who would a farmer use under any other circumstance that needs time away?

If there isn't someone that could be drafted in, then perhaps theres an issue with 'Business Resilience' that might need addressing. Farmers are famously thought of as 'stoic', but theres no pride in being the dad or husband that never goes on holiday, or the 'friend' that no-one sees anymore.
Life's for living, not for stacking up a lifetime of bitterness and regret. Sod that.

 

[upnortheast]

I know someone that’s a consultant in ‘the big organisation’. They were left utterly fuming recently because they were expected to cover waaay too much during the junior doctors strikes, to a point where they believed that the level of cover was unsafe for their patients. They had ‘strong words’ with their manager/s (described by the consultant as ‘passionate’), as they argued that more senior staff must be drafted in to give a safe level of cover.

Management’s response? Oh, you sound stressed/ depressed to be talking like that, we insist that you take 2 weeks leave .

He insists he wasn’t at all depressed, just that he wasn’t happy to be so overstretched as to be unsafe; after all ‘I was overstretched’ would not cut the mustard in any professional negligence proceedings. Making him stay away for a fortnight would only make matters worse.

Confirms my opinion the major problem is attitude of the management.

Family member halved waiting times in her little segment of the organisation
Was called in by those higher up the tree, how have you done that ?
Gave them details. Noticed they lost interest when she talked about clearing emails at 6 in the morning & most of the work on the reports they wanted were done at 10 at night.
Her job is mainly 9 - 5 unless on call.
The concept of doing more than the contracted hours without reward was foreign to them.
To her the reward was getting the waiting times down

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Confirms my opinion the major problem is attitude of the management.

Family member halved waiting times in her little segment of the organisation
Was called in by those higher up the tree, how have you done that ?
Gave them details. Noticed they lost interest when she talked about clearing emails at 6 in the morning & most of the work on the reports they wanted were done at 10 at night.
Her job is mainly 9 - 5 unless on call.
The concept of doing more than the contracted hours without reward was foreign to them.
To her the reward was getting the waiting times down

Yea but the flip side to that is when large organisations expect extra work for no renumeration. Don't think that's acceptable either.

 

[upnortheast]

Yea but the flip side to that is when large organisations expect extra work for no renumeration. Don't think that's acceptable either.

Agreed, but it`s what the diligent & commited have to do when the management encourage staff to go off with stress everytime things don`t go as they think they should.

 

[czechmate]

I don't know, who would a farmer use under any other circumstance that needs time away?

If there isn't someone that could be drafted in, then perhaps theres an issue with 'Business Resilience' that might need addressing. Farmers are famously thought of as 'stoic', but theres no pride in being the dad or husband that never goes on holiday, or the 'friend' that no-one sees anymore.
Life's for living, not for stacking up a lifetime of bitterness and regret. Sod that.

View attachment 1172576

well, there is small family farms summed up in a nutshell

 

[ollie989898]

Doctors surgery has a sign up about abuse of staff, I wonder why no one clicks that abuse of staff is because of the appalling service we receive from a myriad of organisations, maybe the answer isn't to give messages about abuse of staff, rather it is to provide the type of service that is appropriate (and empower people rather than treat them like imbeciles and infantilise them).

Such instances of abuse in clinical environments are extremely rare in my opinion and as such represent a tiny fraction of people engaging with services.

I don't feel people are being infantilised, I think there are generally issues with communication and time constraints which mean interactions are sometimes not optimal. I would totally be in favour of putting more onus on individuals for taking responsibility of their own health (and education, fitness, finances etc etc etc) but I do think British society has changed a great deal over the last 30 years and it would be a hell of a shock for many people unless policy was changed very carefully.

 

[tractorsandcows]

To put things in perspective, I was looking at the 1911 Census when my Great Grandfather was head of the household. Two of the questions were as follows How many children born alive in this marriage answer was 10, how many still alive, answer 5. These were by no means a poor family, there were 3 boys in the family and two girls who never married. Of the two younger boys one became a teacher and the other was ordained. Today if that question was asked there would be a total melt down, at the time the question served a very useful purpose in finding out about the scale of child mortality. They had to be tough people to survive.

Similar in many families at that time. Childbirth a high risk for women and TB was a big killer Also no contraception or certainly no means available to the masses

 

[Hampton]

The good news for all of us with Sh!te crops of wheat that’s spent most of the winter underwater and are still waiting to plant spring barley and spring beans is that I’ve just driven down through France today (just had steak frites near Geneva and the crops n France are Fantastic. Some wonderful crops of wheat and Rape.
Well done the French farmers…knobs

 

[Muddyroads]

Keep on ranting, especially if it makes you feel better - I do

It's what makes you 'stoic', IMHO.

Without that 'valve' to 'let offsteam', I'm sure things would get me down but I've got to the stage where I don't care what I say to anybody and if they don't like it/can't take it, then that's just 'tough bananas'.

Mrs YB gets a bit embarrassed if she's there when 'I go off on one' but I don't bear fools gladly and feckin eejits, even less.

Isn’t this also where black humour comes into its own? We all know the phrase that if you didn’t laugh you’d cry. The problem in many areas of society now is that this would be seen as grossly politically incorrect.