Our Yorkshire Farm

[Gary Manuel]

Is anyone watching it?

 

Poor kids made to get up in the middle of the night to muck out the cows and feed the chickens. They are forced to put a full shift in before they go to to school. When they get home they are forced to make the choice of which pet they are going to slay for dinner. Not only that. They are forced to kill it and pluck it or they won't get any dinner!

 

There are about 12 kids (obviously never heard of contraception) who all need to do their homework while mum is cooking Henrietta, but they only have one table to do it on so they all have to chip in and help each other.

 

Poor little devils are dressed in rags, forcing the older girls to put an extra shift in, sewing and darning the younger kids clothes for school the next morning.  

 

Henrietta is served and they all interlock elbows around the tiny kitchen table. They have no TV, Internet or PlayStations so after dinner they have no alternative but to talk to each other and make their own entertainment.

 

Before they go to bed, once again they are forced to feed the pets and make sure that tomorrow's dinner is looking healthy.

 

It's a disgrace!

Lucky sods.

[Zflyer]

Its truly brill. And the kids all seem to have their heads on, the older ones anyway. The youngsters are having the best of times, they just dont know it.

I heard on the radio this afternoon about a plan to release beavers on a river in Devon. The locals were being sounded out about the project, most were in favour, then I heard one woman who said she and her partner/ husband had purchased about 5 acres of land so their kids could use it to play in. Apparently slightly  wooded but low lying and if it gets flooded there were few places to camp, so she wasnt happy about the idea. Sheessshh how the other half (?) live.

[J D 8]

 Much the way I grew up in 50/60's, Was ploughing fields on a Super Major tractor no cab or power steering or any other fancy stuff, just dads old army great coat and a sou'wester when the weather was bad. Started when my legs were long enough to reach the pedals at eleven years.

  Plenty out there today who dont start work for a dozen more years.

Edited May 25, 2021 by J D 8

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Aye kids today eh, don't know they're born do they. Sarcasm alert.

Did enjoy the old days though. ?

[Alex Ferguson 2]

5 hours ago, J D 8 said:

 Much the way I grew up in 50/60's, Was ploughing fields on a Super Major tractor no cab or power steering or any other fancy stuff,

You were lucky. I only had a rotary hoe to use. No recoil starter, you had to re-wrap the starter rope for each pull. Our first rotary hoe was really too big for me, handles about nose high. The next one was much smaller but wheels the same width as the rotor so needed to be held up to stop it falling over into the previously hoed row.

 

We had 5 acres, half in bush which mean carrying winter firewood timber out on one's shoulder to father who was running the large circular saw.

 

We did have mudflats to row and sail on or catch an outgoing tide in winter, bare feet crunching the ice as you stomped across the mud to launch. Then head out to the open sea for the day. No radio, not communications. There were two rules, be home for dinner, don't drown yourself. Oh, a third rule - obey the other two rules.

[leccyflyer]

Never miss an episode, it is compelling telly and it's the youngsters who make it compelling. We've seen them grow up at a rate of knots over just a few years. One thing that does surprise me a little is that there's no indication that they run any sort of kitchen garden to help feed the family. Maybe the growing season is just too short up there on the roof of Yorkshire?

[J D 8]

                The first farm job I remember doing was cleaning and sorting egg's from my mam's flock of 200 light Sussex hens. I was only a toot at the time and on one occasion I went missing during a howling blizzard. My parents searched high and low around the farm with increasing panic.  I was found in the old dairy keeping quite with my favorite hen who I did not want put back in the hen house.    Still keep a few chickens today.

[john davidson 1]

The gem I liked was when Clemmy ( four year old)spotted the sheep out of the field and without an adult decided to sort them out. Herded them back in and as she shut the gate muttered Silly Buggers.  Priceless!

Edited May 26, 2021 by john davidson 1

[leccyflyer]

That was class. When her mum asked her how many sheep she had rounded up , she blustered for a little bit and then agreed that she couldn't count yet. She's definitely the big star.

[Geoff S]

22 hours ago, J D 8 said:

 Much the way I grew up in 50/60's, Was ploughing fields on a Super Major tractor no cab or power steering or any other fancy stuff, just dads old army great coat and a sou'wester when the weather was bad. Started when my legs were long enough to reach the pedals at eleven years.

  Plenty out there today who dont start work for a dozen more years.

 

I used to stay at my uncle's farm when I was a kid in the early 50s (10 to 15).  My cousin and I had to feed 100s of pigs twice a day at one time.  At harvest time the wheat was cut with a binder and the sheaves stored in stooks on the fields (I assume to dry?).  Then the sheaves were collected on a trailer and stored in a Dutch barn.  The trailer was drawn with a big Fordson Major tractor that took two of us to drive - my cousin steered and I controlled the clutch by standing on it and letting it in by lifting myself on the mudguard.  It meant all the men were free to use pitch forks to lift the sheaves.  Of course, it would be totally illegal now to allow a couple of 12 year olds to drive a tractor.

 

My cousin is about a year younger than I but I remember at the time he was in many ways more grown-up because of the responsibilities he had from a young age.  What we got up to with air rifles and shot guns makes me shudder now! 

 

My father-in-law was a market gardener and my wife used to crawl along rows of peas weeding 3 rows after she got home from school. 

 

It's not until I stop and think that I realise how much things have changed in my lifetime.  Crystal sets to computers for instance ?

 

Geoff

[Geoff Copping]

Love it.

 

I was brought up earning pocket money on farms and small-holdings.

At 13 I was driving a little old grey Massey and a Fordson.

At 14 my mate and I would spend a Saturday gassing Rabbits. A £1 a day. A 5litre tin of Cymag, a spoon tied to a garden cane, dust masks and a couple of Amyl Nitrate capsules 'just in case'. No mobile phone in those days.

 

A funny episode was just before Christmas. The village women, including my Mum, were in the stables plucking Turkey's while us lads were in the yard doing the killing which consisted of a noose round the Turkey's legs so they could be lowered into a funnel. A pair of bars were clamped round the protruding neck to stretch it then straight into the stable to get the feathers off while they were still warm.

We were just about to start killing when the estate shoot arrived and started forming up. When they realised what we were about to do then the head of the shoot came over and told us not to start killing until the shoot had moved off for the first drive because he thought it would upset the wives of the guns to witness it.

This annoyed us as we were paid by the bird but we had to stop.

The shoot then moved off and the wives accompanied their husbands as they blasted Pheasants out of the sky?

 

[PatMc]

These days do any kids have milk rounds before going to school or deliver papers before &/or after school ?

Or pick straw/rasp/black or any in season berries for extra pocket money during school holidays ?

I think spud picking is highly mechanised now so they won't have that job opportunity.

Being brought up in urban/city environment I did all of these at some point but kids now seem to get their first part time jobs in cafes, pubs or fast food outlets when they are past the age that I was when I left school.  

 

[FlyinBrian]

I grew up in a mining village, the miners and other NCB workers had a lorry load of coal delivered every couple of weeks as part of their wages. Depending on access to the home it was often dropped at the kerb side to either be shovelled into the coal bunker through a hatch about four feet off the ground or needed to be "barrowed" from the kerb along the garden path to the "coal house" - Hard work but good money was earned around the village on delivery days.

 

Other revenue streams were picking wild blackberries for the local bakery and picking Rosehips which were collected from school by companies who made syrup and stuff from them, me and my mate Terry collected sack fulls, typically 6d a pound for Rosehips and all the scratches and torn clothes you could handle. I used to borrow my Dads Motorbike gauntlets to pull down the wild rose branches, a walking stick was also useful.

[Engine Doctor]

Never miss it. As already said they all are happy,healthy and have a good outlook on life. Brilliant parenting and happy children . Hardly a mobile phone.tablet or tech in site. Its a pity some more parents don't try their parenting methods , there might then be less mental issues that seem to abound  at present. 

[extra slim]

A refreshingly uplifting view of a seemingly less complex but nevertheless hard life, with sound and timeless principles we should adhere to. Tony the Pony bought from Appleby fair, from the gypsys on a whim, and taken home in the back of a land rover. I get nervous when the Mrs heads out shopping, but this is another level!.. Tony is Clems responsibility and he is now on a fat camp diet. Violets pet cow is also on a diet which consists of not breaking into the house and eating the washing... what isnt there not to like.. good honest viewing.