Obama vs. Farmers
I wonder if there are more kids hurt while helping on the farm, or dealing with gang activity and other hazards in the inter city.
I remember when my brothers and I helped on the farm chopping weeds out of soybeans, and corn in the early summer. We also helped picking up hay and straw bales from the field and put it into the barn. Driving the farmer’s old pick-up pulling a wagon full of hay bales taught us more about safe driving than our driver’s education class.
There was one summer we helped neighbor with his dark Tabaco crop by suckering, cutting, spiking, and putting it into the barn.
We looked forward to helping our neighbor each summer, shoot that was the only thing we had to do to make a little pocket money. Actually, we made enough money to buy new camping and fishing gear, a new baseball glove and a Crossman BB gun.
The only injury we ever suffered was sunburn and a few blisters on our hands from a good days work. Oh, by the way after fooling with a few Tabaco crops, we swore we would never use the stuff, and to this day, we do not.
Shoot, our farmer friends taught us more about being safe around farm equipment and tools, than anything. They simply did not want to see us get hurt. Now with Mr. Obama’s big government machine destroying another opportunity for employment. Summer and part-time jobs for kids will be lost. Which means additional young people will be unemployed and not even counted as hard working young Americans that do not have a job…
God bless America
I heard someone talking about it on fox this afternoon. They said something about if a kid's folks did not own and live on the farm. the kids could not use any of the farm equipment.
Furthermore this will hurt the FFA in ways that just might put an end to the way the club operates.
life on the family farm is under attack...
- idratherbeposted 11 years ago
0 I suppose one has to actually realize the danger of farming and it's associated risks before weighing in with actual knowledge on the subject. Having suffered many injuries in my lifetime working the family farm, and being involved in some accidents which could have easily taken my life, I can say it is still avery dangerous occupation.
Years ago a teenage boy was working inside a corn silo in the closest small town to where I live, raking shelled corn into the hole where the auger would move it into a boxcar. Someone had removed the safety grate over the auger hole before corn was last stored inside the silo. The teenager stepped into the hole accidentally and his legs were pulled off by the extremely powerful auger--a giant drill inside a tube.
When the electrical power suddenly went out, the owner rushed into the silo to find the poor kid halfway in the auger pit with his intestines torn out and fully aware he was going to die. He was naturally in agony, crying and begging for help. A preacher was summoned and talked to the poor kid, trying to make his last few moments of life seem somehow understandable. He died shortly afterwards.
Although the owner did not remove the auger grate he was, needless to say, distraught about the horrible accident. A few years later he committed suicide. I'm not sure it was because of this incident, but it surely did affect this nice man who was the father of a close friend. Something which I still can't get out of my mind to this day.
I suppose it takes such a horrible accident for some to understand just how dangerous working around farm machinery and equipment really is. You'd better realize the true danger of this before weighing in on something which may cause injury or death to our young people. Just sayin'!
Yes I agree, Holle. But today's farms are not like those we grew up on. The mere quantity of dangerous chemicals used on all crops today require very close scrutiny of their use to ensure workers not be exposed to some very bad insecticides, pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, and many many other chemicals most never consider being used on our foods.
The equipment is also more dangerous than ever as it can grind up massive amounts of crop debris in a matter of seconds. No place for children anymore. It's a wonder I haven't been severely injured merely working with cattle as some others have been. Danger is a daily thing on a farm and complacency is a sure fire accident waiting to happen. It ain't our grandpa's old family farm anymore.
Or info from those who have actually had experience working with dangerous equipment and machinery used on farms and/or farm related jobs. Picking tomatoes or feeding a few chickens and cows is not the same as operating or being around dangerous equipment.
I had an extremely dangerous piece of farm equipment flip over on top of the tractor I was driving while movin to another field miles away. I was trapped beneath the ripper bedder while the tank of anhydrous ammonia was venting right above my head because the valve broke off when it slammed into my back.
I had no choice but to release the clutch and hope the tractor pulled away from the bedder without tearing me apart. Anyone who has ever got a whiff of ammonia can understand the danger I was facing at the time. Luckily, the tractor broke free and I survived with bruises and cuts which covered my entire back.
I had just replaced my dad as the driver of the tractor and I know he would have never been quick enough to duck under the steering wheel when he heard the click of the lift arms when they broke. Huge spikes penetrated the large tires but missed me by inches.
I suppose I was lucky, if indeed luck played a part in it. My dad was killed when he fell off of a tractor a half dozen years ago. I'm glad I was able to give him a few decades more of life by trading places with him that day. A few weeks later a young man was killed under the same circumstances.
Farming used to be the most dangerous occupation in the US. Now I think working on a fishing boat far out to seas has replaced it as there really aren't many farmers anymore.
Many farm accidents are never reported unless they are very serious or death occurs as a result. I know this from my own personal experience.
No problem Will. But I doubt you've spent much time on a farm as most haven't. But we can agree on the danger to kids if they aren't aware of the risks involved. Thanks for the thoughts concerning my dad. He died happy at 85 years of age, doing what he loved most of all.
He died very quickly and when we found him he had a peaceful smile on his face. We always knew we would find him dead on the farm one day because he would not quit doing what he loved. No regrets for him. I hope to go with the same sense of satisfaction he had.
Only when he had to beat my asp for doing something stupid. No, he was one of the happiest men I've ever known. After Omaha Beach, the battle of the Bulge, and liberating victims from the Nazi death camps, everything else was a piece of cake. He had already seen the worst the world had to offer, so any problems he faced afterwards paled in comparison. He was a great man and folks still tell me so.
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