Lejeune68

At least two afternoons a week. And five afternoons a week are spent on the back porch drinking beer. We do live in the Bible Belt after all, can't let all our neighbors who are doing the same thing, see us drinking.

I meant to add this, too lazy to do an edit. It's more a family thing than people realize. Growing up, we would help in the farm without knowing it. I learned to drive when I was 10, but that was because my dad wanted me to drive the wells and make sure they were running. If one of them wasn't making noises I would drive home and tell him. My mom makes dinners and lunches for everyone when we work long days. By everyone I mean upto 10 people, harvest has the most labor.

It's a banned term on the farm. Anyone caught using it has to hoe weeds for the rest of the day.

I think keeping hands varies from farmer to farmer. We've been exceptionally lucky the past 5,6,7, years. I've had two guys working for me who are great! Pay is umm different. Than what you might be used to. One of our guys lives in one of our houses for free and makes $10 an hour. The other "rents" land from us, basically he buys the seed and we pay for the rest and that's all he gets paid is what the land makes minus our 10% landlord cut. Which means he's making 45k-60k a year. The guy living in our house probably makes 22-25k a year, but with his benefits (house, insurance, free gas, and free utilities for his house) his pay probably equates to more than 30k a year. We also provide work trucks and tools they drive and use in their free time. There's different perks, it's just not always money.

Personally or collectively? I always keep at least one on hand. Ha.