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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

I believe everything you wrote.. But, it makes no sense.  I am willing to pay 
good money for fresh produce and better meats.  I think most people are.  Why 
is farming not profitable?

About the seeds;  Gurneys charges from 2.50 to 5.00 per liitle packet for 
regular vegetable seeds (a few grams).  I was just curious of a person could 
buy a few lbs of each and then store them.  From what you are saying it 
wouldn't work , even if you could find them at a better price, now.  Thank's 
for the update on that.  I don't know a good place to buy seeds anyway.  If 
you google vegetable seeds, you get millions of pages.

I'm sure your kids will do great.  I wish I could be as confident of my 
nephews ....bobford


--- On Sat, 10/25/08, Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] was music, now farming, agricultural, other misc.
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 1:29 PM
> My kids have spent most of their lives watching me try to
> make a living 
> from the farm. They see the hard work, they know that we
> have no money. 
> I don't think it's unreasonable that they'd
> want a profession that would 
> bring a livable wage. Kids here don't aspire to be
> lawyers; they mostly 
> graduate high school (or not) and get whatever job comes
> along. Many 
> come from farms, but farming isn't even an option for
> them. Farmers 
> can't afford to pay much for help (in PA, farmers can
> and do pay below 
> minimum wage for help), and no one right out of school
> could afford 
> their own farm. I don't know a single farmer that
> doesn't have off-farm 
> income.
> 
> Very few people are in a position to buy tons of grain and
> store it. If 
> next year brings a good crop, your corn is worth less than
> you paid for 
> it. And you can't hold it forever. I think that in cold
> storage, very 
> dry corn can be held for several years. In normal storage,
> it's a year 
> or less. That's why food isn't treated like a
> normal commodity. It's 
> perishable. It makes so much more sense to go with the
> cycle of food; a 
> food is only valuable until next year's crop comes in.
> You store what 
> you can use or sell until next year. You make a little this
> year, lose a 
> little next year. That's why it's never a 'get
> rich quick' scheme.
> 
> I have a friend who had a business buying (garden) seed in
> bulk and 
> repackaging it. It was a lot of work, and it's not like
> you can put seed 
> in a closet until it's worth more. Most seed is only
> good (for practical 
> sales purposes) for one year. Most people won't buy
> seed that's more 
> than a year old, even though most will germinate.
> 
> Lynn Wigglesworth
> 
> bob ford wrote:
> > Well every young person has to follow their own star,
> but I believe the days of a ,even, advanced degrees
> necessarily providing above-average security are dwindling. 
> Somebody's kids are going to have to be farmers.  We
> don't all have to hire a lawyer (yet).  We do all have
> to eat.
> > 
> > I don't know the gender or age of your children
> (and it isn't my business), but teenagers can be too
> easily influenced by media, and media distorts realty and
> even flat-out lies (As you well know).
> > 
> > My brother's kids don't listen to anything I
> tell them (over the phone).  They simply follow the path
> that their friends follow, that the media has encouraged.  
> > 
> > Our young people now are all so terribly conformist in
> their pretentions of non-conformity.  Maybe that is the way
> it always was, and I was too busy doing my own thing to get
> earrings or spiked hair or tattoes (not that there is
> anything wrong with that, you probably have eighteen of
> each; now that I've made that comment).
> > 
> >   I remember when my two baby brothers got tattoes of
> their girlfriends names.  My daddy almost exploded, and, of
> course, neither of them even lives in the same state with
> the girls, today.
> > 
> > I can't do like James and buy tons of grain, now,
> with a strong dollar and weak commodity prices.  'would
> cost too much to store and eventually transport.  What I
> have considered , though, other than trying to trade a
> little in commodity etfs; is buying quantities of good
> quality seed, while prices are low, and the dollar is
> strong.  Is that possible?  Will seed keep well?  Where
> would you buy the best quality seed, that are not in the
> little "gurney" packages?  
> > 
> > Maybe I'm being ridiculous ......bobford
> > 
> > 
> > --- On Sat, 10/25/08, Lynn Wigglesworth  wrote:
> > 
> >>> And, for people who have children about to
> take out
> >> huge student loan debt to attend  college to learn
> about
> >> 'business' or 'law', there are
> alternatives.. This country, and the world  needs young,
> smart farmers. ...bobf
> > 
> >> Haha. I keep telling my kids that, but they want
> to be able
> >> to earn a 
> >> living.
> >>
> >> Lynn Wigglesworth
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >       
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