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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] vacation weekend question
  • Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 02:47:58 -0400 (EDT)

Here we are on the eve of Memorial Day weekend (and a big thank you to all you veterans out there!), and I have a question for the group.  How many of you are willing, able, and maybe actually insist upon, taking vacation time during the year?  Maybe not Memorial Day Monday, July 4th or or a trip to Disneyland per se.  But the topic has come up a few times amongst local growers here, in terms of whether "real farmers" ever take time off.  I've known members of both camps ("heck yes we demand our vacation" versus "heck no farmers don't get time off").  I'm not firmly in either camp so far.  I do enjoy some downtime once in awhile.  But that downtime may simply be a few hours spent with a good book rather than a dedicated "vacation" spent traveling to some distant place.  I've even seen this topic linked to such far reaching subjects as bringing new farmers into the profession after experiencing non-farming employment benefits, protecting existing farmers from burnout (ie, quality of life issues), the values of getting off the home place and getting to conferences and symposiums to share new ideas, etc.  Those desirables are compared to the burdens of finding qualified personnel to care for livestock, greenhouses and field crops during our absence, and how to handle family emergencies that take us away from the farm for more than a few hours.  I've already had far too much experience with that last topic and I still haven't resolved that issue yet.  I'd be curious what the members of this group think about time off and/or time away from the farm, planned or otherwise.  Comments?
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html



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