Don't Quit Your Day Job!

This weekend, I didn't do anything for school.  I actually wasn't avoiding anything, I just didn't have anything to do.  I was caught up!

Instead, we went to my cousins' farm in Michigan.  Several times a year, a group of the cousins will get together.  It is usually when a crop is coming in--spring for asparagus, fall for apples.  It is always a time to hang out, tell the family stories (some old, some new--the new one this year was about Al Capone), eat too much food, tip a few beverages, etc.  This year was no different.

The weather in southeast Michigan has not been very conducive to agriculture.  Too cold for the apples and grapes, not warm enough for the asparagus.  I learned quite a big about the vagarities of being a farmer.  Seems like the deck is always stacked against you.

Anyway, this year, the asparagus is coming in slow, and tonight there is supposed to be a hard frost which could damage the crop.  There wasn't a lot there, but it needed to be harvested.  Not economically feasible to hire pickers, so the relatives all pitched in.  They have a really cool device, kinda like a triple-wide go kart that five can ride.  As the device goes over the rows, you bend over and snap those sprouts that are long enough.   We worked for four or five hours, picked around 400 pounds of asparagus.  After the work was done, more food.

Over lunch, one of my cousins commented that I shouldn't quit my day job.  I think either noticed my ineptness at harvesting, or recognized that being a migrant farmer doesn't pay well.  (I hope it was the latter.)

Then it hit me, I have quit my day job . . . but I don't think I am going to become a gentlemen farmer.