Addressing Farmer Loneliness + How to Breed the Seeds We Need

[@lisasherper5562]

I am a therapist and often work with loneliness. Thank you for bringing it up! Some people are more prone to loneliness than others. I often recommend welcoming the loneliness for a few minutes each day as a meditation without judgement or resistances as well as reaching out to build connection. Sometimes the problem is the quality of connections available and desire for belonging. My farming family in Minnesota were members of the Grange which was created for economic and social reasons--probably really helped reduce farmer loneliness.

[@myurbangarden7695]

I love this conversation. When I was doing rural medicine during the B@ndemic I learned if this issue. So many people needed the CONVERSATION more than the healthcare.

[@sullytime3833]

I am thankful for this man and the things he has done and the things he’s doing now !

[@redkingsupersigma2899]

Stay strong and positive my friend. Very few things are within our control so focus on those. I’ve followed you long enough to see your battling with thongs. For what it’s worth you have changed my life and give me great hope. Stay blessed

[@fourdayhomestead2839]

Having the chance to see another's face & some daily/+- conversation seems to help with feeling alone. I'm content, but my spirit wanes after a few weeks of non-farmer conversation 😊. I work in health care, so farming isn't a topic discussed often.😊

[@brokenmeats5928]

I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!

[@davidmgilbreath]

I don’t know how you do it! Just this morning I was thinking some more about the seed saving I’ve been doing, and what do know, there’s a new episode on exactly that! Not the first time either - won’t get all woo-woo with synchronicity, but I’ll be watching you! 🧐😅🤓👍

[@elementalearth5096]

The worst part of this season for me was when the employees ended their term in the fall and all of a sudden I was faced with weeks of solitude. It was very hard. I joined a discord chat group to connect to people and it helped tremendously.

[@wendyeames5758]

My grandparents had a small 'retirement' farm in Iowa when I was a child. We only got to visit once a year, they could rarely visit us (a state away) because it was hard to get someone to watch the cows. This was before the Internet & long distance calls were very expensive. I know my grandma got terribly lonely, it still makes me sad thinking about it. She asked me to stay an extra 2 weeks one time so she could teach me the piano & I said no (I wanted to get back to my friends), it's the 2nd worse thing I've done in my life & I still regret it & feel remorse decades later.

[@SommaRob]

Wishing your lettuce a good next few days from zone 5b Chenango county NY.

[@jeas4980]

On the loneliness issue: my son and I have almost the opposite issue. He is verbal autistic with other health issues, cognitive functioning is at a 4 to 6 year old level and he is now 28. He is a blessing and then some... I would not change anything for the world. I am his full-time caregiver... all day, everyday, no stop. We get sick of looking at each other. 😂 There is no respite because there is no one who wants this job for even a few hours. If we had a place where he could tell someone else everything they never wanted to know about the Lion King for 3 hours a week... we would consider that a blessing. And I know there are many of us. Not lonely... just in need of a small occasional break from our caretaker duties in our very routine and repetitive lives.

[@HeatherNaturaly]

The problem with even attempting to buy seeds that have been grown in your area, is quite simply that nobody grows their own seeds! They ALL contract it out, so there's not way to know where it was grown. Best to just start with what's available and save your own seeds from then on.

[@ronaldthoms2147]

I live in nebraska an made a small grow house over 2- 4x12 about 7 foot high If i cover with 2 layers of plastic I've grown kale spinach lettuce arugula parsley an other crops an has gotten -30 below zero but I have well sealed an put straw or bags of leaves around base

[@davidstick9207]

Very simplistic and not quite right. But everyone thinks they are a "breeder". Unfortunately none of them have taken a quantitative genetics class.