Well, I grew up in a small town in Orygun (population 400) and most of my friends lived on farms (400... my friends called me a "city" kid
). I learned a lot from them (and their fathers) and most summers I worked picking berries and later (when I got bigger), bucking hay. So you could say I was "exposed" to farming, but was never a farmer myself. I was way too into high tech and science and math and all that stuff.
Lannie, however, was a
real city girl (grew up in Porkland, OR), and even though she had mostly office-type jobs (worked for moving companies and was an office manager at a couple places), farming has always been a dream of hers, so she studied it a lot.
I had driven out here to buy this place and took lots of pictures and we discussed whether this place would meet our "desires," then decided to go for it. Then we moved to the middle of nowhere (welcome to Beautiful Downtown Maurine, South Dakota, a ghost town, population 2 -
us). We already had horses (we brought three with us) and dogs and cats. We talked with neighboring ranchers after we got settled in, then Lannie found a guy who was experimenting with cross-breed cows (dairy and beef, you get milk and the cow can survive the cold better), so we bought Bandit, who was recently impregnated. Thus began the learning cycle, and we made a lot of mistakes, but Lannie was wise enough to join KFC (Keeping a Family Cow forum) and picked everyone's brains until she became a cow expert. Because Lannie is also an egg fanatic, we bought chickens, who made more chickens.
The farming expertise is primarily Lannie's area. I am just the hired hand. I lift heavy objects and shoot things that don't belong here.
I can build and repair fences and outbuildings, do electrical wiring as needed, mow the weeds, till the garden, help her with whatever she needs, but this is her baby and I just provide the support.