To be jealous of Amanda Owen (Yorkshire Shepherdess)

[AliceAbsolum]

Her life just looks amazing. Yes obviously hard at times and not perfect. But 9 lovely children, she's gorgeous, kind husband, successful career, meaningful job and being able to spend time outdoors with her family. All the animals and space.
What I'd give for that life!

@EdenFlower

I'm sure Raven helped with the younger ones a lot, but she would have been at school every day herself- who looked after the little ones while mum and dad were out on the farm feeding animals etc. I don't believe the kids spent full days out working with them! I'm pretty sure there must be help. Even small farms I've been to have some workers to do some of the graft- it's not a one man/woman job!

Amanda did.

Yes she's out on the farm but her main job before she had to ham up her involvement in the farming side of things for the tv was running the tea shop there and looking after the house/kids.

Anyone who knows anything about the type of sheep they have know that Amanda's propensity for wearing bangles indicates that it's unlikely she's elbow deep in the sheep race all hours of the day.

Definitely not that many kids, the thought makes me sweat, but one or two and that kind of lifestyle would have its charms!

Farming is a piece of piss compared to a properly hard life, like being a single mum on a council estate with no support, or working a crappy job on minimum wage around caring for your elderly relatives, or being trapped in a 9-5 that you hate but can’t leave because of your mortgage.

It’s an amazing lifestyle, organising your own time, totally free to stop and chat to the neighbours, have lunch and tea breaks (lots) whenever you want them, knowing that you’re working for yourself and not some 23 year old smart arse line manager who could have you disciplined for having a 34 minute lunch.

Sheep farmers work hard during lambing and for a few weeks after. Then it’s basically part time for the rest of the year unless you can’t manage your time properly.

Arable farmers work hard in summer and for a bit whilst sowing and spraying. Otherwise it’s basically free time.

Dairy farmers to be fair do work every day, I’ll give them that. But usually with relief millers.

Yes farming is hard work but 24 hours/365 days is a total myth. Farmers moaning about their work whilst living a fairly enviable lifestyle is going to turn the public off one of these days.

It’s hard work - like any job. But not relentlessly hard. And with so many perks. You don’t hear of many quitting to go live in a town and work in Lidl, do you?

There, I said it…

@sunnyandshare

I get the impression she's a bit of a narc. I remember one episode where Raven was basically rolling her eyes at everything she said. I'm not surprised she's not an attentive parent, in her book she says herself that she left her newborn in SCBU and didn't visit it for over a week as she didn't see the point

yikes. that's cold.

Farming 100 years ago before machinery, modern technology, central heating and quad bikes….that really was a hard life though!

Moonbabby

Have you lived all these different lifestyles personally? You seem to have incredibly detailed knowledge about a range of different lifestyles, some of which I personally know is grossly inaccurate.

Also... Is this a competition? Can you really compare in this way? Is it helpful to try?

I await your life story in which you grew up on a sheep farm, spent your teen years as a single mum on an estate before a quick stint in arable followed by dairy...

I don't know how jealous I am of her as there are swings and roundabouts to living her life, but the child that I was is very jealous (sadly even envious) of her childrens' upbringing. I think that I would have been a much stronger and fullfilled person now, if I had had their childhood, and I wish I could have given my children their childhood.

I do have a detailed knowledge about farming lifestyles yes because I live it, and I do have a detailed knowledge about genuinely hard lives as I see them through my own work which is rather not detail as it’s a bit outing.
All some farmers do is moan about how hard their lives are and perpetuate the 24/7 365 days a year grind myth. Just really irks me. Not least because it will stop the public supporting us some day in the not too distant future.

she says herself that she left her newborn in SCBU and didn't visit it for over a week as she didn't see the point

That's a harsh reading. I understood her to be saying she was caring for little ones at home and multiple stressors and couldn't bring herself to become bonded due to past trauma. She seems extremely attentive to me, especially the home movie episodes where she's not trying to include a camera crew.

You really don't need men to bring other women down do you. They do it all themselves.

moon

I can only hope you're being facetious because you're talking absolute bollocks. Farming is an incredibly intense lifestyle. Perhaps you have lots of hired help.

Sheep farmers work hard during lambing and for a few weeks after. Then it’s basically part time for the rest of the year unless you can’t manage your time properly

I don't think you know very much about sheep! Or hill farms. Or Mule Gimmers.

And what about those of us who do more than one type of farming at the same time?

We lamb sheep from end of March - to early May. It's relentless long days during that time. Immediately after lambing we go in to calving.

Throughout summer the sheep and lambs are gathered on and off the fells for tailing, marking, worming, vaccinating, drenching, cliking spaining, shearing, marking again.

We spend all summer planning for winter, sorting pipes out, chopping wood, making gates hang properly, cleaning out sheds.

During that time we also have to bring in all the fodder for the winter. From September onwards we spend endless days sorting out gimmer lambs. Selling gimmer lambs. Then another calving block.

Throughout all this time it's a constant battle finding time to get muck out onto fields, fertiliser out onto the fields, spraying dockings, spraying thistles, shepherding sheep, putting walls up, TB testing.

Winter is an endless round of feeding sheep, feeding cows, building walls, sorting sheep's feet out, squelching through mud for 5 months in the dark and rain. Defrosting pipes and breaking the ice in water troughs.

We literally get a week off in June.

And our nearest neighbours are several miles away!

I’m not being facetious no. Yes it’s an ‘intense lifestyle’ but it’s not the constant toiling grind it’s presented as. It’s just not.

@Moonbabby

Farming 100 years ago before machinery, modern technology, central heating and quad bikes….that really was a hard life though!

With far fewer animals and far far more staff

I am laughing at the idea that sheep farming is part time most of the year. The majority of families in our valley are sheep farmers - they all seem not to have noticed this!

Throughout summer the sheep and lambs are gathered on and off the fells for tailing, marking, worming, vaccinating, drenching, cliking spaining, shearing, marking again.

Yes but not every day. You can tail, drench and clik 1500 lambs in 3 days with two people and good dogs. Jobs done then. For example.

I’m not going to argue the toss or go through every point you made, I’m not bothered if I win on the internet tonight. Farming is hard work, but it’s not relentless every day, there are many tea breaks and you are completely master of your own time planning.
I predict a turning of public opinion if farmers keep moaning the way they do, which is what concerns me as we do need the public on side!

I don't think moon's post is an argument worth engaging with.

Perhaps she's a lady farmer with fetlock tugging labourers in the cottages. Perhaps she's a social worker with a farmer relative who doesn't seem to do as much as she does and resents it. Whatever the reality, she's down a rabbit hole.

But do stop suggesting farmers are part time dossers if you wish the public to respect them moon. I have never seen a more anti-farming post so you're creating negative propaganda all by yourself. You also do not know what other farmers do to survive.

@Eastridingclub

I don't think moon's post is an argument worth engaging with.

Perhaps she's a lady farmer with fetlock tugging labourers in the cottages. Perhaps she's a social worker with a farmer relative who doesn't seem to do as much as she does and resents it. Whatever the reality, she's down a rabbit hole.

Nope, nope and nope.

But you do seem to get a lot of vitriol if you point out that farming is anything less than backbreaking toil a la monty python’s four yorkshiremen sketch, and is actually not a bad lifestyle. So I retreat as I’m not feeling up to vitriol this week 👍

@Moonbabby "It’s hard work - like any job. But not relentlessly hard. And with so many perks. You don’t hear of many quitting to go live in a town and work in Lidl, do you?"

No, but it does have one of the highest suicide rates as jobs go.

I can only assume that the farms you have been on are lucky or you did not see the whole picture - my DH starts at 4.45am EVERY DAY unless we actually go away somewhere. And yes, it is very busy all year round and we do employ people to lighten the load as much as we can. I know plenty of different types of farmers and they do not fit what you have described.

I would literally pay somebody to not lead that life.

@Eastridingclub

I don't think moon's post is an argument worth engaging with.

Perhaps she's a lady farmer with fetlock tugging labourers in the cottages. Perhaps she's a social worker with a farmer relative who doesn't seem to do as much as she does and resents it. Whatever the reality, she's down a rabbit hole.

Wow, that’s really not necessary.

I love the language they all use, it's so positive, they praise constantly.

She’s basically an influencer now isn’t she? She’s monetising her lifestyle and her children in the same way as a Mrs Hinch or similar. It’s not what I’d want to do at all, it seems a precarious way to exist.

@itssquidstella

Her children don't go to school, do they? Not for me. Children need GCSEs!

Yes they do!!

Really so sad to hear about the marriage problems in the family. Apparently she has moved out and left her husband with all the kids! Very sad. It’s not all over. They are ‘working on it’.