Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Local farmer trades family farm for one in Farmville--says it's more profitable and less stress

I have never played Farmville, but all my friends on Facebook do. They all seem to think it's really fun.

Here's why I don't play Farmville (I played Tetris in school): Link to video

I can't fathom why anyone would want to pretend to farm. Doing it for real is bad enough! (This girl thinks 300 coins for a cow is bad, try $1000!)

Now I hear that virtual farms are becoming as dangerous as the real kind.

This morning on the CBS Early Show, I was alerted to a new scam that farmers in Farmville are dealing with.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Now, not only do farmers have to worry about getting their arms torn off in the auger, they have to watch out that they aren't racking up hundreds in cell phone bills besides!

When my now husband proposed to me 14 years ago, he asked if I would like living on a farm, to which I replied, "Sure. What's not to like?"

Now, with a few good years (and a whole lot more terrible ones) under my belt, I can safely answer that question--Lots.

Here is a short list:

1) Weather is not small talk--it is the biggest and most stress inducing subject of the day.
2) No paid vacation, holidays, overtime, or health insurance.
3) The combine repair comes before the dishwasher repair.
4) Single parenting during planting and harvest.
5) Your tractor is worth more than your house--way more.
6) It will take 50,000 bushels of barley to pay for the fertilizer it took to grow 30,000 bushels.


Somehow, the math isn't the same in Farmville. Farmers in Farmville are making money hand over fist.

Which is why I've decided to trade up.

We are going to be virtual farmers from now on. At first glance, there seem to be a lot of good reasons to go digital. I think this is something that warrants further exploration.

Here is my pros vs cons list:

Pros to virtual farming:
1) No government paperwork.
2) Access to fields from anywhere in the world--no need to live in dial-up country anymore!
3) No tracking mud across my floors.
4) No greasy ripped pants to mend.
5) No trips to the ER when limbs become entangled in machinery.

Cons to virtual farming:
1) No real income made--wait, how is this different from real farming?
2) No fresh air (take the laptop outside)
3) Can't actually see plants grow and chew grain kernels to see when ripe (I really can't fix this one)
4) Will really miss the gals at the FSA office.
5) No more flirting with insurance rep to get a better payout on crop losses.
6) My daughter will miss the rides in the combine.

OK, so it is a toss-up. I guess the Erdman Farm will continue here in first life for another year--at least until Farmville can figure out how to give virtual combine rides.
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5 comments:

  1. KelsiNovember 12, 2009 at 10:39 AM

    I would like to start off by saying, I love Tetris! I do not play Farmville, but a lot of my friends do and they have become addicted to it. Hence, why I am staying away from it, because I find it pointless and a waste of my time. It may seem better to virtually farm, but it does not give the profit or the food produced like on real farms. Combine rides are definitely good memories of farms and those will be hard to replace.

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  2. HeatherNovember 12, 2009 at 3:19 PM

    I would like to be the first to congratulate you and your husband on your new status as virtual farmers! I can only imagine the decrease in stress and financial outlay that making that change will do for you! Perhaps I should convince my father, a farmer born and bred, that virtual farming is the new way to go…hmmm….just imagine…

    Seriously now, what you described sounds like more of a fantasy land than a virtual farm! Farmville sounds like just another way for people to escape real life with bills and poor grain prices to a land where tractors are paid for in cash and you always make money on your crops!

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  3. BGSNovember 13, 2009 at 10:00 AM

    When I moved from downtown Columbus Ohio to York Pennsylvania my husband thought it would be great to live on a farm which included feeding cattle twice a day. I thought what the heck this could be an adventure.

    Looking back I wonder if maybe I was blinded by love because I surely wasn’t seeing how hard and rodent ridden living on the farm would be not to mention, cows smell bad.

    A couple of things I learned:
     Older farm houses in PA do not have heated upstairs just holes in the floor to allow heat tor rise. Brrrrrr!
     Farm houses attract bugs, mice and snakes – Things that make me scream!
     I like living in the city!

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  4. AnonymousNovember 15, 2009 at 2:19 PM

    This may have been the best blog post I've ever read. I grew up on a farm, so you are preaching to the choir. There are a lot of things that can go wrong and make life difficult. But, I would not have wanted to grow up anywhere else. Farmville is nothing like the real thing, but for people who don't know any better I suppose it might seem like it. I would like to see some people who are really good at playing Farmville try out real farming for year.

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  5. Alyssa RoseMaryNovember 15, 2009 at 9:33 PM

    Your blog was really entertaining! I too wish I could make a profit in Farmville. Although I don’t play it now, if I could make money off it I would definitely consider. I didn’t personally grow up on a farm, but I did grow up in a farming community. Almost all of my friends lived on farms and I know that their parents struggled and continue to struggle now to make money to support their families. Farming is such an old, storied occupation and it’s sad that many can barely get by. I can’t see that changing anytime soon, but I hope that one day it is profitable for most to continue on with this way of life.

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