My granddad had a 500 acre farm when I was growing up. It was what he did after he retired. All us grand kids used to spend our summer "vacation" there. Hardest work I ever did in my life. August was a real bitch. Round these part the humidity is like 80 percent in August and you got crops coming in, hay to put up, canning, etc.
It did have some good points. Ate really well. Homemade ice cream. Fresh strawberries. Fresh melon. Fresh eggs. Fresh veggies. Bread baked in a wood stove. 
All in all I say it was worth it.
Dummies think those old farmers and their wives don't know their shit... well they need to spend a summer on a farm.
I was raised on a 533 acre dairy farm. Learned to drive tractors by age 6 (International 460 and Farmall H). My Dad grew up during the Great Depression, along with his sister and 7 brothers. He knew carpentry, plumbing, mechanics, masonry, and what he didn't know, he learned it (this was pre-internet, that meant attending some type of class.) We canned, we put a cow and a pig or two in the freezers every year for sausage, pork chops, steaks, roasts, and lots of hamburger. We canned from our garden, corn, green beans, sauerkraut, jellies and fruit spreads. We survived Jimmy Carter (barely) and thrived under Reagan.
Dad had an aunt who would cook on a wood stove, she was ALWAYS baking something, and her house ALWAYS smelled WONDERFUL!!!

My senior year in HS, I spent the entire month of January (1977) at home because schools were closed, due to very cold weather, snow, a lengthy coal miner's strike, and a natural gas shortage. I swore I would NEVER complain about hot weather ever again, and God must have heard me, because that August, we set 20 record high temps! I never complained, and I haven't yet!
Dad passed all this down to me and my brothers, and we passed it down to my kids. Although none of us farm anymore, and our farm is now part of a 1,200 acre industrial park, what we learned can't be taught in a classroom, or read from a book. That was a work ethic, and self-reliance. We are a bureaucrat's worst nightmare, because to us, they are as useful as "teats on a boar hog". (IF you need an explanation of that phrase, PM me and I'll tell you.

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