jumpinfarmer

I'm affraid I may get in the same position. I live in the north so most likely I'll only get to jump six months a year. Durring the winter I plow snow so I'm limmited as to when I can get away for a vacation to warmer weather. The most restricting thing is that I'm a farmer and never can plan anything durring the summer because I never know when I'll have to do something. Saturday and Sunday are no differant than the rest of the week when there is work to be done. I do find that I can sneek away differant times for a day or two. Thats what I like about skydiving, as long as the weather is right and the DZ is open you can always make a jump. You just need to be ready to go at the drop of a hat.

I've cut my lawn with a haybine and later baled it to get rid of the grass. Does that count?

Something with little or no tread is good I assume.

I want to know what I should look for in a pair of shoes to jump with. I've been jumping with an old pair of sneekers that are shot. I just want to replace them and would like to know if there are any things to avoid in a jump shoe. Thanks

I willingly got on a plane that I had no intention of landing in. Boy has it changed my life. Thanks goes out to Symond Powell and Rob Burwell my AFF instructors for my first three jumps. As well as all the folks at Frontier Skydivers my home DZ here in Western NY.

Same with me Oct. 25, 2003. It's been a long winter and hopefully next week I'll get in the air. I just thought about it and today is my one year birthday to the sky.

What happened? I hope they will be allright.

At manifest at the DZ. I only go up in planes, I've never come down in one.

Well I guess you could say I own three businesses. The first and most important is the farm. It's also what holds me back form being able to plan anything in advance since I never know just what I'll be doing. The next is a snowplowing business. This keeps me pretty much grounded in the winter since I have to be around whenever it's going to snow. I hate not being able to go away in the winter but, I make enough to pay for a new truck every few years and still have enough left to pay the morgage on the farm. The last is I sell seed for two differant companies. I don't make much money but it's almost all proffit and I get most of my seed for the farm at a real discount. I don't think I could ever work for someone else I'm to set in my ways. The only time I've ever worked for someone else was doing farm work anyway.

I know what you meen I've got to go to my Aunts in town for Easter. I'll have to find something constructive to do in the morning though. I've got to get caught up on my work so when the weather finaly breaks I can spend my free time in the air.

I just got my check from the great state of NY today $3143.20. I had to pay the Federal Government $156. So thats not to bad since I don't have to pay anything all year being a farmer. Tax time made me money this year.

I've done it a couple of times. It is part of our coach jumps at my DZ.

If you have an interest go for it. The fire service has many rewards, like skydiving firefighters are a family.

If you only knew what was inadvertantly in your food you would probably die from starvation. When I was a kid we had a barn full of rat infested wheat. We sold it along with all the rat turds to an elevator that shipped it directly to a Hostess flour mill in PA. For a long time know one in our family would eat anything from Hostess. I could tell a thousand discusting stories about the food we all consume, however I don't think anyone cares.

I hear ya there. Almost no one from my department will come out and try a jump. Although it was the stories from a fellow firefighters tandem that sparked my interest in the first place.

I've watched the world go by from the seat of a John Deere all my life and have never got sore about someone else having fun when I couldn't. That said some land owners are real assholes and should not be allowed to own land. Skydivers are not going to scare cows or ruin crops and the land owner knows it. The McNastys out there I think mostly don't like the airport being next door.

Sorta the same thing happened to me. I never knew what the F word ment till like maybe 4th grade when I said it to the school principal. i was in his office for swearing at the teacher of all things. I managed to talk my way out of it though, pled ignorance.

I'm almost 30 and never knew that untill right now. I feal like a real dumbass.

With heart pounding and legs like Jello I thumed through it while eating my lunch. I'm glad no one saw what I did or I'd never live it down. Although at supper tonight I was asked about the skidmarks in the road. I guess it must have been a cat or something, I replied.

I like to ride around and check my crops at differant times, but would never get sore at a trespasser that had no intention of being there. What I meen to say is that if someone falls out of the sky it's not there fault where they land, at least most of the time. I've seen many baloons land on our farm over the years and only once was there any real dammage and that was an unplaned landing. The baloonist paid and that was it. If he never paid it would not have broken us, it was only like $150 damage. Unless a skydiver realy tried I don't think he or she could possibly do more than $25 damage to any crop and most of the time far less than that. As for if the land owner could be sued by the trespasser if he got hurt on his land. In NY there is whats called the general obligation law that protects land owners from lawsuits by trespassers as well as invited guests. I myself have always felt that while the land belongs to me I have a responsibility to the public by letting them also have some enjoyment from it. I don't want the whole population walking around on it but, I do think that if someone wants to hunt, snowmobile, take a walk, skydive, or anything else like that I should atleast let them do it once. If they turn out to be assholes then they can't come back but most people aren't and I have very little trouble with trespassers on over 1000 acres. I'm starting to ramble so I'd better cut it off there.

Well I went to get the mail this noon and there it was the April Parachutist. I was so interested looking at it that I walked right in front of a lumber truck as I crossed the road. Lucky for me he had good breaks. Would this have been an incident if I had got killed or badly hurt?

I want to add that I want to go the WFFC at least once.

Way to go!

I guess I always wanted to try it. Two years ago I stoped at Skydive Ill. on the way out to see friends in IA. I just asked some questions and then chickened out and left. Last spring I made the same trip and this time I said to myself your doing it weather you like it or not. I did and at first I didn't like it. The tandem was like riding on the back of someone elses motor cycle, you went for a ride but didn't have any controle. On the return trip I decided to try it again this time AFF and that did it the first AFF jump hooked me. The rest is history.

Mine are prety simple. Go to all 50 states at least once. Try BASE jumping Have a family Own a CAT tractor.