>I had the same thought about my grandfather who was raised on a dairy ranch in San Francisco. Get up in the dark to milk at 5 AM and again at 5 PM. Then enjoy the other chores that had to be done by the light of a kerosene lamp.
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>9 PM was bedtime and you worked until then. My grandfather even after retirement from the City of San Francisco got up at 5 AM and went to bed at 9 PM sharp.
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>Farming and ranching require long hard hours! Just a few summers on my uncles ranch taught me that!!!!! :)
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I sent one March/April period on my cousin's husband's farm in Ontario. The water supply to the barn was still perma-frozen underground. To help water the cattle in the barn I had to clamber through mud, cock over an electrified fence (just inches from my "commutator"), slip down a grassy bank, to a drainage ditch, to get 2 buckets of water. Then I'd return to the barn. 2 calves would suck this all up in seconds then I'd have to repeat this all again, over and over.

The farmer was also a retired teacher. He used to get up in the morning, feed and water the stock, then drive 2 hours to his school, teach all day, then 2 hours home and tend to the stock again. Yes, farming is hard work up in Canada. In England the stock were eating fresh green grass in April, whereas in Ontario they were still eating alf-alfa hay cos the grass hadn't started growing yet.