A guy at lunch asked me how did you get where you are today? We shared our stories and I learned a lot about him. When I got back to my office I thought about it while posting on Tman.

In some of our spirited discussions, we assume too much about other Tman members. I am guilty of it. A little sharing may give all of us some perspective. I am happy to start.

My story:

I did not plan on going to college. I started mowing yards and doing other odd jobs in the town where I grew up when I was 13 or 14. I was painting houses by the age of 16, but also worked with an electrician from to 16 to 18. I had to work hard because our mother raised three of us and I was expected to pay my way as soon as I could contribute financially. My grandparents helped when they could.

I intended to be an electrician, but when I graduated high school I went to work in the oilfield. I decided after some time to go to college. A great boss encouraged me to do it and allowed me to schedule work around classes during the fall, winter and spring. He would also let me work 6 to 7 days a week on school breaks and in the summer. My boss was also a hunter so we made some time for that too. The oilfield paid my way through college and law school. I kept that job until I got my first legal job--about a year before I took the bar exam. I will never forget how much I hated being in an office. It was years before I got used to it and still might not be.

I hunted and fished since I was little but never trapped until I about five years after I bought the first part of my farm. I had always wanted a farm and worked hard to get it. I have added on over the years and will haunt my kids if they ever sell it. I have now trapped for 15 years (I think) and am still learning.

To this day, most of my friends are farmers and oilfield guys. My far right libertarian (and sometimes centrist republican) political opinions drive a few of them nuts too.

If you are willing to share your story with Tman, I would really like to read it. I do not think some of us are as different as it may look in the political spats. Let's hear it.

Good story Blaine Co!

I was born on the same piece of dirt I still reside on. My folks were both educators and farmers. Before he retired my dad gave each of his six kids 5 acres of the original farm. When I went off to Ag school out of high school my goal was to learn as much as I could about farming from college and the rest would be the practical that I learned on the farm. I felt called to serve my country in some form and entered the Peace Corps a few years after college. Spent 2 years working on an agro-forestry project in the amazon basin of eastern Ecuador. Learned fluent Spanish and eventually married a latina. (Then another). Spanish is the language we speak in home.

I have been small scale fruit farming ever since I returned from my service to the country. (I hope that anybody that has also served his/her country in the military might take no offense at my saying I (also) served my country in the "Corps").

Except for the two years in South America I have trapped every winter since age 15. Many (if not most) of those years I was depending on my winter income from trapping to help make it through until berry season. Or to make school expenses while in college. (Much easier in the late 70's)!!!!

Very cool Beaverpeeler.

Well I started out with nothing and still have most of it left ..

I bet you have a good story to tell. We've pieced together some of it from you posts, but let's hear it.

And Thumper said: "if ya can't say something' nice....don't say nuthin' at all".

I spent most of my riches on wine women and song. The rest I just sorta wasted!

Come on, guys. I think we all know BC is quite left leaning but y'all don't have to be total jerks. I think his post is an interesting idea.

I am watching.

Tell yours!

I grew up hunting, fishing and trapping in central Iowa. Went to the University of Northern Iowa after high school, mainly because I was supposed to do something but didn't really know what that was. I majored in English mainly because it was the only subject I didn't struggle with! With my new degree I began a newspaper editing job. Long hours and very low pay. About a year in I was offered a job with an environmental compliance firm and took it. 30 years later and still in that field.

Graduated High School from a dirt Poor Family. Went into the Military and went to Bagdad during Desert Storm. Learned a Trade in Demolitions then got kicked out with a Medical ( Caused 100% Deaf in my right ear and only retained 43% in my left) Then went back to WV back to Coal Mining. Then was sent to College to finish my Degree to get my Shot Fire Certification, met my wife, then went back to Coal mining. Still Coal Mining. Must have some Brain Damage for sticking to it. Money is great but hard on the Body. Will retire in a year and Half and moving back to Wisconsin to spoil the Grandkids and teach them all of the things their Parents don't want them to know, like how to skin a skunk just before school so they can get an extra day off to check Traps with me. ( My Grandpa taught me that one and I believe Traditions should be kept) Might even set me up another still.

Graduated High School from a dirt Poor Family. Went into the Military and went to Bagdad during Desert Storm. Learned a Trade in Demolitions then got kicked out with a Medical ( Caused 100% Deaf in my right ear and only retained 43% in my left) Then went back to WV back to Coal Mining. Then was sent to College to finish my Degree to get my Shot Fire Certification, met my wife, then went back to Coal mining. Still Coal Mining. Must have some Brain Damage for sticking to it. Money is great but hard on the Body. Will retire in a year and Half and moving back to Wisconsin to spoil the Grandkids and teach them all of the things their Parents don't want them to know, like how to skin a skunk just before school so they can get an extra day off to check Traps with me. ( My Grandpa taught me that one and I believe Traditions should be kept) Might even set me up another still.

Keep it clean and respectable or imma just delete your posts, seriously all the bickering name calling and crap on all these posts lately is getting old. Call it woke or whatever dont care just knock it off

Grew up hunting , fishing , trapping,digging ginseng in southern Illinois graduated from college with a degree in earth sciences , never used it been in a brewery ever since always liked the job till the tranny bs…Jon

I hunted, fished and trapped from the time I could crawl, basically. I remember running "lines" of like 20 mousetraps in the gardens and fields behind the house in winter when I was 4 or 5, lol. Started trapping with footholds when I was 7. My first catch was a skunk, lol. Totally consumed with trapping and coon hunting until I was about 17 or so, when I started hanging out with a rowdy crowd and got more into the party scene.

I dropped out of school when I was 16 as I despised high school, took my GED, and was entering my third semester of college when my high school classmates were just starting their first semester of college. Graduated community college and went to SUNY Buffalo. That's when the party life I'd been living caught up with me. Dropped out of college before completing my bachelors, and spent the next 3 years or so wrapped up in booze and drugs. Finally got sick of that life, got clean, and went back to my roots of country living, trapping and hunting. That was 19 years ago.

Now I've been married for 16 years, I work as a supervisor of the garden center at Lowes, and I trap, hunt, fish, garden, can, forage, etc. Living on my dream homestead in the middle-of-nowhere-Mississippi.

I left a year long stint at Payless Cashways off my story. I worked in the garden center and really enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing your story.

Randall, we have some things in common. I don't drink anymore but when I retire I will grow championship quality herb and probably mushrooms--whether legal or not. Also, I can't hear out of my left ear from an oilfield incident.

Thank you for sharing your story.

It doesn't shock me you studied English. I enjoy your posts.

My wife was in the environmental consulting business and I handle a bunch of environmental cases.

My undergraduate degree is in something similar. It was fun for a kid that grew up hunting and fishing. It also helps a guy who had to learn how to operate a farm. Thanks for sharing your story.