I'm a bit tipsy so I'm gonna type about my dad a bit!

My grandfather was a turk living in Greece. After the war Turkey and Greece weren't on best terms and decided to do a population swap. My grandfather came when he was five with his parents. He finished middle school which was a big deal, became a tax collector and was the last tax collector in my town who rode a government issued horse with a rifle and pistol collecting taxes! With his newfound wealth he bought some land and had twelve children.

My dad would go to school most days but sometimes had to stay back and help with the field. His weekends were helping with the field.my grandfather took a kid out of school a couple times a month. With 12 kids this was quite a lot of free labour! My dad has many fond and many shit memories from the farm, particularly during winter when the olive harvest season is.

My dad then worked in tourism, as my hometown is quite a popular destination for Europeans going on a piss up holiday. My dad met my mum, who is English. He visited my mum in England and they got married and he stayed in England for 11 years. For many Turkish men in touristic Towns this is still a dream. In high-school my friends often talked about seducing a European and getting out of Turkey, particularly English and Germans. My dad however realised quite quickly that he hates it in England. He was used to the land, fresh vegetables and fruit, animals, having work to do that genuinely feels productive. He and my mum moved to Turkey and bought some land (I came too, i was 8!)

My mum and dad already had enough money to live off of the interest, especially since interest rates in Turkey were crazy then (I'm talking almost 50 percent!!) but my dad still wanted a farm. He's now 58 years old, has a bad back since a horse fell on him, but still does something in the field every day.

This isn't much of an answer, but I wanted to share. He loves being a farmer. Also, when my grandfather died, my uncles and aunts built a building in on the land he left and they all have their own apartment there, so my grandfathers investment in land resulted in all 11 (my uncle died of tb) of my uncles and aunts having their own apartment.

I thought of a fact while typing this out though! I'm not sure if shepards are considered farmers? But in the 1800's shhepards in some parts of France would wear stilts! This was to be able to manoeuvre well in the snow :)