Picking pecans....

You know you live in a small town when farmers pay you to pick up their pecans. Ok that may not be a small town thing but it is in this small town. A girl I know parents own this big farm and they have several huge pecan trees and a lot of small pecan trees on both of their properties. And they are paying both me and another guy to go out there and pick up pecans for them. We are both on different parts of the property. It does not pay much .26 a pound but it gets me out of the house and making some extra spending money for me. Yesterday I picked 40lbs but I had my youngest son out there with me part of the day. So I spent a lot of time watching out for him. But he had fun he got to see cows, horses, chickens, big gardens. Today the hubby is off from work so after lunch I can go back by myself.

Even tho it does not pay much I like it because I can be by myself for hours on end in the quiet. Well minus the cows watching and mooing at me lol. I will leave today at 9:45am to go out there (2-3miles from my house) and come back at 11:45am for lunch and to get the boy off the bus. Then I will head back by 12.30pm and work till 4:00-4:30pm. I did 40lb yesterday so today my goal is 60-80lbs. Oh and this will last at least a few weeks with all the trees out there. And if I do at least 40lb a day thats 50$ extra dollars a week. Not much but works for me.

Mmm, pecans. Now I'm lusting for chocolate brownies with pecans.

As for the cows - moo back!!

Oh I hear ya. The whole time I was out there yesterday I was thinkign of pecan pies.

As for the cows when the get close and stare I just talk to them.

Do you pick any up for yourself?

That is hard work for $50 a week

Do they shake the trees and the pecans are on the ground??? I would make sure you stretch out your back very well as you might get a bit stiff!!

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

That is hard work for $50 a week

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Really! And the people paying now have 40Lbs of pecans all picked and sitting in front of them and all they had to do is pay someone $10.00.

Originally Posted by GailC

Do they shake the trees and the pecans are on the ground??? I would make sure you stretch out your back very well as you might get a bit stiff!!

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That brought back memories!!!! I grew up on a half acre of land that had several pecan and walnut trees. (Also grapes, a fig tree, peachcot (cross between a peach and apricot) tree and pomogranite tree). I remember my dad (he was in his 60's) climbing up those trees and shaking down to nuts. We would pick them up and eat them right off the ground. We gave bags to friends and neighbors too. These were the papershell pecans that were easy to crack.

Thanks for bringing back some good memories!

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

That is hard work for $50 a week

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Wow! No kidding! Not to mention the back pain from all of that bending.

Don't push yourself. You've have lots of health issues going on. You don't need to end up on total bed rest due to a bad back on top of everything else.

Plus I don't think the wages are even ethical. That even goes beyond slave labour wages.

Originally Posted by gemlady

Do you pick any up for yourself?

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I pick them and they keep them and pay me. I pick up off of the ground and shake or hit the branches I can reach. I have no idea what they are going to do with the high up ones. And really for me its not hard work. Its really quite easy. I don't stand up and bend over. I pick a spot with a lot of pecans on the ground I sit and pick all of them. Then move over or pick a new spot. And even then I get up and stretch every 30mins or so. Right now I am back home for a lunch break and then I go back out.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Wow! No kidding! Not to mention the back pain from all of that bending.

Don't push yourself. You've have lots of health issues going on. You don't need to end up on total bed rest due to a bad back on top of everything else.

Plus I don't think the wages are even ethical. That even goes beyond slave labour wages.

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Its just a couple of hours a day and I really don't mind.