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I can't say as have any particular "fears"; at least if one is going to succeed farming one pretty much has to cope with whatever phobias one has regarding all of the areas mentioned (or find something else to do. :) ).
A healthy dose of prudence and good practice goes a long way as well as, of course, some knowledge of most "trades" goes with the territory simply from the broad needs to deal with 'em all...
For me, it's ladders over about six feet.
Many of the same tasks can be done much more safely with a Sawzall, or other brand of recip.
The one time I tried to take a tree out of my yard, I used a recip and a LOT of white cheap blades from HF. They go smooth in a hurry when used on tree roots.
On the flipside, which do I enjoy? Heating and AC.
Nothing like the satisfying look on the customer face when the heat or AC comes back on.
Old grey haired logger went to town, and bought a chain saw. Came back on his next trip to town, brought it back. Only used it a couple times. Doesn't work.
Store guy takes it out back, puts in some gas, and pull the rip cord.
From front of the counter: "What the hell is that noise!"
I'm afraid of heights mostly because I don't have good balance when on a ladder.
Per Stormin Mormon:
That was good for a grin.... Thanks.
Not a repair - just maintenance...
But I get a kick out of both grinding up leaves and blowing deep snow.
In both I feel like Shiva The Destroyer on the loose...
I run a farm too, even though it's mostly just a hobby, since I am retired. And I often have to cope with large machines that break down and a lot of other things that the average guy would not touch. But I am always safe. If my haybine plugs up, I shut the tractor off before I touch anything. I see far too many farmers with missing fingers, even arms, because they are/were careless. When I work on electricity, I shut the power off. If I'm using a chainsaw and it gets stuck in the tree, I shut it off before I try to unstick it, and so on....
But when it comes to heights, there is nothing to shut off. If I have to use an extension ladder, I will tie it to my tractor or truck bumper so it cant slip or fall, but still, when I go up that ladder and my knees begin to shake, just because I'm fearful of heights, then it's time to pay someone else to do the job.
There is a local teenage boy who is always looking to make some spending money, and he has no fear of heights at all. If my yard light bulb burns out, I'd rather give him $10 to change it, than get myself all jittery. Plus, when he goes up the ladder, I hold the ladder for him so it dont rock on the round pole.
I got a laugh out of him last summer. There was a fairly large dead tree branch which was cracking, right above my horses. I did not want it to fall on them, so I asked if he would cut the branch. I got out my bow saw, some rope, and a tall extension ladder for him to use. I moved the horses away from the area. The boy arrived, riding his horse. He took my rope, tied a wrench to it, tossed it over the branch. It took him 3 tries to get it. Then he took both ends of the rope, tied them to his saddle horn, got on his horse and rode off until the branch came crashing down. I was quite impressed. That's when he told me that he is not afraid of heights, but he had a tree branch fall on him once when helping his uncle trim a tree, and he's afraid of having that happen again.
Although I have a gas powered chainsaw, I use my electric one far more. They dont involve mixing gas, then draining it from the saw at the end of the job, nor pulling the rope a dozen or more times to start the saw, and all the other "hassles" involved with gas chainsaws. I like to just plug it in, and go to work. Of course when it comes to large tree trunks, then I need the larger gas powered chainsaw.
And, yea, the electric ones dont kick back nearly as much. Plus they are a lot ligher when working from a ladder.
NY taxes. It was only about 20 miles over to Bennington. It was a two way road. At the time the drinking age in NY was 18 and the bars stayed open until 3 AM. Vermont kids would come over, get shitfaced, and kill themselves on the way home.
My favorite was when NH built a state store on I95 right over the border from MA. Easy access, open seven days a week, and, yes, we take all major credit cards. NH doesn't have an income tax or sales tax so it has to make a buck somehow.
When I lived in MA my out of state jaunts were to Somers, CT. I worked six days a week and the stores were all closed for the sabbath in the Puritan state so if i need groceries it was off to CT or Abe's Kosher Market. Abe's was closer but he didn't have much in the way of bacon or pork chops.
The guy that mowed my lawn for years died so I got into lawn care and bought a mulching lawnmower. The internet says mulching grass is better than raking it up and I said 'Hell, yeah, I can do that!' It also says mulching leaves way good. Pushing the thing through piles of leaves and seeing them reduced to confetti was okay too.
My snow removal device is about 4 feet long and has a handle on one end so I can live without deep snow, thank you very much.
Chain saw AND ladder gives me pause - - - .Particularly my remington because if it doesn't start on the first pull it's liable to throw me off the ladder. It's a high compression little rascal that kicks like a mule.
My dad would climb any ladder. Before his knees went, he'd climb any pole with stirrups and a belt. As a young guy he worked building an arena, running along the ridge pole carrying lumber - but get him into a tree??????/ Nope!! Seems he'd stepped on one too many dead branches that dissappeared under his feet.
Took down a cherry tree taller than my 2 story house - all except the last 6 feet of trunk (over 2 feet across) with a 10 inch electric chainsaw on a fiberglass pole.
I was about 4 years old, when my grandpa let a extension ladder up at our dining room window. he went to get stuff to complete the job.
i was still wearing those had baby shoes and climbed the unattended ladder to look for a toy that somehow ended up in a rose bush under the dining room window..... i remember my one and only ever look in that window from the outside.
my mom found me on that ladder and screamed a lot..
i think this made me afraid of heights, although I have done roof work on my own home. and a good bit of ladder work.
I hurt my knee bad when i was 40, and at 58 am having trouble walking. and need a knee replacement.
so ladder work is kinda out of the question these days.....
I was never fond of mowing lawns or raking leaves -- seasonal allergies (plus the fact that you had to do it -- lawn -- OFTEN!)
Blowing snow, OTOH, was an infrequent event. You didn't have to *plan* on doing it every week!
There's also a big difference if you can choose *when* it has to be cleared out. If you have to clear the driveway before heading off to work at some insane hour (e.g., before noon!), then it's a royal PITA! OTOH, if you can let it sit there for a few hours -- or days -- then it's much easier to deal with!
Last week I sprained/strained my right knee and haven't the slightest idea of how I did it. I just woke up last Weds morning and it was sore, then it started popping, and it started hurting. My husband has been through 2 knee surgeries and I really didn't want to do that myself, so I began wrapping and icing it (initially), and then I upped my daily intake of glucosamine. I took ibuprofen, and kept wrapping it with an ace bandage, but the last couple of days the pain has almost disappeared, and it only occasionally will POP when I move it in an odd direction. I'm sure hoping it'll keep healing up on it's own.
It only takes one time to learn a lesson like that!
You need to strengthen the knee -- muscles, ligaments, etc. -- so these tissues help support it.
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