My life in farming was a hard toil, it was made worse by the tormenting and strange characters that came my way. My gas-tight farmer colleagues were decades behind the times and the awkward and peculiar people who I worked with belonged in a bygone era.I fell into a unique niche, a crack in time where these characters still existed, the old farming world was struggling to work in parallel with modern times. The townspeople were too far removed from the old simple ways to appreciate country ways, and it caused problems. They plagued me whilst I worked, they got in the way and caused a load of confusion. They would ask stupid questions and had no common sense. The old farm scene made me hard-faced and then it dwindled away, leaving me floundering between two worlds. I was cheated by fate. I then went to work in the town for a while, this made me realize how my old life had made me different. Farmers are different from the masses. I have written about the differences and trouble it causes. The farmer types I write about in this book are the hard life types who were born into it. I do not write about gentleman or landlord farmers, or the romantics who draw attention to how lovely their farm is. I write about the ones in overalls and ragged overcoats who dressed for necessity and who were dirty from work, they would have a pained look on their face. The farmer can be difficult to approach, making him or her appear cold, or even ignorant. They can come across as dismissive and suspicious, even hateful, and ruthlessly blunt to the point of being belittling. I have been on the receiving end of it and, later in life, I would be the one dishing it out. I now understand the reasons why and it's these reasons I hope to explain.