Firstly I love threads like this. It's interesting to see what some people do for a living and AS attracts all walks of life.
I'm 37 years old and the Senior Horticultural Agronomist at Landmark (agricultural company) which was recently purchased by Agrium which no doubt many Canadians and Americans have heard of. I graduated from a well respected Agricultural College in 1995. Good job but very busy and time consuming (in fact about to get worse as my offsider resigned on Friday). My job does about 80,000km a year seeing growers/farmers and giving them technical advice on what chemicals, rates etc to use and proper application and mixing advice. I also have to design fertiliser programs based around plant tissue reults etc. I also have to understand bad english from Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, and Indian customers/clients that don't speaky too good. Even worse when they try to explain a certain chemical or fertiliser they need when they don't know the active or trade name
I really enjoy it though but sometimes it cooks my brain dealing with the odd guy guy that should have gone on welfare instead of being involved with agriculture. Many growers are doing it tough here and I sometimes wonder whether I should be telling them how to successfully grow their crop or be their depression therapist
I do get a work vehicle and fuel cards though with my current job and get looked after well financially, especially since Agrium took over. They don't mind throwing money around that's for sure
I also have an after hours chainsaw and tree felling business which unfortunately I don't have the time available to crank right up. I'm concerned that if I get too big on the chain, bar etc sales I won't be able to service customers properly so at this stage am limiting business somewhat and certainly not expanding at any great rate. I do enjoy the felling side of things and also sell the wood as long as it's not something crappy like Pine etc.
Getting on the business end of a chainsaw is relaxing and I absolutely love it - it gives my brain a rest. If I could consistently earn the same money as my day job felling trees I'd drop Agronomy in a flash.
I also do the installations for my family's curtain and blind business which is probably only 3-4 days a month. Those days though are normally about 10 hours and you can drill a lot of holes in walls in that time