The happiest times in my life were tipping trees and farming. Tipping trees was dangerous, but that was part of the fun. It also paid my bills while I was having a bit of a sabbatical from the stress of a five year (supposedly could be done in four, having a job prevented that…) engineering program and then an ass kicking in a pressure cooker heavy civil job. I loved it, and still do. I love running a saw, heavy rigging for a big tower or swing yarder, getting out ahead a building a road in based solely on what you think is right (with a few limitations) and working around a fun crew. It was taxing, outdoors and I went home tired every night. Except for fires, then we went back to fire camp with our asses really dragging, often physically beat up. I also learned about White’s, Wesco and Nicks boots there, which is invaluable knowledge. Still a lot of fun.
Farming was fun maybe because I was younger and I never had to work with cows or sheep. But it was the same thing, outdoors, tiring, and fun. Lots of chucking hay/straw bales, building fences, some tractor work, repairing barns, the like. I got a good understanding of working on heavy(er) mechanical systems there tearing tractors apart. It was a lot of fun, and I was happy.
The other common thread there, that is not shared with outdoor creers (see: heavy civil construction, hard rock mining) is that there’s nothing really nasty in what’s handled every day. Concrete is nasty stuff, curing compound is worse and a lot of vat leaching chemicals are really bad. Ever hooked up 18” live sewer? It’s nasty. Or digging through a brownfield site… Man that’s bad. In farming probably the worst stuff I used was glyphosate, in solution as weed killer. Otherwise, maybe diesel? Or saw gas? Grease?
