OH my, I haven't thought about that saying for 20 years.
Heard it first and many-a-time in boot.

This is a fun thread!

We took Hereford heifers so wild they spent their first month here escaped in the woods to coming to a rattling grain can, walk in the stanchion on their own and we milked them with no problems.

We always told our kids "Can't" wasn't a word...can't can't 'cause he didn't try! DEE who adds that wood chips can be great in a garden if you don't happen to bring in bindweed with them that you are still fighting years later..........

1. the wood coals works for my sons' Blacksmithing projects too. They fire up a homemade stove, use an old hair dryer or a shop vac to heat it up more and forge away!

2. I was told wood chips would not work on a driveway or path but we used tons of wood chips and they work just fine. Some we dumped down 5 years ago and add to it now and then and the road or path is just fine.

3. I was told wood chips or piles of hay would ruin a garden but that is not true either. We piled tons of wood chips in two gardens and hay in another and it is just fine.

4. I was told Out Houses stink and are nasty but......we have two working Out Houses and they do not stink at all and work just fine.

5. I was told my husband and I would divorce if we lived in separate states but.....we have lived apart (part time - he is here Fri/Sat/Sun) for 8 years now and it works just fine.

6. When we started to Homeschool then people told us it can't be done AND the kids get into a College......but we Homeschooled just fine and older son already graduated 4 year college and 2nd son in college......still have the 12 year old but he is just fine too.

7. I was told I could not find a way to get the Spring Water up to the house from WAY WAY down the hill........but an Old Timer helped me and now I have 2 Cisterns each with 1200 gallons of pure cold spring water.......and it works just fine......

Thanks all for now.......I have to go see why coyote are howling behind the barn.......

I was told I couldn't start and run my own successful publication without a journalism degree, and I did...as a high school drop out.

I was told I couldn't last a winter in Alaska...now facing my fourth in a row and pleased as punch.

I was told I couldn't raise rabbits without a speck of land in a studio apartment that didn't allow pets indoors...and they absolutely thrived in the bed of my pick-up truck. :grin:

Next up, conquering "you can't make colony raising rabbits profitable". Anyone wanna place bets?:icecream:

I love reading the posts on this thread!!!! They are very interesting, and very encouraging.

I thought of another "It can't be done".

Back in '82 or so, my dad wanted to build a pole barn. Trusses weren't nearly as available or as widely used back then, as they are today. In today's building environment, you can buy trusses very reasonably from any home center like Menard's, and often have them delivered the next day. This was not the case in '82, at least in our area. All trusses were special ordered...and very expensive.

Dad got a price on manufactured trusses for the barn, and the price was sky high, not to mention the delivery costs.

Dad decided to build his own trusses, in the garage, and carry them out to the barn.

"They'll never last."
"They'll never work."
"It isn't worth the cost savings."
"The trusses are supposed to be engineered, and since yours aren't, they'll never last."

Those people obviously didn't know my dad well. He studied a number of engineered trusses, and then built his own.

Twenty eight years later, that barn, is still straight as an arrow. Knowing my dad's building skills, you could probably still adjust an 8 foot level on the ridge line of that barn!!!!

Cant
 

I don't post here often, I've been too critical of some posters in the past and would rather just read instead of hurting peoples feelings, that being said this thread is great!

-School guidance counselor wouldnt meet with me in HS, after bugging her several times she finally said "start applying at gas stations now, I've got plenty of kids that take school seriously to worry about". I actually liked her quite a bit. That was a bummer at the time.

-In metal shop (HS), after feeding an endmill too fast into a chunk of steel, it broke, busted a cinder block by the teachers desk. Teacher was plenty mad and said "Miller, you'll never amount to anything" thats kind of motivated me several times when I was younger.

-I was in college for engineering and working 60 hr weeks, quit to follow my girlfriend (now wife) 5 hrs away to another college and switch to health care full time, best friend/favorite uncle dressed me down and wouldn't talk to me for 2 years telling me I cant/shouldn't. Graduated 13 years ago, have been in business for 11 successfully. He did tell me it was a mistake before he died.

-When I went to tell my folks that I was marrying my gf of 2 years and adopting her 3 yo daughter, they spent about an hour telling me that I'm ruining my life, etc etc, till I had to walk out. Been married about 15 years now, kid turned out good too.

-On a lighter note, when we bought our farm I had to redo the upstairs, my builder buddy that was helping me drywall said YOU CANT DO THAT. The ceiling has angles on two sides to the flat of the attic. I'd measure and score the drywall bending it to the angle, screw it flat and not have to mud the seam at the angle. Worked out pretty good.

Theres lots more examples, like everyone else has I'm sure. If you do your best there's no shame in failure, the opposite is true as well however. I find what motivates me is that once I've determined my goal isn't that unrealistic, I start telling people close to me what the plan is, since I tend to do what I say, it usually ends up happening. My closest friends don't bother to say it won't work anymore.
YMMV

I could write a book on how many times I have been told it can't be done. This usually comes for dh. If I have a plan he balks and complains that it won't work and would be a mistake. I then wait a week or two and word the plan in such a way that he feels it is his idea and when the project is done he takes all the praise for the plan. We have just had our 31st anniversary and I quess I know how to get him on track with the correct plan. Shhhhhhh
whatever you do don't tell him. This is our secret.

RenieB

I was told that "girls can't work on cars."

I've rebuilt a '65 Ford Mustang (the original Ponycar!), done all my maintenance on my '82 CJ7, and always did my own oil changes and basic maintenance. (Nick does most of that now because of stoooopid fibro-m, but I still know how to do it, and I DID IT!)

My parents told me that I'd never go to college, especially after I dropped out of high school my senior year. Took the GED test (without taking the classes) the following year. I now hold BA and MSW degrees.

First (late) husband told me I'd never have a good garden. HA! I wonder if he can see from Heaven how I've proved him wrong (many times over...)

Nick doesn't tell me something can't be done. He either helps or stands back and cheers me on. :)

Have to wonder if being told we can't didn't make us all better people in the end! :)

Well, I admit to being one of the tellers LOL
I told my nephew that he wouldn't catch any fish by bobbing his bait in and out of the water.... caught two baby brim LOL

Had some Hs teachers tell my son he would never amount to anything :confused: Last he told me him and his wife make more in two months than his teachers make in a year . And they keep it too:teehee:.

Quote:
Originally Posted by o&itw
If you (even can) put this piece of equipment down into sod that has not been plowed for years, you will tear the thing to pieces in a hundred yards.

This is a cultivator. Something that is used for re-loosening soil which has already been prepared to eliminate weeds between rows. It is not a chisel plow, it is not a sub-soiler, and unless you are raising sweet corn it would be of little use to you. You need to get the ground broken up, with a subsoiler or a plow of some kind. After that, ground prep can be mostly done with a tiller. Every few years, you will probably need to run a sub-soiler through the ground again, if there is clay present, because a hard-pan will form at the bottom of the tilled layer.

Best thing to do is to visit a successful market gardener in your area and see how he is doing it. Also check with your local university extension service.

There is a lot of great people here, but there is also a lot of totally ludicrous and bizarre opinions posted.

Have you ever used one? I have used one a lot and my brother does truck gardening, it is all he uses. Those S tines are tough. I have a lot of rocks here and it does a great job. Brings them right up on top to pick. It takes a few trips over if sod, start when there is moisture in the ground and let the grass and weeds die down, then hit it again. They work well. These do not cause a hard pan or pack the dirt. Mine will work 8" deep. We have a 3pt harrow and a roller if needed to make a firm seed bed. My brothers ground is heavy bottom soil and it digs deep. Move the teeth and put sweeps on and it does a great job cultivating. We use them to dig rows to plant potatoes and then move the sweeps to cover them up, then after they come up we move the sweeps back to hill with them. Ours are 3 row deep but we use them as 1 row to cultivate. A tiller is the worst piece of equipment used today, Oh yeh, you have a nice churned up piece of dirt but it takes all the tilth out of your soil. It will crust over when it rains or is irrigated. It does not make a good firm seedbed. This a flex harrow and or roller makes a perfect seedbed. Plant a covercrop in the fall and it keeps the soil from compacting...James

Been told that all my life. Started with my mother, dh took over for her. Most every project I have ever done he has said some variation of the aforementioned phrases. It has only taken me decades to figure out he says it to keep himself out of the project. If he makes me mad he knows I'll do it anyway......course there are those projects he said it about and he really meant he didn't want me to do it. Like the first batch of chicks. Life is funny sometimes.