i will answer. no big deal...i have studied agriculture..and economy..there was no question about it..i sometimes wanted to do something else...but when i spoke about it to my father about doing something else..he got mad and didnt speak to me for a week...so i ended up there and did agriculture..i found out its somehow in my blood..i have a good feeling for it...the ecofarming thing interests me enormously...its not always possible though..The running of the estate was something i learned from child on..when i was eight... i got my own special made tools to help to work on the land..in my younger years many things like weeding were also done by hand..there were methodes to keep the crop free from weeds but it didnt work always very well like they do now...So i got a very hands on education..driving tractors and all kind of machines...not spoiled at all...When i got older the running became more important..the managerskills i learned from my father mostly...he could be very charming and ruthless at the same time..when people tried to fool him...he was very aware of his class..i am not..he was born in 1922..I always say when we went to see my grandfather or his brother...me being the only heir of both of them...it felt always like going at an audience at court...When they died and i took over i changed a lott..he left it all in a very good state...he was very clever with money...and always kept all the people happy...had a good eye when things got wrong in peoples families...i also worked some time before i took over in retail, it gave me a very good insight in people...so i do it more commercial these days...we rent out cottages now..for short stays..have fairs...which my father loved ...but not on his estate..and yes like you say...having a estate is mostly nice...you have a lot of free space...nature...but also a lott of responsebility.. most of my days are filled with paperwork and problems...not much partying going on here...but i like the place..its been in the family for centuries..we dont have children so we give it on to my sisters children...in time...
It's great when children are given responsibility early -- I'm watching Montessori method videos and they have toddlers helping to cook and clean. They're delighted and feel as if they can solve any problem. I can see you out there with your little hoe, and believe this is the way real children are educated.
There is no farmer like an educated one, with managerial and real world experience. Thrilled to think the next generation is coming along, and to think of your changing a very well-managed place inherited from your hardworking father et al.
My lifelong experience with out gay people is that they tend not to be class conscious, and pretty welcoming to people of every kind. I'll never forget a gay male nurse I worked with on abortion clinic escort duty 30 years ago. He did it because so many straight people had come out to support his AIDS patients in the '80s.
Do you think you would have been more uptight about class if you had been straight? Again, no need to answer. And it's an attempt not to derail, but to suss out why a real chatelain is not as snotty as the grifter chatelains. I mean you are, in the nicest way, shrewd about people. As these grifters are not.