Thanking my Farmer(s)

Have you Googled Thank a Farmer? The images that pop up include beautiful sunrises, with wheat or corn stalks glimmering in that morning sun, with a sweet red barn sitting perfectly on the side of the photo with a cow or some farm animal resting peacefully. If you didn’t grow up or know someone that grew up in an agricultural community this may be the idea you have of farming. There are some beautiful homesteads that these images represent. I identify more with the ones of combines or tractors in a field with the dirt blowing and the image doesn’t shine -it has more of a grit to it (see images below of my armature photos last week riding along in the combine).

All of the important men in my life farm. From my Dad who has worked for John Deere for 19 years to my Uncles who custom farm along with their sons, my cousins and Jarret.

My Dad has worked for John Deere for 19 years. Although his day does not consist of driving a combine or drilling wheat he is the man that makes sure when something breaks down his farmer gets that part needed to get back to work. Though his work did not put him in the field the partnership he has with his brothers took him there from time to time in his off hours. This is when Shana and I would walk sprinklers and clean out nozzles or ride with him to check on a motors and wells growing up in Dalhart, TX.

The last two years Jarret has been farming with Lenz Farms in Hartley, TX. Along with helping his Mom and Dad who have a farm in the once known Perico, TX where they have cattle. It goes without saying I’ve learned a lot in the last two years. My schedule is flexible and allows me to go sit and ride along in a tractor or combine where I have been educated on the different mechanics of each piece of equipment. I have delivered dinner to the harvest crew a time or two in the course of two years. I’ve helped work calves and bring them to town to the pins. The first time I ever went out with Jarret to their farm was when we started dating. We went out to feed. He grabbed several bags of cake and we went out to the field honking along the way for the cows to know TIME TO EAT, he stopped and started to toss the cake out into the tire tracks and those cows quickly started to swarm. My butt was up in the back of his pickup so fast you'd had thought my pants were on fire.He was sweet enough not to say anything at the time so I thought, "oh, okay I was smooth." Jump to a few months later and he's telling my Dad about how quick I jumped in the back of his pickup. I was not as smooth as I thought. I am growing more comfortable around their cows, however you don’t know fear until you have a momma cow staring you down because her baby is on the other side of you and the gate. I am not sure I will ever be comfortable with that.

This time of year is the time when there are no set hours, there are no date nights scheduled and any plans that get made are tentative. This has been the biggest challenge for me as a planner and I can proudly say this harvest season I have been better compared to last year. I think it's starting to sink in that plans need to be made after the combines are parked. I look forward to hearing his voice in the morning and sometimes in the evening. I ask him to text me when he gets home no matter the hour, which he doesn’t like doing because he’s afraid he’ll wake me up at 12:30am, but it makes me feel better knowing he’s home. We get to have breakfast together on Saturday mornings about 6:30am before he’s off to the field and then depending on what’s happening I don’t see him again until Sunday morning at Church. I am going to paraphrase a story my cousin Jeremy posted on his FB page last year. In this post he was thanking his wife for washing his shorts. He made the comment how “this time of year” they are like ships passing in the night, getting glimpses of each other every so often due to late nights and early mornings on his part and how these shorts of his were dirty and then one morning they were clean hanging in the closet like magic. It was a sweet acknowledgement of how farming can affect a whole family. 

Yesterday Jarret’s combine broke down about 3pm(ish) causing continued trouble and he text me a little after 8pm that he finally was back in the field. Many of us at 8pm last night were settled in watching our favorite tv program, myself included. He was cutting corn. When the handle on my shower broke last night he called to help me over the phone to see if I could fix it. I could not, I had to text the landlord this morning (Uncle Randy). When I got frustrated and irritated that I couldn’t fix it and started to complain, he calmly told me it would be fine. He spent most of his day working on a hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment and when it was all said and done he didn’t get to go home he went to the field all the while I was bitching about a shower knob. Perspective.

There are often days I don’t know how he does it. Up early and to bed late for weeks on end with little to no complaint. I am up early and to bed late two days in a row and need a week’s worth of naps. Of course there are bad days and really bad days, but in the end the work has to get done in a certain time frame. When farming the weather is the one thing that is truly in control. Farmer’s lives revolve around the weather. This farming trait I do come by naturally. I love my weather radar’s often pinning different weather news stations radar’s against each other.

If you Google Thank a Farmer one of the sayings that come up is Thank a farmer if you Ate Today and I agree, but there are other ways to thank a farmer. If you live in an urban community raise your children to know that the hamburger they are eating didn’t just appear in the grocery store. Explain how some rancher was breaking ice off a stock tank in a blizzard to make sure that cow had water. Explain that the corn in their corn chips was harvested by people who missed family dinner or a child’s school recital due to late night in the field. Explain that their favorite cotton pajamas were made from a crop grown in a field that was tirelessly watched and picked over.

Whenever scrolling through FB and I see someone has shared an article or blog post about Thanking a Farmer I always stop, read it, and like it. I agree with most everything that is written and smile fondly as I know people who are farmers and are proud of them. I have so much more appreciation now that I live it a bit more from day to day. Families are proud of their farmers for many reasons and I am growing to understand it more and more. I am so thankful for my farmer(s).

-Love, Me.