“On and off” gentleman farmer might be a strange description when it comes to describing my farming behavior. But it does get across the point that I didn’t fit into the normal stereotypic ‘roll up your sleeves, dig in the dirt’ farmer role. My farming practices had their ups and downs.
I grew up on a family farm and that old saying is so true, “You can take the boy off the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the boy”. So when I began my teaching job in a small midwestern town I immediately began looking for a piece of land out in the country where my farming roots could feel comfortable.
That turned out to be a difficult task. No one wanted to sell any of their valuable farmland. That is until I visited with two old bachelors, Norm and Fred. When I approached them about selling me an eight acre piece of their property Fred responded, “What do think Norm? We interested in selling this young whippersnapper some of our land?”
I was shocked by his response. Is it possible that these two old bachelors would actually consider selling me some land?
Now the piece of land in question turned out to be the only farmland they owned on the opposite side of a busy highway so moving machinery across was always a dangerous task. That fact affected their decision making I’m sure.
Norm seemed to think that an eight acre purchase would be a possibility but the brothers said they would have to discuss among themselves what they would need to charge me for such a purchase.
I waited several anxious days to hear from the brothers and when the call came I was exuberant to hear their asking price was $3700. That was the same price I had received from selling our lot in town several weeks earlier. One city lot for eight acres out in the country now that was quite a trade!
After the papers were signed it dawned on me that I was now the proud owner of possibility the smallest farm in the county and further I was the only farmer in the county with no machinery with which to farm.
But my neighbor Carl bailed me out. It seemed he raised livestock and was always in need of hay to feed them. He figured my four acres of farmable ground would produce a wonderful field of alfalfa.
Suddenly I had access to farm machinery and an experienced farmer to run the machinery. Carl worked up the ground, seeded the alfalfa and I as the gentleman farmer stood around and watched the work get done.
The alfalfa flourished and the second year it was ready to be cut and turned into bales for Carl’s livestock. Suddenly my status as a gentleman farmer came to a screeching halt.
You see Carl was in his 70’s and I was in my 40’s. Who do you suppose drove the tractor and baler and who do you suppose stood on the hay rack and hoisted 100 pound alfalfa bales and stacked them in neat piles on the hay rack? Let’s just say that I didn’t experience any tractor time during those hay baling events.
I experienced hay chaff in my face and down my neck as well as blistering from the sun and profuse sweating oozing out of every pore in my body! I suddenly became that ‘roll up your sleeves’ farmer as I wrestled with bulky, abrasive hay bales. My gentleman farming days were over for now. 🙁
Although stacking hay bales on a bouncing rack was hard work it was my favorite farm job.
My favorite family picture from those alfalfa farming years is actually hanging on my office wall. It pictures me standing on the hay rack, hay hook in hand, and our three children sitting atop hay bales stacked four high. With wind tossed hair and big smiles they were enjoying their lofty ride.
Then Carl decided it was time to sell his livestock. There would be no more need for alfalfa bales so ‘gentleman farming’ returned to my life. I rented the four acres for several growing seasons to another neighboring farmer so the acreage could become eligible for a government program called CRP.
Switch grass was planted in the four acres and for fourteen years I kept weeds and volunteer trees out of the six foot native prairie grass. During those fourteen years the four acres became a dream habitat for pheasants, deer, pocket gophers, cotton- tail rabbits and insects too numerous to count.
And once again I became a gentleman farmer.
With all that free time my garden started to increase in size. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, carrots and kohlrabi flourished. Oh, and did I mention pumpkins?
The pumpkin ground got bigger and bigger. Soon I was selling pumpkins in the fall. Our yard was orange with lines and lines of pumpkins. Before I knew it my gentleman farmer days were in the past because I had become a professional pumpkin farmer! For twenty years I took a hiatus from being the gentleman farmer.
As you may have read in a past blog my pumpkin growing years are over. I can feel the gentleman farmer calling me once again.
The fencing has been removed and the four acres are ready for a grass seeder to arrive and seed in prairie grasses and wild flowers. I am going to become a permanent gentleman farmer. Ahh, I’m feeling more relaxed already!
Of course if those wild flowers really flourish I might look into raising a few honey bees. Nothing big you know. 🙂 How sweet that would be!
Until next time.
